When starting out gardening you may or may not have put much thought into the different ways of filling your plant containers or garden beds and the importance of choosing the right medium.

When I started off gardening, I honestly never considered the differences and grabbed whatever bag seemed right at the time based on the marketing title or picture on the bag. Sometimes I didn’t even care and potted up my plant container with whatever bag I had at the time. 

You may get away with this too, but why not understand the differences so you can make a better decision and provide your plants with the best chance of success. 

Who knew there could be so many options to use as “dirt” for gardening. Sure you have native soil in your own backyard which may be all you need, but then you find products on the shelves such as bags of compost, potting mixes, raised bed mixes, garden mixes, and even top soil among other varieties. 

So what is the purpose of all these options and how do they differ? Let me share the basics with you by providing a simple breakdown of the 2 main choices. 

What is Soil-Less Media?

As the name suggests, soilless media is a growing medium that does not involve native soil. 

Example of Common Soilless Mediums 

Soilless mediums are peat moss, coconut coir, vermiculite, and perlite to name a few. These components can be mixed together to create a growing medium that provides your plants the structure they need for stability, as well as provide the necessary water retention, drainage and airflow for the roots to grow.

Soilless Media vs Soil Amendments

Often associated with soilless media but are better categorized as soil amendments (or ways to improve the soil) are things like compost, worm castings, and composted manure. The purpose of these organic amendments is to add nutrients to your growing media. 

Inert or Near-Inert Matter

Soilless media are known to be inert or near-inert matter, meaning they contain little to no nutrition. Peat moss, coconut coir, vermiculite and especially perlite fall into this category, making fertilization important when growing plants in this media.

Understanding the medium you choose will help you be more aware of how you should amend the “soil” for the right growing conditions to meet your plants’ nutrient requirements.

What is Soil vs Dirt?

You may hear the word soil and dirt used interchangeably, or at least I treated them the same when I first started gardening.  Although they do offer different meanings, I’m not sure it really matters how you use the word as long as you understand the difference. 

Soil

When starting a garden in your own backyard you are working with native soil. This soil is made up of minerals, organic matter, and countless microorganisms. The life in your soil plays an important role in helping your plants access the nutrients they need to grow.

Dirt

When you think of the word “dirt” we are describing the soil that has been removed from its environment. This causes it to degrade and become low in organic matter. However, it is possible to bring it back to life over time by improving it with soil amendments such as compost.

When Should You Be Using Native Soil?

In Ground Gardens

Native soil is truly all you need if you are planting a garden directly into the ground, although you could benefit from additional amendments like compost or other organic materials. 

Raised Beds With Open Bottoms

Alternatively you can use your native soil in your raised garden beds as well, as long as they have “open” bottoms for drainage. If your beds are short enough, your plant’s roots may even find their way to the bottom and grow into the earth beneath as long as the soil is not too compacted for their roots to penetrate. 

Tall Raised Beds Also Count

You can also use soil in your taller beds as well. In fact that is what I did with my raised beds because I had already been saving up plenty of “dirt” from my other landscaping projects and knew I would be building my beds 2 feet high and would need plenty of dirt to fill them.

Just remember not all soil is created equal. Some soils have more clay whereas others are sandier in texture. Too much clay will retain a lot of moisture and sandier soils can drain too quickly. Understanding your soil type will help you determine what to amend your soil with to improve its texture as well as improve the nutrients available for your plants to take up.

When Should You Be Using Soil-Less Media?

Containers or Elevated Raised Beds

Soilless media is best used when planting in containers or raised beds that are elevated or have closed bottoms. In these situations, native soil can become compacted, making it difficult for water to drain and for roots to access oxygen.

Benefits of Soilless Media

Soilless growing media is lightweight and designed to maintain good airflow and drainage, which helps prevent waterlogged conditions. Unlike native soil, these mixes resist compaction over time, making them better suited for confined growing spaces.

When using soilless media you have a lower risk of disease as they are more sterile than native soils. Although not completely sterile, they still provide a cleaner and more controlled growing environment for plants offering better drainage, which is a major challenge when growing in containers or closed-bottom beds. 

If the growing media stays too wet, roots will suffocate and rot. Using a lighter, well-draining soilless mix will help you manage the moisture levels in your containers or elevated beds, which in turn will provide your plants with a healthier environment for root growth.

To Summarize: What Did You Learn?

Bottom line, it’s important to understand as a beginner gardener that not all “soil” is created equal. Understanding the differences between native soil and soilless media as well as soil amendments will help you choose the right growing conditions for your plants whether they will be in raised beds or garden containers. 

Hopefully this article has provided you with a more simplistic approach in understanding the options available today, and the best way to use them when starting your own gardens.

Yesterday I decided to go outside and clean up my garden beds because it is already nearing mid-October and honestly I’m tired and ready to wrap up the season.  As much as I would love to live in a state that has fewer winter months, I find myself looking forward to the excuse to throw in the towel at the end of the year and call it a day. 

My First “Real” Year Gardening

Even though I’ve grown a few plants before, I’m calling this my first real year gardening. In the past, I always relied on plant starters and kept things minimal. This year, I planted entirely from seed, and it’s been such a rewarding experience watching everything grow from scratch.

I grew up around gardens—I remember grabbing sweet peas and radishes straight from the dirt as a kid. But back then, I didn’t fully appreciate the effort that went into maintaining a garden. So when we moved into our current home, I knew I wanted to build raised beds and create that experience for myself.

