September 2, 2025 • 32 mins
If you are considering adding your first raised bed or yourfiftieth to your garden for next season, now is the time to be doing it. A new raised planter is going to have to be filled and that material is going to have to break down a bit before it can be planted in order to make the nutrients available to your plants. This is NOT something we want to put together at the last minute in the spring just before we start planting.
For the entire month of September, I am taking you step-by-step through starting a new raised bed, from deciding the dimensions and layout, what materials to use to build it, what to fill it with and how, all the way to successfully planting those beds with your first crop in the spring.So, today on Just Grow Something, we’re starting with the basics: how to decide what size and depth your raised bed should be and how it can fit into the overall layout and design of your garden. You just might find they are so versatile, you will eliminate your in-ground beds in favor of an entire yard of raised beds, whimsical planters, and neat little walkways. Let’s dig in!
NEW! For a limited time, save 20% AND get FREE shipping on my favorite planters from PlanterBoxDirect.com. Just use code JUSTGROW20 before October 15th, 2025!
For full show notes, visit https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/how-big-should-a-raised-bed-be-ep-265
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right, my gardening friends,if you are considering adding
your first raised bed or your 50th to your garden for next
season, now is the time to be doing it.
A new raised planter is going tohave to be filled with
something, and generally speaking, that something is
going to have to break down a little bit before it can be
planted into. And that something often
(00:21):
contains commercial compost, which means it's going to need
time to be inoculated with the particular microbes that are
present in your garden in order to make the nutrients available
to your plants. This is not something that we
want to put together and then plant into right away.
It will not go well for you or your plants.
(00:43):
So for the entire month of September, I am taking you
through step by step starting a new raised bed.
From deciding the dimensions andthe layout of what materials to
use to build it, what to fill itwith and how, all the way to
successfully planting those bedswith your first crop in the
spring. So today I'll just grow
something. We're starting with the basics,
(01:05):
how to decide what size and depth your raised bed should be
and how it can fit into the overall layout and design of
your garden. You might just find that raised
beds are so versatile, you'll actually eliminate your in
ground beds in favor of an entire yard of raised beds and
whimsical planters and neat little walkways.
(01:29):
Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and what started
as a small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
build confidence in your own garden space.
(01:49):
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
just grow something. I apologize for the sound of my
voice today. If anyone else is dealing with
seasonal allergies right now, you are not alone.
My head hurts, my eyes are watering, my sinuses are
pounding, and my throat feels like I spent the night in like a
(02:10):
smoky bar screaming at the top of my lungs.
My particular weakness is ragweed, and we have three
different varieties of them pretty much uncontrolled on the
farm right now, and they're blooming and they're just
spitting their grossness all over.
It actually truly makes me readyfor the first frost to kick in
and just eliminate the problem for me.
(02:31):
But I'm not ready for the gardento go yet, so I'll just be over
here sipping my tea and blowing my nose until it all passes.
And Speaking of audio, let me start by thanking each and
everyone of you for sticking it out with me over the past few
episodes of trying to nail down the audio for this podcast.
(02:53):
A little behind the scenes here,I have been looking at ways to
improve my editing process for this show ever since we added
video to Spotify in YouTube, andthat eventually involved me
buying a new laptop for recording and editing.
It was an investment and I really thought it would free up
(03:13):
a lot of my time in terms of theediting, and it did.
But the new laptop obviously wasbuilt for video and not audio
because the sound card, for whatever reason, is really lousy
and my favorite microphone just sounded like I was talking
through a cotton ball. So I've been swapping out mics
(03:34):
and trying new software and doing all the things to try to
make this all work. And in the meantime, the sound
quality of the show has suffered.
So for all of the episodes whereI was too quiet, too out, too
screechy, only recording on one channel, whatever.
I really appreciate you hanging around and hopefully I think
(03:55):
we've got it figured out. But your feedback does matter to
me. So if we don't have it nailed
yet, and I'm using the Royal we here because it is just me,
myself and I, please let me knowso I can continue to improve.
It makes no sense for me to try and impart all of this gardening
wisdom on you if it's a struggleto listen to.
(04:16):
So thank you very much for continuing to be here.
So generally when we refer to raised beds or raised planters,
we're thinking about like boxes maybe that we have built from
wood or other materials or prefab planters that we assemble
on site from things like composites or metal like My
(04:38):
Planter box direct boxes. This can also be found materials
like tubs and bins that we may want to repurpose or even old
pavers out of the garden that need a new home.
So when I'm talking about raisedbeds or raised planters, this
basically just means anything that we are using to contain
(05:00):
larger amounts of soil for planting into.
But we are talking about things that are larger than like a 5
gallon bucket that I would consider to be container
gardening and it has its own setof benefits and challenges and
we'll just save those for another day.
So before we even jump into this, why would you even want to
get started with a raised bed? There are actually a lot of
(05:21):
benefits to raise bed gardening and I didn't really recognize
them until really late into my, I guess gardening journey.
And now I am just an absolute proponent of them.
The first thing is improved soilquality.
You can absolutely customize thesoil mix to meet the specific
needs of your plants. Whatever it is that you're
(05:43):
growing, you can ensure those optimal growth conditions.
This is a special especially handy if you live somewhere
where your native soil is not the best or you're living in a
suburban area that might be a new home build.
And we have no idea what that soil and I'm using air bunnies
here actually consists of in your in your backyard.
(06:06):
It might have just been filled dirt that was brought in from
wherever and just dumped back there and they threw some grass
seed out and said, OK, you have a lawn.
You don't know what that is. The second thing is you can
extend your growing season. So raised beds tend to warm up
faster in the spring because obviously there's a lower volume
of soil than what would actuallybe in the ground.
(06:26):
So if you're a short season gardener, these might actually
allow for earlier planting and alittle bit of a longer growing
season for you. Raised beds also tend to have
better drainage. Now, of course, this is going to
depend on how we build it and how we fill it, but because it's
an elevated structure, it's going to automatically promote
better drainage and that's goingto reduce the risk of water
(06:49):
logging and the possibility of root rot in your plants.
It also gives us easier access to whatever is in the bed.
So raised beds can be built at aheight that maybe reduces the
need a little bit for bending and kneeling, which makes
gardening a little bit more accessible.
