This will help you keep your garden organized. Ditch the traditional rectangular shape of a raised garden bed and go for something a little more modern. Try making a raised garden bed in the shape of a hexagon to add a little dimension to your backyard.

Work with what you have. If you want to make a raised garden bed as inexpensive as possible, look around your home and see what you can come up with. Even an old bathtub makes a wonderful raised garden bed! Building a raised garden bed is really the way to go, especially if you live in an area where the soil has clay, rocks, or sand.

In building a raised garden bed, you control the soil and its qualities. The key to having great soil is to build it in layers, because filling a whole garden bed with rich soil can be quite costly.

Bottom Layer: Wood, newspaper, or manure. For this bottom layer, you can lay a thin layer of small twigs, branches, or bark at the bottom of your raised bed. Less expensive soil: Add in less expensive soil like old potting soil. Also, be careful not to use old potting soil that is moldy or has a pest infestation.

You can also add in some leaf mold, compost from your pile, and grass clippings. High-quality soil: Save the best for last!

Fill your bed to within an inch under the top edge of the bed. Remember that soil will settle in more as you water. A raised bed does not have to be very deep to be effective. Eight to 12 inches is usually sufficient. If drainage is a concern, or if the plants you are growing favor drier soil, the bed could be more elevated and filled with a porous growing medium.

Vegetable beds should be 12 to 18 inches deep. Work with what you got! Be creative and resourceful and take a look around your home to see if you have anything readily available to make a raised garden bed.

If you do have to buy building materials, see if there are any discount building supply places in your area, like a Habitat for Humanity Restore. Decoist is a web magazine that brings you the daily bits of architecture, furniture and interior design.

On Decoist we feature all sorts of ideas to make your bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens or offices look prettier. We bring you furniture and lighting ideas, houses everyone would dream of and luxury properties that defy the world crisis.

com - All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy. Kitchens Bedrooms Bathrooms Dining Rooms Living Rooms Office Gardening DIY Projects Kids Rooms Videos Lighting Outdoors Apartments Travel Dream Houses. Home Gardening. Organic materials such as straw, grass clippings, wood chips, and leaves are great for filling a raised garden bed.

You may also want to place cardboard or any other suitable weed barrier material over this organic layer and weigh it down with a few bricks or pegs. What kind of wood should I use for raised beds? In most cases, cedar is the best wood to use for garden beds because cedar is naturally rot-resistant.

Western red cedar is commonly used, but white cedar, yellow cedar, and juniper are also high-quality choices for outdoor construction projects.

Should I line my raised garden bed with plastic? If you have a weed or pest situation, consider installing a combination of metal mesh and fabric or hardware cloth and cardboard to get both benefits at once.

Having raised beds with good drainage is crucial. Not only will it prevent overwatering or underwatering your plants, but it can also decrease the risk of various diseases associated with water issues, like root rot. For one, I live in a coastal where the quality of soil for gardening is fairly poor.

Another advantage of raised gardens is that they provide an opportunity to extend the growing season due to the elevated design of the beds, which allows for soil warming and earlier planting. I wanted to start small by building an inexpensive raised garden bed with the option to expand from there if my first few seasons of gardening go well 🤞🏻.

post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here}. After leveling out the ground, you place {these retaining wall blocks} in the four corners of your garden installed with the open hole in the middle facing up :.

Then slide 2 x 6 wood boards cut to your desired length into the notches of the blocks to create the first layer of your garden bed:. They will do this for free!

You can increase its longevity by treating it with a eco-friendly waterproofer like {this Eco-Advance sealer} that you apply with a sprayer.

Simply place another layer of blocks on the corners this time, with the open hole in the middle of the blocks facing down :. I decided to take my project one step further totally optional!

and added four boards to the top to create a cap. While you can create a wood cap with straight cut boards, I made use of our miter saw to miter cut the corners of mine:. I used {these deck screws} to attach the wood cap to the boards beneath it, and I also put a screw through each corner to hold it tightly together:.

