15 Creative Ideas for Raised Vegetable Garden Beds

Raised beds can be as humble or as elaborate as you would like. The benefits of raised garden beds include better soil drainage, easy access to plants, portability, soil customization increased soil control, and also the ability to keep weeds and pests at bay.

You can easily DIY raised beds from recycled materials you might have on hand (like used bricks or wood planks) or purchase a kit that comes with all of the materials you need. Popular raised garden bed materials also include stones, mulch, and straw. The foundation option you choose will depend on if you are building permanent or temporary raised beds. Once built, raised beds have about the same maintenance cost as traditional gardens.

If you have a large raised bed, you may line the bottom with large stones, plastic bottles, or straws so the water drains—plan for drainage holes at the bottom of your raised bed planter. While you dont need to line a planter, it is recommended because it keeps burrowing animals away from the roots and allows for good drainage while keeping the soil intact.

What Is a Raised Garden Bed?

Raised bed gardening involves growing plants in soil above the ground. You can accomplish this with an enclosure or frame made of wood, stone, bales of hay, or even repurposed material like old dressers.

In-Ground Gardens vs. Raised Garden Beds

Both in-ground gardens and raised garden beds have benefits, drawbacks, and differences to consider. Here are the most common:Soil: A raised garden bed allows you to control your soil more, building it up with compost and the topsoil of your choice, but some plants and flowers prefer the native soil you would find in an in-ground bed. Raised beds also tend to provide better drainage.

Growing space: In-ground beds provide more space for plants to grow and expand overall. However, raised beds are better suited for delicate-rooted pants since there are no rocks or obstacles they would encounter.Pest and weed control: Raised beds are more efficient in preventing weeds and pests since they sit above the ground. You also have the option to use mesh wire in raised beds to keep out small burrowing animals.

Cost: Up front, raised beds are more expensive than in-ground beds. There is a higher cost of materials and possibly an additional labor cost if you hire someone to build them. But over time, both will cost around the same to maintain.

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  Custom-Designed DIY Raised Garden Beds

  @devonandearth / Instagram Raised bed gardens can fit nearly any space. With creativity, you can create an entire garden sitting area. This multi-level raised bed incorporated simple straight lines by Peter Donegan Landscaping. It comes complete with a potting shed and lamppost. Add a bench section, like that at the end of the front bed, and you have seating for the outdoor dining area. As the plants grow and the wood weathers, this garden will have a natural, rustic appearance.

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  Built-In Red Brick Raised Beds

  @_maple_house / Instagram Red brick raised beds can enhance the design of your backyard. When making a raised bed, instead of going in-ground, place a bed where the sun or shade is the best for the plants you want to cultivate. Bricklaying is not for everyone. It takes patience and precision to get right. Choose bricks that will survive well in continually wet conditions. Most red brick raised beds are built using mortar to keep the walls intact.

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  Grow Bag Raised Beds

  @theurbangardenher / Instagram Another great advantage of raised bed gardens is that they sit well above the underground frost line, so the soil warms faster in the spring, and you can start planting sooner. The material used for your beds makes a difference here: metal holds more heat from the sun. But grow bags are a good option as they dont freeze solid, and the soil in them defrosts rather quickly.

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  Herb Spiral Garden

  OK-Photography / Getty s Spiral gardens are a popular permaculture technique. They increase the amount of usable planting area without taking up extra ground space. You can easily build them out of stone, brick, or wood, or simply pile up the soil. The unusual shape and swirl of plants make for an eye-catching focal point in your garden. Herbs are the plants of choice in this photo, but you can grow anything using the spiral design. Continue to 5 of 32 below

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  Trough Garden Beds

  @lynnelambourne / Instagram One of the easiest ways to create raised bed gardens is by using animal feeding troughs. No assembly is required, but drill some drainage holes in the bottom before adding the soil. The metal gives the garden an industrial look and conducts heat, warming the soil in the spring. You can use new or used troughs, depending on availability and your desired look. Depending on what you choose to grow, the plants may need a bit of extra water during the hottest part of summer.

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  Square Foot Raised Beds

  @hollyhillflowers / Instagram Square foot gardening involves dividing the growing area into small square sections, typically 1 foot per square. The aim is to produce an intensively planted vegetable garden or a highly productive kitchen garden. This can be measured and divided with various materials, including netting. Using a raised bed for growing vegetables allows you to control the soil quality and prevent it from becoming compacted. Vegetable roots can grow unimpeded. The beds do not have to be very high off the ground to benefit from being in a raised bed. Even 6 to 8 inches can be enough.

