Raised garden beds offer numerous benefits, including improved soil quality, enhanced drainage, weed control, easy accessibility, extended growing season, and versatility. They provide an attractive garden feature in small spaces, making it easier to maximize vegetable yield and maintain a neat and orderly design. Raised beds can be built as high as needed, but even a modest height of 12″ makes harvesting and weeding easier.
Raised beds also have an adjustable height, reducing bending over and squatting. They can be built as high as needed, but even a modest height of 12″ makes harvesting and weeding easier. They also help mitigate runoff and reduce chemicals.
Till-free gardening is another significant advantage of using raised garden beds. They don’t typically require tilling or digging to prepare the plot. Raised beds offer several advantages, such as better water retention in areas with super-sandy soil, better drainage in areas with clay soils, more growing space, and no soil compaction from human feet. They also look neat and tidy, allowing for very loose soil, and are great for areas with poor drainage.
In summary, raised beds offer numerous advantages, including improved soil quality, enhanced drainage, weed control, easy accessibility, extended growing season, and versatility. They provide better drainage for the root zone in low-lying wet soils, make root growth easier for plants, contain air pockets for beneficial microbial life, and are often more productive than ground beds due to their less compacted soil and better drainage. Raised beds also allow for closer planting distances than regular, in-ground planting, making them a more efficient and convenient option for gardeners.
📹 Raised Beds or In-Ground Beds: Which Is The Ultimate Gardening Game-Changer?
************* Garden beds play a crucial role in shaping the success of your gardening endeavors. But which is the superior …
Do I need to replace soil in a raised bed?
Plants grow year-round, relying on sunlight and soil nutrients. However, these nutrients may be depleted by the end of the season, leading to unproductive soil and decreased plant vigor, disease resistance, and productivity. Organic amendments, such as compost, are recommended for their well-balanced, free-to-make, or inexpensive options. Compost is the most popular choice due to its essential nutrients, soil building properties, and microorganisms that improve and mediate undesirable soil. It is also a cost-effective way to maintain soil health.
What grows best in a raised garden bed?
Perennial plants, which are permanent plants that return each year, are ideal for raised beds. Examples include daylilies, lavender, oregano, rhubarb, raspberries, and hostas. These plants will continue to occupy the space for a while, unless removed. For a breakfast blend, consider planting dwarf raspberry or blueberry bushes surrounded by cutting flowers, such as peonies, coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, and Shasta daisies. Annual plants, on the other hand, are temporary plants that last for one growing season.
Examples include petunias, pansies, basil, lemongrass, and vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, squash, and onions. To reduce the risk of disease and pests, it is recommended to move annual vegetables around the bed. For a colorful annual garden, consider planting butterfly-beckoning plants like blue and red salvias, zinnias, pentas, gomphrena, and lantana.
When not to use raised beds?
If your yard has naturally deep, level, and well-drained soil, you don’t need raised garden beds. Instead, you should place your beds at ground level and create pathways around them. The soil in your pathways will become compressed over time, and your soft garden beds will remain slightly raised. Raised beds have several disadvantages, including higher heat and drying times, high costs for creating frames and soil, difficulty in using green manures or cover crops, and more work to change the layout compared to ground-level gardens.
Gardeners often find that their interests or needs change over time, making it more challenging to adapt to raised beds with or without framing. Therefore, it’s better to use ground-level gardens and create pathways around your garden beds.
Is it better to have a raised garden bed or in the ground?
Raised beds and in-ground gardens have different advantages. Raised beds provide better soil structure and drainage, enhancing plant growth and allowing for organic matter amendment. They also act as a barrier against soil compaction from foot traffic. In-ground gardens, on the other hand, use existing soil, eliminating the need for raised beds, especially if the soil is of good quality. They also offer more flexibility in size, allowing for the entire garden area to be utilized. The choice of the best garden bed depends on factors like the desired garden type, the condition of the native soil, and the most important advantages and disadvantages.
What do you put on the bottom of a raised garden bed?
The use of cardboard and newspaper as a lining for the bottom of raised garden beds represents a cost-effective solution for the purpose of pest and weed deterrence.
What are the disadvantages of raised garden beds?
Raised beds have certain disadvantages, including a tendency to dry out more rapidly, the need for more frequent watering, and a greater initial investment of time and effort compared to conventional gardens. Furthermore, the height and volume of raised beds may result in increased costs and may not be suitable for overwintering crops, depending on the specific height and volume.
Do you need to put anything under a raised garden bed?
Raised garden bed lining offers numerous benefits, including soil insulation, temperature control, soil retention, weed separation, and pest control. The Grounds Guys, a landscape and garden experts, specialize in landscape and lawn care services for commercial and residential properties. They take pride in doing the job right the first time and guarantee your satisfaction with the Neighborly Done Right Promise™. Their local service professionals are part of the community and committed to ensuring your home or business looks its best throughout the year.
They offer free estimates, upfront pricing, experienced and licensed experts, guaranteed timely responses to questions and inquiries, top-quality materials, the latest equipment, and outstanding service. They also clean up after every job to leave no mess behind.
How deep should a raised garden bed be?
Vegetable beds should be excavated to a depth of between 12 and 18 inches to accommodate the roots of the plants, particularly if the beds are placed on cement or a patio. This will prevent the roots from growing deeper into the ground.
Can you reuse soil in a raised bed?
Potting soil can be reused, but it is of the utmost importance to understand the conditions and precautions that must be taken to ensure its continued efficacy. Over time, the soil loses nutrients and structure. However, with proper care, it can be restored to a state suitable for multiple planting seasons.
What should you not put in a raised bed?
Raised beds are ideal for growing a wide variety of edible plants, but not all plants can or should be grown in them. Some plants grow too large for raised beds, such as potatoes, asparagus, artichokes, rhubarb, corn, wheat, rice, and winter squash. Raised beds can be challenging to maintain due to the need for ladders, which can be dangerous for harvesting plants. It is essential to consider the specific needs of each plant when choosing a raised bed, as not all plants can thrive in raised beds. Therefore, it is essential to carefully consider the type of plant and the space available for each plant to ensure the best growth and care.