Planning (and Failing to Plan)

The Importance of a Garden Plan

Because I did my homework beforehand, I knew the importance of creating a plan—what to plant, where to plant it, what grows well together. I started off strong with a notebook, jotting down companion planting ideas and grouping strategies. But soon enough, I was dumping disorganized thoughts into my phone, and my note-taking kind of fizzled out.

Something I’ll need to improve on next year.

Companion Planting Wins

Despite the chaos, it was well worth taking the time to understand companion planting, and the time spent learning about this paid off. I didn’t use any sprays or pesticides in my garden this year, and yet, pests were minimal. Although my kale did show a few holes it was still edible. I think the plant groupings helped, and the marigolds I filled my garden beds with likely played a role too.

Though… note to self: marigolds are beautiful and helpful, but I’m thinking about planting them in nearby pots next year. They completely took over sections of my garden beds and shaded out some of my veggies preventing them from growing to full maturity. 

Flower Power (and the Chaos That Comes With It)

Borage: Beautiful, Beneficial… and Huge

I tried growing borage for the first time this year after reading how great it is for pollinators. 

Spoiler: it really is beneficial, almost too much. Bees were absolutely obsessed with it.  However, there were a few lessons I’ve learned after growing it myself:

1. It gets massive – Way taller than I expected for my little 2’x5’ garden bed.
   
2. Strong root system – I had to pull mine out early in order to gain access to my cucumbers and other vegetables in the garden that I was unable to reach, and was amazed at how large the tap root was when attempting to pull it from the dirt.
   
3. Bee territory – Since I planted these flowers in front of my cucumbers, I was not brave enough to work around them in order to harvest my other plants. I’m working on this, but bees do terrify me a bit and I have yet to be stung.
   

On top of that, we had several windstorms that bent the tall borage plants right over. It wasn’t a pretty sight—especially since my beds are in the front yard and I try to keep a good aesthetic for my neighbors.

Borage’s Aftermath

Borage does produce cute little flower clusters, I soon learned that they can drop seeds like crazy.  Apparently, borage can self-seed and are tolerant of colder zones all the way down to zone 2!  So it’s safe to say that I’m a little anxious about what my garden will look like come next spring. Fingers crossed it’s not a jungle.

Garden Identification Issues

What’s a Weed, What’s a Plant?

One thing I really need to do better next year is to label my seeds. I grouped my seeds by companion planting but didn’t make any physical tags in the garden. I thought taking pictures of the seed packets in the general area I had planted them would be enough, but truthfully, it was not.

I referred to those photos constantly as things were starting to sprout, but I still ended up pulling out some of my flowers as well as some other lettuce plants, thinking they were weeds. Considering how large my flowers that I had not pulled grew, that may have been a blessing in disguise.

But next year, I will plan to tag everything so I can refer to my garden markers instead of trying to find the photos lost in my phone’s album that I took earlier that spring.

The Importance of Patience

I found myself too eager to keep my beds weed-free and pulled up some of the very plants I wanted. Lesson learned. Patience is key—I will try better next season.

Pest Problems and Protective Measures

Next spring when I begin planting in my gardens, I’m choosing to cover my beds with garden fabric right from the start. I used netting briefly this year in one of my beds, but a couple things I could benefit from if I cover them early would be:

• Keeping the fallen seeds from trees from taking root, as I would get so many helicopter seeds covering my beds every time when a gust of wind would blow.
• Repelling pests like deer, rabbits, and even the stray cat that I found walking through every single one of my beds as if they enjoyed leaving their little foot prints behind.
  

I can always remove the covers once the plants start to flower and need pollinators. By this time they will be actively growing and no longer competing as much with the weeds.  At least I’d be able to tell them a part more easily. 

Planting Strategy: Less Chaos, More Succession

This year, I wasn’t thinking of the big picture and I chose to plant all of my seeds in the garden at once and had not considered timing when the plants would be ready to harvest. 

When everything matured at the same time, I will admit I was overwhelmed with the amount of produce and had a difficult time keeping up.

What I’ll Do Differently:

• Succession plant to stagger my plants and seed even a week or two a part should allow me less produce all at once, giving me more time to enjoy it fresh from the garden.
  
• Track seed-to-sprout timelines would allow me to understand how long it takes my plants to emerge in my own garden beds based on the amount of sun the beds receive in their location.
  
• Only plant what I can realistically eat or store is incredibly important. I read about this all the time but never truly understood until I was facing the challenge myself at the realistic amount of produce a plant can provide you.

These lessons may sounds simple, but it can be so easy to get carried away when sowing seeds in the spring when you’ve been waiting all winter to get out and enjoy your hobby again. 

Too Much of a Good Thing

As the header states, there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing.  I had so much produce from my garden that it felt impossible to keep up.  Although I did give some of it away to my family and neighbors, which did feel good to share, I also had to toss more than I’d like to admit.

If you’re new to gardening, plan ahead for how you’ll preserve your harvest. Whether it’s:

• Canning (learn it before you need it!) I would love to learn the proper way of canning, but had not taken the time to learn this skill yet. By the time my gardens were filling up, I could only think of finding ways to make meals, or snack while it was still fresh.
  
• Freezing will help preserve the life of your produce longer, but not everyone has the room available. Make sure if you know you want to freeze your harvest that you aren’t filling your freezer with other groceries.
  
