With spring underway, now is the perfect time to start the garden projects you’ve been dreaming of. What better way to upgrade your garden than with raised garden beds?
But don’t get too hasty. As with any garden project, proper care and planning is crucial to the survival of your precious plants. Let’s dive into proper raised garden bed planning, and how you can ensure your bed is both functional and stylish.
Key Takeaways: Quick Summary
- The Right Wood: Use thick cedar or redwood to prevent warping and rotting, ensuring your garden bed remains durable and lasts for 10+ years.
- The Perfect Height: Build your bed high enough to accommodate deep roots and save your back from strain, but avoid excessive height to keep costs and maintenance low.
- The Perfect Width: Limit your bed width to a maximum of 4 feet to ensure you can easily reach the center without stepping into the soil.
- Using Quality Soil: Invest in nutrient-rich soil with the proper NPK and pH levels tailored to your specific plants to avoid stunted growth.
- Plant Design and Layout: Organize your garden by height and sunlight needs while using the Thriller, Filler, and Spiller method for a professional, eye-catching aesthetic.
Table of Contents
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Selecting The Right Wood
While it may come as a surprise, the type of wood you use when building a DIY raised plant bed is very important. Choosing the wrong wood can lead to a number of problems that could require a complete restart of your project. Some people may gravitate toward thinner wood planks, for the aesthetic appeal; however, thinner wood is prone to warping, bowing, and rotting from the heavy and wet soil. A thicker wood is the best way to go when building your raised garden bed, consider using cedar or redwood, as these woods are naturally durable, require no chemicals for outdoor use, and are naturally rot resistant, lasting you upwards of 10+ years.
Figuring Out The Perfect Height
Considering not everybody will use the same bed height, here are some factors to consider when choosing yours:
- Your height: You don’t want a raised bed that sits too low to the ground, as depending on your own personal height, a bed too low would require lots of bending and back stressing movements. Keep your bed higher from the ground and appropriate to your height for a comfortable gardening experience.
- Deep roots: Some plants like carrots, or tomatoes, grow deep roots, meaning your raised bed needs to be high enough, for optimal growth. Take the time to research the plant you plan to grow in your bed, and make sure your bed is high enough to compensate for the plant’s needs.
- Don’t build too high: While it may seem like “the higher the better”, this is not always the case for every raised garden bed. Building your bed too high can result in higher costs, higher maintenance/labor, and higher strain on the structure’s wood.
Choosing The Perfect Width
You should also take into consideration the width of your bed, let’s look at the reasons why:
- Reach: Making your raised bed width too wide can make it difficult to reach the center, and may require stepping into your bed to get work done, which we definitely want to avoid.
- Maximum 4 feet: Keeping your width at a maximum width of 4 feet, is perfect for ensuring you can reach any part of the bed without difficulty.
Using Quality Soil
Your garden is a showcase of nature’s beauty, and hard work, so it only makes sense to give your plants the best quality of life to ensure a healthy bloom. For this reason, using the right soil is a must. Less than great soil, or the incorrect soil, will result in slow or zero growth, such soil often lacks the nutrients needed for healthy plant growth. Nutrients that plants look for in soil are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, plants also look for a certain pH count. The level of pH and how much of a nutrient is needed varies from plant to plant. Before you start planting, research specifically what pH count and nutrients your plants require, and what soil works best for your specific seed.
Plant Design and Layout
Now that you have your raised bed design planned to perfection, it’s time to think about the design and layout of the actual plants that you’ll be growing. Let’s review some garden design basics.
Plant Needs and Visibility
There’s no one way to layout your garden, but these methods can be another fix at designing it right for you.
- Grouping by Sunlight Needs: Full sun plants thrive together, so consider placing all of yours in their own designated spot, the same goes for shade loving plants.
- Layering by Height: To make sure all your plants are visible and on display, place taller plants at the back, medium ones in the middle, and shorter plants at the front. This way none of your hard work is blocked or going unnoticed from spectators.
Thriller, Filler, and Spiller
The thriller, filler, spiller method used to create well-thought-out planters, that include the plant types needed for a stunning look.
- Thriller: Choose a plant to be your tall, eye-catching centerpiece.
- Filler: Include mounding plants to add fullness to your planter.
- Spiller: Having trailing plants in your garden bed to soften the edges, adding to the natural growth look.
Now your garden bed has all the plant types needed for a balanced, full look.
Et Voilà ! Now you have the skills and knowledge to create a proper raised garden bed, capable of supporting both decorative plants and vegetables. Still undecided on what specific plants you wish to use in your garden? Check out our Brands and see our wide selection of gorgeous plants from Rio Dipladenias, to Capri Petunias. Or Find a Store near you that carries Fernlea Flowers brands and start building your dream garden bed!
👉 For more on the Thriller, Filler, Spiller method, be sure to check our guide to Mastering the Thriller, Filler, Spiller Method, its full potential. Want to deep dive into plant nutrients, click here. Happy gardening!