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Raised garden beds are available in a variety of different materials, or they can be made with relative ease.

Natural Cedar Raised Beds

Highest quality, rot resistant Port Orford cedar

Lapped corners held in place with 3/8″ aluminum rods

Aluminum cross-supports on larger sizes prevent bowing

Available in various widths and lengths

Farmstead Cedar Garden Beds

Available in ten sizes

Easy to stack for additional height

Naturally rot and insect resistant; no metal parts to rust

Very easy to assemble; also easy to disassemble if you move

recycled plastic raised garden bed

Made with at least 50% high-quality, durable HDPE recycled plastic

No PVCs or BPAs used in products

Able to withstand extreme temperatures: will not split, rot, or mold

Available in four sizes, two height options, and five color choices

Extremely durable: guaranteed for 50 years

Composite Timber Garden Beds

Made of a blend of wood fiber and UV-protected polypropylene

Connecting joints made of high impact, durable ABS plastic resin

Available in many sizes; can be stacked for added height

Components available separately to design your own beds

Elevated Container Garden Planters

Grow vegetables or flowers on patios, balconies, and restricted spaces

Ease back strain with elevated planters that eliminate the need to bend over

24″ and 36" high models are ideal for wheelchair gardening.

Ready-to-Grow' Complete Raised Bed Garden Kits

Made of weather-resistant cedar

Gopher and mole-proof options; rabbit-proof fencing

Built-in irrigation system

Attached trellis of varying heights for climbing vegetables

Available in several different layouts and sizes

How Tall Should the Bed Be?

You can build the bed to any desired height up to 36″. The most common height is 11″, which is the height of two stacked 2″ x 6″ boards. If you have good soil beneath the bed, the roots will go down deeper as needed to access more soil and nutrients, so you can even have beds that are only 6″ high. If you want a taller bed, remember that as you go taller, the weight of the added soil will add pressure to the sides, and will bow them outward. This is easily prevented by including cross-supports. We recommend using cross-supports in any beds which are taller than 18″, or longer than 6′. It is also important to consider the soil depth requirements for the roots of the vegetables you want to plant. Depending on the soil conditions beneath your bed, you may want to build the sides of your bed higher for certail crops. For more information, read our article Soil Depth Requirements for Popular Vegetables.

How Wide and Long Should the Bed Be?

We recommend bed width to be no wider that 4′ across. This is because it is easy to reach the center of the bed from either side, and for people with long arms, to reach across the bed. It's important to keep the width this narrow to avoid having to step on the bed since this would compress the soil. The bed can be any length as long as cross supports are installed every 4′ - 6′ along the length of the bed to prevent bowing. We think longer beds are best, if you have the garden space.

We have built many raised beds over the years, and our construction process has evolved. The method described here is, in our opinion, the simplest method of building a raised garden bed, and it requires no special tools or expertise. Using this method, you can build your bed to any desired length, width and height.

Lumber
Use cedar "2 x" boards for the sides. These are commonly 2″ x 6″, but you can use 2″ x 4″ or 2″ x 8″ boards if this is what you have available. (2″ boards bought at a lumber yard are actually 1.5″ thick..) For the corner posts, use 4″ x 4″'s, cut to 10″ longer than the desired height of the bed. If your bed is going to be longer than 8′, you'll need extra posts to put in mid-span to prevent bowing and to provide a place to secure the cross-supports.

In the photos below, we used 2″ x 4″ boards for the posts instead of 4″ x 4″s. This is because the wood we had was full dimension, i.e., the 2″ thickness was a full 2″. If you get your wood from a mill, they can cut it full dimension for you.

Fastenings
Use 3.5″ #10 coated deck screws for the project. You'll need six screws for each corner and two for each mid-span post. If you are using cross-supports, get a few 1″ stainless screws.
Cross Supports
Buy several lengths of 1/2″ aluminum flat stock. This is available at most hardware stores, usually in 8′ lengths. It is very easy to cut with a hacksaw and to drill for the screws.
Tools
Hand saw, square, carpenter's level, mallet (or sledge), screwdriver, hacksaw, drill.

In 2003, the EPA banned the sale of lumber treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) for residential use. Two compounds, alkaline copper quat (ACQ) and copper azole (CA-B), have now replaced CCA wood in the residential market. Both contain copper and a fungicide but no arsenic. The copper keeps insects at bay, and the fungicide prevents soil fungus from attacking the wood. In ACQ, the fungicide is quat, which is also used in swimming-pool chemicals and as a disinfectant. The other compound, CA-B, uses copper and tebuconazole, a fungicide used on food crops. According to Miles McEvoy, who works in organic certification with the Washington State Department of Agriculture, no pressure-treated wood is allowed in soils used to grow organic food. If you want to meet this high standard, choose a different material.