• Dehydrating or fermenting is another option if you think you would enjoy eating your foods this way.
  

Having an idea of how you plan to use your harvest ahead of time will hopefully help you face some of the obstacles that come with growing a garden. Such as, not waiting too long while zucchinis are piling up on your counter.

Zucchini Overload

I have a funny story for you which definitely pins me down as a beginner gardener… Even though I considered myself somewhat prepared, little did I know that zucchinis were one of those plants that experienced gardeners are fully aware of just how well they produce. 

When I seeded these plants, I chose to place 2-3 seeds in a small grouping with the plan to thin them out once they reached a healthy size for me to choose which to keep.  Well, I planted 3 groupings which resulted in 9 successful sprouted plants and I soon realized I didn’t have the heart to toss them and replanted them elsewhere.

Yeah… I made so many desserts with zucchini this year that I’m pretty sure I gained a few pounds.  And don’t get me started on the cucumbers—I would dread walking by my garden knowing I needed to pull more off the vine that I was not ready for. 

I’m not sure I can eat fridge pickles anymore as I’ve had my fair share. bNext year, I’ll have recipes ready before harvest day to keep things interesting.

Finding Small Joys

Even through the chaos, I found things I loved.  This year was the first time I made homemade pasta sauce, using the Roma tomatoes from my garden. I learned how easy it is to freeze it in batches, and it felt good to preserve something I knew I grew and the money saved compared to buying jars of sauce at the store.

Final Thoughts: A Season of Growth

All in all, I couldn’t be happier with my first year of gardening. It taught me:

• The value of planning and labeling
  
• The importance of patience
  
• How much joy (and frustration) a garden can bring
  

All in all, I could not be happier with my first year gardening.  I learned how important it is to have a plan for all phases of gardening, and even though I feel I learned quite a bit this year, there is so much more garden knowledge I have yet to gain. 

I hope that by sharing my first year gardening with you and the lessons I’ve learned will be valuable information that can better prepare you to begin your own vegetable garden.  We will all face our own obstacles for various reasons, and if you’d like to share any of those with me, I’d love to hear about the successes or garden flops you may have experienced. 

Happy Gardening!

New Growth Accompanied by Confusion

Every time I see a little green sprout pop through the soil, I get excited—it’s like a tiny victory. If you’ve labeled your rows or have a mental note of where you planted things, it’s usually possible to tell what’s intentional and what might be a weed. Usually. 

That said, I’ve already taken a ridiculous number of pictures myself to try and figure out what is popping up in my garden by using Google’s reverse image search, so I can figure out if I should keep something or pull it.

In the early weeks, I definitely pulled up a few too many things I meant to grow (mostly flowers—oops). I’m slowly learning to be a bit more patient and let things grow a little larger before making that call. And honestly, it’s made me better at recognizing the “culprits” versus the keepers.

Why Instant Gratification in The Garden Matters

While we are doing our darndest to be patient for our garden vegetables to mature—like tomatoes, peppers, or squashes to name a few—it’s so rewarding to have a few plants that can give us something usable early on. Plants like this will hopefully help keep your gardening motivation alive. 

I’m still very new at gardening so I’m sure there are more options out there that I haven’t discovered yet, but I wanted to share a few “quick-win” crops that I personally recommend you give a try in your own garden to bring you some of that early joy and usefulness. For me this year, the plants I enjoyed using early this spring have been:

• Radishes – These were super fast growers and perfect for snacking.
  • Days to Maturity/Harvest: Typically 4-6 weeks (dependent on seed packet)
    • I started to harvest around the 4-5 week mark.
      
      
• Spinach and other Salad Greens – Things like kale, arugula, and various lettuces are not only quick to sprout, but you can start harvesting baby leaves early on too.
  • Days to Maturity/Harvest: Typically 3-5 weeks (dependent on seed packet)
    • I started to harvest around the 4-5 week mark.
      
      
• Dill – This herb is almost too easy to grow as I planted some seeds years ago and they keep popping up all over.  Dill is perfect to use in sauces or salads, among other things.
  • Days to Maturity/Harvest: Typically 4-8 weeks (dependent on seed packet)
    • My seed was planted a couple seasons ago, but they started showing usable growth in late May.
      
      
• Chives – Truly a hardy herb to plant in your garden, and you should certainly try growing in Minnesota!
  • Days to Maturity/Harvest: Typically 8-12 weeks (dependent on seed packet)
    • I actually grabbed a chive plant on clearance last fall and was amazed when I saw the green sprouts popping out of the snow this year. It was pretty exciting to start harvesting before I even thought about starting to plant my garden.
      

Consider Succession Planting

I don’t have a ton of space in my garden, so I have to be strategic. One thing I’m learning is how to make the most of that space by practicing succession planting. For example, once I’ve harvested my radishes, I can go ahead and simply re-seed that same spot with something else. 

If you do choose to seed quick growing crops like mentioned above, pay attention to the time of year you will be planting. Depending on the weather, you may be able to harvest the same crop, however make note of the upcoming temps so you aren’t dealing with early bolting on plants that require colder temps to grow.  

Experiment with the Whole Plant (if edible)

One fun surprise this year was discovering that you can use radish greens in cooking. I made a batch of pesto with them last week, and it turned out surprisingly good (with enough garlic added, haha)! I love the feeling you get when you can use something from the garden in your meals, even in small ways.

