10 DIY Raised Bed Garden Designs

For me, square-foot gardening is a favorite method of gardening for our home, and I spend so much time online looking at awesome DIY raised bed garden designs to expand the ‘square’ of my gardens. This style works well for our home and our lifestyle. So check out these ideas because it is very easy to build and it’s practical.

It allows me to plant considering the amount of light from our yard (certain crops in the shade, other crops in the sun), and also the needs of our different plants. Recently, we start struggling against a vine that was allowed to overgrow the neighborhood. However, this vine has runners underground that we can’t remove. So, it invades everything, along with all the bermudagrass. To save our garden and to keep our plants alive, we turned to raising our beds. Of course, you want your plants to grow healthy. Besides benefiting from good crops, these ideas will beautify your garden. It will utilize the entire area of your yard. If you have a smaller yard, you will be able to save space and maximize every land.

DIY raised bed garden

No matter how many different methods are for gardening, today, we’re going to stick with the raised bed garden ideas. So, the following ten designs are some options that I considered before starting to build my raised bed garden. Moreover, a section of tips and tricks will wait for you at the end of the article, to give more help. How convenient, isn’t it? Now, dig in!

10 Easy DIY Raised Bed Garden Ideas

The most compelling evidence that these DIY raised bed gardens are a good idea is that there are so many ways to build them. In this article, we listed only ten of them, but you are free to extend your research as much as you consider necessary. However, if one of these DIY raised bed garden ideas is suitable for your needs and preferences, access the links we attached, and start your green project.

Now, with no further introduction, here are our ten favorite DIY raised bed gardens!

1. The DIY Tiered Raised Bed Garden

I love the stepped-up version of this square-foot garden-inspired design. Not only are you giving depth to crops that need a little more depth to grow well, but you’ve got a versatile design to work with your comfort level of movement. Tall plants on the levels, deep growing or short crops on top.

2. Easy U-Shaped Raised Bed Garden with Cinder Blocks Idea

While we won’t be doing the “u” shaped beds, we are going to test the cinder block raised bed this year. It gives us a little more movement if we need to rearrange the garden next year and spots for small crop areas that may creep (mint, anyone?!) or just fun things.

3. Easy and Cheap Raised Bed Garden with Trellis

This raised bed garden design combines a few great ideas. The galvanized steel walls would be great for northern gardens to help bring more heat to the planting medium in your bed. It also looks awesome for those of you who want beautiful-looking beds to go along with their functionality. They’ve also integrated cattle paneling into the trellis design so that there is vertical space over the walkway.

4. Cattle Panel For An Easy and Cheap Raised Bed Garden Cylinder

If building a huge wooden bed is not something you want to try, other versions can help you create a bed you can work in, no matter what the soil or surroundings are. This garden bed is made from a galvanized steel mesh (think cattle panel) lined in a textile that doesn’t contain water.

This is a moveable bed system – meaning you can move it around from season to season as opposed to a wooden or concrete/brick construction.

5. Plastic Drum as a Cheap Raised Bed Planter

This is a clever idea, especially if you have access to these plastic drums. They don’t have to be able to hold water any longer, as that makes a perfect drainage opportunity. These would need to be altered to allow for proper drainage, but I love that they are raised to a height where you don’t have to stoop or bend to work on your garden!

You might not want to plant tomatoes, green beans, or corn here, but this is a perfect place for low-growth crops. Click here for a tutorial on how to create these raised bed drum planters.

6. Hugelkultur DIY Raised Bed Garden Idea

While generally raised bed gardens are prominent in urban settings, the hugelkultur garden is usually thought to be for those with larger plots of land. But that’s an understatement. You can do it in even smaller beds than these! Check out the process at Permies.com!

But what exactly is a hugelkultur garden?

Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc.

As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets – so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self-tilling.

7. Galvanized Steel Watering Tank For Easy Raised Bed Garden Idea

If your DIY skills are lacking, or you just don’t have the time and want something ready-made, you can get raised bed garden kits or use galvanized steel watering tanks.

We use several of these smaller steel tanks for some of our herb gardens right by the back door. They keep out more of the critters that would eat our plants a year to year and allow the soil to get warmer during the winter months. And they look good, too!