And it also is so good for weed control.
(07:11):
It's a defined space. So it actually really helps to
keep those weeds at Bay. And that, of course, allows for
healthier plants and a little bit less stress on the gardener.
And the final benefit would be ahigher yield.
In my personal experience, square foot for square foot, my
garden yields more in the raisedplanters than they do in the
(07:34):
fields in the in ground beds. Now I will venture to say that
that's because of all of the other factors that we just
talked about. That all adds up to healthier
plants and less competition fromweeds, which of course leads to
higher yields. Now it's not that raised bed
dimensions are fundamentally different from our in ground bed
(07:57):
dimensions. A lot of the considerations that
we talked about with determininglike the width of our in ground
beds is also repeated for our raised planters too.
You always want to consider the overall dimensions of of your
entire gardening space and the tools that you will be using in
that space and also in those beds.
(08:18):
So if you use row covers or frost cloth or landscape fabric
or other weed barriers, any types of trellises or anything
that is a defined width, it may be more convenient to pick a bed
with that is easy to use with the widths of those like tools.
Also think about whether you bring carts or wheelbarrows into
(08:40):
your space. Will you need room between the
beds for that? Will you need room between the
raised bed and maybe your in ground beds?
This goes along with keeping in mind the overall dimensions of
your gardening space, what is already existing in that space
and what you plan to keep, and then also the walkway spacing.
(09:02):
Also think about what crops you commonly grow or you intend to
grow and what your gardening style is.
If you tend to grow like the same vegetables year after year,
you might base your bed widths on the way those particular
crops grow or are planted. So corn, for example, if you
(09:23):
grow sweet corn for your family every single year, corn needs to
be planted in blocks for proper pollination.
So you need to make the decisionas to whether or not you're
going to have several raised beds spaced fairly closely
together and you're going to plant the corn in those or if
you want a larger singular square bed and that's where
(09:44):
you're going to plant them. Broccoli, that's another one
that grows and needs a lot of space as it gets those very,
very wide leaves. And so it might need some extra
space binding crops. So cucumbers or winter squashes
that you're trellising or melons, they're going to need to
be sort of trained to stay in their space within the beds and
(10:05):
out of the walkways if they're not trellis.
So this might determine the sizeof the beds that you need.
Climbing crops like peas and pole beans, they actually need
more vertical space than they dohorizontal space.
So if you're looking at narrowerbeds like that might be what
you're planning to plant in those, you know, skinnier beds.
Also, just consider how often you use trellises in your spaces
(10:30):
and if you're going to be movingthem from one bed to another
when you rotate your crops. These are all things that we
need to consider when we are building any garden bed in
ground or raised. But with raised beds, there are
actually a few other things to consider.
And the first one is the depth of the bed.
Now, obviously if we're plantingin ground, we seem to sort of
(10:51):
have like virtually, you know, unlimited depth, right?
Because we're going directly into the soil, unless you have
very, very compacted soil like we do with the clay.
It's one of the reasons why I'm starting to plant more and more
in raised beds. Very shallow beds are fine for
things like leafy greens or very, very small roots like
(11:15):
radishes that don't go very deep.
So if you have a found object that you want to use as a raised
bed, but it's only, you know, 6 or 8 inches deep, then it's
fine, go ahead and use it. But just plan your garden to
know that you're only going to be growing the shallow rooted
things in those containers. For everything else, you really
(11:39):
do want a minimum of about 16 inches of soil or 40cm deep.
Most plant roots sit around the four to 8 inch mark in the soil,
and things like carrots or anything with a deep taproot
like that broccoli we talked about, they can go as deep as 10
inches, sometimes even deeper. The goal for our raised beds is
(12:00):
to have enough soil volume in the bed to accommodate the roots
of the crop that you're growing.Hold the plant in place and have
enough soil available to hold the nutrients and the water for
all the plants in that bed. A shallow bed is going to dry
(12:21):
out much more quickly than a deeper 1, and it may not hold
enough nutrients for those more demanding crops.
So this means you're going to have to continue feeding very
frequently and add more compost more frequently.
The upside to those shallow bedsis like, yeah, they're going to
be less expensive to fill the first time around and they can
cost a little bit less to over overall to install if you're
(12:43):
purchasing the components for them.
And so if it suits your specificpurpose, like again, for those
shallow rooted leafy greens, then go for it.
I tend to stick with a fairly standard, you know, 18 inch bed
that I can fill about 16 inches with the soil.
And I just use that for everything.
And that way it doesn't matter. I can rotate my crops left and
(13:05):
right and it doesn't really matter.
I do have some older beds, one in particular that was more
shallow and I generally again, only use that for very shallow
rooted things and it's fine. I just have to plan out what I'm
going to put in that bed every year.
Shallow beds can also be OK if the soil beneath the bed is
(13:28):
accessible for those deeper rooted plants, but you would
obviously need to break up the soil underneath specifically for
any bed that would be shallower than like 10 inches.
And of course, we're not going to put a bottom on there.
And this obviously isn't going to work if you have if you're
putting your raised bed on top of things that are not suitable
for growing in. So if you are using raised beds
(13:49):
because you're growing in solid clay or you need to go on top of
concrete or rocks, and obviouslythat's not going to work.
And there are very deep beds that you can get that are going
to make it easier, like on your back or for folks who have
accessibility issues. So they are much taller and
they're really good for perennial plants or very, very
(14:12):
deep rooted plants that need to be deeper into the soil.
Just be aware of the width in addition to the depth for these
beds because the height of the bed may actually make it more
difficult to reach into the center if you have a very wide
bed. So let's let's talk about
special considerations for the width in addition to the bed
(14:34):
depth. The width is equally important.
If the bed is too wide, it's notas easy to just like step into
the bed to reach the middle because #1 the beds are going to
be more elevated than your in ground beds.
But also it's not going to be good for the soil in the bed to
be stepped on very frequently, which causes compaction, right?
(14:54):
So we want to make sure that we're choosing A width that
works within the garden space, but that also allows us to reach
the center from any side. And this is where we might want
to consider who is using the garden.
