Do you want to cultivate food in an elevated garden bed? Learn about the advantages of utilizing raised garden beds and obtain authentic raised bed vegetable garden ideas.
A Raised Bed: What Is It?
Raised beds are just dirt mounds made right on the ground, but for a polished appearance, they are frequently framed with bricks, wood, or other materials. Typically, a combination of premium potting soil, compost, and/or leaf mold is used to fill raised beds. They are great in otherwise challenging situations like stony, compacted, polluted, extremely wet, or nutrient-poor soils because they drain well. Even hard surfaces are suitable for using them. For additional crop protection, netting or shade cloth can be readily added by fastening hoops to the sides of the beds.
What is the Ideal Raised Bed Size?
Narrow beds up to four feet wide work best for home vegetable gardens because they allow the gardener to reach into the center of the bed.
By doing this, the need to dig and disturb the current soil structure is avoided, and because there is no need to walk on the soil, compaction is decreased.
Because raised beds eliminate the need to bend over and can even be constructed on high platforms for wheelchair access, they are also helpful for gardeners with limited mobility.
The Essential Elements of Vegetable Garden Layout
Comprehending the distinct light needs of every plant in your vegetable garden designs is essential for their general well-being and yield.
When given enough light, plants like peppers, cucumbers, and eggplants love to bask in the sun and will provide you with abundant harvests. On the other hand, leafy greens like spinach and lettuce can withstand some shadow, which makes them good options for locations with some sun.
Apart from sunlight, space is an important consideration.
If you’re lucky enough to have a sizable backyard, you’ll need to consider water availability while choosing where to put your garden. However, if your space is limited—say, by a deck or balcony—you’ll need to think outside the box and consider different designs for your vegetable garden.
Raised bed veggie gardens can be a game-changer for individuals with limited space. In addition to making the most of available space, raised beds improve drainage and avoid compacting the soil.
They also facilitate temperature and quality control of the soil, which promotes healthier plants and higher yields.
Make careful to use untreated, rot-resistant wood to build your raised bed for your vegetable garden, or use substitutes like recycled plastic lumber or cinder blocks.
Depending on the amount of area you have available, the raised bed’s measurements can change, but generally speaking, it measures around 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and 10 to 12 inches deep.
The Top Ten Advantages of Gardening on Raised Beds
Raised bed gardening has a lot of advantages—many more than this top 10 list could possibly cover!
And after five years of gardening, both in-ground and raised bed, I’ve found what I think are the top 10 advantages of raised bed gardening that regular in-ground gardening just can’t match. These are what they are!
1. Fewer weeds
The frustration of dealing with weeds throughout the gardening season is well-known to all organic gardeners. Weeding is frequently the last chore on the list because there are so many other gardening duties to complete. However, very few weeds ever reach the top of the soil in your raised bed garden. This is particularly true if you construct your raised bed using soil and first apply a layer of cardboard mulch at the bottom (more on that later!), as cardboard mulch effectively suppresses weeds.
2. No Requirement to Wait
More studies about the detrimental effects of garden tilling on the ecosystem and soil structure have been published over time. I would even advise you to plant an in-ground garden using a no-till method! Tilling is not necessary at all when using an elevated bed garden; instead, you can build up your soil each spring by adding fresh organic matter, compost, and other soil amendments to the top of the soil. Simple as that!
3. Easier To Maintain The Health Of Your Soil
Your raised bed container’s soil is a micro-ecosystem all by itself. It makes it much simpler to keep diseases that can infect your soil and pests like insects and other critters out. Because the soil surface area of a raised bed garden is significantly lower than that of an in-ground garden, it is also very simple and quick to remedy any issues that may arise.
4. Easier to Reach Physically
Anyone, regardless of size, can garden thanks to raised beds. Everyone can access them. You can build an elevated bed that is at least hip height if you have difficulty bending over. You can plant while seated if you construct an elevated bed for yourself if you use a wheelchair. You can tailor your elevated bed to meet your specific physical needs; the options are virtually limitless.
5. Gives Your Garden More Depth & Visual Appeal
There are a ton of gorgeous and inventive raised bed designs available! Visit Epic Gardening for a list of over fifty raised bed design ideas. I have a variety of raised bed designs in my own garden, including a couple that are hexagon-shaped. Because they are low to the ground, they are excellent discussion starters for guests.
6. You Can Keep going to Grow
For those of us gardeners in colder climates with shorter growing seasons, raised beds can be really helpful. By covering your raised bed to raise the soil’s warmth, you can begin planting earlier in the spring. Alternatively, you can cover your beds with polytunnels to keep your plants warm even in below-freezing weather, extending your growing season into the fall.