What is the point of a raised garden bed?
Raised beds are a popular gardening method that allows soil to drain well, reducing waterlogged issues and reducing waste. Properly installed drip irrigation systems, like the Raised Bed Drip Kit from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, target the roots of plants, ensuring healthy plants and saving on water bills. Raised beds also protect crops from being eaten by wildlife by reinforcing the bottom with a wire barrier, a row cover over the bed, and easy-to-install mini-hoops.
After cold winter days, raised beds allow earlier planting of spring crops, and with the addition of low tunnels, harvests can continue into late fall. Reclaimed windows can also create a cold frame for winter growing, using a raised bed as a base.
📹 10 Reasons Why Raised Bed Gardens are Best
In this video, I give you my 10 top reasons why raised bed vegetable gardens are the best! And, how the raised bed gardening …
You just nailed something that I’ve been confronted with after moving to Arizona from the north. Everything is 180* backwards. ALL of the ‘smart’ construction in the north is about keeping houses warm. There’s very little information on natural cooling. Everything that I was ever taught about gardening was about the importance of drainage. So little about water conservation. (Sunburned crops?! Who knew that most plants could get sunburned? Now I’m learning how to give some relief to plants that would normally be considered ‘full sun’.) I’m finally getting to the point where I realize that I need real, local help. There are a lot of successful gardeners around here and I’m noticing that they do not follow the rules that I was raised with.
My reason for using Raised beds is simply for tidiness and organization. My Raised beds are only two landscape timbers high. my first two beds were 8’x8′ but I discovered it is too hard to reach everything. Those beds still exist but like I said they are harder to work. My next three beds are 4’x8′ because I can reach two feet to the center from one side and two feet to the center from the other. My next three beds I went back to 8’x8′ but for a different reason. Each one of those is at the front of my property next to the road and has an apple tree in the center. In the rest of the bed I plant other edibles that people in my market would take as ornamentals. From the outside in i plant Rainbow Chard, Carrots and then Dinosaur Kale. I only plant on three sides of the 8’x8′ and leave myself a path to my apple trees. It looks ornamental yet is edible. Oh yeah… I’m using the Back to Eden method and replenish it with my own homemade compost.
Just discovered your website, its fabulous! Your business model of using other people’s land is brilliant. I think my city -Detroit, does offer empty lots the city owns for people who want to plant gardens on it, but don’t know how many have done that. I didn’t garden at all this year. Your beds don’t even look real, they are so green and healthy. Didn’t know about the pros and cons of raised beds. I was mainly thinking about my back and having to weed it.
The reason I do raised beds in my yard is because my entire yard is “builders rubble”, gravel, + boulders. No fertile soil at all. I bought a small piece of property which had an old house on it, this was torn down & backfilled with sand/gravel/rocks. It was then converted to a gravel parking lot. Buying soil here is not very expensive, but delivery is. EG: Delivering a few yards of soil from 1/2 mile away is nearly 100 bucks. The soil itself is 25 bucks lol. It makes sense to me to build raised beds. I can get wood cheap here because we have a guy in town that collects used boards and whatever so paying a buck for a 2x6x12 board or thereabouts (he even removes the nails etc from them) rather than 20-30 bucks for one board, I can buy a gallon of some sort of wood protection sealer (that doesn’t present danger to crops I will be eating) to protect the wood in our harsh climate. Still rather cheap. (but more work and in most cases, the wood is almost as good as new.) OTOH – If I had a yard of half decent soil, indeed it would be in ground beds. Easier to just rake out & plant grass seed should I want to downsize the garden(s).
Today I am researching “Raised Bed Gardening” and Professor Curtis Stone here on the University of YOUTUBE is an excellent stop for my search. My climate here high in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, WSW of Crater Lake appears to duplicate your climate there in Kelowna BC down the street from my brother. Therefore it makes sense to me to search out those whom are successful at gardening to glean tid bits of information from in order to be as successful as you. My garden is a work in progress. One major barrier I have here is that 6-8 inches below the surface of the soil is hardpan rock. Some crops I can grow in the ground, however, those crops which need deep earth i.e. root crops need the soil mounded to give them enough room for root and tuber growth. It does get hot in the summers here (100° F.) for two weeks. QUESTION: Will this be damaging to my root crops grown in a raised beds? I too have a greenhouse which was built by Marty Rainey’s daughter Misty and my daughter Jaymi while filming an episode of HOMESTEAD RESCUE for the DIscovery website and Animal Planet. So far I have had great success with growing some crops in there year-round. Thank you Curtis for your brilliant tutorials, I find them to be of great value in my pursuit of the homestead dream. Jerry Hanson, host of “Pine Meadows Hobby Farm”.
Good description and comparison of the two different gardening techniques and why they’re used for different circumstances. In a tight residential situation where vegetables are grown for personal use and ease, built, raised beds make sense. But for larger applications when high production is the intended goal, simply working the land to accomplish your goals makes the most sense financially and practically. Very good article! Thanks so much!👍
Great article, I have learned so much from your website about market gardening! I live in WNY, where we get a decent amount of rain throughout the growing season usually. However, this year it has been extremely dry and hot and I have been having a hard time getting my head lettuce to size before it bolts. I use all raised beds currently, but I am working on cultivating the second half of my acre yard. My question is when I build these new beds would it likely be better to leave a few flat with the ground for lettuce plantings, instead of using raised beds? It sounds like ground level beds would hold moisture better and also keep the roots of the plants cooler in extreme heat. Sorry for such a long comment, I appreciate any response, as I know you are very busy! Thank you again for all the helpful, positive gardening information you continue to provide to the world!
Thanks for the insights! Two comments: I suppose fertility management would be different in raised vs in-ground beds. Would you say raised beds are more conducive to low or no-till practices? Seems to me like you can top-dress with compost without having to dig into the soil very much. Drainage as you mentioned is a key point too and height of water table, rainfall, and soil type – would be important contextual factors in whether to do one or the other.