Until the safety of treated wood is proven conclusively, we recommend you use a naturally rot-resistant wood like red cedar, black locust or redwood. Under most circumstances, these woods will last 10 - 20 years when used for raised beds. Recycled composite plastic lumber is another alternative, and is now available in a variety of sizes and colors.

Step one
Cut and assemble the basic frame, block it up to level
Clear the area where the bed will be located, because you will be building the bed "in place". Use a square to mark the ends and saw the boards to desired length. Put two screws in each corner to hold it together for now. Set a level on the frame and place blocks beneath it to keep it level. Do this for the ends and the sides.

Step two
Drive in corner posts and screw the boards into them
Cut the post pieces longer than you will need. You can saw a point on the bottom of the posts, although is it not essential.

Set the first post into the corner of the frame and drive the post into the ground a few inches. Screw the frame into the post, using two screws per side. Set the other posts in place and screw them in the same way.

Step three
Fill in boards to ground. Saw post tops flush to sides
Now add the bottom row of boards down to ground level, using the same method of simply screwing into the posts. You may have to dig into the ground in places to get the boards to fit.

Using a hand saw, cut the posts where they stick up, so that they are flush to the sides of the bed. Smooth the ground in the pathway and start filling the bed with soil.

Step four
Add cross-bracing
If your bed is longer than 8', or taller than 18", it's a good idea to use cross-bracing. This will prevent the bed from bowing outwards in the center of the span.

Use a hacksaw to cut the aluminum flat stock to the exact width of the bed. Drill a hole in each end, and use a 1" stainless screw to attach the cross-brace to the posts at either side of the span.

Step five
Top up the bed with soil and get gardening!
Use your best garden soil to top off the bed. If there are rocks, the soil can be screened through a piece of 1/2" mesh. Or you can just pull out any rocks you come across.

Add soil amendments such as peat, lime, rock phosphate and organic fertilizer, as needed. Spray the soil with a fine spray, and top it off again because the water will lower the soil level a bit.

Now your bed is ready to plant!

Check for roots

As you dig the soil, keep an eye out for any roots which may be growing beneath your beds. If left to grow, these roots will steal the organic amendments you add to the soil. Pull any roots back towards their source, and pull the main root clump. If the source is a living tree, you may need to install a root barrier by digging a narrow trench outside the perimeter of the bed, and deeper than the roots, and then insert a barrier such as heavy plastic sheeting.

Avoid stepping on the bed

Once the soil is added and the bed is planted, make it a policy to never step on the bed. Stepping on the bed will compact the soil, reduce aeration and impact root growth. Pets should also be trained to stay off the raised beds.

It's very helpful to have a 'spanner board', a short sturdy board, like a 2 x 6, that's just longer than the width of your beds. This board can be laid across the bed, setting on top of the bed sides, and can be used to set buckets on when weeding or adding amendments, and it can be used to step on if you must step on the bed. It also makes a handy seat when weeding or tending the bed.

Spread soil out evenly

Add any planned soil amendments, such as peat, compost or lime, and spread the soil evenly across the bed. Water the bed with an even, fine spray. This will settle the soil; add more soil to "top off". (Over time the soil will settle an inch or two more.) Rake the bed once more to even out the soil and you''re ready to plant. To learn more about developing the ideal soil for your raised beds, read our articles:

6 Tips for Building Soil in your Raised Beds and Planters
3 Useful Soil Mixes for Planters and Raised Beds

Leave a generous width between beds for the pathways

It helps when pathways between raised beds are wide enough for a small wheelbarrow. For grass pathways, make sure they are at least wide enough for a weedeater or a small mower. (In our raised bed gardens the pathways are 22″ wide.)

Mulch the pathways between beds

Weeding pathways is a nuisance that you can avoid by putting a double layer of perforated landscape cloth over the pathway and covering this with a 2- 3″ layer of bark mulch or coarse sawdust. When laying down the landscape cloth, allow it to come up 1″ against the bottom board of the bed, and staple this to the bed. This will not be visible because the mulch will cover it.

When buying mulch, ask the seller if they have had any complaints about weed seeds in the mulch. It's very common for bark mulch to have weed seeds that sprout in your pathways. Some weeds will still appear on your pathways regardless of the mulch. Wait until it rains before pulling them out or you might rip the landscape cloth. The weeds will come out easily if the ground is wet.