7. Easier To Control Insects
Keeping pests out of your raised bed is simple if you apply the previously discussed cover approach. In my opinion, our garden can occasionally be invaded by our free-range hens. To keep my hens out, I just cover the tops of the beds with a piece of chicken wire while the seeds are still little or starting to germinate. It functions flawlessly, and attaching any kind of material is made simple by the raised bed’s container.
8. Adaptability Regarding Gardening Site
Your raised bed garden can be located anywhere. Actually, wherever will do! If the light doesn’t shine on your backyard all day, you might want to think about putting your raised bed on the driveway’s corner. As an alternative, if you’re moving or want to set up a new garden spot, you can always bring your raised bed with you. Raised beds offer adaptability to our changing lifestyles and surroundings.
9. Made from the majority of recycled materials
The materials you can use to make an elevated bed are pretty much limitless, ranging from cedar to repurposed lumber to galvanized steel. If you’re frugal (like me!), you can even be very inventive and turn an old bathtub or sink into an elevated bed. Just make sure the material you select is long-lasting in the outdoors and safe for plants.
10. Less Upkeep Compared to Ground Gardens
Raised bed gardening offers a final advantage: altogether, it requires far less upkeep than in-ground gardening. Raised beds not only keep weeds out of the yard, but they’re also easier to construct, move, and maintain physically. The advantages are endless. I really advise you to try raised bed gardening if you’re a novice gardener!
Ten Typical Errors in Raised Bed Gardening
Now let’s get started with some raised bed gardening “don’ts.”
I’m not presenting this to scare you, but to educate you instead! If you steer clear of these ten typical blunders, raised bed gardening can actually be rather simple.
1. Using the Wrong Materials or Pressure-Treated Lumber
Hazardous chemicals are frequently used in the treatment of pressure-treated or treated lumber. Although treated timber is legally deemed “non toxic” for our surroundings, I have heard numerous stories from gardeners about how utilizing it has contaminated their soil. Alternatively, go for untreated repurposed or recycled wood. Or use cedar for a more upscale raised bed.
2. Putting Your Raised Bed in a Location With Insufficient Sunlight
This is crucial for growing plants that need full sun, which includes the majority of culinary plants and flowers, not only in raised bed gardening but in all gardening. Make sure to position your raised bed in an area that receives 8 to 10 hours of direct sunlight every day. The walls of the bed will naturally shade your plants at different times of the day, especially when they are young seedlings.
3. Not Including Premium Soil
The earth is king or queen! Furthermore, there is a clear link between the health of your plants and the quality of your soil. Later in this post, I’ll walk you through my exact steps for constructing your soil in an elevated bed. However, my basic recommendations are to use compost, worm castings, top soil (or your garden’s natural soil), and a small amount of sand or vermiculite for drainage. If you’ve been growing vegetables in the same raised bed for a few years, make sure to periodically add worm castings and compost to your soil. This will nourish it and guarantee its superior quality!
4. Too Tight Soil Compaction
In a raised bed, you definitely want to avoid compacting the soil. It must to be lightweight and portable. Additionally, you don’t have to fill your bed all the way to the top with dirt. In order to cover the exposed soil with mulch and have enough space to incorporate it into your soil at the conclusion of the growing season, leave a few inches at the top. The dirt in your raised bed should be very workable and offer ample opportunity for movement.
5. Oversized Plants Placed on Raised Beds
Certain plants simply can’t thrive in the small spaces of an elevated bed. Raised bed gardens are usually not suitable for huge plants such as indeterminate tomatoes, large vining vines, small shrubs and trees, and perennial fruits. The plant won’t be able to reach its full potential if its roots are squeezed. However, you could plant an entire raised bed with, say, indeterminate tomatoes; you would only want to plant a small number of plants and make sure they had plenty of space to grow large and bushy.
6. Stuffing A Raised Bed With Too Many Plants
However, overcrowding your raised bed with plants is a grave mistake. I definitely have a problem with overplanting. When seedlings seem so tiny in the spring, it’s simple to accomplish. But if you allow your plants enough room, they will grow large. Stunted plant development, illness, and the depletion of soil nutrients can result from having too many plants in a raised bed. Later in this post, I’ll go into more detail on how many plants you should put in an elevated bed garden.
7. Inadequate Watering
Because the limited soil area in raised beds usually gets hotter and retains heat longer than in-ground soil, the soil there can dry up more quickly. So regular watering is essential! Installing drip irrigation lines across our raised beds is the easiest task I’ve found. In my elevated beds, I also adore utilizing ollas. It’s a traditional method of irrigating plants locally. It delivers water to the roots of your plants gradually.