You have achieved what seems to be a best a man can get..Living in urban area, working with nature and making money out of it. I am also trying to venture into farming so as first step I thought I will start growing food for my home. I am situated in Patan, Gujarat, India. For most months weather is hot here, above 30 degree Celsius with low humidity. Upper soil is loamy but as you go down it becomes more sandy. Water doesn’t stay in soil and drains fast. So considering above I was thinking instead of raised beds I will dug up and create beds 1 foot deep. Place plastic film over it to prevent water and nutrients going down deep in soil. Then add mixture of soil, compost, worm casting and some rock phosphate may be to fill up the bed. Would like to know your view on this approach.
This is cool, but recently I got in touch with a game-changing technique (at least for me it was): no-dig. There are articles comparing the same crops in the same land being planted side-by-side, the usual way and the no-dig way, and no-dig yields more. So nature got everything figured out pretty much. Working smarter not harder.
this is fantastic information, especially for someone who doesn’t own the land they are farming (or gardening). the prohibitive cost of putting in raised wooden beds that i’ll essentially be giving to my landlord has been holding back the scale of my garden plan, but now i can expand a bit. thank you for this! (i’m in central montana, also a fairly dry climate at a high elevation, if that information is helpful to others)
My garden is for my personal use so it’s not as extensive. I have 4 – 4″x25′ raised beds. Since I can work the rows easily from both sides, I never have the need to walk on and compact the soil. Without doing anything to the beds in the spring, I can easily push my hand and forearm down into the soil. I have a light weight tiller that I can easily place in the rows to till in any compost and amendments into the soil each spring.
We live in Western Colorado, in a high desert climate. I have a 1400 square foot garden, virgin soil never tilled or built on before, that has done very well this first year. The biggest problem is trying to make it slope from one side to the other, so that water runs down the “canals” to the rest of the plants. It’s so uneven that water is always filling up the walkways. We considered a field plane but we have a very high, well built fence around it now to keep wildlife out. Any suggestions for getting it flat and even from one side to the other?
Im also in Quebec,but the reason im looking for the raised beds is that i just got house here,and i dont know how is the soil in my backyard, and i dont have way to test it for contaminants to determin if it save to plant fruits and vegetables. I find labs that do just mineral content of the soil but that it.Maybe you have way to tell or test if backyard soil is free of heavy metals and other stuff? Cheers
There are a couple of other advantages to raised beds besides those that I have seen here: first of all, my dog is much less likely to climb up and urinate on my lettuce; secondly, the soil does not get compacted from walking on it. It makes weeding a lot easier too, especially if you start with weed-free soil
waaa, thank you for the explanation i farm in east java indonesia and i doing both methods. and you know, indonesia has 2 seasons. dry and wet/rain seasons. i dont know why i do both method, but i just watcing my farm, just do in ground beds to keep water in dry season and raised beds to release water in rain season.
I don’t live too far from you, and I’m having a heck of time with my native soil. Where we are there are tons of trees and that means root systems. I can not even till the ground because of the root systems. Raised beds seem to be my only option for any type of growing right now. I have a wish to have an area cleared for a proper in ground garden, but this is years away. So it looks like raised beds are the only way to do things. unless you could suggest a different idea?
Hi, I am from South Africa. I saw a legendary article made a while back on woodchip farming. (Made in the US) I am currently experimenting with the consept (within raised beds) Have you ever experimented with woodchip farming? If so, what is your opinion of it? If not, I would suggest checking out the article (I think it was called “Back to Eden”. The soil retains water like crazy. We hardly water at all (our house is in extremely dry and hot area) We have minimal weed issues. The only thing we have struggled with were Asexual afids, but they were limited only to our coliflower plants. Thanks for the great articles man. I can’t believe I have only stumbled apon you now!
Another Las Vegan here…I planned to prepare my garden area for in-ground planting this year vs. planter boxes. Well, It turns out either my mesquite tree (12 years old) or ash tree has sent out tap roots to my garden area as a source of water. I’m contemplating tilling my garden area anyway and placing cardboard down as a yearly barrier. I’ve been working on the soil for two years with amendments and compost so was so looking forward to in-ground planting. What do you think? Should I stay with planter boxes? Thanks for you help.
Hi, love perusal your articles. I’m curious on how to start up doing profitable gardening like you’re doing. I don’t know how to start or what to grow or what not to grow or when or how much it would cost to start up or where to get the plants from or anything like that. Big help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I want to build raised beds because of my age and our soil is not really good. It would took us 2 years to get the needed quality. Water is not a problem on our property, we have a little river that cross our land. South Portugal has normally hot and dry summers. This year it’s different. It’s cooler, we had rain in May and it should be raining today also. Raised beds are easier to manage when you’re 60. We want to start to build our little greenhouse and the raised beds this year, so we can start to grow next year early.
I like raised beds because the upper level of the root system does not get too wet, it alows for aeration and when water settles lower in relation to the root system capillary action allows the plant to take what water it needs, worms dont drown and if your on a small block you can increase your surface (growing) area.
Hi Curtis Just came across your work and am in year 2 of farming my backyard spaces and looking to improve my work. I live in Miami and to your point, I feel that my setting is quite different from yours. Do you have any guidance on who to follow ? My local farmers aren’t as active on social media spaces as you
Ground beds have direct access to the soil of the ground along with the entire ecosystem of bugs, bacteria and fungi living just below it. With certain raised beds that have no contact with the soil, they will be limited to the amount of the natural ecosystem they have access to. Which means you need to spend more on soil supplementation for raised beds.
Another reason why someone might choose to invest in raised beds over in-ground is soil quality. My fiancée and I just bought a new farm homestead and the soil is beyond terrible. (yes it should have been inspected before we bought it but the price was too good so we dived in) We just started turning the soil and it’s like digging up the great wall of China! We even found hunks of asphalt buried an inch or two down. So at the expense of saving our backs and a lot of headaches, we are deciding to invest in several dump truck loads of good quality soil and build ourselves raised beds.