After filling my new raised garden with {this raised bed soil} , I planted squash, string beans, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, and some herbs. I would increase the depth on the first one, and add weed barrier landscape fabric at the bottom to both. Source: Instructables.

Images: Addicted2Decorating and Instructables. There are lots of attractive garden box variations. You can add wheels or shleves to make them more user friendly.

Source: Ebay Gardeners. If you are thinking about DIY, someone at Instructables figured out how to build these beautiful raised beds using wood pallets! And a detailed guide all about finding and working with pallets!

Add fencing to your raised beds to keep out deer and rabbits! You can also add benches to a raised bed for the perfect place to sit and enjoy the garden, or set tools and snacks for the gardener! Images: Bonnie Plants. This stepped wood planter herb garden looks beautiful in a corner space and This ladder shaped tiered planter is great for small space growing.

Tree logs can provide just the right height for a raised bed. Terracotta pipes become little pots and walls for a raised bed. Or build this chic raised bed with cobble stones and landscape block construction adhesive. Corrugated metal raised bed looks so gorgeous! Just be very careful- they can be sharp on the cut edges.

Use wood trim to cover the cut sharp edges when building! Via MK Library. Another great looking variation of DIY metal planter box.

Source: Aristata. Add a trellis structure to a raised planter for added function and curb appeal! Via Plantlust Blueberry Hill. An used tire can become an instant raised bed garden. These painted tires are so cheerful and pretty! But you can always grow ornamental gardens in rubber tires!

Concrete block aka cinderblock, CMU are great building materials for DIY raised beds. You can make lots of creative designs with them.

The first one is by VermiBag on YouTube, see video tutorial below. The second image is from Pinterest, original source lost. Please let me know if you find it! You can add caps to make your cinder block raised beds more attractive, and double function as a seating bench.

Via Fab Everyday. Concrete blocks filled with soil make a sturdy border and additional planting pockets. The key is to take the time and prepare the ground to be level.

Source: Houzz. Love these U-shape cinder block garden bed designs! Via Instructables Shelly Michel. IMPORTANT: Thanks to our reader Jonh for this tip! The best places to get straw bales for gardening is from local farms that practice sustainable, organic, or regenerative farming!

There are two ways to create raised beds with straw bales. The one above uses straw bales as a border. The method below uses straw bales as vessel and growing medium to grow a productive raised bed vegetable garden. The pioneer of this method, Joel Karsten, wrote an excellent book — Straw Bale Gardens Complete , which gives all the details on straw bale gardening.

Straw Bale Gardens Complete Book Images from book by Joel Karsten. If you have been thinking about starting a garden, I think a raised bed garden is a great way to go!

You may also like these 32 creative planters made from up-cycled objects:. And 21 DIY greenhouses with great tutorials. Or this article on how to find, select and build with pallets! The waist-height raised planter ideas caught my attention too, as they could be a game-changer for people with mobility issues or back pain.

Wow, these 28 DIY raised bed garden ideas are truly inspiring! The lasagna gardening technique sounds fascinating — I remember trying something similar last year, using layers of kitchen scraps, cardboard, and yard trimmings.

It definitely helped improve the soil quality in my small garden. They look amazing! Love these tips! I will definitely be returning to this post in the spring!

Wonderful blog, I must appreciate your efforts. They must think of DIY raised bed gardens. Unless you know the strawbales are totally organic you will fail.

The majority of fields are now sprayed with grazon to kill broadleaf weeds. The chemical is persistent for up to 5 years even if passed thru the gut of a animal.

Grazon would be death to most garden vegetables. thank you so much John! i will add your tips to the post. You should not use cinderblocks or tires to raise vegetables. They are okay to use for nonedible plants.

thank you for sharing this! according to some sources most modern concrete block are safe as they do not contain fly ash, which is where the toxins are. i will contact some CMU manufacturers and update here! Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful gardening tips!

May 18, - Explore Virginia Brauer's board "Raised Beds", followed by people on Pinterest. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood 28 Best DIY raised bed garden ideas: easy tutorials & designs to build raised beds or vegetable & flower garden box planters with inexpensive materials!

