How to Build Raised Flower Beds

Raised beds can feature much improved soil.

Poor quality soil, poor drainage or rocky ground need not deter you from growing flowers and vegetables. Raised bed gardening allows you a host of advantages, including creating a fine growing medium and enjoying a longer growing season as the raised bed warms up more quickly than regular garden plots.

Things You'll Need

• Retaining wall
• Tiller or shovel
• Topsoil
• Soil amendments

Instructions

1. Select an area that receives sun, ideally all day. Mark off the area with string or spray paint, making it 4 feet wide and as long as you would like.

2. Assemble stones, bricks or untreated locust or oak planks. Visit construction sites, which may have used bricks. Older mobile home parks often have bricks left from the removal of old homes. Or look online for free salvage materials.

3. Lay first layer of stones, bricks or planks. Continue layers of bricks until they are 12 to 16 inches high, sturdy enough to hold together after you add the soil. Secure the corners of a plank-sided raised bed with metal braces or screws, recommends Penn State’s Agricultural Information Services.

4. Dig or till the bed to a depth of a foot. Remove rocks and roots, recommends the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Add topsoil, peat moss, compost or rotted horse manure. Mulch the bed with black plastic, landscape fabric or wood chips. Plant your bedding plants, vegetables or seeds.

Tips & Warnings

• At the end or beginning of each new season, stir up the top few inches of soil before the new planting.

• Get your mulch from a reputable place that doesn't use brush that has been sprayed with chemicals.

References

• University of Illinois Extension: Build a Raised Bed
• Cornell Cooperative Extension: How to Make a Raised-Bed Garden