So we've already talked raised planters are great for giving
people access to gardens who maynot be easily able to get into
(15:14):
an in ground area. So if you're using a Walker or a
cane or you've got somebody in awheelchair, the width of the
beds for these folks kind of needs to be considered too,
because you want the beds to be narrow enough to be able to
easily reach into the middle while they're using whatever
their assistance apparatus is, the cane or the wheelchair or
whatever. And you also, at that point,
(15:35):
though, have to make sure that the walkways are wide enough to
accommodate whatever it is that they're using.
And so we also want to make suretoo, if like, especially if
you're using a wheelchair, we don't want to make the beds too
high. So actually for wheelchair
access, the recommended raised bed height is like 24 inches or
61 centimeters, which is, you know, a good height where it's
raised up enough to where somebody seated in a chair can
(15:57):
reach over. This is also a consideration if
you have folks who are elderly or have back issues who might
want to be sitting while reaching into the raised bed.
So that 24 inch height is good for sitting on a bench and
reaching in. If you are gardening with
children, a narrower bed is easier for little gardeners to
(16:21):
get into without climbing into the planter.
So if you're trying to get your kids into gardening and you
don't really want to go for all of your beds being narrow, you
might consider just like giving them their own dedicated bed.
So if you like for my grandkids,I've got the planter box direct
beds that are like 18 inches deep.
(16:43):
They're 24 inches wide and they are 72 inches long.
So they're like 2 by 6 feet, right?
Those are super easy for the little ones to get into and help
me when they're little. But after about age 8 or so,
they can just as easily reach into the 36 inch wide beds or
even the 48 inch wide beds if they're reaching from one side
(17:05):
or another. So you might consider just
getting a small one for their early years and then later on as
they get older, they can absolutely help you in all of
your raised beds. There are sort of standard width
sizes depending on you know who you're ordering through.
If you're ordering like prefab ones, you've got 182436486072.
(17:27):
Honestly, the general recommendation is going to be 36
inches wide. For most people you know, 48
inches is probably the Max that you want to go.
Most prefab companies have multiple widths and lengths to
choose from, so just use your best judgment after taking into
consideration the details that we just talked about.
When you are building your own, your materials may actually help
(17:51):
define how wide your beds are. So if you have scrap lumber
available to you and it's like in set sizes, well, this may
dictate the width or the depth of your bed depending on what it
is that you're using. So, I mean, I am absolutely a
proponent of making the best of what you have found.
Materials are great for making res beds and we'll talk about
(18:12):
that in more detail in the next episode.
Just be sure that you are considering what you're planting
in them when you think about depth and how you're using them,
when you think about the width and the length.
And you can have a mix of widthsand depths to suit your
individual needs in your particular garden space.
(18:32):
It doesn't have to be all uniform.
I mean, I get it, if you're someone who loves a good
spreadsheet and it tickles your brain to have all of the boxes
exactly the same size with the same spacing between them and
all the same color, OK cool, go for it.
But if you want a more creative vibe, it's OK to use a mix of
materials and colors. Or buy some planters but build
(18:55):
some other ones out of found materials.
The very first beds that we built were all from scrap
lumber. It's what we had available to
us. And as those beds began to fall
apart, I started buying prefab planter boxes from a variety of
companies, all in different sizes and depths, just to see
(19:16):
what I liked the best. The first one was one of those
birdies beds. It was 15 inches deep.
It was in a 4 by 6 configuration, 4 foot by 6 foot.
The next one was a really short Vigo Vigo Vejo.
I'm not sure how they pronounce it VEGO.
It was only 8 inches deep in a three by four size.
And that's the one that I referred to earlier that I just
(19:39):
generally use for shallow rootedthings.
And then I got another one from another brand.
I can't even remember what it was.
It was really tall. It was like 30 inches in a four
foot by 6 foot size, which I thought I would love because I
didn't feel like I would need tobend over.
(19:59):
Turns out that I hated it. And we literally cut it in half
to make 215 inch deep beds. So and then I finally I bought a
planter box direct bed and but what I bought was a 5 foot by 5
foot bed. Thinking again, a bigger
planting area would be better, but remember what I said about
(20:20):
being able to work in the bed without stepping into the middle
and compacting the soil. Yeah, most times I do have to
step into the center of that bedto get things done.
So what I have found to be my favorite sizes are 18 inch deep
in a four foot by 4 foot configuration.
So a basic square box and I havethat 2 foot by 6 foot
(20:43):
configuration. So these not only align
perfectly around the areas that I use them in, but they are
super easy for me to work in with plenty of room for
trellises if I choose to use them.
It's all about what works best for you as the gardener.
OK? I've talked a bunch of times
(21:04):
about my favorite raised planters from Planter Box
Direct, and I've given you a discount code from them so you
can experience them yourselves. And I thought since this month
is all about creating new raisedbeds, that I would reach out and
see if they would sponsor these episodes.
And they said yes. So shout out to Planter Box
Direct for being our sponsor this month.
(21:26):
But I took it one step further and I asked them for a special
code that you can use to save even more on your raised planter
order during this special series.
And they said yes to that too. So from now until October 15th
you can use Code Just Grow 20 tosave 20% on your order and still
(21:48):
get free shipping at Planter Boxdirect.com.
Fall is the perfect time to build your new raised beds and
get them ready to plant in the spring and Planter Box Direct is
the perfect place to get them. Tons of sizes, shapes, and
colors to choose from and super easy to put together so you can
be set up and ready to fill those beds the same day that you
(22:10):
get them. Get yourself set up for spring
with your new raised beds and save 20% with
freeshippingusingcodejustgrow20@planterboxdirect.comnow through October 15th.
The link is in the show notes. OK, so when you're thinking
about the dimensions of your newraised bed or beds, we also need
(22:35):
to take our irrigation into consideration.
How do you plan to water your garden?
If you're using drip tape, how easy is it going to be to lay
this out in the bed size that you're considering?
Are you using low lying sprinklers?
If so, how will these be placed in the bed?
Are you going to move them? Are they going to stay in place?
(22:56):
If you're planning on multiple beds, will you put like
permanent irrigation systems into the beds for the entire
season and how is that going to work linking them from bed to
bed? These are all considerations in
terms of the size of our beds, but also how we lay them out in
the garden space. If you're hand watering, could
you reach the center of the bed really easily with a heavy
(23:19):
watering can or a hose without straining or without stepping
into the bed and compacting thatsoil?