Thank you for this article. I live in Utah (also a high desert area) and I have felt that I would be fine with an in-ground bed system. My only downfall is that the previous owners of the property I’m at used the area I want to grow in as an RV parking spot 😱so it’s very compacted. Do you or anyone else on this article have advice for tilling? Is a roto-tiller my best bet or should I do it with hand tools? It’s about 1,200 square feet if I had to guess. Thanks again, this article gave me the courage to do an in-ground bed system!
Hey Curtis, I couldnt tell from your previous articles, (Granted, I probably just missed it) did you put those concrete blocks along the bottom of your raised bed in the greenhouse? Or just along the sides? I no you are planning to put the blocks on the ground of the greenhouse, but did you really need to do a raised bed because of the wooden side wall blocking the sun? Or that the sun gets to low in the sky so if you just grew in the ground it wouldnt get sun for part of the year?
So i live in Vancouver where we have wet spring and fall but summer is dry for 3 months. I have a raised bed from two 4x4s and garden is 9ft wide by 50ft and i notice that in spring and fall it does get very wet soil. I wonder if i am growing carrots, beets, lettuce, turnips should i make tiny 4 inch high rows to plant the in my raised bed garden?
Hi Curtis. in my experience one other important reason is if the native soil is just plain unusable. here in Las Vegas the soil is literally like concrete and full of large rock. weeds have a hard time growing even lol see Pict here m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1074787109243422&id=1052751691446964&set=pcb.1074787362576730&source=48 great vids BTW
Hi, Curtis! I am a subscriber and I came upon this article searching information about under ground level beds. Is this even a thing? Did anybody do it? I live in a temperate climate but it is in the process of desertification, we have long periods of drought and sporadic rain events, the soil is clay, very dry, very compacted. The property is on a hill and the garden is a flat area surrounded from 2 sides by slopes, so the water moves down to the garden area and I want to try and keep it there, not to continue downhill. And also the compost that I will add, I am afraid it will get washed away, there is a lot of erosion here because of the steep hill slope. I have to level the ground in the garden cause it still has a slight slope downhill (it is not perfectly flat), and since I will get an excavator (for some swales, also) I thought maybe I should make the beds 10-20 cm under the main pathway level (the secondary pathways between the beds should be at the same level so I can bend over and work the beds). Basically, I try to make raised edges around the beds area. Will this do more harm than good? Thanks!! Please, people, share your opinions on this. Cheers!
I live in the Arizona desert in the phoenix area. I just bought some property and I’m trying to decide raised or in-ground. I also need water retention but our soil has heavy caliche. would you suggest a raised bed in this instance or would it probably to be better to just dig down with a roto tiller?
I live in S. Fl. where we have huge nematode problem, plus in my 1/2 acre area I only have about 1/2″ to 1″ of sandy soil before I hit solid limestone rock. My question is, would a raised bed help to deter nematodes? I really don’t want to waist growing space with plants such as marigolds or mustard (as has been recommended) if I don’t have too.
What if your trying to farm on a slope? I don’t have a flat yard and I want to farm it, but it sits on a slope. I wanted to use raised beds for the green house which will work great but then I have to grow everything else in the ground. I’m worried that if I get hard rain falls it will wash away my soil. What else do you think I should try to do?
Doesn’t work well in a hot, dry climate. Pit beds are better due to temperature control, and water retention. Plenty of people garden here in raised beds, but farming is done with an enormous amount of irrigation. It’s wasteful, IMO. If they would dig rows 2 feet deep and amend, and leave them a few inches shy they’d get better results. But…they don’t want to spend the money, and all the standard practices are for on surface farming. Nice article! You hit it on the head. 😄
No, you can’t rotor-till a raised bed, but you can broad fork it if you need which is healthier for the soil biology and far less damaging. You also would increase the amount of water the soil will hold instead of creating a hard pan that the water will just run away on. Look how much watering was reduced on Paul Kaisers place down in California. 75% reduction Curtis. You’ve been there. Sure you cant do the hedgerows etc but their no till system is designed for arid conditions.
I think raised beds are kind of a fad right now and a lot of people don’t need them, but that’s what everyone is doing. Many are filling them completely with compost they bought at stores by the cubic foot. Then there’s the rock dust that supposedly is a necessity now. Hundreds of dollars for a little garden. In my case, a fence to keep out animals is a much better investment. The soil needs ammending, but that’s a lot cheaper than building raised beds and filling them with everything I need.
how do you stop sun burn on your exposed crops? my plants will be doing great, but then we will get a few days, although sometimes even just one day is enough, where the sun is so intense that it burns the plants and the leaves will just dry out and turn to tissue paper and disintegrate, even if the ground itself is still wet.
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15 KJV Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: Exodus 20:8-9 KJV Saturday is the day of the Lord The claim that Christ by his death abolished his Father’s law, is without foundation. Had it been possible for the law to be changed or set aside, then Christ need not have died to save man from the penalty of sin. The death of Christ, so far from abolishing the law, proves that it is immutable. The Son of God came to “magnify the law, and make it honorable.” (Isaiah 42:21.) He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law;” “till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.” (Matthew 5:17, 18.) And concerning himself he declares, “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8.) GC88 466.3 Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Once I make a bed I never till that bed ever again or step on it. I just add compost, manure, saw dust in the summer to keep the moisture in the ground etc. I do not understand why you would roto-till that bed ever again. if you till that every season you just kill the good bacteria which takes months to regrow; and that bacteria help the plants take minerals in. now, if you just sell and use who knows what fertilizer and do not care about the mineral content, than you just make them grow fast to sell.