I don’t have an exact recipe to share with you but I had found a 1:2:3:8 ratio online as a general rule to follow when I was making this myself–as well as simply tasting as you go. 

You will always want to start with your greens “8” and scale down from there, from oil “3”, cheese “2” and nuts “1”, later adding garlic, lemon with some salt and pepper based on your flavor preferences. You should give it a shot when you have the opportunity. Pesto is great in so many ways and an easy way to get some nutrition in your diet too. 

Final Thoughts

If you’re just starting out like me, consider mixing in a few quick-growing plants to get that early feeling of success. It makes the wait for the bigger harvests a lot more enjoyable—and helps you stay connected to your garden each day. I’m still learning, and there’s so much more to explore, but the plants I mentioned above will definitely be part of my garden every year going forward.

If you like what you see, or learned anything, please tell me about it by commenting down below!

Happy gardening! 🌿

My raised beds were originally planned up to prevent some invasive vines against my neighbor’s fence, which you can read about on my post Building Raised Garden Beds to Fix a Problem with Invasive Grape Vines.  However I have always wanted to grow a vegetable garden, and this was one of our best (possibly only) options in our yard to add a garden. 

Planning Ahead

If you are coming across my post too late in the growing season, try to make this garden bed a goal of yours to plant your vegetables in, next spring. Reason I say this is because building beds can take time and when the clock is ticking you don’t want to miss out on getting plants in the dirt, especially since our growing season is so short here in Minnesota. No need to lose out by waiting to gather your supplies and build your beds. 

Temporary Garden Ideas

You can make a temporary bed, like I did, and have just as much fun this year while you begin your real planning for next spring.  

One day I decided to grab a couple 2×4’s in our garage and cut them enough to build a frame with the length I had available.  These were nothing special, and were simply built because I had the itch to grow some vegetables, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get my true raised beds built for a while yet. 

Honestly, garden beds really don’t need to be anything special, since plants just need some good soil and sun anyway.  I just ended up tossing in a couple bags of quality dirt over my existing soil, and added starter plants that I picked up from a local garden center. 

Temporary Beds Provide A Great Trial Period

This worked great, and truthfully, planting in this temporary bed allowed me to gauge the amount of sun I would receive, where I planned to build my actual raised beds later that year.  

When it came time to build our beds in this very spot I had been growing my temporary garden, I had to dig out all my plants and move them elsewhere. I wasn’t sure where this could be, but I noticed we had this broken wheelbarrow that we haven’t thrown out yet, so figured I could just move my plants to this for a bit.  

This held all of my pepper plants very well, and because I had full expectations that it wouldn’t be long before I’d transplant them back to my newly built beds, I wasn’t worried about their growing conditions in this small space.  

Well plans change, as they often do, so my peppers did remain in this broken wheelbarrow for the remainder of the growing season.  

Sharing this with you, because I’ve learned that this too is another option if you have something similar that can hold dirt.  My plants did very well in this shallow filled broken wheelbarrow in a semi sunny location.  

It’s odd to me sometimes how things just seem to work out.  I was picking banana peppers, jalapenos, and a couple bell peppers at the end of the season from this little garden I created.  Not a crazy amount of peppers, but I was so excited every time I’d go outside to check how they were doing, I knew then and there that gardening was for me. 

My Process Before Building Raised Beds

It started out with me measuring the area I had available so I could determine the size of beds I’d like to build.  Because these beds would be next to my neighbor’s fence, I wanted to make sure I allowed enough space between the back of my beds and the fence for yearly maintenance.  After all, I need to get back there to trim all the growth that occurred that year. 

Measure Before You Build

Please make this a priority of yours before you begin any project, because it will truly help you figure out how much material you need to buy, and how much room you can work with. 

When you really begin to measure the area you will start to think several steps ahead and may be able to catch possible flaws or other things you want to change in your design before you start to buy your materials and build your beds. 

During my process, I will begin to mark the area for each bed in my lawn. I even changed it a handful of times before I ended with what I have today.  I knew I didn’t want to build a bed right up next to our backyard fence, so I left a good amount of space before the first bed.  I thought this could be a good area to store pots, or for a bit of time, our yard bin.  Either way, I left this available for whatever I might find useful for this space. 

I also knew I didn’t want my beds to go much beyond our neighbors fence, so I thought lining it up with that would look much nicer overall.  Especially since their vines would fill in the fence and they wouldn’t have the back of my beds to look at. 

Now that I had the location for my outside beds figured out, I was able to see where the remaining two beds would go, and how much room in between each bed I would have. 

Consider Bed Access When Choosing Your Dimensions

As mentioned above I plan to build my beds with enough space between the back of the bed and the fence, so this removes some of the room available to me between the side of my house  and front of the raised bed.  I needed room to allow a comfortable walking space in between, so I chose not to build my beds too wide from front to back.  

Width: 

Think about how little you want to strain your back when having to reach into your bed to access your plants.  Most often you will read others providing a recommended width of around 2 feet around your bed.  This should provide you with a good reach without having to bend over into your garden too much, which the comfort aspect is one of the reasons to grow in raised beds anyway. 

Depth: 

Another measurement to consider is how deep you want your beds, or another way of looking at this is how tall you want your bed to be.  Beds can either be ground up, or you could build it with legs, which would certainly keep you from having to fill so much of it with dirt or other yard materials if you chose to layer the bottom first before adding in the soil.  

