Not only is raised bed gardening physically easier, but the beds can also be beautiful design elements in your landscape. Rows of raised garden boxes are formal and orderly, and paths between them are opportunities to add extra decorative material to your yard. Scroll through our favorite raised garden bed ideas and find inspiration to create your own raised bed garden design.
1. Ideas for Raising Garden Beds Against a Wall
If you have a sunny wall behind your home, it's a good idea to place your raised garden on it. Some medieval homes include built-in planters in this style. If you're lucky enough to have one - and it gets full sun - this is the ideal spot to find your garden beds. If not, it's fairly simple to build a DIY raised garden bed along a wall or fence.
2. Raised garden bed ideas for backyard farms
Raised bed gardening is perfect for today's small backyard farms. Elevated garden boxes hold a variety of vegetables other than the classic varieties grown directly in the ground. These neatly arranged raised garden beds are easier to navigate and manage than old-fashioned vegetable garden rows.
If you have animals on your backyard farm, a raised garden box 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 insect gates. These structures protect your plants when you're away, but you can easily remove them to tend to your backyard farm garden.
3. Easy Planting Garden Bed Ideas
One of the easiest ways to start growing garden beds is to purchase a complete garden bed kit. You can assemble these prefab raised garden beds in a snap. If you can't find prefabricated garden beds, consider using a galvanized water 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 type of bed with wire mesh on top. This type of garden box can be useful if you live in an area that is prone to pests. The enclosure is usually a wooden frame with barbed wire or some other type of electrical panel. This type of garden fence protects valuable produce, herbs or flowers.
Your garden fence may be as high as the room, or it may be much shorter. Some small planter boxes have hinged tops that you can lock at night and open when you need to weed or pick produce.
5. Raised Garden Bed Ideas
Raised planters add so much beauty to your yard - front, back or side. You can buy pots in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes. Stand them alone to showcase a mixed container garden, or group them together for a lovely overall garden design.
Both formal and informal garden designs are suitable for raised bed gardening. The combination of wildflowers looks like it happened completely naturally, giving it a casual garden feel. You can create florist-like arrangements by layering tall, medium, short, and vines. Make sure to use a soil type designed for growing flowering plants.
6. Raised garden bed landscaping ideas
Raised garden beds blend well into any landscape. If you like the look of baskets, you can make your raised bed garden out of woven wattle. You can make this charming garden bed idea from branches woven into a basket weave pattern. Their round shape adds beauty to the landscape, and you can use the conical trellis to support climbing plants.
Add creativity to your garden plans 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 wood bed garden using reclaimed redwood, repurposed wood pallets, or treated lumber designed for the purpose. Avoid using recycled railroad ties as they can leach harmful chemicals into the soil.
7. Raised garden bed layout ideas
The way a raised bed garden design is laid out depends 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 your yard. Keep the gardening area proportional to the size of the house and yard.
Don't be afraid to get creative with your pots and garden designs. Arrange a pie-shaped structure of raised garden beds around a central sculpture or fountain. Visually soften the edges of planted areas by running grass-covered paths between garden boxes. If you don't want to mow the grass path, cover the ground with a landscape cloth and cover 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 big for your yard, look for smaller metal or metal and wood options. A small vegetable garden can be grown on a patio by filling a galvanized bucket with compost soil.
Make a wooden planter frame, then fill each side with corrugated metal sheets for a modern metal and wood combo. Metal garden edging is easy to install and is perfect for shorter curved garden beds. Be aware that one downside of including metal in your pot or rim design is that it will rust over time. If this happens, your garden may not look as tidy as you'd like it to - although some people prefer the rusty look.
9. Sloped or tiered raised garden bed ideas
Multi-level or sloping patios require raised garden bed planter designs that adapt to the landscape. Layered bed garden ideas include arranging pots in a stair step design, with taller plants on the upper floors and shorter plants below.
The soil within the large raised beds can slope itself to fit the natural curves of the ground below. Square-foot gardening works well on slopes, stacking each 4×4 pot in slightly overlapping rows.
10. Small Raised Garden Bed Ideas
In some ways, small raised garden beds are the easiest beds to manage. While your vegetable harvest may not be large, it will be easier to fill a smaller raised bed. Smaller beds also have less room for weeds, making routine maintenance quicker.
Small raised garden boxes are also more economical than a series of large raised garden beds. Keyhole gardens are shaped like wedges cut from a pie, or boxy U-shaped structures. These small raised garden beds can hold a surprising number of plants. Create an instant mini garden by inserting soil and seedlings directly into straw bales.
