Best Plants for Raised Garden Beds in Los Angeles

by Danielle F. Winter

We are blessed with temperate Southern California weather, perfect for growing all kinds of vegetables and flowers year-round…if only we could get a shovel in our soil.

That’s the problem with SoCal gardening. So many of us have gardens with terrible soil, often compacted, poorly draining clay, with no nutrients. No wonder so many people eager to grow food are turning to raised garden beds, allowing you to add your own loamy, nutrient-rich soil without the grueling business of digging up rocky or hard ground.

Best Plants for Raised Garden Beds in Los Angeles

If you’re considering going the raised bed route this summer, you’ll need to act quickly so that your tender seedlings can establish themselves before the heat of summer hits us. But gardening in raised beds is one of the easiest and fastest ways to get a good garden going and is recommended by gardening professionals if you follow these tips:

1. Choose a raised bed at least 18 inches deep to ensure deeper-rooted vegetables have plenty of room to grow.

Cover the bottom with a quarter-inch screen to deter gophers, but don’t use other barriers that could impede water flow and prevent roots from digging as deep into the ground as they want. Some professional gardeners prefer 24-inch beds, but remember, the deeper the bed, the more soil you’ll need to add. Some gardeners get around this by filling the bottom of their beds with dry leaves or semi-finished compost so they don’t need as much soil. The organic materials will gradually break down, bringing more nutrients and beneficial microbes to your plants.

2. Keep the width narrow so you can easily reach the center of the bed.

For example, if the bed is against a wall or fence, keep it 3 feet wide. If you can reach from all sides, 4 to 6 feet will work.

3. Place the bed in a sunny location.

Vegetables need at least 6 hours of full sun per day, so make sure you know how much sun your location will get before filling your box. One technique recommended by Lauri Kranz of Edible Gardens LA is to pick a sunny day and use your phone to take pictures of the location every hour from about 7 a.m. until nightfall. The timestamp on the photos will document how much sun your area gets before it comes into the shade.

4. Keep the bed away from trees if the bottom of your raised bed touches the birthing ground. “Tree roots will be attracted to the easiest source of water and nutrients,” says Sophie Pennes of Urban Farms LA. “I haven’t seen this problem with citrus fruits, but your bed shouldn’t be near an ornamental tree, especially a ficus.”

5. Use the best organic soil you can afford, preferably in bags, so that you can be sure of the ingredients. “You’re wasting your money if you don’t use good soil,” says Conor Fitzpatrick, who builds cedar beds and edible gardens through his nursery, Fig Earth Supply.

“Look for soil like EB Stone’s Recipe 420, which has 18 weeks of growth fertilizer, or their Raised Bed Mix, which has 12 weeks of nutrients. Some of the cheaper soils only have four to six weeks of nutrients, and then your plants will stop growing,” said Fitzpatrick. Amend the soil with compost later in the growing season to replenish depleted nutrients and encourage beneficial microbes.

6. Filling your raised bed to the top is important as the ground will compress over time and get lower and lower. “The box itself can create a shadow on your plants if it’s not filled to the brim,” Pennes said. “And then you get a humid environment in that partly shaded area. Spiders and snails like to live in corners of shady, damp places, so filling your tank is important.”

7. Set up a drip irrigation system with a timer to adjust watering based on what your veggies need.

The most successful gardens use deep, irregular water to encourage roots to dig deep into the soil to find moisture and protection from the heat. Most professional gardeners suggest running a half-inch header hose at one end of the bed and then attaching a quarter-inch line of soaker hoses with holes every six inches. It’s most efficient to water your plants early in the morning, said Crop Swap’s Jamiah Hargins. “When the plants just hit sunlight, they want to drink most of their water,” he said. “Then they have that water to get through the day.” Water for one or two minutes for a few weeks until the young plants are over transplant shock and begin to grow, then train the roots to dive deeper into the water by watering for about 20 minutes only twice a week (with drip irrigation). If water starts to come out of the bottom of the bed, reduce the time by a few minutes, Kranz said. You can also bury 5-gallon growing pots in your raised bed and plant around it, then fill the jars with water once or twice a week so that as the plants grow, the roots will follow the moisture deep into the soil. (Water around the base of the plants for the first few weeks until they are established).

8. Mulching can help retain moisture, but there is an alternative.

Use small wood chips – something you can easily move with your hand to add amendments like compost to nourish the soil and, in turn, the plants. Most gardeners recommend intensive gardening where the plants are close together (rather than wide separate rows) so that the interwoven leaves darken the soil and retain moisture, eliminating the need for mulching.

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