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  Inexpensive Flower Box Raised Beds

  Konoplytska / Getty s Raised beds have very few limits. If you have a sturdy fence, you can attach wooden boxes as small raised beds, like window boxes, on your fence. These can look good all year long, with annuals filling in as perennials stop blooming. During the winter holidays, you can also decorate these areas with seasonal greens and decorations as a unique decor idea.

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  Cinder Block Raised Beds

  mountaincrestgardens / Instagram There are many ways to build raised beds out of recycled materials. Concrete blocks or cinder blocks are one of the most popular. Be careful, though—concrete blocks leach lime. Lime can raise the soils pH. To be safe, use plants that thrive in alkaline soil. These sturdy succulents and sedums are hardy and not too fussy about soil, so theyre a good choice for these planters. Continue to 9 of 32 below

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  Hoop House Raised Bed

  @hamaksatcher_garden / Instagram With a little pre-planning, you can create a multi-season vegetable garden. Raised beds give you more flexibility to control the growing conditions in your garden and make it harder for animals to get at your vegetables. If you build a hoop house on top of a raised bed, you can be prepared for any weather, handle frost, and give yourself a head start in the spring. This lightweight netting is sturdy enough to hold a cloth covering in case of frost.

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  Border Raised Bed

  mkistryn / Getty s Raised beds are a terrific option for yards with steep slopes. By building up the beds at their lowest sections, you can create the illusion of a level garden. Make your beds wide enough so you can still have a layered flower garden with a border of shrubs framing the back of the garden and plenty of room for perennials that will provide colors, textures, and edge-softening drapes.

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  Double-Use Raised Garden Bed

  @ransomebuilds_diy / Instagram Gardeners with limited space can often use raised beds designs creatively to make the most of what they have. This clever design puts a wooden raised bed flower box (made of reclaimed materials) on top of the trash bin storage area: sprucing up whats usually a drab spot and bringing beauty to a utilitarian functional area. The string lights and decorations add a personal touch.

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  Raised Bed Arbor

  BethAmber / Getty s Vertical gardening allows you to grow more plants without taking up more space. Using a trellis or arbor with a raised bed makes it even easier to harvest vegetables and keeps them neater than sprawling on the ground. This raised bed with zucchini plants shows that your design can be as simple as creating a basic frame by tying two dowels (or bamboo poles) together and tethering them. Other crops may benefit from stretching garden netting across the trellis structure. Continue to 13 of 32 below

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  Lasagna Garden Raised Beds

  @nanceband / Instagram Lasagna gardens are layered gardens that dont require digging, but the term has come to mean using materials other than soil beneath the topsoil layer. In this case, wooden raised beds are constructed, filled with cut wood and grass clippings, then have a layer of topsoil added. This reduces soils weight and expense if plantings dont produce a deep root system.

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  Milk Crate Raised Garden Bed

  @yorbaplants / Instagram Repurpose milk crates and make your raised bed portable. This milk crate-raised bed is easy to set up, and you can configure it into any shape you like. If you need your plants closer to your kitchen or you want to place them in a shadier spot, pick up the crate and go. These containers already come with drainage holes. And, when you need to change the soil, you can lift the crate, dump the contents in the compost pile, and start again.

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  Raised Bed and Container Design

  Rosemary Calvert / Getty s Maybe you have brick-raised beds and want to make them feel fuller and more decorative. Placing containers below the level of the brick wall allows you to play with different levels that draw the eyes up and down and allow for an almost unlimited variety of sizes and shapes. You can even plan your planting to provide four seasons of visual interest. Containers can also be moved to change the design any time you want.

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  Pallet Wood Raised Garden Bed

  The Spruce / Liz Moskowitz You can make a living wall filled with plants from an upcycled packing pallet, or lay a pallet flat on the ground for a raised bed with natural partitions between the slats to keep your plant growing orderly. Pallets can often be sourced free from businesses that get shipments and dont have a carting service to take them away.

  Warning

  Make sure the wood pallets you use have not been treated with chemicals. To check, look for the IPPC stamp. Pallets stamped with HT were heat treated and safe to use, while those stamped with MB or left blank are not safe. Continue to 17 of 32 below

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  DIY Table Raised Garden Bed

  Instructables Styles change, or sometimes you want to give your room a makeover. Perhaps an old wooden kitchen table or coffee table is destined for the garbage heap. Think again about tossing it out. Turn the table legs or the entire table into your next raised bed. Grow some simple herbs, which are perfect for picking at table height. Wooden materials will degrade over time, but you can eke out a few more years before rot sets in.