These are all considerations fordeciding how wide and how long
the bed or beds will be. We also do need to talk about
that layout. Once you have sort of figured
out what you think the ideal size would be for where you're
(23:41):
gardening and how you're gardening and what you're
growing, the next thing is to figure out the placement.
So the layout of your raised beds is important for how you
access the beds and the width ofthe space in between the beds
themselves and any in ground gardening space that you plan to
use, plus any other structures as they're all important.
(24:05):
If you use wheelbarrows or you use carts of some sort to move
things in and out of the gardening space, how will the
bed layout work with that? Will they be positioned since
you have access to that water, the irrigation we just talked
about, right? The absolute easiest way to
answer all of these questions isto get out into the space,
(24:25):
measure it out, and physically see how things will look and
feel. Grab a measuring tape and a
notepad and measure out the entire space and draw a little
map of how it currently looks and then sit down and sketch out
how you think you want it to look with the raised beds or the
other planters in that space. Then then here.
(24:48):
This is the fun part. OK, Make life sized models of
those planters or those other containers.
Use cardboard or newspaper, or just mark out the space with
like a rope or the garden hose or something so that you can not
only visibly see what the beds will look like when they're in
(25:08):
place, but you can also walk in between them and see if that's
going to work for you. Bring a wheelbarrow in there if
that's what you're using, or a garden cart or a bench, whatever
it is that you use. I have made this mistake.
I have put beds too closely together in an effort to fit
more into a small space, and I thought to myself, oh, that'll
(25:30):
be fine, I'll just squeeze in there and do what I need to do.
But in the middle of the summer when the plants are overflowing
from the beds and the weeds havecome up in between the beds in a
space that is too small to mow or hardly even put wood chips
down into, and I'm scooting along between the beds to try
and harvest in the heat and the humidity with the plants
(25:50):
smacking me in the face, Yeah, it was not fine.
So learn from my mistakes, lay it out ahead of time, and make
it a comfortable place to work and not one that is so
frustrating that you get sick ofthe space and just abandoned the
cherry tomatoes to languish in the summer heat because you're
absolutely over it. Yes, that happened, and it
wouldn't have if I had thought about my spacing a little bit
(26:13):
more thoughtfully and maybe lessaggressively.
The other thing to keep in mind when you're doing your little
sample layout is orientation andsunlight.
Where you place your beds matters for the best light
exposure. We want to aim for a location
that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight, preferably 8 if
you can manage it. Then we've talked about this
(26:34):
before. I can be broken up.
You can get 4 hours of morning sun and two hours and afternoon
sun or whatever. But if you have long rows and
you're gardening in the northernhemisphere, you're going to want
to orientate those beds north toSouth so that you prevent the
taller crops from shading the shorter ones.
Unless you want to do that intentionally because you're
(26:55):
trying to protect them from the sun.
If your space is limited, then again, you're going to choose a
spot with morning sun and a little bit of afternoon shade to
reduce the heat stress. It's also important to know if
the sunlight availability in this particular spot changes
throughout the season. And you thought we were going to
(27:16):
get through an episode without me mentioning your garden
journal? Think again.
This is where a garden journal comes in clutch.
If you've taken notes about the sunlight availability in the
areas of your garden in the spring versus the summer versus
the fall, then you'll know whereto best place your new raised
(27:36):
beds to take advantage of the best light during the time of
the season when you want it most.
What do I mean by this? I'll give you an example.
I have a bed in one of my gardens that we call the barn
bed because it's right next to the barn and right now it's an
in ground bed. But I actually have plans for
turning this into a raised garden bed area with cute little
(27:58):
pathways and an herb spiral. More on that another episode.
The important thing to know hereis that the light exposure in
that bed changes dramatically with the season.
Because the barn is on the east side of that bed, the bed is
shaded in the morning. There are also trees across the
path on the West side of that bed.
(28:20):
So in the spring, when those trees don't have their leaves
yet and the sun is lower to the South, that bed gets 6 to 8
hours of sun, full sun. It's a fantastic place for me to
grow early spring crops like lettuce that will vacate that
bed fairly quickly. But as soon as the trees fill in
(28:42):
and the sun moves further to thenorth, that bed now gets about 6
hours of daylight, but it is heavily shaded in the afternoon.
That works to my advantage with the early spring crops that need
to be in the bed a little bit longer but that don't appreciate
the afternoon heat. So things like bok choy that
(29:02):
will bolt if they get too hot too quickly now in the late
summer moving into fall when thesun starts to move back into the
South. But those trees all still have
all of their leaves. That spot only gets about four
hours of daylight. And the row closest to the barn
really only gets about 3 hours. That is not a good spot for me
(29:26):
to plant anything that I will want to harvest in the fall.
It just doesn't get enough sun for fast enough growth.
But it does make it a good contender for something that I
would want to overwinter for a spring crop.
So something that would grow slowly and hold like kale or
spinach or something like onionsor garlic that just need to
(29:50):
settle their roots in for the winter but will take full
advantage of that early spring sun.
That's what I mean about keepingdetailed notes about sunlight
availability for the areas of your garden that see changes in
the daylight. Knowing what I know about that
bed, I know that any raised planters I choose to put there
(30:13):
are not going to be where I plant my tomatoes or my Peppers.
But it would be great spots to put lettuce and arugula and
spinach in the spring, interplanted with like some
kohlrabi or some bok choy with agood cover crop through the
summer, and then planted in the fall to the overwinter crops for
my tomatoes and my Peppers and my sweet corn and my green
(30:34):
beans. I'd choose another area to put
my raised beds. That's what I mean by place your
new raised bed to take advantageof the best light during the
time of the season when you needit most.
OK, so maybe that's a little information overload for you, so
let's break it down Barney style.
(30:55):
When deciding on a raised planter size, consider the
following. What you're planting, how much
space you need to work in and around the bed based on the
tools that you use, who is working in the bed, if there is
anyone in your house with different needs, where you'll be
placing the bed in terms of orientation to the sun and how
(31:18):
you will irrigate the beds. That should give you a pretty
good idea of how deep the bed should be and what width and
length will work best for you. A good all around general
purpose bed should hold at least16 inches of soil for most
vegetables and be around 36 inches wide and as long as you
(31:40):
need it to fit your space. If you can create a mock up of
that size and place it in the space that you plan to garden,
you will have a really good ideaif it will work for you or not.