8. Upholstering a Raised Bed
I strongly advise avoiding lining your raised bed with a plastic liner—this may be a contentious statement. Some gardeners advise doing this because they claim it gives the wood a protective layer that increases the longevity of your raised bed. However, I’ve discovered that lining an elevated bed does more harm than help. Your soil may retain too much water as a result, which might cause the roots to overheat or drown. I’ve found that a no-liner works best! To begin growing, just fill the raised bed container with soil.
9. Building an Overly Shallow Raised Bed
Your raised bed should be constructed with the things you intend to plant in mind. It is possible to have a shallow raised bed with as little as 4 inches of soil depth if your goal is to grow lettuces and salad greens. However, if you intend to cultivate root vegetables such as carrots and beets, you will need an elevated bed with a minimum soil depth of two feet. But, you can grow straight into your garden and depth need not be an issue if you build your raised bed on top of your garden soil without adding a base!
10. Constructing An Inappropriate Sized Raised Bed
Lastly, creating raised beds that are excessively tall or short, difficult to reach over, or not convenient to access is a typical error I see gardeners make. Your raised bed should be constructed with your growing demands in mind. I have discovered that a raised bed should be 4 feet wide by 7 to 8 feet long. It’s ideal for cultivating a variety of plants and will be simple to maintain.
Which Size Is Ideal for a Raised Bed?
Any size raised bed that fits in your garden area can be constructed! In the garden, raised beds can be a great statement of your personal style and inventiveness.
Over the years, we’ve experimented with a variety of forms and aesthetics, such as the low-key hexagon raised bed shown above. But to start small, I would advise making a straightforward raised bed that is square or rectangular.
You now need to examine a few factors related to length, width, and height.
My favorite grocery list items arranged in a 4 x 8 raised bed veggie garden
Alright, let’s go on to the design. This raised bed is divided into eight rows. The photographs don’t show the precise number of onions, greens, and root vegetables planted. They serve only as a placeholder to show their destination. My grocery list indicated that I should plant two rows of onions, two rows of tomato plants and a columnar basil plant, three rows of pepper plants (hot, snack, or bell; or all the same), a row of Swiss chard, kale, or spinach from seed, two rows of cucumber plants (patio varieties), and a few rows of root vegetables (from seed). I’ve included carrots and beets to the diagram, but you could also add turnips or radishes. Additionally, I secretly included two herbs: flat-leaf parsley and curly parsley.
A family’s raised bed vegetable garden design measuring 4 by 8
Here’s another family plot arrangement concept. On the north end, plant a double row or band of beans or peas supported by a trellis. Next, arrange the following in tomato cages: two rows of onions, two rows of tomato plants (perhaps a cherry variety and a slicing tomato), two rows of pepper plants (one hot and one snack), one snack cucumber, and one row each of winter and summer squash (plants or seeds)—I especially liked Burpee’s Lemon Drop squash—and two rows of carrots (from seed).
Which Raised Bed Width Is Best?
A raised bed should have a width of 3.5 to 4.5 feet. Your bed won’t be very ergonomic or manageable if it’s broader than that. Here are some further justifications for why this is the best elevated bed width:
It makes it simple to reach over without having to stand up and move around. It is sufficiently broad to accommodate three to four plant rows. Fits typical garden accessories including row coverings and tunnels.
What Is The Proper Length of a Raised Bed?
A raised bed should be five to eight feet long. If your raised bed is longer than eight feet, you run the danger of the soil’s excessive weight perhaps shattering the corners.
Having said that, I do think it’s a good idea to have raised beds that are longer than eight feet if they are placed permanently or line a wall that provides support. However, the thought of maybe having to move an elevated bed that is longer than eight feet at some point does not appeal! So remember that.
Which Height Is Best for a Raised Bed?
Personally, I don’t think there is a perfect height for raised beds. Create with your needs in mind!
A few of our raised beds are barely elevated above the floor by one foot. In contrast, our greenhouse’s raised beds are closer to hip height.
There are no height restrictions if your plants are growing into the soil beneath your raised bed and you are not adding a bottom, which I strongly advise you to do.
To produce root vegetables, for example, and want to set your raised bed on concrete or another hard surface, you should construct a raised bed that is at least 3.5 to 5 feet deep.
How To Easily Construct A Homemade Raised Bed Without Investing a Lot of Money
My spouse and I have constructed multiple do-it-yourself raised beds for our garden throughout the years. Every season, we usually construct one or two new raised beds. One of my favorite things about our garden is how it’s always changing!
This is probably the part of the blog where the thought of the price of lumber scares you. In Canada, it has undoubtedly increased dramatically in recent years. But fear not—we’ve discovered a way to construct sturdy DIY raised beds at a reasonable price.
