raised garden beds

Any of you guys use a raised bed? Im looking at doing one for my backyard this year. If you have any pics can u post them up so i can get some ideas? Will be my first time. Thanks.

I've got two and working on a third. Concrete block stacked three high, 16-18 feet long and 2 1/2 blocks wide. Faced with 2X12s for finished look, topped with 2X12 finished top edge. Not cheap, but will not need replacing in 2-4 years either.

Raised bed plants need more water than in ground plants, not as much as container plants. Be sure and stay up on watering.

I have 50 onions in one bed, fixing to put blueberries in second, and will have tomatoes and peppers in third.

photobucket ain't working for me or I'd post pics...

Mine are made of 2x12's, 8' long and 4' wide, leveled off of the lowest side, screwed together with a 2x4 stob driven at each corner and in the middle of the long sides, and screwed to the sides. Inside was sprayed then weed barrier cloth laid down, and soil to the top at the edges, and mounded in the middle. Mounding it in the middle increases the surface area available for planting.

I decided to build mine high because of bad knee and bad back. Sure is nice NOT having to lean way over or get on the ground.

Are there certain seeds that need to be planted together? Whats your layout like? Like i said this will be my first time if i do decide to grow one so im clueless on the subject.

I have all onion sin one, all blueberry plants going in another, and I mix peppers and maters in the third.

Skinny does a good job of mixing plants, maybe he will chime in.

Thanks fred. I unfortunately dont have the room for three of them. So id like to see someone whos got a clustered set up

hey, mine are long and skinny, along yard fence.

I had two pretty tall ones last year. I won't be doing nay this year since we are in a temporary house, but the ones last year did great. I built them out of cedar fencing, it was cheap and withstood the elements.

Troy, why you plabting blueberry bushes in a raised garden bed?

I've mixed 3 different varieties of tomatoes, jalapenos, sweet banana and bell peppers, and cucumbers in one 8x4 bed. Plant marigolds in every nook and cranny between them all to help in pest control, plus the marigolds are edible, too. Try to get real marigolds, Calendula Officinalis. If you can't find Calendula, you can also use Tagetes Erecta...still useful in pest control and still edible.

I have four beds that are 3' wide x 8' long and 3' deep, one bed that is 3' wide x 8' long and one foot deep and one octagonal bed that is 3' high with each side being 4' long. The octagonal bed is used for flowers and herbs because it is to large to harvest with out climbing in it. All other beds are used for vegetables and they do not have bottoms. On two of the newer beds, I attached a 2x4 on the outside end of each and attached ranch/farm panels to have a trellis or something substantial to tie/hold tomatoes up.
Shows all beds--


Shows my older beds along with the octagon.


Biggest thing is to not use treated wood on the inside of your bed. Mine are made out of cypress.

We recently had two new beds made using tin, treated wood and cypress wood. All treated wood is outside the tin enclosure and inside wood and the top are cypress. They measure 3' wide x 4' long and are 3' deep.

If you wonder about the height, we had these made high because I have a bad back and this makes working my garden beds easy for me.

Also, for another tip, we used lots of filler/wood chips/clippings and such in the bottoms of the beds to help fill the beds; we then added top soil and then used really good top soil and potting soil on top. Each year, I feed the beds well and add to them when needed.

It makes gardening so much easier and WAY less weeding is needed. I already have one of the 3' tall beds planted with potatoes and another with onions and garlic. Once I harvest potatoes, I will plant another crop in that bed.

Good luck.

ETA: I also put earthworms in all my beds!!

Maggie, you sure have a nice well manicured place.

nice beds, and nice place Maggie

Thanks guys.

I don't have a lot of room and my yard is on a slope so I plant in buckets.

buckets do fine, just have to water more often. I have to water my container tomatoes every day in june/july heat

Buckets do very well for sure; I've used those and grow boxes with great success. All of my raised beds require regular watering, since they drain out easily. We are anxious to see if the new tin/wood will need more water or not with the metal we used. Late summer is wicked. Hopefully, I am going to have a drip hose irrigation set up for my beds this year.

I planted a straw bale garden a couple of years back to see what all the hype was about and used a drip hose system for that & it worked great. Don't know why I have not done this for my beds yet.

My English peas are up and fragile so I have been in the yard covering them with plastic for the frost tonight along with my banana tree that has already started growing. That wind is kickin up and it is chilly compared to what we have experienced lately!!

Potatoes are already leafing above ground but I will just throw some more dirt over them if the frost bites and they will come back. Onions are looking great and this bit of weather won't hurt them. I still have a hand full of onions from the fall planting that freezes have not bothered one bit.

Yep..that's the only downside. In the summer I have to water them in the morning and evening.

ok Maggie, you have raised the bar on me. Now I gotta go build me another raised bed.

MsHunter, all my raised beds are on slopes. use a line level (about $1.50 at your local) to get it right.

Luverne ain't known for it's hills.

This is what my octagon bed usually looks like during the warm months. It pulls in loads of bees, butterflies and pollinators! This was taken last spring really before most of the flowers had bloomed.

I actually thought about that but then I would have to fence it to keep the dang dogs out. I built a shelf down my fence and set the buckets on it. Have a hose right there and the dogs can't dig or pisses on them. Works out pretty good for me.

For what it is worth, here are a couple of shots of the panels I put on the raised beds. They work amazingly well.

If you cannot guess, gardening is my passion.

believe it or not, we got hills. They just aint what you north bama folks call hills. Perfectly flat land is at a premium around here.

Maggie, you got some nice looking beds. You got me wanting to take down 5 water oaks in backyard for more sunlight for raised beds.

Go for it!! We grow soooooooo much in our raised beds and eat amazing food all summer and even put some up!! If I still had to grow in the ground and do all that weeding, I would not even think about doing my gardening now. The older we get the more efficient we get....

Thanks for the compliment too...mighty nice of ya.

English peas up and kickin' it along with a few left over onions from the fall...

because it is in my backyard where the dang deer can't go... same reason I don't plant a winter garden...dang deer.

My octagon raised bed is showing off with flowers and herbs..