Sophia Rose Reviews: First Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening: All the know-how you need to build and grow a raised bed garden by KaliKim

Today Sophia Rose is here getting her hands dirty and showing off her green thumb reviewing The First Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening.
Enjoy!

First Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening: All the know-how you need to build and grow a raised bed garden by KaliKim

Non-Fiction, Gardening

Publisher:  Cool Springs Press

Published: 4.12.22

Pages:  176

ISBN:  0760372756

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  NetGalley

Sellers: Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Blurb:

Setting up your first raised bed garden? With help from YouTube gardening star CaliKim, you’ll soon be growing your own fresh, organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers like a pro.

Whether your yard is big or small, raised beds are the perfect fit. They allow you to create a controlled growing environment, filled with fertile soil, where plants thrive. Raised beds help gardeners overcome rocky or less-than-ideal soils, there’s little to no weeding involved, and they can be as large or as petite as you’d like. You can even use an elevated or mobile raised bed if the only sunny space you have to grow is on a patio, deck, or driveway. In The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening, you’ll learn how to select the best raised bed for your space, what to fill it with, and tips for staking and trellising plants to save space and improve yields.

Additional advice found inside includes:

DIY plans for building quick-and-simple beds
Info on the best soil mixes for filling raised beds

How to mulch, water, and fertilize your new garden

Illustrated planting plans to help you determine how many plants fit in each bed
Step-by-step project plans for unique raised bed trellising systems

The best beginner-friendly crops to get you started
How to maximize production from a small raised bed garden
Tips to get growing in a way that won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed halfway through the season
Raised bed gardening is perfect for beginners, as long as you have a pro like CaliKim sharing her essential know-how and cheering you on to veggie-growing victory.

This book is part of The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series from Cool Springs Press, which also includes The First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers and The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables. Each book in The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series is aimed at beginner gardeners and offers clear, fact-based information that’s presented in a friendly and accessible way, including step-by-step instructions and full-color illustrations throughout.

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

Early spring always seems to have me eager to diving into a gardening book while I (im)patiently waiting for the last frost and a chance to get outside working in the soil.  I’m avid, but nowhere near pro-status so I perked right up when I saw this First-Time Gardener series book by YouTuber, KaliKim.  Raised bed gardening is something to which I’m a relative newcomer and I want to expand so I eagerly dove into this quick-read book with the colorful photos and graphics sprinkled throughout.

 

Raised Bed Gardening covers several elements from an overview on what it is, the differences and advantages to doing a raised bed, and types of raised bed before diving into starting a raised bed garden from the soil on up. 

First, there were discussions about plotting out where to put them (even for patios if a yard is not available) or even on slopes.  Planning what to grow and what sort of light it will need should play a part in where to locate the beds.

There was a section on building easy raised beds of various types or purchasing one.  Personally, I’ve got a square wooden one about a foot high and about 6x6 ft.  I was intrigued by the makeshift circle of cement blocks filled in with soil including the hollowed areas of the blocks themselves since my husband has extras of those leftover from a different DIY project and I could put these to good use now. 

Next, was the discussion about the soil composition needed to fill the raised bed.  I appreciated the inclusion of the recipes for making natural and compost filler for the bottom layer saving the cost of all soil.  She also put in soil recipes and a method of checking to make sure any soil being used is viable (moist and clumps, but also arable enough to break up, too).  My own garden bed is small enough that the cost of buying bags of special raised bed soil to get started was not too much and I simply add some brown compost enrichers and a new bag of soil on top for the new season.

After the soil discussion, she talks of what to grow in the beds with charts for theme gardens (salad, butterfly, salsa, etc) and where and when to place the plantings to best advantage.

Then a nice reminder about how to keep the soil enriched with fertilizer at periodic moments during the growing season.  This is where I fall off the wagon and have the least knowledge so I was glad to get her suggestions for what type of fertilizer was needed with planting time, and then the various intervals of growth even to that last point in the fall before the garden is done (at least mine is here in the north).

 

All in all, I thought I got an excellent overview of raised bed gardening and some good practical points and tips to make it a success.  Definitely a book I would recommend for those interested in the topic.

 

Author Bio:

CaliKim is a Southern California urban organic gardener who teaches people all over the world how to grow their own food and be healthier as result. She believes growing your own food doesn’t have to be complicated, take a lot of time, or cost a lot of money. She provides instruction on how to grow an organic vegetable garden in a quick, simple, inexpensive way.

Her YouTube channel, CaliKim Garden & Home DIY has an extensive library of garden video tutorials, with millions of views. Through her YouTube channel, website, calikimgardenandhome.com and social media communities, she provides garden support, shares garden how to’s and tips, and healthy garden-to-table recipes.

Kim and her husband, Jerry, a.k.a. “CameraGuy”, love being in the garden together and work as a team to produce gardening videos and content.

Where to find CaliKim:

Seed and Garden Shop: https://calikimgardenandhome.com

Garden Blog: https://calikimgardenandhome.com/category/blog/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CaliKim29

Instagram:http://instagram.com/calikim29

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CaliKimGardenandHomeDIY/

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, and gardening. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

Sophia’s Social Media Links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose