There’s never been a better time to install some raised garden beds for vegetables and other crops in your yard. Raised garden beds have several benefits to traditional beds that include:
Improved drainage and soil volume. Many native soils have a high clay content, giving them poor drainage and tight texture. Vegetable plants require loose, friable soil and good drainage. Or, some areas might have a high concentration of rocks which does not provide enough room for vegetable roots to reach their maximum potential. Raised beds can solve both of these problems.
Improved soil structure. Unless you are fortunate to live in an area with perfect soil texture, pH, and nutrient content, raised beds will allow you to improve the soil quality. Mix a good garden soil (preferably a locally made mix) with large amounts of compost and organic matter. You can even mix in some of the native soil if it is good quality. However, mixing will happen over time with the presence of earthworms that also enrich the soil with their castings. Continual additions of organic matter will keep all aspects of the soil in excellent condition.
More concentrated yield. Vegetables are planted closer together in a raised bed, essentially having two rows in half the space, resulting in a higher yield per square foot. Plants are accessed from either side of the bed which also prevents soil compaction by not walking within the bed.
Ease of maintenance. The border structure keeps grass and creeping plants out while giving you something to mow against or install a walking path of rocks or mulch. The garden can become a feature of your landscaping, surrounded by decorative pavers and perhaps connected to an herb garden and wildflower patch. Working the soil, weeding, and harvesting are easier in a raised bed since it is higher.
Here are 15 cool raised bed ideas to get your creative juices flowing
Th ingenious method below is as resourceful as it is attractive. As the logs break down, they will feed the soil with natural slow-release fertilize for years to come. This is similar to a hugelkultur growing method.
Here’s an attractive idea using an animal feeding trough that you may be able to turn into a reality depending on what you have laying around.
While we’re talking about repurposing, check out these garage door panels reinvented into raised beds. I never would have thought to use these but they are just perfect!
Pallet wood can be used in a variety of ways to create raised beds. Follow this link for step by step instructions and also what you should know in order to pick pallet wood that is safe to grow food with. That part is very important as some pallets are chemically treated.
Here’s the simplest and quickest raised bed you could possibly imagine. All it takes are four pieces of wood and about 30 minutes of time. If you want to get a few years out of your raised bed without spending a lot of money, just use cheap pine boards as shown below. (Don’t get the pressure treated ones as they are unsafe to grow food in). These cheap boards will inevitably rot out sooner than later but you should get a solid 5 years out of them before they need replacing. If long-term is your goal then certainly invest in cedar, the preferred wood for raised beds; but cedar does come with a hefty price tag.
A path was cut out in the raised bed below for its 2nd season in action. You can see examples of more U-shaped beds below. You can read the whole story here.
A beautiful woven raised bed can give your garden an incredible look. This is done by weaving thin sticks or dead wisps between larger stakes.
Pavers can make gorgeous, long-lasting raised beds and often can be bought wholesale at a discounted rate. Be sure to investigate the material used to confirm it doesn’t contaminate your soil with a harmful substance like this.
The ingenious idea using terracotta pipes allows you to grow plants in the actual border itself. You could plant marigolds and nasturtiums, or fragrant herbs to employ companion planting and keep pests away.
A fence border is a great idea when space is tight and can serve as a climbing structure or support trellis for plants that need it. If you are planting up against a wall or fence beware that this tends to reduce the amount of sunlight your plants will receive. With that being said, aim to plant on the southern side of any fence to maximize light. Otherwise you may have to choose plants that can tolerate partial shade.
The awesome raised bed style below gives you space to reach all of the plants. A U-shape adds a little bit of extra garden space on one end. Some people prefer two separate boxes so they can walk straight through on either side. It’s up to you if the extra space is worth it or not. Here are 12 more similar raised beds.
Even tires can be used as a raised bed in a pinch. Some say this isn’t the healthiest method as the rubber can leach into the soil but if this is a last resort it sure beats starving. The old adage comes to mind: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.
A pyramid is a fun and attractive way to use some of your vertical space. This style of raised bed works especially well for strawberries.
Want to start growing earlier in the spring and keep growing later in the fall? A convertable style hoop house may be just what you’re looking for. Learn more and how to build one yourself by following this link. Or maybe you prefer a retractable hoop, as opposed to a hinged one. You can learn how to build one of those here.
Don’t forget to put paths in so that you can reach all the way to the center of each raised bed without stepping on and compacting the soil. This would defeat one of the main purposes of raised garden beds. A good rule of thumb is to maintain a distance one full arms length from path to any given center point of the bed. The longer your wing-span, the wider the bed you could build.Follow us Share this article