If you’re thinking about gardening, these five raised bed gardening ideas and tips are a great place to start! We set up some raised garden beds for our son and his wife to get them started with their own backyard garden.
No matter the style of raised bed you want to use, these five steps can help you position, fill and plant them for a successful growing season.
We got some metal raised garden bed kits from USA-made Hopkins Homestead that were very easy to install (that’s what we’re showing in the video below). If you’d like to get these for your own home, use coupon code “Homesteadingfamily5” for 5% off your order.
Types of Raised Garden Beds
There’s no right or wrong way to build a raised bed. Sometimes people are working with poor soil structure, and a simple 6″ high raised bed can help them add good-quality soil above their existing soil.
In fact, you don’t even need materials to build a raised garden bed. Read here how we made raised garden bed rows to supercharge our soil!
For others, especially those who are aging, consider building a raised garden bed two or three feet off the ground so you don’t have to kneel or bend over as far to tend to the garden.
The material can also vary from wood, metal or even stone. With each option, there are some considerations to think of:
- Wood – Wood is my favorite option. Cedar will last a bit longer, but you’re not limited here. Two by six or two by eight is sufficient, but for longevity, consider building it with 6×6-inch boards. They’ll be both very insulating in the summer from too much heat, while also helping retain the heat in the winter months. It will still break down over time, so keep that in mind. (Homesteading Hack: If budget allows, consider lining the inside of the garden bed with metal prior to filling. This will give you the insulating effect while also extending the life of your garden bed.)
- Metal – Metal is a great option for a raised garden bed that won’t break down over time. While it may not insulate and protect from the cold or heat, it’s very durable and they look great.
- Stone – Stone, while more expensive upfront, can be a fantastic way to build a raised garden bed. It will have both insulating and cooling effects throughout the year and will last for years.
- Hay or Straw Bales – You can build a simple raised garden bed using hay or straw bales. They’re inexpensive. However, they will break down over time, and you’ll need to start from scratch after a few years.
Choosing the Right Location
We highly recommend using the Sun Seeker app (Sun Seeker App for Apple, Sun Seeker App for Android). This will help you locate your raised garden beds in the optimal location for sunlight.
Ideally, you want your location to get a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight daily. Even better is 8 hours of direct sunlight daily. This doesn’t always work for every property, so we do the best we can with what we’re working with.
If planning your garden during the winter months, remember to consider any trees that haven’t leafed out, which might create shade during the summer months.
Make sure you allow enough space between and around the sides of your raised bed for a wheelbarrow. This ensures you can both move necessary tools around with ease, but also it will be no problem for you to fit yourself between and around the beds.
Finally, consider where your water will come from when choosing your garden bed location.
Raised Garden Bed Soil & Compost
It can be difficult (or expensive) to source enough high-quality soil and compost to fill a raised garden bed. Whatever you do, don’t skimp on the quality of your soil!
We recommend using the hugelkulture method of filling the bottom half with woody organic matter (sticks, twigs and bark – avoid large logs) to not only fill the space and save on the amount of soil it takes to fill the bed but also aid in water retention during the hot summer months.
Homesteading Hack: If you have critter problems (moles, voles, etc.) that might tunnel into your garden beds, line the bottom with hardware cloth before filling with soil.
Start by filling the bed with branches, twigs and bark and tamp them down as best as you can (walking on them is a great way to get them packed in there).
Fill in the holes with soil and spray it well. Add more branches, twigs or logs and soil as needed until the bottom half of the bed is filled. Depending on the depth of your raised beds, you may be unable to fill them halfway with logs and twigs.
Ideally, you want the top six inches of your raised bed to be high-quality compost (especially for a first-year garden). You can probably get away with as little as an inch of soil below the compost, but if you can manage six inches of soil and six inches of compost, you’ll be set up for success.
If you can’t afford to buy that much, purchase as much as you can. You can also make your own compost in as little as a month.
Water
Raised bed gardens will need more watering than an in-ground garden. Make sure to set your garden beds up where you’ll have access to water.
There are all kinds of watering systems that are easy to set up for raised beds. If it’s small enough, you may be able to just hand-water it as needed. If you’re working with a fairly small space, an overhead sprinkler could do the trick.
We like the assurance that our garden will get watered whether we’re around to do it or not, so we prefer drip systems that can be set up on automatic timers. While they’re a bit of an investment upfront, they save a lot of time later, which is precious to us.
Add Ons
Don’t forget the extras! There are many add-ons you can do with raised garden beds, from building a hoop house to keep the warmth in, to adding shade cloth to keep it cooler. You can also add netting to keep out bugs and pests.
One of the things we love most about raised garden beds is that they make it easy to add season extenders for the garden with these winter gardening methods.
Conclusion
While we don’t have raised garden beds here at Riverbend, we’re big fans of them as they make access to gardening easy for anyone.
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