15 Vegetable Gardening Beds You Must Know About

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Updated on 3/26/2024
Emma DowneyBy Emma Downey
Gardening Expert
Learn More about Emma Downey

You can make your raised beds look just as simple or elaborate as you'd like. It is possible for perennial plants to mature and get established in a raised bed planter, which is a permanent feature. The initial expense of getting your raised bed built up depends depend on how complicated you design it, but once it's in place, raised beds are not any more expensive to maintain than conventional gardens are. They provide a great number of advantages.

What Does It Mean to Have a Garden That Is Raised?

Growing plants in soil that is elevated off the ground is an aspect of gardening known as raised bed gardening. The majority of the time, this is something that can be done by constructing some kind of enclosure or frame out of wood, stone, bales of hay, or even repurposed materials like old dressers.

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Beds on Raises That Are Individually Designed

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

In a huge garden, there are wooden beds shaped in a variety of ways, including hexagons.

Gardens consisting of raised beds can be arranged to fit virtually any area. You just need a little ingenuity and some space in the garden to construct a whole seating area. Peter Donegan Landscaping utilized straightforward angles and lines for the design of this multi-level raised bed. It has everything you need, even a lamppost and a potting shed. You can provide seats for the outside dining area by incorporating a bench portion similar to the one that is located at the end of the front bed. This garden will eventually take on the look of a natural, rustic setting as the plants mature and the wood rots away.

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Beds with Raises Already Built In

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

In the backyard, there is a brick fireplace and planter with bushes and plants, and in the backdrop, there are wood-raised beds.

Instead of digging holes in the ground to plant your seeds, you can construct raised beds that give you more control over the amount of sun or shade that each individual plant receives. You may also prevent tunneling pests from wreaking havoc on your plants by taking preventative measures. Because you have greater control over the soil and drainage conditions in a raised bed, the plants you grow there may be in better health and produce more fruit. You can even sit down and garden if you create the sides so that they are wide enough to accommodate a bench. The placement of the plants may make it simpler to tend to them for people who have issues with their backs. Raised beds constructed of brick or wood, like the one depicted here, can also contribute to the overall aesthetic appeal of your farm or backyard.

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Grow Bags Converted into Raised Beds

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Grow bags (vivosun grow bags) made of black fabric filled with dirt and plants are shown in a garden enclosed by a wooden gate.

Because raised bed gardens are elevated well above the subsurface frost line, the soil in these gardens warms up more quickly in the spring, allowing for earlier planting. This is yet another significant advantage of these types of gardens. The material utilized for your beds makes a difference in this regard; metal is better at retaining the heat generated by the sun. Grow bags, on the other hand, do not solidify when exposed to freezing temperatures and allow the soil within them to thaw quite rapidly. Additionally, it is an excellent method for supplying the heat that is essential for the growth of Mediterranean plants such as sage and lavender. Grow bags may appear to be too simple, but in only a few minutes, you may assemble a wonderful raised bed garden.

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Herb Spiral Garden

Stone arrangement in the shape of a spiral that contains herb plants

Spiral gardens are a common permaculture technique. They expand the amount of space in your garden that may be used for planting while using up less of the available ground area. It is not difficult to construct them using materials such as stone, brick, wood, or even just by piling up the earth. Your garden will have a point of focus that everyone will notice, thanks to the odd shape and swirl of the plants. Although the plant seen in this shot is a herb garden, the spiral pattern is applicable to the cultivation of any kind of plant.

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Gardens in Troughs

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Next to a house made of worn wood are some shiny metal animal troughs that have been converted into raised bed planters.

Utilizing animal feeding troughs is one of the most straightforward methods for constructing raised bed gardens. There is no requirement for assembly, but before adding soil, you should make sure to drill several drainage holes at the bottom of the container. The metal lends an industrial appearance to the garden and conducts heat, which helps to warm the soil in the early spring. You can use new or used troughs, which will depend on the overall appearance you want to achieve. During the hottest portion of the summer, the plants could require a little bit more water than usual, but this will depend on what you decide to cultivate

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Raised Beds Measuring in Square Feet

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Bed with a raised platform that has posts and sides made of wood and netting that is divided into squares.

The practice of square foot gardening includes dividing the area that will be used for cultivation into small square parts, often one foot per square. The objective is to create either a highly productive kitchen garden that is heavily planted with vegetables or an intensely planted vegetable gardening. There are a variety of materials, including netting, that can be used to measure and divide this.

When you plant your veggies in a raised bed, you have more control over the soil quality, and there is less chance of the soil being compacted. Roots of vegetables are free to develop without hindrance. To reap the benefits of growing in a raised bed, the beds do not need to be elevated too high off the ground. Even six to eight inches may be plenty.

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As a Form of Raised Beds, Flower Boxes

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Window boxes made of wood and painted blue and red, filled with flowers, displayed on a fence painted light blue.

There are very few restrictions placed on raised beds. Similar to window boxes, but mounted on your fence, wooden boxes can serve as small raised beds if you have a strong fence to which they can be attached. These can look nice throughout the entire year if annuals are used to fill in the gaps left when perennials finish blooming. As an additional one-of-a-kind suggestion for décor, you might adorn these regions with evergreens and winter-themed ornaments during the winter holidays.