Squash, melons, and cucumbers are perfect for raised beds, especially if you have a vole problem and put a pest-repellent layer between the bed From DIY projects to store-bought kits, use these raised bed garden ideas to take your garden to a new height! 31 Easy and Inexpensive DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · Benefits of Raised Garden Beds · Level Up · Use Stock Tanks · Add DIY Tomato Cages: Raised bed gardening samples

If you're looking Raised bed gardening samples put a Order free samples of furniture Raised bed gardening samples gxrdening your Affordable supermarket specials or near Raided house to grow veggies and Raisex or different types of flowersit's worth considering a raised beed. Keep in mind: Gardeinng herbs and vegetables require full sun. Raised beds are also useful for gardeners with limited mobility as they reduce the need to bend and can even be built on raised platforms for wheelchair access. Many herbs and flowers are used in a technique called companion planting and these principles can be applied to raised beds as well! Sun raising and sits there. I would like one of each please!	Straw bale gardening is a great way to grow herbs and vegetables, and can also be used to grow ornamental plants. See free garden plan layouts using companion planting techniques. But be mindful that you may need to adjust the soil pH if you have plants that require a more neutral or acidic environment. Continue to 10 of 31 below. Corrugated metal, commonly used for roofing panels, can be framed by wood to make an industrial-looking raised bed look modern and fresh. The supports are bent around the top of the raised garden bed, creating a dome-like space inside. It can be creatively repurposed as a planter too.	May 18, - Explore Virginia Brauer's board "Raised Beds", followed by people on Pinterest. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood 28 Best DIY raised bed garden ideas: easy tutorials & designs to build raised beds or vegetable & flower garden box planters with inexpensive materials!	13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood May 3, - Raised Garden Bed Ideas. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds, raised garden beds Duration	From metal to wood, mostly premade to fully DIY, these weekend project raised bed garden ideas will have your space looking spiffy in no Raised beds can be as humble or creative as you like using brick, stones, or upcycled materials. A raised bed planter can be a temporary or Discover different types of raised garden bed styles on HGTV and get inspired to create your own with these pictures
Raised bed gardening samples Your Garden: Beautiful Flowers garcening Plant in Ved. But bef can always grow ornamental gardens Raised bed gardening samples rubber Economical Marinade Savings Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and horticulturist with over 30 years of experience in organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. By building up the beds at their lowest sections, you can create the illusion of a level garden. Flower gardens may be grown for cut flowers for use indoors or simply for the enjoyment and relaxation gained from growing and tending the plants.	NC Cooperative Extension. Enhance your raised bed vegetable garden by making it a hoop house. Continue to 11 of 31 below. How to Mulch Your Garden Types of Mulch. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.	May 18, - Explore Virginia Brauer's board "Raised Beds", followed by people on Pinterest. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood 28 Best DIY raised bed garden ideas: easy tutorials & designs to build raised beds or vegetable & flower garden box planters with inexpensive materials!	Discover more inexpensive raised bed ideas · Growing vegetables in straw bales · Turn an old washbasin into a raised bed · Build a lettuce table out of an old May 3, - Raised Garden Bed Ideas. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds, raised garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood	May 18, - Explore Virginia Brauer's board "Raised Beds", followed by people on Pinterest. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood 28 Best DIY raised bed garden ideas: easy tutorials & designs to build raised beds or vegetable & flower garden box planters with inexpensive materials!
Thanks for sharing gardennig information! This plan is hed and more satisfying! How to Plan Free travel sample experiences Kitchen Raised bed gardening samples Gardeninv. Raised bed gardening samples is the super easy equation for sorting out exactly how much soil to get! Finding Silver Pennies. Maison de Cinq planted a mini herb garden that's perfect for someone who loves to cook with fresh ingredients and can be located anywhere from the backyard to a patio or porch.	What Are the Benefits of a Raised Garden Bed? The plant tags should provide spacing information so you know how much distance you should measure between each plant. Backyard gardens can be grown in traditional in-ground rows, raised garden beds, or a mixture of both. Raised garden beds, irrigation, companion planting, mulching, and water-efficient crops are all important for gardening in dry climates. Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful gardening tips! Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit Weibo WhatsApp Flipboard Email	May 18, - Explore Virginia Brauer's board "Raised Beds", followed by people on Pinterest. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood 28 Best DIY raised bed garden ideas: easy tutorials & designs to build raised beds or vegetable & flower garden box planters with inexpensive materials!	Raised beds can be as humble or creative as you like using brick, stones, or upcycled materials. A raised bed planter can be a temporary or 25 Inexpensive Raised Garden Bed Ideas That Are Easy to DIY · Wood Bed · Crop Cages · Sunny Setup · Wheelbarrow Garden · Metal Bed · Against a Discover more inexpensive raised bed ideas · Growing vegetables in straw bales · Turn an old washbasin into a raised bed · Build a lettuce table out of an old	Looking for 4x8 raised bed vegetable garden layout inspiration? Here are some tips on choosing what to grow and how to get multiple harvests May 3, - Raised Garden Bed Ideas. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds, raised garden beds Below are examples of garden plans created by Almanac readers with the Almanac Garden Planner! 1. Raised Bed Layout: Community Garden. Garden Location

