Berm Baby Berm
Last spring and summer in the Mid-Atlantic was wet, wet, wet! There was barely a break between heavy rains, so boy was I thankful that I berm my garden beds to the hilt. Berms are the best because they ensure garden soil is raised, well-aerated and drainage good. When heavy rain comes, there's no need to worry about standing water at plant root zones. It's the perfect alternative for gardeners that don't want to be locked into set raised beds or can’t build them.
Light, deep bermed soil enables root crops, like carrots, parsnips and rutabagas, to develop perfect roots because they have plenty of friable soil to sink into. Later in the season, you will be glad you planted your melons on raised berms because light soil with good drainage helps them grow better and develop higher sugar content, which improves flavor.
Before berming the soil up, as with the bermed potato rows above, lightly till or turn your soil deeply. Next, establish bedding rows. Once these are set, begin raking your berms up (using a hard rake). This takes a little elbow grease, but the results make it well worth it.
Once the berms are created, put a layer of removable mulch cloth down and cover that with a layer of straw. This keeps weeding down by up to 75%, so it’s very important for busy people with little time and energy, like me.
It’s best to use a very light weight mulch cloth that’s easy to pull away, roll up and reuse the following season.
Before the plants are in the ground, my vegetable garden looks like a bumpy, straw-covered mess, but once the plants have grown in, you can't even seen the raised berms.
Light, deep bermed soil enables root crops, like carrots, parsnips and rutabagas, to develop perfect roots because they have plenty of friable soil to sink into. Later in the season, you will be glad you planted your melons on raised berms because light soil with good drainage helps them grow better and develop higher sugar content, which improves flavor.
Before berming the soil up, as with the bermed potato rows above, lightly till or turn your soil deeply. Next, establish bedding rows. Once these are set, begin raking your berms up (using a hard rake). This takes a little elbow grease, but the results make it well worth it.
Once the berms are created, put a layer of removable mulch cloth down and cover that with a layer of straw. This keeps weeding down by up to 75%, so it’s very important for busy people with little time and energy, like me.
It’s best to use a very light weight mulch cloth that’s easy to pull away, roll up and reuse the following season.
Before the plants are in the ground, my vegetable garden looks like a bumpy, straw-covered mess, but once the plants have grown in, you can't even seen the raised berms.
Posted by Jessie Keith at 3/10/2010 7:49 AM 
Categories: Vegetable Gardening
Tags: Raised Beds Garden Preparation Bermed beds Vegetable Garden Preparation
Categories: Vegetable Gardening
Tags: Raised Beds Garden Preparation Bermed beds Vegetable Garden Preparation
I agree whole-heartedly on burming your beds. I garden on a hillside, and they also make working from the down-hill side a snap. The only problem with this is the 100s of quail that wander through the gardens kick all the mulch off the top of the burms and into the ditches...
I have had to move to wood-sided beds since the scratching at least gives some chance of the mulch staying on top where it does some good...
P put up a picture of my burmed beds here: http://gardening-coaches.com/how-to-install-a-garden-irrigation-system.php
An article on raised bed gardens in general is here: http://gardening-coaches.com/raised-bed-vegetable-garden.php
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Nice pictures Mike! We have some small raised beds at our home garden too but extended our gardening enterprise to a large community garden in a nearby state park. Sadly, raised beds are not an option there. The plot is somewhat low too. Burming, along with double digging, has given us the best results.
No quail to worry about in our urban gardens. They'd be a gas to have around though. I love the sounds they make: http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Quail_bird_Sounds.aspx
jk
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Thanks! This helped a ton, and it mostly just gave me the confidence to do berms and not feel like I'm wasting space.
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Glad you liked the article Keith! Berming can certainly be as space-saving as standard gardening. It can even work for more intensive gardening styles, like French intensive gardening. There's no rule regarding the distance between berms as long as as the crop can successfully grow.
I tend to space veggie rows out to allow for easier movement between them--this is a greater consideration for my small children (which will otherwise stomp plants) than me. They love to get involved with harvest.
Happy gardening!
Jessie
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