Eleventh reason for raised-bed gardening: Adequate cover in the event of gunfight with outlaws and armed possums. Twelfth: Painting wicked flames on the sides of the containers to prove you haven’t gotten old and lame. Thirteenth: Empty out a bed, hop inside, pull layer of mulch over yourself. You are now less likely to be spotted by Australia’s native fauna and eaten by giant spiders or roving land-trilobites. Fourteenth: The Man says you can’t, and you’ll show him! Fifteenth: Raised-bed gardening enables you to make pretty cool articles about raised-bed gardening. Sixteenth: Even if your crops are crap, they look like you brought them up crap on purpose, as opposed to sticking them in the dirt and forgetting about them. Seventeenth: Get to use the word “Huglekultur” or whatever it was. Eighteenth: Bottom of beds is an excellent place to hide bottles of alcohol from your wife/kids/sponsor. Nineteenth: Get the chemistry right — You could be the first human being to cultivate truffles in a subtropical climate. Twentieth: Dump out dirt, fill with hot water = Budget Jacuzzi
I have been slowly switching over to raised beds because of my health, but found out the true benefit when my daughter was paralyzed 2 years ago. She doesn’t have to depend on me to get fresh veggies and fruits…she can reach them herself (and her chair doesn’t get bogged down in the dirt like it does in our main garden).
We raise bed garden in Africa, but have to do it more with rows of piled dirt. We dont have access to the nice containers and the indigenous people could not even afford bricks to outline the beds. So, we just use heaped up compost/soil. The things you teach are very useful, and actually work even with rows of dirt mounds.
I started using raised beds about 25 years ago. Only 12 inches high, they still allowed me to sit on the edge to weed and my knees thanked my son for building them every time I weeded. Now I’m 70. I’ve built a single story (as opposed to a three story) home and am looking for something higher. My son is married in California and your link takes me to a product that looks like it might be suitable for a lousy DIYer like myself. I can’t wait to get some dirt under my fingernails again.
Just found your site. I’ve lived on a small farm in North Carolina, USA all my life and depended on the garden produce and livestock I raised myself for most of my families needs. I’m just turning 70 years old and the ability to work large areas with a mule has become so difficult that I am cutting the garden spaces down considerably and I am building raised beds. Your articles are interesting to me so I subscribed and will be perusal more.
We used boards for raised beds but took them out last year. So we planned on ground level gardening. After perusal your articles – especially this one – I will have to save up to get these Birdies raised beds. So if I can get one kit every 2 to 3 months I may have enough for next years veggie gardens. At 76 now and knowing I will be another year older next year these Birdies raised beds will help my back and knees considerably. Mark, THANK YOU SO MUCH for putting THIS so very important article out. Judi
Putting up a 16′ greenhouse dome (Pacific Domes, Oregon, USA) w. earthen floor in the sun-drenched high desert of New Mexico next year. Very sandy, rocky soil. Was planning on container gardening, but raised beds w. the tall Birdies and a greenhouse dome (special covering w. a solar fan for circuation) will be a killer combo !!! Love this guy!!
Your point about assisting folks with disabilities is very important. After my first hip surgery, back before my raised bed garden, I had to lie on a sheet to work and used a chair to help me stand. I really prefer not having to lie on the ground to work. When I built my raised bed I promptly found out why you need to be careful about width, my husband’s arms can reach to the middle but a significant portion is out of reasonable reach for me.
I was raised on the out-skirts of Savannah, GA USA. We had wonderful soil. I never knew what dirt poor meant until I moved to a rural area and purchased an old farm area. We have a beautiful 3 acre farm, JUST ADD DIRT! It has taken lots of mistakes and many tries to get a beautiful garden. This year, (year 18) we finally have a wonderful garden. Thanks for your advice.
Depending on who is doing the gardening, but for me, the best reason is that i do not have to stoop down or bend my back to reach the ground. Unlike when we were much younger when bending our knees would be quick and easy, with a raised garden bed, we can still touch the soil and have fun.🌸🌸. You are such a blessing bro, carry on but watch your spine.😎😎
Great article and even better website! No really. The raised bed idea is awesome. This is my second go around with a garden. Last season I tilled and planted a very small garden. Didn’t know much about much really. Getting a bit better after some teaching and learning from articles like this. I’m using live stock water troughs. 2’×4’×2′. And I live in town so I had to order out for top soil. Had ten yards dropped. I’ve got ten of the troughs and numerous other containers and buckets. Bought a bunch of local bagged top soil and bagged compost and manure and have been mixing in a hand barrel. A bit of blood meal. Piled lots of black willow in the bottoms of every container. Buckets and all. Sowed last week. And everything I sowed cept some onions are coming up. Very very short growing season here in Northern Michigan. Best of to all! Thank you so very much Mark for using your time in a edifying way!!! Happy growing!
I’m starting my veggie garden with 8 ft long water troughs (stock tanks) that I’ve placed on blocks due to concerns about the neighbor’s sloping yard towards mine and didn’t want to worry about chemicals leaching from their lawn (should the treat). I’ve also ordered 4 birdies containers for the other side of my house, very excited to get them here in the U.S. now! 😀 I’m all in with container gardening!
I was just telling my daughter in law about raised beds the other day, and recommended your website to her, as she would like to grow some veges, but has a bad back that limits her doing any bending. will be sharing this article with her to show her the advantages of them. another great article as always 🙂
Love your post. I ritually watch one to two a day. This one particularly hit home. I was a professional firefighter for 21 years.(so was my husband and son).. I Fell off a ladder when it collapsed under my weight and i fell 10 ft in a sitting position breaking my back in 2 places and was paralyzed. 3 surgeries, respiratory arrest from blood clots due to surgery I had to learn to use different muscles to walk. Learned to walk with a year of physical therapy and 4 years later I’m a force to be reckoned with. I have PTSD from the fall and gardening has calmed my inner soul. I always say if you want to get closer to God get on your knees and garden, God will talk to you during that time. But raised beds are the way for me. My husband built them all so I don’t have to bend to garden. But I have purchased 4 Birdie raised bed to expand the garden. And funny, my granddaughters name is Birdie so it was meant to be. Keep them coming. It’s my mental health late at night when my nerve damaged legs hurt too much to sleep. Hugs from Texas Mark. ….Doti ( using hubby’s acct. But you’re adored by the Texas woman)
Thank you! Always inspirational. Awesome advise and quality delivery. I use layered, heavy cinder blocks for my raised bed garden. No tools, no nails, no screws, no stakes, no posts…just stacked bricks. I can reshape beds if needed also. I live in northern California, USA. I look forward to more input from you, thx again!
