These Raised Garden Beds Will Get You in the Gardening Spirit (2024)

"This small cedar bed serves as the perfect container for a few of our special gardening projects. We're currently using it to grow mammoth sunflowers and watermelon. We filled it with a mixture of three bag of regular potting soil and six bags of manure. (Our favorite is Black Kow. It's the best of all the varieties we've tried over the years.)

Our sunflowers are about knee height now and growing everyday!" —

"Earlier this spring, my partner Garrett and I installed two of these open-bottom galvanized raised beds in our back yard. We love them.

Admittedly, it took us longer than expected to put the first one together. The instructions are only illustrations with no words. Once we got the hang of it, the second one came together in half the time.

We've really come to love just how many plants the beds will hold since we don't have much other room for gardening in our slopped backyard. Before we set them up, we laid down weed-blocking mat to help us with our positioning and to protect the concrete patio they're on—the soil in our neighborhood is too rocky to sustain direct sowing.

Next, we filled each of the beds with six bags of river rocks and then layered leftover cardboard on top to help with run off. On top of the cardboard, we placed a few random sicks from the yard and then filled the rest of the bed with six bags of manure and eight bags of regular potting soil. We're getting into the warmer months now and everything is growing really well! I would 100% buy these again."—

There are a lot of great reasons to go for an elevated garden bed, such as this planter box. First, it's naturally pest-resistant. Rabbits will have a hard time getting to lettuce and strawberries. (Deer, on the other hand, remain a problem.)

Second, being able to stand while planting, weeding, tending and harvesting is much easier on your back and knees.

Finally, the compact, sturdy, deep design makes it possible to plant a wide variety of flowers or vegetables (even root veggies like carrots or radishes) practically anywhere, even on patios or decks.

This particular model is Amazon's top tall-planter, loved by thousands of customers for the sturdy design, the inexpensive price, and the quality materials—cedar is naturally resistant to insects and rot, so it should last a few years or even more, with the proper care.

Be aware that, because the soil is elevated and exposed to air, cold or hot temperatures will have more of an effect, and soil will also dry out quicker, necessitating more watering.

If you're looking for an inexpensive no-fuss way to get veggies or cut flowers growing ASAP, and you're not particularly worried about design, then these grow-bags are just the thing.

They're especially ideal for growing food on porches, on concrete or gravel, or anywhere that plants may need to be moved in order to avoid too much shade during the day. (One caveat: If you're planning on moving them regularly, you may want to place them on a dolly cart, such as this one, as they are very heavy once full.)

Be aware that, because the soil is exposed to air, cold or hot temperatures will have more of an effect, and soil will also dry out quicker, necessitating more watering.

If you like the look of wood, but don't want to constantly be replacing rotting boards, consider a composite or resin raised bed.

This model, one of the most popular at Home Depot, is lightweight, easy to install, very inexpensive, and will easily last years and years.

People who bought it love the simplicity of the design, and the fact that it's expandable. Want a deeper raised bed? Boards can be slotted on top of each other for more depth. Want a bigger design, or don't want a square? The edge connectors are flexible, meaning that the boards can be constructed in a variety of shapes, not just squares or rectangles.

To save myself some expense, I built two 10’x4’ raised beds totaling 80 square feet by going to my local home improvement store and buying eight of these planter wall blocks, for about $4 each, as well as eight 1-foot lengths of rebar.

Then I purchased some 1 x 6" planks of wood—I splurged a bit on cedar, as it lasts longer. You simply slide the planks into the corner blocks, and then secure the blocks into the ground by hammering the rebar in through the middle of the block.

I laid cardboard down inside the beds (after removing all plastic tape and stickers) and then filled the beds with soil.

You can make the beds as large or small as you want, which is a major advantage. You can also stack the corner blocks on top of each other and double the boards for a taller raised bed.

One of the biggest advantages to this is that, after several years, when some of the boards inevitably rot, they can be removed and replaced without much trouble.

The biggest advantage of raised beds is that, because you can fill them with the right potting soil, you can start with healthy soil right away, without the effort of removing rocks and roots, the expense or work of tilling, and the frustration of having to remove grass and weeds.

Raised beds are also great in that you can put them in a number of places—including on gravel, on pavement, or even on a movable dolly (read below for more on that). This makes it much easier to find the best place on your property to grow your garden.

Raised beds can also be quite striking. Though most of these raised beds are focused on affordability, you have all kinds of options when designing raised beds. Almost anything you'd use for edging a garden can be used to help mark off a raised bed.

To grow the widest variety of vegetables, you'll want your beds to have as much direct sunlight as they can get, so before you buy or build anything, it pays to do a little research. Select a spot in your yard, and mark it, then watch: When does the sun start to hit it during the day? How much time does it spend in shade?

Ideally, your spot will get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. Fruiting crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and beans need at least this—and preferably 7 to 8.

After that, you'll want to consider what happens when you water the plants. You'll want to avoid locating your garden anywhere that you don't want water to go—on a concrete patio right up next to your house would be a bad idea, for instance. If the raised bed is sitting directly on the ground, the water will likely drain into it. But if it's sitting on concrete, you'll need to make sure water has a place to drain away, or (just like with houseplants) the roots will become waterlogged and the plants will rot.

Though raised beds can be as large or small as you like, depending on how much you want to grow, a good rule of thumb is that you should be able to reach over and easily touch the center of the bed with your finger. For this reason, we recommend that most raised beds be no wider than about 4 feet—though they can be as long as you want. This way, even when kneeling down, you should be able to reach about 2 feet in and touch the center from either side.

This way you'll be able to plant (and harvest) as much as possible without having to step into the raised bed, which would compact the soil and possibly damage plants or their roots.