The lovely thing about building your own raised beds is being able to scale it to you specifically.  I based my bed design on what I would personally find comfortable for me, but I also took into consideration the wood dimensions when I was deciding how much lumber I’d need to buy. I try to consider my budget when I come up with projects like this, and felt an added layer to make my beds taller wasn’t necessary. 

Length: 

Now if it were up to me, the more room to grow vegetables the better!  However… of course I needed to give myself an easy way to get in between my beds for the aforementioned yearly maintenance that had to be done still.

Because I had around 30 feet to play with and I wanted a comfortable enough distance between each of the beds, I decided to space them 2-3 feet apart, which by doing so would allow me to build four beds that were 5 feet in length. 

Plan Out Your Shopping List

Before I bought all of my materials for this project, I planned out what I would all need by searching online and adding everything I believed I needed into my cart.  

Print It Out

This not only allowed me to see how much this project could end up costing me, but It was super helpful once I got to the store, as I brought a print out that I marked with the isles on so I knew where I needed to go once I got there. 

I don’t know if you’re like me, but for projects like this that I’m not familiar with, I get overwhelmed and will forget something, or it will take me forever and a day to find it.  It also included the pictures of each item I needed, so I could pick it out much more quickly too.  

Take Notes

Another thing I chose to do and mentioned previously, is to find the lumber lengths that would allow me to get most use from.  I knew the width and length of my beds, so I simply tried to see how many cuts from a single board I could get.  

Once I figured out the best length to give me the most use, I chose to add that length board to my shopping cart, and determined how many boards I would need. I suggest taking very good notes (or sketch this out) while you are figuring out how many boards you will need, as it can get very confusing once you go back to reference all the lengths from each board.  

Concerns Around Pressure Treated Wood

You will notice that I chose to go with pressure-treated wood to build my beds as I believed this would provide me the longest life during our winter seasons, however I know there are a lot of gardeners growing organically today where this would raise concern.  

If you are concerned about chemicals leaching into your soil I have seen people choose to char their wood for similar protection so they can purchase non-treated wood (alternatively you can choose the more costly cedar or redwood).  Another option is adding a fabric barrier between the wood and soil like I had done.  This isn’t perfect, but I mainly chose to add this to keep from any dirt seeping through the wood if it happened to shrink. 

Although the wood I chose is pressure-treated, it was treated with the chemical ‘MCA’ according to Home Depot’s website.  This chemical is known as Micronized Copper Azole, which is considered safe for vegetable gardens. Even though it may still leach some copper into the soil, it should not be significant enough to be absorbed by your plants. 

My Shopping List:

Take Advantage Of The Free Services

I’m not sure about all home improvement stores, but one reason I love going to Home Depot for these types of projects is that they will cut your wood to your specified lengths.  At least they have during the times I’ve been there. It can be hit or miss however, and sometimes it depends on who is available to help.  I suggest going earlier in the day, and flag someone down to ask if there is anyone that can help. 

Be Prepared

I do suggest coming prepared however, so that when you find someone that can help you, you can easily relay to them what you need.  Thankfully I thought about this before heading to the store, so I had my cutting lengths all written down and was able to share this with them while they were grabbing the boards from my cart. 

This too makes it easier for transporting back home.  These boards can be incredibly long, and even with a truck it would not have been possible without them being cut before leaving the store.  

Reminder During Checkout

Just remember to face the barcodes all near each other because the individual that has to check you out will be very confused by how much lumber needs to be charged since it appears like you have more than you actually have.  This again is where it is helpful to have a print out to easily share with them the number of cut boards you have, and also to ensure you are charged appropriately. 

How To Build These Raised Beds

Because you will likely be working with your own measurements based upon your personal needs for your own raised beds, I’m not going to break this down into my exact measurements. 

I do believe you will gain enough knowledge on how I built my beds, to be able to turn this around and build your own beds to your desired measurements, by following the general design of my beds and planning ahead, like explained above. 

Start With Your Base

After you return home and have all of your materials available, you can start piecing your beds together.  Now that you already have all your boards cut to size, it will be a breeze moving right along. 

Group Your Boards By Length

I suggest organizing all of your boards together in piles based on the length so you can ensure you have all the correct pieces, and will not have to make any correction cuts at home.  You will likely have a few stragglers that don’t belong in the project and were leftover cuts that you will not need, and might grab by mistake if you had not already grouped everything together.

Start Framing Your Base

Take your two front and back as well as width length boards and line them up in the shape of your bed.  You will then grab your 4×4 corner posts, which will be your support boards, and what each outside board will be screwed into – making sure the first row is level. I do wish I had taken a picture of this part, but it escaped me as I was either holding the boards together or clearing out the area of our yard to place the finished beds. 

I chose to keep the 4×4 corner post a bit shorter than the overall height of the bed because I didn’t want it showing up once I filled the beds with dirt.  Just make sure it’s tall enough to screw the top board into. 

Once you have screwed in each board to the height you wanted, you can begin on the next garden bed as the privacy panel will come later.  

Consider Additional Support

If your beds were longer than 5 feet, you may want to consider including another board in the center front and back for additional structure, but the boards I bought were pretty solid already so I was not worried about them warping once filled with dirt. 

At this point it might look like you just built a bunch of coffins, haha.  That was my very thought when we were moving them to our front yard for placement alongside the fence.  Don’t worry though, it will look better once you fill it with plants. 🙂

Incorporate a Privacy Panel (or Garden Bed Trellis)

Normally when I think of raised beds, I don’t think about adding a privacy panel or permanent trellis on the back because if you have a spot to place them and access them from all around, there is no need for this.  