Hey Mark, Just wanted to say a BIG thank you . I’ve learnt so much from you Chanel and really enjoy all you tips, and wicked sense of humour . The ten tips for raised beds helped me out today as I too was feeling frustrated with floor beds . Also in a sub tropical climate, tablelands Herberton QLD, but the best place to grow plants . Thanks again, I look forward to your upcoming articles. Sam
I have gone to raised beds to, but I use old stock tanks that don’t hold water anymore. They are great, just the right height, I’ve also used plastic fruit bins. we have a lot of fruit warehouses here in Yakima Washington USA. I even have a plastic cherry bin I have my blueberry bushes in, it’s about 18in tall by 4 by 4. The other bins are 3 by 4 by 4. The tanks are various sizes from 200gal to 800gal, they were all free all I had to do was haul them home. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
Rewatching this after a few months and dreaming of post-moving gardening…I can’t wait…it’s going to be lovely. I have mobility problems, my joints have pretty heavy arthritis damage, and standing for too long is pretty painful. I’m excited the more I think about raised gardens, especially when I consider the fact that I can get some sort of seating to work alongside them. A bench seat, a pathway made with pavers or concrete and a seat with storage and wheels, or something along those lines, alongside the raised beds, would be absolutely amazing.
I do LOVE the really large and impressive garden beds shown here. And, the larger raised garden beds are going to be the most impressive garden beds of course. But, it is best that the company “Birdies” is shown here that it is their best garden beds shown to bring up here and NOW. SO, is that acknowledged here and now. But, I must mention that I have bought 1 of my beds from “Birdies”. It was my 6 feet long, 3 or 4 feet wide,,AND 36 INCHES high. And, I have already filled it up with good soil,., and all is GREAT. BUT, it is not always clear that everybody is willing to support their RELATIVES all “easy peasy’.
While I am still very interested in utilizing cinder blocks for a raised garden due to how strong, long lasting and durable they are in a very windy environment. The only downside is how heavy they are to haul and move around. Where I live in OK, USA we have red clay soil and tornadoes to contend with. Thanks for sharing your ideas, I am in total awe of your gardening expertise.
Aside from ease of access, I love raised beds because you can build the most beautiful soil in them easier than an in ground bed. I have a neighbor with lots of horses and she drops off 10 large trash cans full of manure every week. I let it compost in a big pile and use it as necessary around the yard and use it like you do the logs in your beds for fill, then mix soil and finished compost in the top of the bed to grow in.
Firstly: Thank you so much Mark, for the advice, for the way you give it, and, of course, for the articles – I find them inspirational, and you seem to be bang on the money. And timely too – you must be getting the same rains I’ve been getting. I’ve been living in Northern NSW planting out a food forest for 10 months now, and, with the help of many of your articles, raised-bed hugelkulture gardens have sprung up all over the place here, made of saplings, corrugated iron and star pickets, filled with small trees culled from the bush adjacent to the house. The topsoil is just a few mm, under which lays hard clay with even harder rocks. The amount of carbon that has been safely put UNDER growing medium, to eventually BECOME growing medium, by using raised garden beds is incredible. That’s a lot of carbon that doesn’t get into the atmosphere. As you mentioned – raised beds are a much more functional height – i have a few as high as my kitchen benchtop – they are SO easy to plant in, weed and water. Hugelkulture beds, which are raised beds, are supposed to require less water – as the wood breaks down it creates a thick, moist layer of spongy mass, holding water and keeping a more constant temperature. On land like this, there is no way I could grow a food forest without improving the soil, and Hugelkulture raised beds are the perfect way to do that. And they DO look good!
Greetings Mark, as you know, I only grow in raised beds using organic materials. Saves me tons of money by not having to convert the hard clay and river rock riddled soil into a plant friendly growing medium. Also has eliminated weeds from my gardens and made them harder to access by rodents and other pests. Great article!
Awesome article as always Mark. One point I’d like to add is with the organically rich lightweight medium that you use raised beds can be used for terrace gardening especially in hot countries like Australia and India where practically every house has one. Plus doing this will keep the house much cooler in the summer months
Funny, I just drove past a large pile of firewood rounds earlier, soaking in the rain, wondering how I could use it. Think I’ll order these raised beds (gaining better durability at a lower price than lumber) and fill in the bottom with wood and other scraps in anticipation of spring planting. I don’t know if I should watch any more “raised bed gardening” articles for now after such a smashing success with the first one 😅
Just discovered your site and so glad I did. As with so many others, I have lots of time to watch and learn. Just tilled my garden and got some potatoes planted. Anyway, I couldn’t seem to find the link to the raised bed containers you showed in your article. Any chance you could post that again? Sorry, a bit slow here in Pennsylvania, USA
Mark, love the articles – i live on a sm island in the Caribbean and practice what you do. But I wanted more raised beds – after perusal you and wantering around the yard, I now see that two 4 ft cube metal water tanks that are just on the ground, cut in half and the bottom removed will make great beds – thanks for the inspiration .
great website. i am new to gardening. i want ot grow some fruit and some vegetables in my garden. i have no idea what i am doing or need so this website is going to be useful. i guess its to late in the year to plant anything so i will buy some raised beds and get everything prepared for next spring. thanks for the articles
Very useful advice for someone, like myself, planning to put in some raised beds for some homegrown veggies etc. My only issue with the corrugated sheet material is that, to my eye, it does not look very good compared to e.g. a wooden structure and particularly so if it will take up a prominent position in the garden. A solution could be to grow a low hedge as an enclosure around the whole thing, but that will of course add to the cost, take time to grow in, and cause extra maintenance as hedges need trimming. I suppose that sleepers would be the way to go?