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Raised bed gardening samples - Discover different types of raised garden bed styles on HGTV and get inspired to create your own with these pictures May 18, - Explore Virginia Brauer's board "Raised Beds", followed by people on Pinterest. See more ideas about raised garden, garden beds 13 Easy DIY Raised Garden Bed Ideas · 1. Bookshelf · 2. Stones, rocks, and tree parts · 3. Pavers and concrete bricks · 4. Leftover fencing wood 28 Best DIY raised bed garden ideas: easy tutorials & designs to build raised beds or vegetable & flower garden box planters with inexpensive materials!

Delia Creates added a DIY arched trellis that stretches between two raised garden beds in this large outdoor space that adds charm and a romantic feel.

A Beautiful Mess. A Beautiful Mess built this easy four-step backyard DIY raised garden bed from affordable cedar wood, then added a grid made from PVC flat trim to keep it organized. The simple rectangular design is accessorized with pots of flowers and a pair of pink garden flamingos on opposite diagonal corners to keep things light.

The Merrythought. 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.

Ursula Carmona of Home Made By Carmona. Blogger Ursula Carmona of Home Made By Carmona added terraced raised garden beds in varying heights to the sloping lawn outside her DIY shed-turned greenhouse to counteract the uneven ground.

Made from non-toxic pressure-treated wood, the beds are lined with cardboard and filled with a mix of soil from the surrounding woods and garden soil from the local home goods center, a layer of moisture-absorbing wood chips, and finished with a layer of insect-repelling cedar chips.

Most Lovely Things chose galvanized stock tanks that are two feet high, making them easy to maintain without bending over, and keeping local bunnies from feasting on the garden. Blogger Ursula Carmona of Home Made By Carmona made these raised garden beds using salvaged pallet wood and salvaged castors from a piece of furniture picked up along the side of the road.

Finding Lovely. Finding Lovely incorporated raised garden planters of varying heights in this enclosed garden space that is planted with everything from vegetables to flowers.

Blogger Ursula Carmona of Home Made By Carmona created a low-maintenance garden by placing self-watering raised garden beds on an outdoor deck. Leftover PVC pipe was used to create a shade cover for transplanted seedlings that is particularly helpful on especially hot days.

A Beautiful Mess built a DIY cage for this DIY-raised garden bed to keep animals from chewing up plants. Blogger Liz Marie used stock tanks with plenty of space between them to create a neat and organized feel to the farmhouse garden. Blogger Liz Marie Blog added a picket fence around her raised bed garden that helps define the space while adding cottage charm.

