Planning a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

If you need more information about this gardening technique and links to other pages on this topic, raised bed gardening provides an overview and raised bed garden design outlines some general design principles.

Tips and Ideas for Your Own Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

On the other hand, if you have a small garden with no room for a separate vegetable plot, you can create a more interesting and ornamental design by combining rectangles and squares with other shapes such as circles or octagons. (For some ideas on layouts see the sample raised bed garden plans for the ornamental garden).

When creating your raised bed vegetable garden, don't forget that it is very straightforward to attach trellis and netting to the raised bed frame to support vine crops such as beans and squashes. It is also easy to create tunnel cloches by attaching hoops and covering them with polythene or horticultural fleece.

Sample Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Plans

Plan 1: Large Garden.	Plan 2: 3x3m Plot.	Plan 3: 3x3m Plot.

The Key Points for Planning a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

Length of Beds
The length is entirely up to you, anything from 2.4 to 3m (8 to 10ft) suits most people. If you make them much longer you will find yourself becoming exasperated every time you have to walk round the entire bed to get to the other side!

Height of Beds
The best height for most purposes is around 30cm (1ft). This is deep enough to accommodate most crops and yet doesn't require large quantities of construction materials and soil mixture. If you have mobility problems you can make the beds higher.

Pathways
Leave sufficiently wide pathways to allow you easy access with a wheelbarrow or garden cart and make sure that you can access the beds from both sides! If the beds are 30cm (1ft) high, paths of 45cm (18in) are usually wide enough for a wheelbarrow - but do check first! If the pathways are on soil you can cover them with a layer of bark chippings to suppress weeds.

Positioning the Beds
It is important to position your beds so that they get the maximum amount of sunshine as most vegetables prefer full sun. If this is not possible - and realistically it won't be in a small or urban garden, you can position beds in light or partial shade so long as you choose vegetables that tolerate these conditions (suitable vegetables include: peas and beans; salad greens; chard, spinach and kale; brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower; radishes and beets). Raised vegetable beds are usually aligned north to south to maximize the amount of sun they receive.

A Good Way to Test Your Design