I want to ask you about heat accumulation through the metal liners. I live in the southwestern U.S. desert and it’s very hot and dry here. I wonder if these liners would get too hot in the sun here. Previously I’ve tried growing in large metal pots, but they got so hot that it was difficult to keep the soil moist. But, they were considerably smaller than these bins. What do you think? Thanks for these great articles!
OMG! Thank you, thank you!! We’re doing raised beds this year too! We live in the Seqoiua National Forest In The Sierra Nevada Mountains, Ca. 🌲We just did major work around our creek and cut a few small diseased tree’s for our fire break.🌳 We were keeping some of the wood for a small fire at night when we have company. The rest of it seemed to be a burden because it would have to be hauled away. As a matter of fact we were going to have to buy more soil just to fill the beds.🍅After perusal your article I was so excited! We not only have the wood, but all of the tree debris that came with maintaining the fire break.🍂We also turned over the land in the back area of our home that has plenty of worms and the highly sought after organic soil their waste produces. 🐉We thought we wouldn’t have enough growing medium to fill all of the beds. We do now! 🍃It was just a matter of perspective and seeing what we didn’t see before. I appreciate the time you take to inform those of us who are a bit novice in the ways of gardening.🍁 Once again Thank you!! Much Respect Sent Your Way! 😁
While you have changed my mind regarding raised beds, and I will certainly consider them, there are some disadvantages as well. – They are expensive, especially for large areas. I have a 2000+ sq ft garden and to raise that much space would be costly. – It is easy to water an entire garden automatically with a sprinkler when it is not raised. – If you have good soil (we get runoff from horse neighbors) you can’t take advantage of it. You have to put every and all nutrient into a raised bed. – I can bury nutrients in one part of the garden and share it with the entire garden….on the downside, some plants steal nutrients from each other I think your advantages of raised beds are great as well, but the biggest difference may come from having access to good fill. Your tree and compost fill looks amazing, but without good access to so much good fill I think the raised bed would be a challenge.
A comprehensive btreak down of why raised beds are an awesome option in gardening. Millenials are always looking for an EASY/EASIER option to garden, and working in the garden industry (I work at a garden centre) we are always trying to attract new customers with new products. I predict in the next 10 years these type of raised bed options will become the norm. Thanks for the article Mark. Cheers Adam
Hi Mark, do you have a article on the making of your raised garden beds (the non-kit ones) that you made our of corrugated iron and timber? I am looking at converting our garden into raised garden beds (we have 16 rows….ranging from 8m to 25m long). Currently the rows are keylined with swales between each, but being in a area like yourself, keeping on top of the grass and weeds in and between beds is a never ending constant battle (we’re losing). Thanks for the great articles.
I absolutely love how now that I’ve moved to Melbourne for school I’m discovering all these amazing Australian YouTubers. I’ve taken strong interest in Australian reptiles and gardening as of late. However now that summer is coming to an end I’m not sure if I can get anything growing in Melbourne. Just don’t know the weather all too well. Does anyone have any recommendations?
I really like these steel beds from Australia, but I have a big problem with deer in my yard. (I live in New Jersey in the U.S. We get huge herds of white tail deer.) I don’t want to have a fenced in area because I don’t want to deal with the weeds on the ground in the enclosed area, where you can’t get a lawn mower in there to get around the raised beds. Can you get wire enclosures to go over them, that are made by the company, or do you have to build your own? Did you build the net things in your article, yourself?
Hello!!! im currently working on an school assignment about agriculture and i was just wondering why raised garden beds are necessary, why you need pathways in gardens and why you need a water tank in a garden. I was just asking because i cant find any realivint information out on the internet so i was just wondering if you knew any websites or any information from your knowledge. Thanks!!
Hey there…thanks for your efforts to get these articles to us so we can learn from you….along the subject of this particular article, in the last few years the Vole population has exploded on my farm and so I am in high competition for my crops…in particular greens like kale, lettuce, etc. If I were to put in raised beds, I would have to somehow close off the bottoms so these darned Voles cannot dig into them…they do not climb but do dig like a mole….the difference in the two animals is Voles eat vegetation and Moles eat grubs. I am sooo defeated by them. Thanks again for the articles
A raised bed makes it so much easier to attach frame work to for bird or bug netting. I first used just bird netting but quickly learned to switch to bug nets. Also I have to use raised beds or tables with container growing. I have an unstoppable grub problem, coal dust from the previous power plant that destroyed my soil, rabbits, possums, ants are all out of control, skunks, squirrels and plain old worst contaminated sand, clay, and as previously noted coal! I also am forever ripping up choke vines that were all over every tree in my yard and the house when I moved in here 17 years ago. In my raised beds it was a lot easier to control them by just lining the bottom to keep the vines out, and then add my soil. I would love to get the zinc beds you use but unfortuneately are over $200 each in my area and being retired on social security money is an issue. Two years ago I had to lay down grubx to try and get rid of the grub problem but still have a huge ongoing battle with them. They hollowed out the entire inside of my favorite MacIntosh Apple tree that produced no less than 5 forty gallon barrels full of plump juicy apples, until arriving home from work one day to find it lying on the ground a few weeks before the apples were ready for harvest. The tree was mammoth and over 50 yrs old. I have two more though that still stand and produce Cortland apples. Unfortuneately I am allergic to apples but my friends and relatives are not. For some reason they don’t mind my poor soil. I replaced the entire lawn and planted new grass with all compost soil which I now use to fill my beds as well with a mixture of cow manure.