So let me to take you through our 5-step process for quickly and affordably making a DIY raised bed.
Step 1: Find recycled wood and apply a non-toxic wood sealant to it.
Cedar raised beds are unquestionably exquisite, but they are also very costly. Rather, we’ve discovered that building raised beds is significantly more economical if you get reclaimed lumber from a lumber yard or our neighborhood buy and sell. We even constructed a few raised beds using free wood that friends and family were discarding. Just make sure the recycled lumber you choose isn’t decayed or damaged.
Look for salvaged lumber in lengths of 8 to 12 feet, with a thickness of 1-2 inches.
Your neighborhood hardware store sells non-toxic wood sealers. We like Seal It Green XTreme Garden Box as our chosen brand. It’s a plant-based, transparent sealant that is safe for the environment.
To make painting the sides and corners of your raised bed easier, I advise sealing your timber before putting it together.
Step 2: Measure the size of your bed and cut the lumber to the necessary lengths.
As previously stated, a raised bed should have a width of approximately 4.5 feet and a length of between 5.5-8 feet. Ascertain the dimensions of your bed and if it will have a square or rectangular design.
Next, mark the lengths of the long and short sides (or even sides if you’re creating a square bed) of your wood with a measuring tape and pencil.
Step 3: Carefully cut lumber using a circular hand saw.
We adore our DEWALT cordless circular hand saw, measuring 1/4 inch. It is really simple and secure to use. Furthermore, portable! Thus, when we construct raised beds, we bring ours directly into the garden.
To ensure straight cuts with your saw, adhere to the markings on your lumber. After cutting, align your boards to make sure they are the same length.
Step 4: First, screw in one end of each short board.
Start by using your shorter boards. Believe me! By doing this, you can make sure your elevated bed is level.
Power drill and screw boards with screws that are 2-3 inches long. The DEWALT small cordless drill is the power drill of choice for us. It quickly charges and is incredibly portable, no matter where we build.
Sort your timber and lay it out on a level area (we normally use the garage or the grass in our yard). Align the edge of one of your long boards with the position of your small board. Put two screws on each edge, top and bottom, of the board. Now screw the other small board to the other long board, repeating the previous step. Essentially, you are forming two L shapes.
To make sure you’ve screwed your short and long boards together equally, next place a level in each of their corners. If not, just unscrew and restart.
Step 5: After attaching the two short sides to the long boards, align them lightly with a hammer.
After the boards are level, join the two L-shaped pieces to form the raised bed’s shape. Next, attach the long boards to the shorts’ opposite end by screwing them in.
To make sure your raised bed is level, use your level once more. Next, give the corners a light tap with a hammer. By doing this, you can further even out the lumber and bind the screws together.
Continue in this manner, stacking each raised bed frame on top of the other, until you reach the desired height if you are building a tall raised bed. Longer screws will probably be required for this method in order to fasten each raised bed frame to the next. 4–5 inch screws, please.
And you just finished building a raised bed at home!
How to Add Soil to a Raised Bed
First, let’s talk about how to add soil to a brand-new raised bed. This is how I go about filling an empty raised bed.
I strongly advise using the lasagna layering method instead of packing the entire empty raised bed with dirt if it is deeper than four feet.
The lasagna method begins with a layer of branches at the bottom, which is followed by a layer of heavy mulch made of leaves, cardboard, or wood chips, a layer of thinner mulch made of straw or grass clippings, and a fine layer of a mixture of compost, top soil, and worm castings.
However, if you are filling an elevated bed that is not deeper than four feet, I advise you to use my favorite formula for soil mix:
50% soil on top
25% is made of compost
25% is made up of organic stuff.
And lastly, this is what I recommend if you already have an elevated bed in your garden and you only want to make some changes to the soil to make it better!
Add 4-6 inches of premium compost and roughly 1 inch of worm castings to your raised bed if you haven’t planted anything yet in the spring. Incorporate them into your soil. When you’ve moved your seedlings, don’t forget to apply a layer of straw or leaf mulch.
If you have already planted in your raised bed and are in the middle of gardening season, you can easily modify your soil by adding compost and worm castings as a top dressing around the base of your plants.
The Appropriate Number of Plants for a Raised Bed Garden
The question of gold! How big of a planter bed should you make? Although I hate to tell it, it does depend!
For instance, the image above shows an elevated bed I saw while traveling close to Niagara Falls. I would argue that there are much too many plants for one raised bed if this were a food garden. As you can see, they’re densely populated, quickly transmit illness, restrict plant and root growth, and the list goes on.
