Raised beds are extremely popular with gardeners, offering many advantages such as improved yields and easier maintenance.
If you want to install raised beds in your own garden then careful planning is essential. It’s worth considering which materials you’ll use to ensure your raised beds are sturdy, long-lasting and, most importantly, safe to grow food in.
In this short video we share our top tips for choosing the correct location, size and materials for your bed – and how to build one.
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I'm loving this channel! Thanks for all the great tips and very informative videos. :)
My entire vegetable garden features raised beds. With my clay soil, it's the best way to go about growing my own food.
Great video for small gardens and small raised beds. We have raised beds that are 4' wide by 44' long. Having beds that long with no cross bracing is a challenge. For anyone running raised beds longer than 10' we have discovered that frequent external bracing is a must. One wooden ground spike every 8' won't cut it. Our best solutions to the issue so far have been 1) poured concrete in place of the boards reinforced with nylon and re-bar (ridiculously expensive but effective), or 2) 18" long1 1/2" angle iron braces pounded in to the ground every 3'. This seems to solve the issue of bowing on the longer beds. Our beds are made from Douglas Fir and last about 8 years on average.
I use cinder blocks to build mine, with the holes turned upwards. Because I like my garden cheerful, I add soil to a few of the holes and put in a marigold or petunia here and there, just for fun! It takes 18 blocks to make an approximately 4' x 8' bed that is 8" deep. May not be the prettiest thing in the world, but it will last a long time, and it does the job!
You make such lovely videos. Thank you. Last growing season was my first garden in the residence. Simple was nice. This year I've tilled a 26'x7' plot on a small hill for a level tier, with high hopes of adding a new tier each year. My vision is to also include raised beds jutting out perpendicularly at each end, and build a stone fire pit and sitting area within the garden framework. It's nice to have a video such as this for reference and to keep the dream alive! Thanks again!
I have the thinner wood with corner and side posts i drive into the soil for stability. Unfortunately, the more durable woods like cedar and hard wood are either not easily available here in holland or they are too expensive for me. I use pine, painted with black woodpreserve and they are still doing ok after about 3 years. I don't see signs of rotting through or weakening yet. I estimate they will last at least another 5 years with some fixing up. I am considering to order a large batch of used scaffolding planks after these. They are not that badly worn out, just deemed unsafe to support weight or slightly cracked. A lot cheaper than the same size new plank. I don't mind them looking… ehhhh… rustic or have a splotch of concrete or paint on them. Black woodpreserve on them, good as new. :D
Great update, thanks.
Lovely!. I am an invalid so I have raised beds 1 meter square, and 50 cm high in my garden. Very useful!!
While this is an okay commercial about raised beds, it certainly doesn't provide instruction on how to build them. What a disappointment!
I have a couple of raised beds. The soil here is very rocky and hard to dig through. Raised beds are the perfect answer to growing your vegetables.
We use old bathtubs.
Great video – with lots of tips. Graham
Really nice n easy thx
Nice compact vid full of info. Tho i prefer in-ground planting. Pros and cons to raised beds.
Great video!