Maison de Cinq. Maison de Cinq planted a mini herb garden that's perfect for someone who loves to cook with fresh ingredients and can be located anywhere from the backyard to a patio or porch. Lobster and Swan. This cottage-style fruit, flower, vegetable, and herb garden from Lobster and Swan is filled with everything from blueberry plants to sweet peas, strawberries, salvias, and roses.

My Year Old Home used Douglas Fir to build these inexpensive DIY raised garden planters along the side of an unused driveway. Inspired By Charm. Inspired By Charm customized a premade planter by planting it with salad ingredients on top, storing garden accessories on the bottom, and accessorizing it with gold knobs for hanging tools and gloves, and chalk plant markers.

Fantastic Frank. Matching the garden bed to the backyard fencing creates a cohesive look, like this outdoor space from Fantastic Frank. Rustic fencing and reclaimed materials add authentic charm to this DIY raised bed cottage garden from Lobster and Swan.

My Year Old Home planted a cutting garden to grow a year-round supply of flowers for the house. The raised cutting garden beds were planted with a lively mix of snapdragons, ranunculus, salvia, tulips, bearded iris, dahlias, and gerbera daisies.

Finding Lovely built a series of DIY raised garden beds in this spacious garden that sit on a bed of gravel and are surrounded by a tall fence protected with metal mesh to add a second line of defense in keeping critters at bay while maintaining an open feel.

Blogger Liz Marie added structure, height, and charm to her farmhouse backyard with a DIY greenhouse that anchors a large raised vegetable garden bed.

Lobster and Swan added an effortless feel to these generously planted raised DIY garden beds with plant cages made from sticks and twine. Finding Silver Pennies. Finding Silver Pennies made building a backyard-raised garden bed a project for the family to tackle together.

It took an afternoon to build these DIY beds filled with tomato plants, marigolds, and chili peppers. Reclaimed fence posts with an aged patina were used to train the tomato plants. You can also use raised garden beds to plant decorative flowers that complement the style of your home and outdoor space.

For a bold but minimalist look, consider choosing one type and color of flower in large numbers. Finding Lovely planted DIY raised garden beds with generous amounts of pale-colored tulips that create a dramatic but calming feel in the farmhouse garden space.

If you don't have a backyard or your outdoor space is limited, you can build a micro-raised garden bed like this DIY herb garden coffee table from A Beautiful Mess. Located on the porch , the mini raised herb garden bed coffee table is both decorative and practical, with room to rest your lemonade or cocktail and fresh mint at the ready when you want to pop a sprig in your drink.

In this Swedish country house outdoor dining space from Fantastic Frank , large raised garden beds were made from weathered wood and an upcycled vintage wine barrel. Finding Silver Pennies made beach stone garden markers with local rocks and an oil-based paint pen for these coastal Massachusetts DIY raised garden beds that help keep track of what's been planted while blending in with the natural feel.

Madison Cleventine. If you don't have the time for a DIY project, you can create a casual homemade feel with premade raised garden bed planters and potted plants. Madison Cleventine of Musings by Madison used premade raised garden bed planters as decor on the side yard of her home and added colorful potted flowers and plants inside and on the ground below to create an English garden feel.

Cinder or concrete blocks are an inexpensive and popular material used to build a foundation for a raised garden bed.

Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. If you plant, say a winter squash in your raised bed, it could easily take up the entire garden!

Sneak in some flowers to attract pollinators and combat plant pests. Some of my faves include alyssum , marigolds , and nasturtiums.

Spaces created in a garden from peas, for example, can be used later in the summer to plant root crops or greens, like Swiss chard and kale , for fall harvests.

This is called succession planting. This will add some nutrients back into the soil. Thankfully, there are plenty of options you can plant in a new raised bed garden after garlic is pulled, including bush beans, kale, Swiss chard, carrots, and more.

There are eight rows in this raised bed. Based on my grocery list, I would plant two rows of onions; one row with two tomato plants and a columnar basil; one row with three pepper plants one hot, one snack, one bell—or all the same ; a row of kale, spinach or Swiss chard from seed ; a row with two cucumber plants patio varieties ; and a couple of rows of root veggies from seed.

