Not only is raised bed gardening physically easier, but beds can also be a beautiful design element in your landscape. Rows of raised garden boxes are formal and orderly, and the paths between them are opportunities to add extra finishing materials to your yard. Scroll through our favorite raised garden bed ideas and find inspiration for creating your own raised bed garden design today.
1. Raised Garden Bed Ideas Against the Wall
If you have a sunny wall at the back of your home, it's a good idea to place your raised garden on it. Some mid-century homes include built-in planters in this style. If you're lucky enough to have one - and it gets enough sun - it's an ideal location to find your garden bed. If not, building a DIY raised garden bed along a wall or fence is fairly simple.
2. Raised Garden Bed Ideas for Backyard Farms
Raised bed gardening is perfect for today's small backyard farms. Instead of classic vegetable varieties grown directly in the ground, elevated garden boxes hold every type of vegetable. These neat grids of raised garden beds are easier to navigate and manage than old-style vegetable garden rows.
If your backyard farm includes animals, raised garden boxes can protect your precious plants from becoming treats. Protect your vegetable or herb garden from birds, rabbits, raccoons and other wildlife with wire cages or removable pest gates. These structures protect your plants when you're not around, but you can easily remove them to care for your backyard farm garden.
3. Easy Raising Garden Bed Ideas
One of the easiest ways to start raised bed gardening is to purchase a complete garden bed kit. You can quickly assemble these prefab raised garden beds. If you can't find a prefab garden bed, consider a galvanized storage tank. These also add a fun farmhouse vibe to your landscape.
4. Enclosed Raised Garden Bed Ideas
An enclosed raised garden bed is a bed that has a wire fence around its top. This type of garden box is helpful if you live in an area with a lot of pests. The enclosure is usually a wooden frame with chicken wire or other types of wire panels. This type of garden fence allows you to protect precious produce, herbs or flowers.
Your garden fence may be as tall as the room, or it may be much shorter. Some small bed garden boxes have hinged tops that you can lock at night and open when you need to pull weeds or pick produce.
5. Raised Garden Bed Ideas
Raised flower beds add so much beauty to your yard - front, back or side. You can buy garden pots in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes. Set them individually to showcase mixed container gardens, or group them for a lovely overall garden design.
Formal and informal garden designs are suitable for raised bed gardening. Wildflower groupings appear as if they occurred completely naturally, providing an informal garden feel. You can formalize by layering tall, medium, short, and trailing plants for a florist-like arrangement. Make sure to use a soil type created specifically for growing flowering plants.
6. Raised Garden Bed Landscape Ideas
Raised garden beds blend well into any landscape. If you like the look of the basket, make your raised bed garden out of woven vitex. You can make this attractive raised garden bed idea out of branches woven into a basket weave pattern. Their rounded shape adds beauty to the landscape, and you can use conical trellises to support climbing plants.
Add creativity to your garden plan by alternating the materials used to create each garden bed. For example, place a round galvanized container garden between two wooden garden boxes. Create a wooden bed garden from reclaimed rosewood, repurposed wood pallets, or treated wood designed for this purpose. Avoid recycled rail ties, as they can leach harmful chemicals into the soil.
7. Raised Garden Bed Layout Ideas
The way you lay out your raised bed garden design will depend on the size of your yard and how much sunlight your plants need. A bed garden may be a small container, or your garden design may include multiple planter options arranged throughout the yard. Keep the size of the gardening area proportional to the size of the house and yard.
Don't be afraid to get creative in your pot and garden designs. Arrange a pie-shaped raised garden bed structure around a central sculpture or fountain. Visually soften the edges of planting areas by laying grass-covered paths between garden boxes. If you don't want to mow grass trails, cover the ground with a landscape cloth and cover it with a thick layer of beautiful gravel or mulch.
8. Metal Raised Garden Bed Ideas
Metal is a popular choice for raised garden bed planter designs, especially for those who prefer a farmhouse style. Galvanized storage tanks are one of the easiest metal raised garden bed options. If these are too large for your yard, look for smaller metal or metal and wood options. A small kitchen garden can be grown on a patio by filling a galvanized tub with compost soil.
Make a wooden planter frame, then fill each side with corrugated sheet metal for a modern metal and wood combination. Metal garden edging is easy to install and perfect for keeping shorter curved garden beds. Note that one downside to including metal in your pot or rim design is that it can rust over time. If this happens, your garden may not look as neat as you would like it to be - although some people prefer a rusty patina look.
9. Sloping or multi-level raised garden bed ideas
A multi-level or sloping yard requires a raised garden bed planter design that adapts to the landscape. Multi-level bed garden ideas include arranging planters in a stair step design, with taller plants on the upper floors and shorter ones below.
The soil within the large raised bed itself can slope to fit the natural curves of the ground below. Square foot gardening works well along slopes, with each 4×4 pot stacked in slightly overlapping rows.
10. Small Raised Garden Bed Ideas
In some ways, a small raised garden bed is the easiest bed to manage. While your vegetable harvest may not be large, it's easier to fill a smaller raised bed. Smaller bed gardens also have less space for weeds, making routine maintenance a quicker proposition.
Small raised garden boxes are also more economical than a series of large raised garden beds. A keyhole garden is shaped like a wedge cut out of a pie, or a boxy U-shaped structure. These small raised garden beds can hold a surprisingly large number of plants. Create an instant little raised garden by inserting soil and seedlings directly into straw bales,