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  Brick and Cobblestone Raised Bed

  RiverNorthPhotography / Getty s Think about dry-stacking stacking rows of retaining wall bricks, red bricks, or cobblestones to build a sturdy raised bed that can stand the test of time. You dont need mortar, but you can make the structure last longer if you use masonry adhesive to hold them together if stacking taller than four bricks (or levels) high. For more stability, build a wall with an inner and outer layer, with a thickness of two bricks or stones all the way around.

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  DIY Tiered Drawer Raised Bed

  Beyond the Picket Fence Tables seem made for holding a raised box that you fill with dirt. But less obvious choices are old furniture pieces like dressers, a chest of drawers, media centers, beds and cribs, and bathtubs destined for the dump. Old drawers are perfect as planters for different plant species.

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  Raised Garden Bed With Seating

  100 Things 2 Do Cottage gardens and well-thought-out landscaping often incorporate bench seating in select, picturesque spots. Consider integrating seating into your design when designing a raised box from scratch. Seating is lovely for enjoying the garden, but it also has a practical use. If youre constructing a raised bed garden box from wood, several feet tall, seating will make weeding, pruning, and other maintenance issues easier to handle. Continue to 21 of 32 below

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  Enclosed Raised Beds

  The Owner Builder Network Deer, rabbits, and burrowing, foraging creatures can make a mess of your garden in minutes. If youre in a spot where the animal activity will destroy your garden hopes, plan to enclose your raised beds. You can start simple with 3-foot tall corner posts wrapped in chicken wire all the way around, or you can frame a proper enclosure with a door. The key is to keep the top open so birds can have a chance to forage for seeds and, in the case of hummingbirds, get nectar.

  Tip

  When enclosing a raised garden, refrain from using a fine mesh. Give pollinators like butterflies and bees a chance to reach your plants.

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  Straw Bale Garden Bed

  The Spruce / Steven Merkel In rural parts of the country where straw and hale bales are everywhere, resourceful gardeners have found they serve as an excellent growing medium. Herbs and flowers do well when grown in bales. Straw lasts twice as long as hay, which decomposes within a year, versus straw, which can endure for two. Straw is also lighter and less expensive, and less likely to have herbicides. A bale can hold 3 to 5 gallons of water. Anything beyond that amount will drain away. You dont even need soil in most cases unless you plant tiny seeds.

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  Portable Garden Bed on Wheels

  undefined undefined / Getty s Raised planting boxes can be constructed to make your gardening life much easier. Design them with wheels, so you can move your plants to accommodate different light needs or move the plants closer to you. If you need storage for gardening supplies, build a raised bed planting box with shelves to hold your planting containers and gardening tools. You can even repurpose a wheelbarrow.

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  Culvert Pipe Garden Bed

  Cameron Sadeghpour Culvert pipes are usually used for drainage ditches or moving stormwater. They come in 6-inch to 8-foot diameters, made of metal or plastic. Now, reimagine them as potential raised bed building materials. At the minimum, they are about 10 feet long. You can cut them to any length to make multiple rings for circular raised beds. Continue to 25 of 32 below

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  Terracotta or PVC Pipe Garden Bed

  Piyachok / Getty s Terracotta is porous and great for succulents and plants that prefer drier soils. One-foot lengths of terracotta or PVC pipes can be turned on their side vertically to fence in soil for a large raised bed. The interior of each pipe can also serve as a mini container for herbs or smaller border plants. Alternatively, PVC pipes also work well since they will not rot or rust but are non-porous and retain more water than terracotta.

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  Old Tire Raised Beds

  Guara Seckler / Getty s They may not look pretty, but old used tires can be another cool option for raised bed containers. Some people have found beautiful ways to doll them up, such as painting the exterior or stacking them into columns.

  Warning

  There is some debate about whether old tires are safe for growing food since they can leach toxic substances over time. The simple response is only to use them for non-edible plants to avoid any potential issues over the long haul.

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  Logs and Sticks Garden Bed

  Octavian Lazar / Getty s A beautiful, natural option for a raised planting bed is a box made from recently chopped tree logs with their bark intact. Sticks and twigs can also be woven into sheets to form one of the four sides of square or rectangular boxes, or they can be arranged in vertical groupings or stands, going all around the perimeter, to make a container.