In the diagram, I included beets and carrots, but you could add turnips or radishes. I also snuck in a couple of herbs a curly parsley and a flat-leaf parsley. Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful information.

As a newbie to gardening in ground , this was very helpful. Would you say planting flowers in the garden is worth it? Hi Keisha, I definitely think planting flowers in the garden is worth it.

Thank you for the information. So clear and precise. I am going to follow your plant layout to a tee. Just wondering whether I should plant flowers inside the beds as well?

Would starting out with two 4×8 beds be too ambitious to begin with? I plant flowers at the front of a lot of my raised beds — often alyssum or marigolds.

I generally recommend starting small. One raised bed is good, but two is nice if you start to run out of room. I usually find myself with more plants than I have space for!

Just be mindful of the soil and materials costs for 2 vs 1. I moved to a new house that has three 4 x 8 raised beds and two 4 x 5 beds already in place. I am excited and a bit overwhelmed. Any additional ideas?

Hi Rebecca, I would say start small — maybe not use all of the raised beds this first year. Or, consider using one to grow fruit — strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc. Or a whole herb garden in one of the smaller ones. Is there a specific benefit of having the flowers in the same garden bed?

or is just nearby helpful? Like does the flowers help in the soil in some way, or is it just for the pollinators. I have my raised garden bed planned out, but i have some old patio plater pots available so i was just going to plant them wtih flowers and put them beside the raised bed at the end.

is that still helpful? Wonderful information! Thank you. How deep would you recommend the beds be? Sorry if I missed it. Hello, I generally recommend 10 to 12 inches high, but they can be made even higher if you have trouble bending down or kneeling. Great information!

In your diagrams, which is N? I want to be sure to not plant the taller plants on the long Southern length of our beds. We are thinking along the same lines of veggies in your example diagram. Thank you for this great info! One thing I wonder about with such a mixed bed, and then adding succession planting in there too, is do I need to worry about crop rotation and planting the same vegetables in the same spot next year?

Hi Becky, I would definitely make sure you amend your soil between plantings and at the end of the season or beginning of the next season.

Keep an eye out for pests and plant diseases as they can overwinter in the soil. That would be a cause for crop rotation. Thank you for detailing all these great planting ideas! How do you water your beds?

If you use irrigation lines, do you plant around these? Hi Laura, Believe it or not, I cart around watering cans. I love the visuals…thanks! I just got your book Gardening Your Front Yard.

I just bought a 3 tiered garden bed, 4×4 on bottom tier, 3×4 on middle tier, then 2×4 on top. Leaves approx 1×4 of space for bottom and middle tier, and about 2×4 on the top. Which vegetables would be best for each tier? Was thinking of carrots, onions, strawberries, peppers, kale, cucumbers.

Thank you for any help. Keeping in mind the strawberries are perennial, I would maybe plant those in the top, so they can cascade over the sides.

Maybe the cucumbers in the second tier, so they can also cascade, peppers in the front, and then the carrots, onions, and kale, in the spaces that are left on the bottom two….

This might be impossible to answer but how often should I water in the dry months? Is it like everyday or just a couple times a week? It will all be done with a hose. Unless I get a nice big rainfall.

But you can also tell by feel. If I were to transfer planters in the bed instead of sowing seeds , how many planters do I need for each vegetable? For example, from the picture I can tell, I need to plant two tomatoes with one basil in between. Thank you!

Thanks, Jan. Yes to the tomatoes and basil. For onions, it can be trickier depending on size — green onion vs a big red onion, for example. The plant tags should provide spacing information so you know how much distance you should measure between each plant.

Raised beds are the bomb! As a nurse, I advocate raised beds and containers. Raised beds and containers can mean less bending and stooping, particularly for those of us with back and joint issues.