So next week we will talk about all the ways that we can build a
raised bed and what kinds of materials we can safely use,
including busting a very common,often repeated myth about using
(32:06):
certain types of wood. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that raised plant or garden, and
we'll talk again soon.
All right, my gardening friends,if you are considering adding
your first raised bed or your 50th to your garden for next
season, now is the time to be doing it.
A new raised planter is going tohave to be filled with
something, and generally speaking, that something is
going to have to break down a little bit before it can be
planted into. And that something often
(00:21):
contains commercial compost, which means it's going to need
time to be inoculated with the particular microbes that are
present in your garden in order to make the nutrients available
to your plants. This is not something that we
want to put together and then plant into right away.
It will not go well for you or your plants.
(00:43):
So for the entire month of September, I am taking you
through step by step starting a new raised bed.
From deciding the dimensions andthe layout of what materials to
use to build it, what to fill itwith and how, all the way to
successfully planting those bedswith your first crop in the
spring. So today I'll just grow
something. We're starting with the basics,
(01:05):
how to decide what size and depth your raised bed should be
and how it can fit into the overall layout and design of
your garden. You might just find that raised
beds are so versatile, you'll actually eliminate your in
ground beds in favor of an entire yard of raised beds and
whimsical planters and neat little walkways.
(01:29):
Let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen and what started
as a small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
build confidence in your own garden space.
(01:49):
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
just grow something. I apologize for the sound of my
voice today. If anyone else is dealing with
seasonal allergies right now, you are not alone.
My head hurts, my eyes are watering, my sinuses are
pounding, and my throat feels like I spent the night in like a
(02:10):
smoky bar screaming at the top of my lungs.
My particular weakness is ragweed, and we have three
different varieties of them pretty much uncontrolled on the
farm right now, and they're blooming and they're just
spitting their grossness all over.
It actually truly makes me readyfor the first frost to kick in
and just eliminate the problem for me.
(02:31):
But I'm not ready for the gardento go yet, so I'll just be over
here sipping my tea and blowing my nose until it all passes.
And Speaking of audio, let me start by thanking each and
everyone of you for sticking it out with me over the past few
episodes of trying to nail down the audio for this podcast.
(02:53):
A little behind the scenes here,I have been looking at ways to
improve my editing process for this show ever since we added
video to Spotify in YouTube, andthat eventually involved me
buying a new laptop for recording and editing.
It was an investment and I really thought it would free up
(03:13):
a lot of my time in terms of theediting, and it did.
But the new laptop obviously wasbuilt for video and not audio
because the sound card, for whatever reason, is really lousy
and my favorite microphone just sounded like I was talking
through a cotton ball. So I've been swapping out mics
(03:34):
and trying new software and doing all the things to try to
make this all work. And in the meantime, the sound
quality of the show has suffered.
So for all of the episodes whereI was too quiet, too out, too
screechy, only recording on one channel, whatever.
I really appreciate you hanging around and hopefully I think
(03:55):
we've got it figured out. But your feedback does matter to
me. So if we don't have it nailed
yet, and I'm using the Royal we here because it is just me,
myself and I, please let me knowso I can continue to improve.
It makes no sense for me to try and impart all of this gardening
wisdom on you if it's a struggleto listen to.
(04:16):
So thank you very much for continuing to be here.
So generally when we refer to raised beds or raised planters,
we're thinking about like boxes maybe that we have built from
wood or other materials or prefab planters that we assemble
on site from things like composites or metal like My
(04:38):
Planter box direct boxes. This can also be found materials
like tubs and bins that we may want to repurpose or even old
pavers out of the garden that need a new home.
So when I'm talking about raisedbeds or raised planters, this
basically just means anything that we are using to contain
(05:00):
larger amounts of soil for planting into.
But we are talking about things that are larger than like a 5
gallon bucket that I would consider to be container
gardening and it has its own setof benefits and challenges and
we'll just save those for another day.
So before we even jump into this, why would you even want to
get started with a raised bed? There are actually a lot of
(05:21):
benefits to raise bed gardening and I didn't really recognize
them until really late into my, I guess gardening journey.
And now I am just an absolute proponent of them.
The first thing is improved soilquality.
You can absolutely customize thesoil mix to meet the specific
needs of your plants. Whatever it is that you're
(05:43):
growing, you can ensure those optimal growth conditions.
This is a special especially handy if you live somewhere
where your native soil is not the best or you're living in a
suburban area that might be a new home build.
And we have no idea what that soil and I'm using air bunnies
here actually consists of in your in your backyard.
(06:06):
It might have just been filled dirt that was brought in from
wherever and just dumped back there and they threw some grass
seed out and said, OK, you have a lawn.
You don't know what that is. The second thing is you can
extend your growing season. So raised beds tend to warm up
faster in the spring because obviously there's a lower volume
of soil than what would actuallybe in the ground.
(06:26):
So if you're a short season gardener, these might actually
allow for earlier planting and alittle bit of a longer growing
season for you. Raised beds also tend to have
better drainage. Now, of course, this is going to
depend on how we build it and how we fill it, but because it's
an elevated structure, it's going to automatically promote
better drainage and that's goingto reduce the risk of water
(06:49):
logging and the possibility of root rot in your plants.
It also gives us easier access to whatever is in the bed.
So raised beds can be built at aheight that maybe reduces the
need a little bit for bending and kneeling, which makes
gardening a little bit more accessible.
And it also is so good for weed control.
(07:11):
It's a defined space. So it actually really helps to
keep those weeds at Bay. And that, of course, allows for
healthier plants and a little bit less stress on the gardener.
And the final benefit would be ahigher yield.
In my personal experience, square foot for square foot, my
garden yields more in the raisedplanters than they do in the
(07:34):
fields in the in ground beds. Now I will venture to say that
that's because of all of the other factors that we just
talked about. That all adds up to healthier
plants and less competition fromweeds, which of course leads to
higher yields. Now it's not that raised bed
dimensions are fundamentally different from our in ground bed
(07:57):
dimensions. A lot of the considerations that
we talked about with determininglike the width of our in ground
beds is also repeated for our raised planters too.