However my beds were serving multiple purposes, and I needed to incorporate a back panel so I could prevent my neighbors’ vines from growing into my beds.  I thought the look of these smaller wood slats would look nice and cover enough of the view from behind the beds, so I chose to go with this look.  

Add 2×4 Vertical Supports

For this addition, you will simply tip the bed forward and screw in a couple 2×4’s at the height you want your back panel to be.  

I chose to go with a height of 5 ½ feet because I didn’t want to run into any issue with this being considered a “fence”, which I believe you are not able to install at 6 feet.  Besides, this height was just enough to keep from seeing most of the vines peaking above. 

Once you have your 2×4’s secure, you can start screwing in the wood slats.  

How to Evenly Space the Wood Slats

Spacing your 1×2 wood slats was a little more of a challenge, and when I had my Dad here to help, we were moving a lot faster with the three of us.  However what we did was grabbed an extra slat of wood on the flat side, we stuck it between each section to get the same distance and screwed them into the 2×4 from there. 

Alternatively, if you have any Trigger Clamps this was incredibly useful during this step of the project to secure the wood slat on one end as you screw in the other. 

Include the Mesh Screen (If Needed)

Once you have your back panel built, you can now staple on your mesh screen if you need to prevent anything from growing through your wood slats.  This is much easier to do before you fill your beds with dirt since we could just tip the bed forward again, and stretch the screen over the back and start stapling it into the 2×4 on the back.  I chose to keep the top and bottom alone so that whatever may fall into the back can easily be removed without getting stuck in between.  

Stain Or Paint Your Beds

Now that your beds are fully built and ready to be filled with dirt, you can choose whether or not you want to add some color or maybe even additional protection by staining the outside of the beds.  

I chose to stain the bottom of the bed the same color I have used on another bed of mine in the backyard, which was made of concrete blocks.  You can read more about that under my post 5 Steps to Build a Budget Friendly Raised Bed Using Concrete Blocks if you are interested. 

To stain your back panel, I would strongly suggest getting yourself this Stain Pad Applicator because it made my life so much easier when trying to get enough coverage on each wood slat.  This thing made this part of the project so much faster and smoother over trying to use a normal stain brush which I can picture dripping stain everywhere. 

I also used this for the base of the bed which was fairly quick as well, but a little trickier near the bottom of the beds as I’d get too close to the ground at times, but not an issue at all since this is just outdoor beds after all. 

Time To Start Growing!

Now that the beds are built and ready to go, all that is needed now is to start filling your beds with dirt and add some plants. 

I took awhile to do this only because I wanted to fill my beds with dirt from another project I’m working on that would give me plenty of dirt to use.  I started off by adding sticks, leaves, and grass clippings for the remainder of the season, which would all get very packed down after winter, leaving plenty of bed to fill yet.  

Once I was able to start adding in dirt from our backyard, I filled it a bit over half full, leaving enough room to add in bags of really good soil and compost to mix in with my existing dirt.  I knew my free dirt had a lot of clay in it, and I wanted something to help with drainage and reduce the clumpy-ness so my seeds had a good chance to take root once I began to plant. 

I hope I have been able to share enough with you from my own personal experience, that will give you plenty to base your own project off of, and allow you to build the raised beds that will work best for you!  

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and if you have any comments to share down below, I’d love to hear them.

Happy Gardening!🌿

Of course, there is a right time to start and for some reason every year I have to sit and recall back to what I had done the previous season. Is it too soon to begin? When can I start, and what are the steps I need to remember so my plants and shrubs have the best chance to thrive?

Are You Ready to Begin Your Spring Cleanup?

I hope my list of 5 things to remember when caring for your panicle hydrangeas this Spring become a good resource for you to fall back on when we just need that friendly reminder on how to start. 

This list will be targeted towards your panicle hydrangeas because not all hydrangeas are the same, and panicle hydrangeas need different care then let’s say the big leaf type. 

1. Plan Your Pruning Around The Ideal Temperature

If you live in Zone 4b like I do, Spring seems to arrive at a later time than we all hoped it would.  There’s always that slight chance that we could get hit with more snow, so it’s important to pay attention to your last freeze date.  

When Should You Start Pruning Your Hydrangeas?

Even though panicle hydrangeas bloom on new wood, meaning the fresh green stems that emerge from your shrub that year will be the very stems you will receive those beautiful cone-shaped flowers on, it is still important to prune them annually.

So when is the right time?  The way I like to look at it, when it comes to pruning some of my plants is to imagine that they are in a deep sleep, so I like to try and make sure that any serious pruning is done before it has a chance to fully wake up.  However you also want enough time for the hydrangea to begin to form this season’s buds which will show you where you can start pruning. 

Look for Signs of Bud Formation

Panicle hydrangeas should start forming buds around the 50 degree mark, so when you begin to see your temperature steadily rising and keeping around this temp day to day, take a walk through your garden to inspect your hydrangeas.

If you notice they are starting to bulge then get out your pruners and get yourself ready for your first step in caring for your panicle hydrangeas this Spring. 

2. The ⅓ Rule: How Much to Prune

You may have heard or read others talk about the ⅓ rule in pruning because this is what the recommended amount that you remove from your shrub to be without causing too much shock or stress to the plant. 