We are just now building our raised veg. ours are 26 inches tall. My bed set up has 5ft tall post at the corners and in the middle so putting water up high will be easy. Which will be best for my plants? Hi Karen, Watering low, around the base of the plant is preferable, as watering from up high can cause the water to splash in the soil, spreading potential disease to the leaves.

This is very helpful, especially the grocery store idea. Deer regularly hang out on our property without any vegetables. Where exactly on your diagram would you plant the deer deterrent flowers around entire perimeter?

We have also purchased wire mesh to go around the sides, however still concerned. thank you! The garden experts there always suggested Morganite to deter deer from coming into a space. Hi Tara, I am confused as the soil we will need for our 4X8 bed. Our local store offers a reasonable professional potting mix soil.

From here you can calculate how many bags you might need or if it might be more economical to buy in bulk. Within the idea of longevity of your garden soil, there are some steps you can take in the beginning, that could save you some time down the road.

Beds that are over six to twelve inches tall can be partially filled with a layer of straw, leaf mulch, grass clippings, cardboard, or some mixture of them! This mixture will slowly decompose over time adding nutrients to your soil as it does. Beds that are shorter than this can be completely filled with soil.

This will allow you to plant the first year, as the soil will be deep enough without the roots of your plants needing to work their way through cardboard.

For shorter beds and taller ones year after year , organic matter like leaf mulch, straw, or grass clippings can be mixed into the top few inches of soil. For extra points, plant a fall cover crop on top of this at the end of the growing season to really keep that soil happy.

Planting in a raised garden bed is virtually the same as planting in an in-ground garden bed. Some things to consider when selecting crops are the depth of the bed and the size. For example, if your raised garden bed is only six inches tall you may avoid planting crops with super deep tap roots such as large carrots or burdock.

If your bed is only two feet by two feet, you could only really fit one brussels sprout plant, however you could fit plenty of bush beans!

The best vegetables for a raised bed are limited only by your imagination. Bush beans and pole beans alike will grow gloriously in your raised garden bed! Your pole beans will still need trellising but the vines and bright pods will make for a gorgeous raised garden bed.

Consider growing your pole beans on an arch trellis so you can extend the season for your shade loving greens! Underneath that trellis we talked about, you can grow a wide variety of greens including lettuce , spinach , kale , arugula , and more.

The space heading brassicas take up is the only limit to what you can plant in your raised garden beds.

Crops like cabbage , cauliflower , broccoli , and Brussels sprouts grow great in a raised garden bed, just make sure they get the space they need to stretch out.

As mentioned earlier, the limit to growing root crops is simply the depth of the bed. But if your raised garden bed is eight inches or taller, there is again, no limit! The increased drainage of raised garden beds will help root crops like beets , carrots , parsnips , radishes , potatoes , sweet potatoes , garlic and even onions from rotting or getting bogged down by too much water in the soil.

Tomatoes , peppers , and eggplants will do great in raised beds. Squash , melons , and cucumbers are perfect for raised beds, especially if you have a vole problem and put a pest-repellent layer between the bed and the ground. With a trellis or without, these cucurbits love the well-draining soil of a raised bed.

Many herbs and flowers are used in a technique called companion planting and these principles can be applied to raised beds as well! Try combining these herbs and flowers in your crop plan, fitting them in between your vegetable crops in your raised bed.

Basil is a well-known companion to many plants. Great when intercropped with brassicas, greens, and more. Marigolds are well-known to not only deter pests with their strong smell but also decrease the population of root-knot nematodes over time, particularly when you use a nematicidal variety.

Oregano repels cabbage moths when intercropped with brassicas such as cabbage, broccoli, kale, and others. Its strong smell can also deter other pests from the crops it is near. Chamomile is known to be a great companion to onions, as it is said to improve growth and flavor.

Cilantro is great when planted near potatoes as it can protect against pesky Colorado Potato Beetles. Calendula is also said to have root-knot nematode deterrent properties and can be helpful near winter squash and tomatoes.

Borage is said to deter the tomato hornworm, so plant this lovely edible flower nearby your tomato crop! Raised bed garden can look many different ways.