You always want to consider the overall dimensions of of your
entire gardening space and the tools that you will be using in
that space and also in those beds.
(08:18):
So if you use row covers or frost cloth or landscape fabric
or other weed barriers, any types of trellises or anything
that is a defined width, it may be more convenient to pick a bed
with that is easy to use with the widths of those like tools.
Also think about whether you bring carts or wheelbarrows into
(08:40):
your space. Will you need room between the
beds for that? Will you need room between the
raised bed and maybe your in ground beds?
This goes along with keeping in mind the overall dimensions of
your gardening space, what is already existing in that space
and what you plan to keep, and then also the walkway spacing.
(09:02):
Also think about what crops you commonly grow or you intend to
grow and what your gardening style is.
If you tend to grow like the same vegetables year after year,
you might base your bed widths on the way those particular
crops grow or are planted. So corn, for example, if you
(09:23):
grow sweet corn for your family every single year, corn needs to
be planted in blocks for proper pollination.
So you need to make the decisionas to whether or not you're
going to have several raised beds spaced fairly closely
together and you're going to plant the corn in those or if
you want a larger singular square bed and that's where
(09:44):
you're going to plant them. Broccoli, that's another one
that grows and needs a lot of space as it gets those very,
very wide leaves. And so it might need some extra
space binding crops. So cucumbers or winter squashes
that you're trellising or melons, they're going to need to
be sort of trained to stay in their space within the beds and
(10:05):
out of the walkways if they're not trellis.
So this might determine the sizeof the beds that you need.
Climbing crops like peas and pole beans, they actually need
more vertical space than they dohorizontal space.
So if you're looking at narrowerbeds like that might be what
you're planning to plant in those, you know, skinnier beds.
Also, just consider how often you use trellises in your spaces
(10:30):
and if you're going to be movingthem from one bed to another
when you rotate your crops. These are all things that we
need to consider when we are building any garden bed in
ground or raised. But with raised beds, there are
actually a few other things to consider.
And the first one is the depth of the bed.
Now, obviously if we're plantingin ground, we seem to sort of
(10:51):
have like virtually, you know, unlimited depth, right?
Because we're going directly into the soil, unless you have
very, very compacted soil like we do with the clay.
It's one of the reasons why I'm starting to plant more and more
in raised beds. Very shallow beds are fine for
things like leafy greens or very, very small roots like
(11:15):
radishes that don't go very deep.
So if you have a found object that you want to use as a raised
bed, but it's only, you know, 6 or 8 inches deep, then it's
fine, go ahead and use it. But just plan your garden to
know that you're only going to be growing the shallow rooted
things in those containers. For everything else, you really
(11:39):
do want a minimum of about 16 inches of soil or 40cm deep.
Most plant roots sit around the four to 8 inch mark in the soil,
and things like carrots or anything with a deep taproot
like that broccoli we talked about, they can go as deep as 10
inches, sometimes even deeper. The goal for our raised beds is
(12:00):
to have enough soil volume in the bed to accommodate the roots
of the crop that you're growing.Hold the plant in place and have
enough soil available to hold the nutrients and the water for
all the plants in that bed. A shallow bed is going to dry
(12:21):
out much more quickly than a deeper 1, and it may not hold
enough nutrients for those more demanding crops.
So this means you're going to have to continue feeding very
frequently and add more compost more frequently.
The upside to those shallow bedsis like, yeah, they're going to
be less expensive to fill the first time around and they can
cost a little bit less to over overall to install if you're
(12:43):
purchasing the components for them.
And so if it suits your specificpurpose, like again, for those
shallow rooted leafy greens, then go for it.
I tend to stick with a fairly standard, you know, 18 inch bed
that I can fill about 16 inches with the soil.
And I just use that for everything.
And that way it doesn't matter. I can rotate my crops left and
(13:05):
right and it doesn't really matter.
I do have some older beds, one in particular that was more
shallow and I generally again, only use that for very shallow
rooted things and it's fine. I just have to plan out what I'm
going to put in that bed every year.
Shallow beds can also be OK if the soil beneath the bed is
(13:28):
accessible for those deeper rooted plants, but you would
obviously need to break up the soil underneath specifically for
any bed that would be shallower than like 10 inches.
And of course, we're not going to put a bottom on there.
And this obviously isn't going to work if you have if you're
putting your raised bed on top of things that are not suitable
for growing in. So if you are using raised beds
(13:49):
because you're growing in solid clay or you need to go on top of
concrete or rocks, and obviouslythat's not going to work.
And there are very deep beds that you can get that are going
to make it easier, like on your back or for folks who have
accessibility issues. So they are much taller and
they're really good for perennial plants or very, very
(14:12):
deep rooted plants that need to be deeper into the soil.
Just be aware of the width in addition to the depth for these
beds because the height of the bed may actually make it more
difficult to reach into the center if you have a very wide
bed. So let's let's talk about
special considerations for the width in addition to the bed
(14:34):
depth. The width is equally important.
If the bed is too wide, it's notas easy to just like step into
the bed to reach the middle because #1 the beds are going to
be more elevated than your in ground beds.
But also it's not going to be good for the soil in the bed to
be stepped on very frequently, which causes compaction, right?
(14:54):
So we want to make sure that we're choosing A width that
works within the garden space, but that also allows us to reach
the center from any side. And this is where we might want
to consider who is using the garden.
So we've already talked raised planters are great for giving
people access to gardens who maynot be easily able to get into
(15:14):
an in ground area. So if you're using a Walker or a
cane or you've got somebody in awheelchair, the width of the
beds for these folks kind of needs to be considered too,
because you want the beds to be narrow enough to be able to
easily reach into the middle while they're using whatever
their assistance apparatus is, the cane or the wheelchair or
whatever. And you also, at that point,
(15:35):
though, have to make sure that the walkways are wide enough to
accommodate whatever it is that they're using.
