Starting a Raised Bed Garden in 5 Simple Steps (2024)

FAQs

How do you prepare a raised garden bed for the first time? ›

Step #1: Prepare your garden bed

To start, look for level ground in your garden or even on the deck, the footpath, or the driveway. If you're setting up your raised garden bed on grass, ensure the grass underneath the base is dead and removed before adding aggregate and soil.

To put it simply, you should put a layer of organic material at the bottom of your garden bed, which will break down and enrich the soil. This can include compost, or woody material such as logs, dry wood, branches, and leaves.

Tips for Lining the Bottom of Your Raised Garden Bed

Adding a layer of absorbent materials like shredded newspaper and cardboard to your bed will help retain moisture in the soil. A good blend of compost and a layer of mulch on top of your bed will also help reduce the rate of evaporation.

A general potting mixture of three parts organic matter (such as garden compost, leafmould or well-rotted manure), two parts sharp sand and seven parts topsoil is sufficient for most raised beds. For alpines, bulbs and herbs, that like good drainage, double the proportion of sand.

As a general rule, put tall veggies toward the back of the bed, mid-sized ones in the middle, and smaller plants in the front or as a border. Consider adding pollinator plants to attract beneficial insects that can not only help you get a better harvest, but will also prey on garden pests.

Corn, beans, and squash are all excellent crops to grow together. These are larger crops, but if you have a big enough raised garden bed, it's no problem. The corn stalks provide a support structure for the beans, the beans add nitrogen to the soil, and the squash leaves protect the roots.

A depth of 8 – 12 inches will suffice for most gardening situations. Because of the excellent drainage properties of raised beds, it is possible to grow an abundance of vegetables in a limited amount of space.

Beets, lettuce, kale, cucumbers, peas, radishes, cherry tomatoes and green beans are some of the easiest vegetables for beginners to grow. Summer and winter squash are also good choices for first-time gardeners.

What is the easiest vegetable to grow? ›

You can line your raised bed to make it more durable and to prevent toxics from leaching into the soil. For lining, use landscape fabric found at garden supply stores or cloth fabric from clothing. Avoid non-porous plastic, as it can retain too much water and discourage beneficial insects and worms.

First and foremost, adding a liner to a raised bed provides an extra layer of protection for the wood against rot and dampness.

Raised beds can be set up directly on lawn with little or no preparation. Beds 11 inches and taller are generally deep enough to smother buried grass before it can reach the surface. All that is needed, in this case, is to level the ground before setting up the planter.

When it comes to container raised garden beds or raised garden beds, make sure there are holes in the bottom of the container for proper drainage. Ideally, when you water the raised garden bed, your plants will absorb what they need and let the rest of the water drain from the drain hole of the container.

So if the soil in your garden is very shallow, or you are making new garden beds, adding or replacing a lawn, or putting in raised beds and need to add new soil, top soil is what you need.

Vegetable Beds: On the other hand, when it comes to vegetable beds, the bed must be approximately 12 to 18 inches deep to ensure adequate depth for the roots of your plants. This is especially important if your raised bed is placed on cement or the patio, which will inhibit roots from growing deeper into the ground.