Home gardening is a source of great relief for many people worldwide, as they are being occasionally quarantined time and again. Stay tuned on Chorestop to know small details and appropriate techniques to prepare your garden on the backyard, lawn, or in unused empty land on the front yard. Now let’s know the instructions for what to put on the bottom of the raised garden bed.

What You Should Use in the Bottom

There are many materials to put on the bottom of your raised garden, but only a few materials are friendly for your garden bed.

Newspaper

Newspaper is the cheapest material to get regardless of where you live. Another advantage of newspapers is that you can collect them in high quantity. The best thing is the newspaper’s eco-friendliness, except for the ink.

You set up the bottom of your raised garden with ease using newspaper. You spread them on the surface of the garden bed and fold them according to the garden area.

The shortcoming of newspapers is that they decompose quickly and rapidly after a certain time, damaging your garden barrier. In the process of decomposition, it releases plenty of carbon into the garden soil.

Though its ink is soy-based and considered more eco-friendly than petroleum-based ink, no chemical substance is one hundred percent environmentally friendly.

Cardboard

Like newspapers, cardboards are easy to get and afford. If you are looking for something more durable than thin layers of the newspaper within a wallet-friendly budget, then cardboard is the best option for you. If lucky enough, you can get them free from your nearest retail store or storeroom of close relatives and friends.

Anyway, try to avoid putting thin and glossy cardboard with chemical at the bottom of the garden bed at you best. You can expect a good quality multilayered cardboard to sustain for four to six months.

Landscape Fabric

Landscape fabric is expensive but a great investment for long time use. Landscape fabric is available in both organic and plastic materials. Another added advantage of investing in landscape fabric is that you can also cover the top of the dirt.

Be aware of landscape plastic while shopping for bottom materials, as water and air cannot pass through plastic.

Burlap

Burlap is another excellent option as the bottom material of raised garden. It offers the sweet spot of cost-effectiveness. It is less expensive compared to landscape plastic but totally dirt friendly. Threads of burlap will let water pass through easily, and it decomposes naturally over time.

However, the shortcoming of burlap is that the edges wear out easily and quickly, and you might have to put some extra effort to match the size of burlap with your garden bed.

Tree Leaves

If you are looking for a no-cost ‘green’ material to lay on the bottom of a raised garden bed, the leaves will be the finest choice.

Note that leaves usually take six to twelve months to decompose completely.

Stones

Here stones refer to both stones and pebbles, which you have little to zero chance to get for free. The biggest advantage of stones is that they will not decompose in your lifetime. On the other hand, you need to buy them in large quantities to fill every inch of your garden bed, and it is costlier.

However, it might give you a sense of aesthetic feel in your mind that makes up the cost. Despite being expensive material, stones have poor drainage compatibility.

Wood

Wooden scraps, logs, wooden planks can be used as a great material to fill the bottom of the raised garden. Wooden materials have satisfactory durability and decomposition features. Wooden materials are totally environmentally friendly. Like stones, you cannot get wood for free.

Nothing

If you are not planting seasonal trees, it is best to put soil directly on the bottom of a raised garden bed as you will be changing your setup every six months.

Moreover, you can start filling the garden bed with the mould and get excellent results if you cannot decide on the suitable material for your raised garden bed. Many beginners make mistakes of putting harmful material for the bottom of a raised garden.

Avoid the listed materials to use on the bottom of a raised garden bed:

• Material with polythene on its surface
• Plastic wastes
• Parts of electrical product or waste
• Non-bio graded material

Conclusion

Materials used at the bottom are among the most crucial aspects that most home gardeners ignore. If you want to put layers on the bottom of a raised garden, use only recommended material.

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