If you do cause additional stress to the plant, there is a chance it may slow its growth that season and none of us want that. Also by cutting too much away, there could be less foliage, and with less foliage your hydrangea won’t absorb as much energy from the sun. Which in turn could cause it to limit the amount of flowers it would otherwise have provided you. 

What Is the ⅓ Rule?

So when you have your pruners in hand take a good look at the size of your shrub, and simply shorten it by ⅓.  Find the stems you plan to keep, with the shape of the plant in mind, and simply look for the nearest bud around the ⅓ mark and snip right above that at an angle. 

3. Shaping Your Hydrangea for Better Growth

Now that you know how much you can cut off of your panicle hydrangea, you can begin to decide if it will require some shaping. 

I like to consider panicle hydrangeas to be a low maintenance shrub, and they really are, in my opinion. You certainly don’t have to spend a great deal on shaping these, and you could just let them be. Although by doing so, you give them the best chance of thriving and becoming a strong plant in your garden. 

Cutting Back Fragile Stems and Encouraging New Growth

I like to begin by assessing the current stems, and picking out the ones that look most fragile. Go ahead and cut those back at the base if you want, so you can encourage the energy from your shrub to focus on its strongest assets. 

This will also help you get better access to the stronger stems you plan to keep, if you need to get back in there and snip a few more branches that might be a little more unruly like shown in the image below. 

An Exception to the Rule: Shaping Your Shrub for Stronger Growth

I know earlier I had commented on not cutting back too much to prevent shock or stress on your plant, but if it’s necessary to cut away a bit more than you’d like so that the stems aren’t growing against each other, I consider this the exception to that rule. 

You want to allow the plant stem room to grow and air to circulate, so you are providing it a better chance of success by snipping off those ugly branches that will eventually thicken and cause more disruption with the shape of your hydrangea. So what better time than any to sacrifice the plant for better health in the end.

4. Clean Up the Area Around Your Hydrangea

After all that pruning you have accomplished, unless you were cleaning up along the way, you should now have a mess of sticks and debris surrounding the base of your panicle hydrangea. 

Why Cleaning Up Is Crucial for Your Plant’s Health

Regardless of pruning or not, it is important to clean up the area around the base so that you prevent any fungal diseases or insects laying nests near your shrub.  I sometimes like to surround the base of my plants with fallen leaves during the Fall season to provide extra coverage so the ground around the roots of these plants stay warmer during our cold winter months. 

Not always do I get the chance of protecting my plants this way, but even still, the wind will likely have blown leaves and debris or even trash on occasion, so it is always best to clean up or pull away from the wood base so nothing is sitting against it. 

How to Break Up Stiff Mulch for Better Soil Aeration

I personally use wood mulch in my beds to keep the soil moist and prevent too many weeds from appearing, but there are times that this mulch can start to stiffen.  If you’ve worked with wood mulch you may already know what I mean, but if not, it basically becomes matted above the dirt and no longer easily moved.  When this happens I grab a garden fork or some sort of tool to break up the mulch to allow the soil beneath to breath. 

You will come to notice, I’m not a gardener that likes to purchase fresh mulch every season to replace or top dress, in order to make my beds look fresh and beautiful. Mainly because it’s added expense, extra work that takes time, but personally I don’t think it’s needed.  Yes it will look so much nicer, but is it helping the plants any more than simply mixing up the existing much I already have, as long as it hasn’t fully decomposed yet?  I think I’ll stick with what has been working and save myself the time and money. 

So whatever you may do in your own beds, just provide your hydrangeas a clean space to start growing, and this will give you a better chance of a good and full growing shrub that performs well in your landscape.

5. When to Fertilize Your Panicle Hydrangeas

Depending on when you got around to pruning, you may or may not be ready to start fertilizing your panicle hydrangeas.  Wait, why do I say this you ask?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to get all the Spring cleanup accomplished in one go? Sure, but there is a chance the fertilizer you spread could be wasted if it’s still too soon and the plant wasn’t ready to absorb the nutrients yet. 

Personally gardening isn’t perfect, and the only way we are all going to learn is by finding what works for you. I think I’ve fed my hydrangeas at all different times the past few seasons since they’ve been planted and I’ve had a successful year – however I’ve also learned a bit more each year and it starts to make more sense to me as time goes on. 

The Best Time to Fertilize Your Hydrangeas for Maximum Growth

If you want to provide the best chance for your panicle hydrangea to perform well this season, I would time your fertilizing out when the buds start to green up.  This shows you that your hydrangea is beginning to wake up, and beginning to actively grow.  When it reaches this phase, it will begin to absorb the nutrients and will need the energy to continue with its growth cycle. 

Choosing the Right Fertilizer: What Works for Hydrangeas?

I don’t have strong opinions on what makes the perfect fertilizer to use with your panicle hydrangeas at the moment, but I have started to use Epsoma’s Rose Tone Fertilizer this past Spring with guidance I received through YouTube’s Garden Answer channel where Laura has recommended this type since she’s been using it on her hydrangeas. 

Bonus Tip: The Importance of Soil Testing

Performing a soil test is always recommended when you don’t know what your soil conditions are, and having a soil test done will provide you with the best starting off point. With a soil test it will provide you the insight you need to determine what fertilizer your soil and plants will benefit most from. However I know not everyone will want to go through that added step, so if you find something that allows an equal N-P-K balance, you should be just fine. 