Irrigation Method

Price

Labor

Installation

Effectiveness

Drip

Relatively expensive

No work during watering

More work to install

Very precise, saves water, prevents disease

Soaker Hose

Relatively inexpensive

No work during watering

Less work to install than drip

Gaps possible, saves water, prevents disease

Sprinkler

Inexpensive

Some light work to move sprinklers

No work

Covers everything, including areas that may not need water

Hand

Very inexpensive

Time intensive

No work

Targets desired areas

Wicking

Somewhat expensive

No work

Lots of work to set up

Very precise

Installing Irrigation

The goal of any irrigation system is to make sure every plant gets enough water to thrive. With each method of irrigation there is a different strategy to meet this goal: for dripping and soaking, hoses must be placed in the right locations to fully water the desired plants. Additionally, the holes in your drip lines must be spaced according to your plant's needs.

When spraying, whether with a sprinkler or by hand, you must also consider duration. Adding an automatic timer to your watering system will help remove the guesswork. Even better, a raised garden bed makes irrigating your crops simpler because drip tape and soaker hoses can be mounted to the side of the box to keep them immobile. The most common mistake when irrigating is leaving gaps. Be sure to measure the reach of your hose against the size of your box and install enough lines to thoroughly soak the soil.

How Often to Water

If the soil is dry one inch below the surface, it's time to water your raised garden bed. Raised beds need to be watered a little more often than traditional, in-ground beds because they drain faster and tend to encourage rapid plant growth, which requires more water. In the summer, this might mean watering multiple times per day depending on the stage of plant growth and the type of crop. In general, it's better to water deeply a few times per week than more frequent, shallow watering.

Should I Automate My Watering System?

Automation works best with a drip line or soaker hose system. Putting your hoses on a timer ensures that you won't forget to water when your plants most need it, and saves your crop when you are vacation. Automating your system also allows you to time watering for the cool of the evening or the middle of the night when the evaporation rate is lowest. For more information about automating your watering system, see our article about The Absentee Gardener: How to water Your Vegetable Garden Without Being Home

Conserving Irrigation Water

If you are using drip tape or soaker hoses, you've already taken a big step towards conserving water. You can take this a little further by mulching on top of the hoses around your plants to further reduce evaporation. Routine maintenance of your system should also include checking for leaks, which are often caused by creatures looking for water (or errant pitchforks). You can prevent leaks at joints by making sure there is proper water pressure for the system you are using, and that all joints are sealed. It's also a good idea to install shut-off valves for each bed or garden section so that you can choose to water some beds less when your growing season is winding up or down.

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Raised garden beds are available in a variety of different materials, or they can be made with relative ease.

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hydroponics vs. soil growth - which is better?

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hydroponics vs. soil growth - which is better?

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A hydroponic growing system, in which plants are grown in an artificially controlled environment without soil, offers several distinct advantages over a soil-based growing environment. Hydroponic plants grow fast and abundantly, and hydroponic systems make efficient use of resources. Hydroponic systems require ...

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Click here to see some benefits of hydroponic gardening

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The Environmental Benefits of Hydroponics

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Hydroponic gardening is a great way to grow your vegetables, fruits, and herbs under totally controlled conditions. You'll hear many a naturalist extolling the virtues of growing food and perennials in the earth, under the sun. However, many of their arguments are misguided.

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The word, Hydroponic, comes from Latin and means working water. Simply put, it is the art of growing plants without soil.

When most people think of hydroponics, they think of plants grown with their roots suspended directly into water with no growing medium. This is just one type of hydroponic gardening known as N.F.T. (nutrient film technique). There are several variations of N.F.T. used around the world and it is a very popular method of growing hydroponically. What most people don't realize is that there are countless methods and variations of hydroponic gardening. In this section, we explain the most common, including the pros and cons of each along with an abundance of great, general information about hydroponics.

To view a topic below, simply click on the title.
What are the basic types of hydroponic systems? Why does hydroponics work so well? What is the difference between hydroponic, organic, and "regular" fertilizers? Hydroponic or organic? What's the difference? By Roger H. Thayer What are micro-nutrients? How complicated is hydroponic gardening? Is ph important in hydroponics?
Why does Hydroponics work so well?

That's simple. If you give a plant exactly what it needs, when it needs it, in the amount that it needs, the plant will be as healthy as is genetically possible. With hydroponics this is an easy task; in soil it is far more difficult.

With hydroponics the plants are grown in an inert growing medium (see below) and a perfectly balanced, pH adjusted nutrient solution is delivered to the roots in a highly soluble form. This allows the plant to uptake its food with very little effort as opposed to soil where the roots must search out the nutrients and extract them. This is true even when using rich, organic soil and top of the line nutrients. The energy expended by the roots in this process is energy better spent on vegetative growth and fruit and flower production.

