Today's Q&A is about lining the bottom of your new raised bed.

This is a question that I get quite often.

Someone is building a new raised bed and they want to know if they need to line the bottom

of it with anything.

Whether that's a weed barrier or something to prevent ground-dwelling pest from coming

in, do they need to line the bottom of

the raised bed with anything? Well, that kind of depends on your preference and

personally I have never had to do this in my raised beds but it's not necessarily

something that I recommend everybody skip because it is a good idea. I would caution against

lining the bottom of your raised beds with anything impermeable such as plastic or even landscape

fabric. Let's talk about plastic first. If you're lining the bottom of your raised bed with plastic

and there's no way for that soil or that water to get out of your bed, you're going to have some issues with drainage.

And that's not good because basically you're making your raised bed one giant pot and waterlogged, not well-draining soil will starve your plants for oxygen and those roots for

oxygen. So you definitely want to avoid making your raised bed an impermeable pot without drainage

holes. I would still recommend not putting anything inorganic, like plastic at the bottom anyway.

I just think in general putting organic material would be a better option, such as cardboard.

I know a lot of people break down their boxes and they put cardboard boxes on the bottom.

I think that's an excellent idea.

I don't know that it's 100% necessary because most weeds are not

going to get to the surface anyway because they need more light than that. But there are some

pernicious weeds and even some grasses that can meander their way up. And so especially maybe if

you're planting on an area with Bermuda grass or something like that,

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