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Cinder Blocks Used to Create Raised Beds

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Raised beds made of cinderblock, planted with sedums and succulents

Raised beds can be constructed out of recycled materials in a variety of different methods. One of the most used building materials is a concrete block, sometimes known as a cinderblock. It is important to be aware that certain older cinder blocks may include fly ash, sometimes known as the "cinders" that are left over after burning coal. It is not yet clear whether or not this should be used in areas where there are edible plants. If you replace the old locks with new ones built of concrete, you won't have to worry about the ash problem. Although the new blocks are quite a little heavier than the cinder blocks used in the past, it is OK to utilize them for a vegetable garden. Caution is advised, though, because concrete blocks might leach lime. Lime has the ability to increase the pH of the soil. If you want to err on the side of caution, you should pick plants that do well in alkaline soil. Because succulents and sedums are so tough and not overly picky about the type of soil they grow in, they are an excellent option for these planters.

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Raised Bed with a Hoop House

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Garden raised bed structure consisting of wood and netting, called a hoop house.

You may grow vegetables in your garden throughout the year if you do some planning ahead of time. It is much more difficult for animals to access the veggies you have grown in your garden if you use raised beds, which also allow you more control over the growing conditions there. If you construct a hoop house on top of a raised bed, you will not only be able to protect your plants from the elements, including frost, but you will also have a head start when planting in the spring. In the event that there is frost, this delicate netting is strong enough to support a cloth covering.

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Border for Raised Beds

Garden on a slope consisting of beds planted in succession with beautiful flowers

For yards that have steep slopes, raised beds are an excellent gardening choice. You can provide the appearance of a level garden by erecting raised beds in the areas of the beds where the soil is lowest. Make sure that your beds are sufficiently wide so that 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. This can be accomplished by making your beds wider than necessary. In order to make the most of its setting on a steep hill, the garden in Italy was designed with a series of raised beds that were edged with pebbles.

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Ideas for Designs That Save on Space

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

A place to store the bins, with raised beds made of wooden boxes set atop.

Gardeners who are restricted in the amount of space they have available frequently find that raised bed designs allow them to make the most of the space they do have. This ingenious idea places a wooden raised bed flower box that is built of repurposed materials on top of the garbage bin storage area, so cleaning up what is typically a drab space and adding beauty to a functional yet utilitarian area. Personalization is achieved through the use of string lights and other decorations.

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Arboretum With Raised Beds

Wooden dowel trellis in wooden raised bed garden bed with zucchini plants

When combined with a raised bed, the use of a trellis or arbor makes it even simpler to pick vegetables and helps to maintain them cleaner than they would be if they were growing on the ground. Vertical gardening enables one to cultivate a greater number of plants in the same amount of area than traditional gardening. This raised bed containing zucchini plants demonstrates that the design of your structure does not have to be complicated. All you need to do is create a basic frame by tethering and tying together two dowels (or bamboo poles). If you extend garden netting across the trellis framework, it might be beneficial for other types of crops.

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Lasagna Garden Raised Beds

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Raised beds made of wood, filled with wood, used for layering a lasagna garden.

Lasagna gardens are essentially layered gardens that do not require any digging; nevertheless, the phrase has come to mean making use of materials other than the soil beneath the topsoil layer. In this scenario, raised beds made of wood are built, then they are topped with a layer of topsoil after being stuffed with pieces of cut wood and grass clippings. If your plantings don't establish a deep root system, you can save money and reduce the burdensome weight of using soil all the way down, thanks to this strategy.

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Milk Crate Garden

Planting vegetables in milk crates and displaying them on a terrace

Make your raised bed mobile by upcycling milk crates into raised bed frames. This milk crate-raised bed requires little effort to assemble and can be arranged in virtually any configuration you can imagine. You just need to pick up the crate and move it if you want to move your plants somewhere that gets more shade or if you need them to be closer to your kitchen. These containers already have drainage holes at the bottom of them. When the time comes to switch the soil, all you have to do is raise the box, empty its contents into the compost pile, and begin the process all over again.

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Design for a Container Garden with a Raised Bed

vegetable garden beds

vegetable garden beds

Brick raised bed surrounded by numerous containers brimming with vibrant blooms in the backyard garden.

Perhaps you have brick-raised beds and want to make them appear as though they are more full and add some ornamental touches to them. When you place containers below the level of the brick wall, you have the ability to play with different levels, which draws the eyes up and down, and provides for an almost endless variety of sizes and shapes. You can even set out your planting in such a way that it will provide visual interest during all four seasons. Additionally, containers can be relocated in order to alter the design whenever it is desired.

This is just a small selection of the many imaginative approaches you could choose to build raised beds in your yard. It's a satisfying experience to transform waste into something of value, and resourcefulness is a necessary trait for successful gardeners. Growing food and flowers on raised beds present a number of novel opportunities, many of which are visually appealing and can help you make more efficient use of the area you have available.