However, these aren’t necessarily major reasons for concern because this garden was simply intended to be ornamental. In fact, I think having this many plants in a raised bed is fine.
Additionally, the quantity of plants in my own raised beds varies greatly. For instance, I only grow garlic on my smallest raised beds. In order to prevent upsetting the roots of my garlic, which have been growing all winter, I don’t add any more plants to these beds in the spring.
However, I will switch up the plants growing in my larger, rectangular raised beds two or three times during the growing season.
I’ll add a layer of poly to the bed in the early spring to warm the soil before planting lettuce, arugula, spinach, radishes, and cilantro. I’ll harvest everything after 45 to 50 days and move my sensitive annuals—like tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and some annual flowers—into the same area.
When late summer arrives, I redo the bed and clear out any dying plants to make way for greens and brassicas, which are cool-season crops.
As you can see, the quantity and variety of plants you choose to include in an elevated bed will determine how many plants you end up planting there.
However, allow me to share with you my top 3 raised bed garden planting suggestions!
First tip: Plant your plants according to the square foot gardening method.
The technique of splitting your growing space—in this case, a raised bed—into tiny 1 square foot parts is known as square foot gardening. Typically, gardeners will mark each square foot with a rope or a little piece of wood. Next, you put one plant into every square. Although it’s a labor-intensive method that yields a raised bed with a lot of planting, it’s an excellent resource for novices.
Tip 2: Grow crops in the same bed that will mature on comparable days.
Being able to plant different crops in your raised bed throughout the growing season will help you make the most of the space.
For instance, you can grow cold-tolerant greens in the springtime even before the last date of frost. They grow quickly, and you may harvest them in 30 to 45 days to free up space for your sensitive annual vegetables. When late summer arrives, you can pull out any exhausted plants that have finished bearing fruit and plant brassicas, root vegetables, and greens in their stead.
Tip 3: Grow up and down the side of your raised bed to make the most of the available space.
To grow plants vertically, use wire cages, arches, bamboo poles, and trellises. In the center of my raised bed, I have a tiny wire cage where I grow my pole beans and peas, which I enjoy. My raised bed’s square footage is greatly reduced, and I can plant low-growing vegetables like spinach or salad greens around the base. It also gives your yard a beautiful height addition.
As an alternative, you can place vining plants close to the corners or edges of your raised bed, allowing them to trail over the wood’s side. Cucumbers, winter squash, and nasturtiums are all excellent choices. I think having vegetation overflowing the side of your raised bed is really lovely. Furthermore, it doesn’t require any growing room in the bed itself!
As I indicated, one excellent technique to maximize the amount of food you can plant is to change your raised beds according to the seasons.
Using succession planting techniques, you may grow a wide variety of herbs, vegetables, and flowers on your property even if you only have space for one raised bed.
Watering A Garden In A Raised Bed
I’ve discovered a couple different methods that are incredibly effective throughout the years for watering our raised beds. However, the most crucial thing, in my opinion, is to choose a strategy that fits your needs and way of life.
If you spend a lot of weekends at the lake, take a low-maintenance approach that will let you leave things alone for a few days at a time.
Alternatively, if you’re a tech enthusiast, you may set up watering systems and timers that do the work for you.
Alternatively, you can use the traditional method of hand-watering your garden with a hose or watering can if it is conveniently located just outside your backdoor.
Find a watering technique that suits your needs!
Two Methods for Hydrating a Raised Bed Garden
We irrigate our raised beds using three distinct methods, which are listed below. It’s not necessary to apply all three of these strategies in your garden; just one should be used.
1. Make Use of an Olla
An olla is a traditional irrigation method in which a water-filled terracotta clay pot is buried beneath the ground. The liquid gradually seeps out and hydrates your plants’ roots. It saves a ton of time and functions well! When I put an olla close to my plants, I’ve noticed better growth.
Growoya is a terrific Canadian brand that we purchase our ollas from. They suit different raised beds and gardens and are available in three sizes. In our 4×8 raised bed, I use two little ollas.
2. Set Up A Drip Line
Installing drip irrigation may seem intimidating to some gardeners, but it’s actually very easy and very successful. It’s fantastic to use in our raised beds!
It keeps your garden low-maintenance and guarantees that your plants receive water right at the root system for the duration of the growing season.
For our raised beds, we purchase the MoHern Drip Irrigation Tubing Set. You can choose how the hoses go between each plant by using the 20 pieces of equipment that come with it and the 1/4 inch drip line.
We put this in the spring and take it down in the fall. We’ve discovered that during our severe Canadian winters, leaving the garden hoses outside causes them to break. Thus, take care to pick them up and keep them somewhere dry and frost-free.