How to Plan a Raised Bed Garden

If you’re thinking about gardening with raised beds, it’s important to plan ahead and come up with a good design before you build your beds.

First, make a sketch of your yard and include areas such as patios and existing walkways, as you can easily fit small raised beds in these areas. For example, this cedar planter box perfect if you want to grow a full garden in a small space.

Drafting paper and color pencils can help you visualize your design and you can easily distinguish landscape features such as turf, walkways, trees, etc. with different colors. Try and make your drawing to scale if possible so that you can measure the available spaces you have to set up your raised beds.

While many raised beds are portable, in some cases you’ll want to build large, permanent raised beds. That’s why it’s important to observe your yard during a full day and during different seasons so that you can make note of areas of sun and shade.

Next, write a list of the plants you want to grow in your garden. The design and location of your raised beds can depend largely on your plant selection. For example, if you want to grow a collection of sun-loving plants, you’ll need to place your raised beds where you’ll maximize sun exposure.

Now that you have a sketch of your property, you’ll need to design your raised beds so that they fit your needs.

Raised Bed Dimensions
A good basic design for the serious gardener is a raised bed 4 feet wide and 20 feet long. This design will give you 80 square feet of growing space which is ideal for growing a large amount of fruits and vegetables. Three feet wide and two to three feet high are suggested for most gardeners who want to stand or sit in a chair while gardening.

To customize your raised beds to your own needs, use the following raised bed design guide.

• Length: When planning the length of your bed, the most important factor is your available space. Moreover, longer is not necessarily better. Two medium length beds with a space between them will make it easier to walk around the beds and work your plants from both sides. Also, it’s a good idea to allow a space at each end of the bed to walk around.
• Width: To calculate the width of your raised bed, sit at a table you’d feel comfortable working at and reach out your hands until you begin to bend over slightly. Measure this distance and write it down. If you want to place your raised bed next to a building and work just from one side, use this measurement for the width. If you plan on making a freestanding bed where you can garden from all sides, double the measurement. Likewise, if you plan on working while standing, perform the measurement listed above while standing.
• Depth: A bed eight to nine inches deep works for most herbs, annuals, and some vegetables. Make the bed deeper if you plan on growing deep-rooted vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, or shrubs.
• Height: You can design your raised bed so that you can work standing or sitting in a chair or bench. On average, 2 ½ - 3 feet high works for most people. To personalize your garden beds, sit in a comfortable chair that you’d use for typing and measure to where you hands can easily reach. Make your garden bed this height. The same technique can be used for measuring a standing position. If you have several people who enjoy gardening in your home, make sure to take an average height so that the bed is good for everyone.

Raised Bed Foundation, Spacing, and Orientation
When you’re thinking about locations for your beds, remember that you’ll be walking and working around your raised beds. It’s important that you have an appropriate, level base for your beds. You can also think about installing brick pathways or stepping stones around your beds. Gravel mulch is also a good option. A paved concrete walkway may be appropriate for some yards.

Maximize sunlight with a north-south orientation. With unusually tall plants, an east-west setup may work better. It’s very important to have proper spacing between your beds so that you can walk and work around them. Make enough space between your beds to allow for a wheelbarrow, lawn mower, or whatever large equipment you may need to move around your garden.

Once you’ve got an idea of the size and the orientation you’d like for your beds, it’s time to sketch out your raised beds and see how they fit in the larger scheme of your garden. Add your raised beds to the drawing of your yard. Try putting them at 90 angles, or several in a row. You can also set up several rows of smaller raised beds. Play around a bit before deciding on a final design for your raised bed garden.

Appropriate Materials for Building Raised Beds
You can make raised beds from such common materials as concrete blocks, bricks, railroad ties, pressure treated lumber, etc. Railroad ties need to be completely dry before using, as leaking creosote can affect your plants. Pressure-treated lumber may be unsafe for use in the garden if treated with such chemicals as pentachlorophenol. Be safe, and check out this U.S. government-sponsored site on using treated wood in the garden: http://www.metrokc.gov/health/hazard/treatedwood.htm.

Kits are available so that you can easily build your own raised bed from beautiful hardwoods like cedar. You can also buy kits that are made from polyethylene blocks that look like natural stone and work pretty well.

Choosing Plants for Raised Beds
Picking plants for your raised bed is basically the same as with a regular garden bed, with a few differences. For example, you have to take into account the depth of your bed when choosing plants for your raised beds. If you’ve got a rather shallow bed, you’ll be limited to annuals, herbs, and some veggies. The deeper your bed, the more options you’ll have for growing plants in your raised bed.

Also, it’s always a good idea to consider the needs of each one of your plants such as pH, light levels, water, the chemical composition of your soil, etc. Remember that you can take advantage of your raised beds by planting vegetables and fruits closer together than in a traditional garden bed.

It’s important to place plants with similar needs in the same raised bed. You don’t want to grow shade loving plants alongside sun loving plants. You can also separate different kinds of plants in the same bed with the addition of a wooden plank or similar division, but make sure there sunlight and watering needs are similar.

These smaller raised beds are appropriate for a small collection of plants. Several of these raised beds placed on a patio or deck will allow you to grow many different kinds of plants.


Advantages l How to Plan l Tips for Building l Tips for Using l Links l Products

© 2006 Raised Bed Gardening Tips. All Rights Reserved.