If you grow two genetically identical plants using soil for one and hydroponics for the other, you will almost immediately see the difference this factor makes. Faster, better growth and much greater yields are just some of the many reasons that hydroponics is being adapted around the world for commercial food production as well as a growing number of home, hobby gardeners.

What is "growing medium"?

Growing medium is the material in which the roots of the plant are growing. This covers a vast variety of substances which include Rockwool, perlite, vermiculite, coconut fiber, gravel, sand and many more. The growing medium is an inert substance that doesn't supply any nutrition to the plants. All the nutrition comes from the nutrient solution (water and fertilizer combined). You can therefore, easily control everything the plants receive. The strength and pH of the nutrient solution is easy to adjust so that the plants receive just the right amount of food. The watering/feeding cycles can be controlled by an inexpensive timer so that the plants get watered on schedule, as needed.

What is the difference between hydroponic, organic and "regular" fertilizers?

Both hydroponic fertilizers and those intended for use in soil contain the three major nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The major difference in hydroponic fertilizers is that they contain the proper amounts of all the essential micro-nutrients which fertilizers intended for use with soil do not. The plants are expected to find these elements in the soil, assuming that the trace elements are in fact present. Problems can arise for the plants if any or all of the micro-nutrients are not present in the soil or are depleted by successive (or excessive) plantings. Hydroponic fertilizers are usually in a more refined form with fewer impurities making them both more stable and soluble for better absorption. Organic fertilizers, in most cases, are very different than either hydroponic or soil fertilizers both in composition and how they deliver the nutrient to the plants. Organic fertilizers rely on the synergistic action of bacteria and microbes to break down nutritional substances for easier uptake by the plants. Hydroponic and soil fertilizers provide nutrients in a ready-to-use form. While once, they were mutually exclusive, in recent years a number of outstanding organic fertilizers have hit the market in formulations refined enough for use in hydroponics. For more information click on the excellent article below.

"Hydroponic or Organic-What's the Difference?" by Roger H. Thayer

What are micro-nutrients?

The micro-nutrients, also known as trace elements that are required for healthy plant growth are calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc. When deficient in any or all of these elements plants suffer stress, disease, become more susceptible to pest, fungus' and bacteria, and may have uptake issues with the N-P-K fertilizer they are being fed. At best, they will never live up to their genetic potential in growth and yield; at worst, they die. In the case of food crops, nutrient deficient plants lead to nutrient deficiencies in the people and animals who consume them. Due to years of over farming the same fields much of today's commercially produced food has a nutrient level barely exceeding waxed fruit. No surprise that more and more people are choosing to grow the food their families eat in their own gardens. When growing in soil remember to renew the dirt between plantings and when growing hydroponically know that it is absolutely essential to use a hydroponic fertilizer that provides all the trace elements.

How complicated is hydroponic gardening?

It can be but it doesn't have to be. Hydroponics can be as incredibly simple as growing a single plant in a hand watered bucket or nursery pot, using any number of inert growing mediums. No automation, electricity or grow lights required.

Of course, the potential to go high tech is limited only by your imagination and budget. Virtually every aspect of garden management can be automated and should you so desire, monitored and controlled with your laptop or cell phone from the other side of the world. Dare to dream.

Most hobby oriented hydroponic systems are somewhere between the two extremes mentioned above. The average, home hydroponic system usually consists of a few basic parts: a growing tray, a reservoir, a submersible pump to water the plants, a simple timer and an air pump and air stone to oxygenate the nutrient solution. Of course, light (either natural or artificial) is also required.

Is pH important in hydroponics?

The control of pH is extremely important, not only in hydroponics but in soil as well. Plants lose the ability to absorb different nutrients when the pH varies. (This topic is answered in much greater detail in the "mini-class" on pH in Hydroponics).

The ability to quickly and easily test and control pH in hydroponics is a major advantage over dirt gardening, where testing and adjusting the pH is much more complicated and time consuming.

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Simply Hydroponics - What is Hydroponics?

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The word, Hydroponic, comes from Latin and means working water. Simply put, it is the art of growing plants without soil. When most people think of hydroponics, they think of plants grown with their roots suspended directly into water with no growing medium. This is just one type of hydroponic gardening known as N.F.T.

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Learn about hydroponics in this video!

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Kid's Introduction to Hydroponic Gardening

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Start the scientific journey by discovering

the definition of hydroponic gardening