8. Found Object Reused As a DIY Raised Bed Garden

I love the idea of finding objects to raise your garden beds. However, the material of the found object must be suitable for your future garden. So, make a little research before starting your project. Also, try to consider this technique before all the others, as it is the most nature-friendly. In this way, we recycle all the unwanted objects that would end up thrown away if it wasn’t for us.

9. Straw Bale Gardening

The awesome thing about straw bale gardening is that it is so easy to set up, after following a bit of conditioning, you can grow over the whole structure, and then compost it when it has lived its usefulness to you. Move it around to where you need it, plant small or large patches, or use it to line a raised bed and give yourself more growing space. Modern Farmer shows you how.

10. DIY Elevated Raised Herb-Garden Planter

Growing fresh herbs indoors can be a tricky task, but an outdoor garden bed requires yard space that not all of us have. So, maybe it is time to implement an indoor elevated raised garden for all your fresh herbs. “This Old House” compact piece takes up less than 6 square feet and has a few handy hooks to hold your gardening tools. Best of all, it will let you enjoy fresh herbs all season long without back-breaking labor.

More gardening ideas from Mom with a PREP

Tips and Hacks For Beginners

  • This type of garden is the perfect solution for you, especially if you’re suffering from back problems. Bending, stooping, and kneeling can all take their toll on your back and joints. However, raised bed garden designs come in various heights to make reaching your crops less stressful on your body in time.
  • One problem many have is an invasion from deer. One of my friends experienced this issue and the solution she found was brilliant and so easy to implement. She just created a wood border for her garden that served double duty – a barrier and a vertical gardening plane. Sure, the deer may eat at your crops through the fence, but when you have a whole wall worth, surely they’ll leave you some!
  • If you are interested to learn more about your specific growing areas and the challenges your garden may face in the future, check out these 27 pieces of advice from Marta Waddell, a Master Gardener in Arizona.
  • Another issue that gardeners run into is chickens, birds, squirrels, and even cats that get into garden beds. This easy netting hack is a great way to keep them out of your crops. Also, you can use this to put shade cloth over crops that are sensitive to high-season light to stretch their time a little longer before being burned by the summer sun.
Ideas

How Did You Build it?

Yes, you certainly are! Try to remember this before starting your DIY Raised Bed Garden project. With this in mind, you should build something that is most suitable for your and your family’s needs and preferences.

Last but not least, feel free to ask any further questions about how to build your own raised bed gardens in the comments section. Also, please share your experience, setbacks, and results with all of us. We are excited to find out how this green project of yours will take shape.

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Katy Willis is a writer, lifelong homesteader, and master herbalist, master gardener, and canine nutritionist. Katy is a preparedness expert and modern homesteader practicing everyday preparedness, sustainability, and a holistic lifestyle.

She knows how important it is to be prepared for whatever life throws at you, because you just never know what's coming. And preparedness helps you give your family the best chance to thrive in any situation.

Katy is passionate about living naturally, growing food, keeping livestock, foraging, and making and using herbal remedies. Katy is an experienced herbalist and a member of the CMA (Complementary Medical Association).

Her preparedness skills go beyond just being "ready", she's ready to survive the initial disaster, and thrive afterward, too. She grows 100% organic food on roughly 15 acres and raises goats, chickens, and ducks. She also lovingly tends her orchard, where she grows many different fruit trees. And, because she likes to know exactly what she's feeding her family, she's a seasoned from-scratch cook and gluten-free baker.

Katy teaches foraging and environmental education classes, too, including self-sufficient living, modern homesteading, seed saving, and organic vegetable gardening.

Katy helps others learn forgotten skills, including basic survival skills and self-reliance.

She's been published on sites such as MSN, Angi, Home Advisor, Family Handyman, Wealth of Geeks, Readers Digest, and more.

2 thoughts on “10 DIY Raised Bed Garden Designs”

  1. The way to make the cheapest raised bed is to rake up a mound of garden soil, however long that you want, and level the top with a hard rake. If the bed is not wide enough for your liking, just rake up some more garden soil onto the top, and rake it smooth again.

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