Should You Test Your Soil?

The fun and sometimes not so fun thing about gardening, is you get to know a little more about the science behind it all. If your plant is deficient in a nutrient there is a good chance it will show you through its foliage, or possibly stunted growth, so it is always good to pay attention through the growing season. 

If you are unsure what it may need, try snapping a photo of the plant as well as a close up of the foliage to show the exact coloring, and take it to your local garden center and ask if they are able to help you find the right nutrient that it might be needing to correct that issue. 

Feeling Better Prepared to Care for Your Panicle Hydrangeas this Spring?

Well there you have it, my 5 things to remember when caring for your panicle hydrangeas this Spring, and I hope that it gave you enough to think about so that you can easily jump in and begin your gardening season with success!

If you like what you see, or learned anything, please tell me about it by commenting down below!

Happy Gardening!🌿

I have a few of the varieties myself, and each of them have their pros and cons.  Some need more care than the rest, but I love having these in my landscape. Now that they are starting to get accustomed to the growing conditions my yard offers, they are beginning to thrive and grow much more than the prior years. 

Do your Hydrangeas start to flop once they’ve bloomed?

This year I noticed one of my varieties began to flop much more than usual.  For good reason too as these shrubs produced way more blooms than I’ve ever seen on them. 

Here is a picture of my Bobo Hydrangeas, that receive part-sun in our backyard. 

The first couple of years there had been fewer blooms, so I never had to address the floppy stems.  I also did not believe this variety to be so floppy, since I always thought only the ‘Smooth Leaf’ variety like the Annabelle was notorious for this… not a Panicle type. 

What Should I Do When My Hydrangea Stems Start To Flop?

Be Patient

If you notice after your hydrangeas start to produce blooms, and begin to lean away from the base towards the ground after a good rain, you may just need to give it some time for the water to evaporate during the day.  Most often your hydrangea will perk right back up on its own. 

*Caution* But Try Shaking Them Slightly

You may be thinking, I can just shake the excess water off to speed up the process and allow your hydrangea to spring back up much more quickly. 

This is correct in a way, but if you choose to go this route, be very gentle.  The stems, even though they can produce a very large bloom, are more than likely first year stems and not quite thick or strong enough to keep from snapping. 

Try Giving It A “Haircut”

This year when I noticed that my Bobo’s were not springing back up after several days of no rain, and nothing that should keep them weighed down like they were, I realized this plant just couldn’t handle all the blooms it had produced. 

I began to grow concerned about the shape my hydrangeas might be left with at the end of the growing season.  I did not want this to develop an unsightly shape next Spring, since with the panicle variety, you should really only prune off about a third each year. 

Step Back to Assess Your Situation

Looking my hydrangeas over, I could see many of my branches with first year stems had produced incredibly large flowers.  I grabbed my pruners, and began to snip off the entire bloom, right above a couple leaves, from the thin stems. 

This was hard for me to do as I wanted to keep these beautiful flowers, but I knew by removing the added weight, these stems had a better chance of growing stronger. 

Keep Only Part of The Bloom

Another thing I tried was snipping only half of the bloom off the stem, and it worked!

I still had a couple months of the season to enjoy these Bobo Hydrangeas, so I didn’t want to snip off all of the blooms just yet.  I began to start finding the stems that appeared thicker than the others, and snipped off only part of the bloom. 

Panicle blooms have the cone shaped flowers which gave me a decent length to work with, where I could just take my pruners and cut the bloom off from the middle, as shown in the picture below. 

This worked well in my opinion, and now I was left with ball-like blooms, which were still pretty. 

I also started to notice as I was giving my hydrangeas a good haircut, the stems slowly started to spring back up in place.  

They started looking even better the following day. My hydrangeas were much happier looking and I was no longer worried about the shrub having a permanent cascading arch of branches for the following season. 

Other Reasons Your Hydrangeas Could Be Flopping Over

Should You Water Them?

Maybe your hydrangeas are flopping over for other reasons that have nothing to do with heavy blooms, weak stems, and/or rain. 

Sometimes a hydrangea may simply be floppy because it’s thirsty.  If you know it’s been warmer with little to no rain, you could just be dealing with thirsty hydrangeas. 

If you know your hydrangea could use some water, just make sure to water at the base.  Watering from the top, may cause the leaves to scorch if the sun is still out. 

Some Hydrangeas Are Just Dramatic

As noted above, I have a ‘Big Leaf’ variety that appears as though it was dying during the day and if I don’t water it, the plant might just die for good.  However, later I would notice that same plant perked right back up like nothing happened after the sun moved past the trees and about to retire for the evening. 

Pay attention to this, as you wouldn’t want to be watering when it’s not needed.  If you have one of these drama plants, just wait it out and see if it’s happier once it’s shaded again.  

I still hand water a lot of my plants, so I usually keep tabs on which might need more water or perhaps need time to cool down.  Call it lazy gardening, but if I can prevent having to spend my time watering my plants each time they look like they are giving up, I’m all for it. 🙂

Whatever your reason may be, I hope my experience with my own has given you some ideas on how to fix your floppy hydrangeas. I plan to continue this pruning method, and see how it works for me in the coming years.  I may try to start earlier in the season as well and see if it can prevent any flopping to occur in the first place. 

If you like what you see, or learned anything, please tell me about it by commenting down below!

Happy Gardening!🌿