And so we also want to make suretoo, if like, especially if
you're using a wheelchair, we don't want to make the beds too
high. So actually for wheelchair
access, the recommended raised bed height is like 24 inches or
61 centimeters, which is, you know, a good height where it's
raised up enough to where somebody seated in a chair can
(15:57):
reach over. This is also a consideration if
you have folks who are elderly or have back issues who might
want to be sitting while reaching into the raised bed.
So that 24 inch height is good for sitting on a bench and
reaching in. If you are gardening with
children, a narrower bed is easier for little gardeners to
(16:21):
get into without climbing into the planter.
So if you're trying to get your kids into gardening and you
don't really want to go for all of your beds being narrow, you
might consider just like giving them their own dedicated bed.
So if you like for my grandkids,I've got the planter box direct
beds that are like 18 inches deep.
(16:43):
They're 24 inches wide and they are 72 inches long.
So they're like 2 by 6 feet, right?
Those are super easy for the little ones to get into and help
me when they're little. But after about age 8 or so,
they can just as easily reach into the 36 inch wide beds or
even the 48 inch wide beds if they're reaching from one side
(17:05):
or another. So you might consider just
getting a small one for their early years and then later on as
they get older, they can absolutely help you in all of
your raised beds. There are sort of standard width
sizes depending on you know who you're ordering through.
If you're ordering like prefab ones, you've got 182436486072.
(17:27):
Honestly, the general recommendation is going to be 36
inches wide. For most people you know, 48
inches is probably the Max that you want to go.
Most prefab companies have multiple widths and lengths to
choose from, so just use your best judgment after taking into
consideration the details that we just talked about.
When you are building your own, your materials may actually help
(17:51):
define how wide your beds are. So if you have scrap lumber
available to you and it's like in set sizes, well, this may
dictate the width or the depth of your bed depending on what it
is that you're using. So, I mean, I am absolutely a
proponent of making the best of what you have found.
Materials are great for making res beds and we'll talk about
(18:12):
that in more detail in the next episode.
Just be sure that you are considering what you're planting
in them when you think about depth and how you're using them,
when you think about the width and the length.
And you can have a mix of widthsand depths to suit your
individual needs in your particular garden space.
(18:32):
It doesn't have to be all uniform.
I mean, I get it, if you're someone who loves a good
spreadsheet and it tickles your brain to have all of the boxes
exactly the same size with the same spacing between them and
all the same color, OK cool, go for it.
But if you want a more creative vibe, it's OK to use a mix of
materials and colors. Or buy some planters but build
(18:55):
some other ones out of found materials.
The very first beds that we built were all from scrap
lumber. It's what we had available to
us. And as those beds began to fall
apart, I started buying prefab planter boxes from a variety of
companies, all in different sizes and depths, just to see
(19:16):
what I liked the best. The first one was one of those
birdies beds. It was 15 inches deep.
It was in a 4 by 6 configuration, 4 foot by 6 foot.
The next one was a really short Vigo Vigo Vejo.
I'm not sure how they pronounce it VEGO.
It was only 8 inches deep in a three by four size.
And that's the one that I referred to earlier that I just
(19:39):
generally use for shallow rootedthings.
And then I got another one from another brand.
I can't even remember what it was.
It was really tall. It was like 30 inches in a four
foot by 6 foot size, which I thought I would love because I
didn't feel like I would need tobend over.
(19:59):
Turns out that I hated it. And we literally cut it in half
to make 215 inch deep beds. So and then I finally I bought a
planter box direct bed and but what I bought was a 5 foot by 5
foot bed. Thinking again, a bigger
planting area would be better, but remember what I said about
(20:20):
being able to work in the bed without stepping into the middle
and compacting the soil. Yeah, most times I do have to
step into the center of that bedto get things done.
So what I have found to be my favorite sizes are 18 inch deep
in a four foot by 4 foot configuration.
So a basic square box and I havethat 2 foot by 6 foot
(20:43):
configuration. So these not only align
perfectly around the areas that I use them in, but they are
super easy for me to work in with plenty of room for
trellises if I choose to use them.
It's all about what works best for you as the gardener.
OK? I've talked a bunch of times
(21:04):
about my favorite raised planters from Planter Box
Direct, and I've given you a discount code from them so you
can experience them yourselves. And I thought since this month
is all about creating new raisedbeds, that I would reach out and
see if they would sponsor these episodes.
And they said yes. So shout out to Planter Box
Direct for being our sponsor this month.
(21:26):
But I took it one step further and I asked them for a special
code that you can use to save even more on your raised planter
order during this special series.
And they said yes to that too. So from now until October 15th
you can use Code Just Grow 20 tosave 20% on your order and still
(21:48):
get free shipping at Planter Boxdirect.com.
Fall is the perfect time to build your new raised beds and
get them ready to plant in the spring and Planter Box Direct is
the perfect place to get them. Tons of sizes, shapes, and
colors to choose from and super easy to put together so you can
be set up and ready to fill those beds the same day that you
(22:10):
get them. Get yourself set up for spring
with your new raised beds and save 20% with
freeshippingusingcodejustgrow20@planterboxdirect.comnow through October 15th.
The link is in the show notes. OK, so when you're thinking
about the dimensions of your newraised bed or beds, we also need
(22:35):
to take our irrigation into consideration.
How do you plan to water your garden?
If you're using drip tape, how easy is it going to be to lay
this out in the bed size that you're considering?
Are you using low lying sprinklers?
If so, how will these be placed in the bed?
Are you going to move them? Are they going to stay in place?
(22:56):
If you're planning on multiple beds, will you put like
permanent irrigation systems into the beds for the entire
season and how is that going to work linking them from bed to
bed? These are all considerations in
terms of the size of our beds, but also how we lay them out in
the garden space. If you're hand watering, could
you reach the center of the bed really easily with a heavy
(23:19):
watering can or a hose without straining or without stepping
into the bed and compacting thatsoil?
These are all considerations fordeciding how wide and how long
the bed or beds will be. We also do need to talk about
that layout. Once you have sort of figured
out what you think the ideal size would be for where you're
(23:41):
gardening and how you're gardening and what you're
growing, the next thing is to figure out the placement.
So the layout of your raised beds is important for how you
access the beds and the width ofthe space in between the beds
themselves and any in ground gardening space that you plan to
use, plus any other structures as they're all important.