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  DIY Tree Stump Planter Raised Bed

  Kristyna Sindelkova / Getty s When a tree dies, most people cut it down or uproot it and remove it. Some decide to cut most of the tree and leave the stump to decompose naturally over time. It can take many years for the decay to occur; in the meantime, beautify the stump by hollowing out the center and making it a raised planter. Add some gravel and compost-enriched soil, and plant flowers or anything you want to give it renewed life. Continue to 29 of 32 below

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  Modern Corrugated Metal Raised Bed

  The Spruce / Autumn Wood Corrugated metal, commonly used for roofing panels, can be framed by wood to make an industrial-looking raised bed look modern and fresh. The sheets are made of steel and are safe to use in edible gardens. The metal is also considered reflective, so it doesnt absorb more heat or sun, keeping the temperature of the soil cooler than many other types of raised container materials.

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  Plastic Storage Container Raised Bed

  The Spruce / Kevin Norris Plastic storage containers can be transformed into growing boxes like the “Earthbox.” They dont look so classy, but they get the job done. The Earthbox is a plastic self-watering growing container that brilliantly controls watering, fertilizing, and all the factors that need close monitoring to produce happy plants.

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  Natural Slab Stone Raised Bed

  Jacky Parker Photography / Getty s Stone doesnt degrade like wood or other materials that will eventually decompose. You dont have to be concerned with winter or rainstorms, blisteringly hot summers, or floods destroying your stone-walled raised beds. Stone adds natural beauty and lasts longer than a lifetime. Its also environmentally friendly and food-safe for growing edible plants.

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  Landscaping Timber Raised Garden Bed

  Picture: the finished installation of landscape timber edging. David Beaulieu Landscaping timbers can also be used to make raised garden beds. Landscaping timbers are a type of building material. You can often find these at local home improvement stores. Resembling logs, landscaping timbers are usually about 3.5 inches in diameter and 8 feet in length.

The ULTIMATE Raised Garden Beds for a Front or Backyard Vegetable Garden

FAQ

How deep should a raised garden bed be for vegetables?

Raised beds don’t have to be very deep to be effective. Eight to 12 inches is usually adequate. If drainage is a problem, or if the plants you are growing prefer drier soil, the bed could be taller and filled with a porous growing medium. Vegetable beds, however, should be at least 12 to 18 inches deep.

What vegetables grow best in raised beds?

Root vegetables—radishes, carrots, turnips, onions, shallots, garlic—grow best in loose, partially sandy soil, which makes them ideal candidates for raised …May 7, 2022

What vegetables should not be grown in a raised bed?

• Potatoes.
• Asparagus.
• Artichokes.
• Rhubarb.
• Corn.
• Wheat.
• Rice.
• Winter Squash.

What can you plant in a raised garden bed?

The Merrythought made this simple DIY raised garden bed from untreated wood and corner braces and placed it in a sunny backyard spot, planting it with compost-rich soil and everything from carrot seeds to rhubarb, asparagus, garlic, and sprouted sweet potatoes.

What vegetables grow well in raised beds?

Most typical garden vegetables grow well in raised beds, but root vegetables like carrots, radishes, and shallots do particularly well, as do cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash. The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles.

What is a raised garden bed?

Here are the most common: Soil: A raised garden bed allows you to control your soil more, building it up with compost and the topsoil of your choice, but some plants and flowers prefer the native soil you would find in an in-ground bed. Raised beds also tend to provide better drainage.

Can you build a raised garden bed yourself?

Raised garden beds can be used to optimize small outdoor spaces or to structure a large backyard. Building a raised garden bed yourself from simple materials such as cinder blocks or cedar wood is a simple project that allows you to customize the look.

How do you plant vegetables in a raised bed?

The second key is planning the heights of vegetables when you plant. Generally, taller plants should be planted on the north side or end, and shorter plants on the south. Otherwise, your tall tomatoes will shade out the shorter carrots. In most regions, a two-crop system can be accomplished with a raised bed.

Are raised-bed gardens a good idea?

And we have raised-bed garden ideas for every type of space. You can place raised garden beds anywhere—on a deck, patio, or even a driveway. Plus, you can build them tall enough to save your knees and back from getting sore. Raised-bed gardens also make it easy to get the right soil mix.