OMG, I have bought BOTH Vego and Birdies raised beds. I have been using a “Birdies” raised bed so far. It has been great so far. It was a BIG bed, about 6 feet by 3 or 4 feet wide. Now, I have 2 beds that are the round shaped beds that are BOTH about 42 inches wide by (approx) 36 inches tall. I have yet to put them both together, but, BOTH seem to be great products. The one that I have already put together and have used last growing season is kinda hard to put together without help. That is the 6 X 3 or 4 feet wide raised bed that is about 36 inches tall. So, although you may need help putting it together, once it is together, maybe use some logs and organic refuse like fall leaves, shredded wood to fill in the raised bed. Then, top it off with some good quality bagged soil or bagged cow manure. Just make sure that your crop is planted into some really nice quality “top soil” or good soil. I would have bought another 6 X 3 or 4 foot wide bed, BUT, I had to pay my neighbor to help me put it together, and, I would rather just put together the ROUND beds myself. They are 42 inches wide by about 36 inches wide. UNLESS, I have the measurements confused. Just check the stats before you order. But, I really do think that I am right.
Have been gardening in raised beds/containers for years, but nothing like your set-up. 🙂 It’s my understanding that roto-tilling (which I used to do, but no longer!) releases more carbon from the soil into the air than hand cultivating, not to mention gas fumes. It also turns the good top soil under, where it’s less available to plants. Unless you can amend the soil several inches deep, that just doesn’t make good gardening sense to me.
In the USA, Arizona. Just bought one with your discount code. I mostly do in ground gardening for deep watering purposes (desert). I’ll try one of these for an herb garden. Might get another for veggies next month. Not sure how they will do in 120 F weather, but should do well for spring and fall planting.
G’day, Mark! You are seriously the bee’s-knees for those of us who love to grow our own. Currently pulling up this deck (of sleepers) which I’ll convert to a raised bed. Wish I could afford the Birdie’s beds, but they’re a bit dear, so I might just stick with these old sleepers for the time being. I did purchase a Birdie’s low bed at Bunnings some time back, and whilst it’s looking good, it’s only the low version, so I’m growing pumpkin and sweet-potato in it (I think; not sure, the thing sort-of took off on its own). Anyways, I’ve got heaps of tree branches to do Hügelkultur with in my raised bed. Unfortunately, much of this is gum-tree self-pruning, and I’m not sure how well this will break down or how it will affect the soil’s acidity or whatever. Plus, although Redlands is known for lovely red soil, our property has really ordinary low-organic-content builder’s soil, which I’m slowly building up with our kitchen-waste compost. I’m looking to buy some inexpensive, rubbish soil just to build up the same way. It’s magical what you can do with compost! Thanks for your article on drum composting: I’ve got two on the go at the moment, but didn’t sort-of realise I needed to give them a spin daily to promote the aeration of the compost. Silly me: I’ve mended my ways. Again, thanks for your articles, they totally rock!
Hey Mark, just received 1500mm x 740 mm raised bed from Birdies. (Ordered August 20, 2019, arrived today September 03, 2019). Checked package, hardware (nuts, screws, washers) were packed loose in a plastic bag. During transit developed a hole/split, the bag burst so there were a few escapees. Have advised Birdies. Reading the destruction manual etc. hmmm – do these beds need to be installed level? Brilliant, keep up the great work/info – “Thank You for your service”
I love your articles !!! The raised bed idea is fantastic !! Easier to weed and many other uses .. l will purchase some of these in the future no worries especially when l get older haha … but for some of us that are on a budget and your up for a bit of bending you can still build your own hugul bed without purchasing the raised beds .. l built a huge long hugul bed this year about 30 metres long and we were nearly self sufficient for the year !!
Hi Mark, saw your article on your bees. Me and my husband have honey (stinging American Bees). We get gallons of honey from them and they are our Pollenators. The world (especially here in the USA) has lost most of our wild bees. What a sad loss and I don’t think that people how important our BEES ARE” COULDN”T you do a full show on the bees and other POlenators. Jessie in the USA
I know raised beds are better for many reasons, but heavy metals and stuff. What do you use to test to see if your existing soils are not contaminated? Even the ones you buy that you might think are good soils and might have lead in it or something? Is there a test kit to buy? I cannot seem to find anything on it, or and I searching for it wrong? I am a noob at this. I was diagnosed with gastritis and its pretty expensive eating things from the stores like berries, cauliflower, etc… I want to make sure I am actually helping my condition and not making it worse.
In all seriousness this is common in many parts of Europe, I’ve seen entire farms of these in Balkans for regular farmed plants like onions or garlic. It’s simply the case that some plants like drier soil, so they are raised up to have rainfall drain quickly from the soil, while others are kept at ground level where water pools for longer periods.
Ok, so, I have 1/3rd of an acre in a rural district. I brought my 2 horses here for 1 year due to stable issues but then moved them out. Now I have had geese and ducks here for one year since the horses left so the soil is highly fertile. The owners of my home (3 1/2 years ago) before I bought it were raising things here organically so the yard soil is not toxic. I left all my horses manure all out in the yard. Leveled it out and have been trying to decide how to make my whole yard into a garden. Tried growing in containers last year while the horse manure was decomposing. But squirrels kept digging up my potatoes and something eating my tomatoes. So, under my horse manure area in about half of my decided garden area is all gravel prior to putting my horses here so I’m thinking that the approx 6 -8 inches of great composted horse manure garden area will at least not let moles in due to the gravel under it, but not sure if it’s deep enough to grow my potatoes, or other plants. Also no idea how to keep squirrels out. Do I really need to just load all the soil into raised beds and cover it? I don’t have a bunch of tree branches to put in the bottom like done here, so unsure if moles can just dig in through the bottom when there is no bottom on the raised beds? There are moles here. Or can I leave the soil on the ground and just have to cover it all? Wish I had a gardener mate, lol. Could use help – appreciate your articles 🙂 thanks.
It seems that raised beds are good also because they have good drainage, whether the ground even has standing water or not, keeping the roots and stems healthy. They protect against floods, as long as the water doesn’t top the height of the container. I believe that due to increased flooding, agriculture will be forced to find alternative ways to plant, and raised beds such as this, or even high berms may offer ways to keep soil dry enough to plant. This will mean less flat acreage that ends up underwater, and less big equipment for planting/harvesting. But forming berms or hills also increases total planting area. Raised beds can be as high as you like, and can grow plants through holes in the side.