(24:05):
If you use wheelbarrows or you use carts of some sort to move
things in and out of the gardening space, how will the
bed layout work with that? Will they be positioned since
you have access to that water, the irrigation we just talked
about, right? The absolute easiest way to
answer all of these questions isto get out into the space,
(24:25):
measure it out, and physically see how things will look and
feel. Grab a measuring tape and a
notepad and measure out the entire space and draw a little
map of how it currently looks and then sit down and sketch out
how you think you want it to look with the raised beds or the
other planters in that space. Then then here.
(24:48):
This is the fun part. OK, Make life sized models of
those planters or those other containers.
Use cardboard or newspaper, or just mark out the space with
like a rope or the garden hose or something so that you can not
only visibly see what the beds will look like when they're in
(25:08):
place, but you can also walk in between them and see if that's
going to work for you. Bring a wheelbarrow in there if
that's what you're using, or a garden cart or a bench, whatever
it is that you use. I have made this mistake.
I have put beds too closely together in an effort to fit
more into a small space, and I thought to myself, oh, that'll
(25:30):
be fine, I'll just squeeze in there and do what I need to do.
But in the middle of the summer when the plants are overflowing
from the beds and the weeds havecome up in between the beds in a
space that is too small to mow or hardly even put wood chips
down into, and I'm scooting along between the beds to try
and harvest in the heat and the humidity with the plants
(25:50):
smacking me in the face, Yeah, it was not fine.
So learn from my mistakes, lay it out ahead of time, and make
it a comfortable place to work and not one that is so
frustrating that you get sick ofthe space and just abandoned the
cherry tomatoes to languish in the summer heat because you're
absolutely over it. Yes, that happened, and it
wouldn't have if I had thought about my spacing a little bit
(26:13):
more thoughtfully and maybe lessaggressively.
The other thing to keep in mind when you're doing your little
sample layout is orientation andsunlight.
Where you place your beds matters for the best light
exposure. We want to aim for a location
that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight, preferably 8 if
you can manage it. Then we've talked about this
(26:34):
before. I can be broken up.
You can get 4 hours of morning sun and two hours and afternoon
sun or whatever. But if you have long rows and
you're gardening in the northernhemisphere, you're going to want
to orientate those beds north toSouth so that you prevent the
taller crops from shading the shorter ones.
Unless you want to do that intentionally because you're
(26:55):
trying to protect them from the sun.
If your space is limited, then again, you're going to choose a
spot with morning sun and a little bit of afternoon shade to
reduce the heat stress. It's also important to know if
the sunlight availability in this particular spot changes
throughout the season. And you thought we were going to
(27:16):
get through an episode without me mentioning your garden
journal? Think again.
This is where a garden journal comes in clutch.
If you've taken notes about the sunlight availability in the
areas of your garden in the spring versus the summer versus
the fall, then you'll know whereto best place your new raised
(27:36):
beds to take advantage of the best light during the time of
the season when you want it most.
What do I mean by this? I'll give you an example.
I have a bed in one of my gardens that we call the barn
bed because it's right next to the barn and right now it's an
in ground bed. But I actually have plans for
turning this into a raised garden bed area with cute little
(27:58):
pathways and an herb spiral. More on that another episode.
The important thing to know hereis that the light exposure in
that bed changes dramatically with the season.
Because the barn is on the east side of that bed, the bed is
shaded in the morning. There are also trees across the
path on the West side of that bed.
(28:20):
So in the spring, when those trees don't have their leaves
yet and the sun is lower to the South, that bed gets 6 to 8
hours of sun, full sun. It's a fantastic place for me to
grow early spring crops like lettuce that will vacate that
bed fairly quickly. But as soon as the trees fill in
(28:42):
and the sun moves further to thenorth, that bed now gets about 6
hours of daylight, but it is heavily shaded in the afternoon.
That works to my advantage with the early spring crops that need
to be in the bed a little bit longer but that don't appreciate
the afternoon heat. So things like bok choy that
(29:02):
will bolt if they get too hot too quickly now in the late
summer moving into fall when thesun starts to move back into the
South. But those trees all still have
all of their leaves. That spot only gets about four
hours of daylight. And the row closest to the barn
really only gets about 3 hours. That is not a good spot for me
(29:26):
to plant anything that I will want to harvest in the fall.
It just doesn't get enough sun for fast enough growth.
But it does make it a good contender for something that I
would want to overwinter for a spring crop.
So something that would grow slowly and hold like kale or
spinach or something like onionsor garlic that just need to
(29:50):
settle their roots in for the winter but will take full
advantage of that early spring sun.
That's what I mean about keepingdetailed notes about sunlight
availability for the areas of your garden that see changes in
the daylight. Knowing what I know about that
bed, I know that any raised planters I choose to put there
(30:13):
are not going to be where I plant my tomatoes or my Peppers.
But it would be great spots to put lettuce and arugula and
spinach in the spring, interplanted with like some
kohlrabi or some bok choy with agood cover crop through the
summer, and then planted in the fall to the overwinter crops for
my tomatoes and my Peppers and my sweet corn and my green
(30:34):
beans. I'd choose another area to put
my raised beds. That's what I mean by place your
new raised bed to take advantageof the best light during the
time of the season when you needit most.
OK, so maybe that's a little information overload for you, so
let's break it down Barney style.
(30:55):
When deciding on a raised planter size, consider the
following. What you're planting, how much
space you need to work in and around the bed based on the
tools that you use, who is working in the bed, if there is
anyone in your house with different needs, where you'll be
placing the bed in terms of orientation to the sun and how
(31:18):
you will irrigate the beds. That should give you a pretty
good idea of how deep the bed should be and what width and
length will work best for you. A good all around general
purpose bed should hold at least16 inches of soil for most
vegetables and be around 36 inches wide and as long as you
(31:40):
need it to fit your space. If you can create a mock up of
that size and place it in the space that you plan to garden,
you will have a really good ideaif it will work for you or not.
So next week we will talk about all the ways that we can build a
raised bed and what kinds of materials we can safely use,
including busting a very common,often repeated myth about using
(32:06):
certain types of wood. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that raised plant or garden, and
we'll talk again soon.
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