8 Simple Steps To Design and Build Custom Raised Beds!

So follow along. Below is your complete guide on how to design and build your very own raised beds that fit your personality and space.

How to Design Your Raised Beds

1. Plan

When designing your raised beds, it is so important to make sure they fit your space well so that you are happy keeping them in the same place for years to come.

Keep in mind that once your raised beds are in, it’s quite an ordeal to move them, and if you want to change the size or shape you’ll have to basically start all over.

Having a plan that you love from the beginning will save you many a headache down the line.

A few things to consider:

Location.

Vegetables need a full sun area (at least 8 hours each day). This is incredibly important as they will not produce anywhere near their full potential if they don’t get enough sun.

Typically, the south side of your home is ideal, as it is the side where you should get the most sun for the longest amount of time.

As everyone’s situation is a little bit different, think about where the sun hits your yard at different parts of the year, especially noting the warmer spring, summer and early fall months (when you’ll be doing most of your growing).

Our beds are between our home and our detached garage. During the winter, the garage completely blocks any direct sun from the garden, but during the summer when the sun is high in the sky, it is a full sun area that our crops love.

Something else to think about is placing the garden in an area that will be close to your kitchen. It is SO NICE to be able to simply walk out the door and quickly grab some veg for dinner.

• 

• 

• 

It’s called a “kitchen garden” for a reason!

This may not be an option for everyone, but if you can find a full sun area by your kitchen door, that’s the perfect spot!

Size.

Now that you’ve figured out where the garden is going to be, measure the area and determine how large or small you want your beds to be. 

Maybe you just want one small bed to grow a few things, or perhaps you’re more interested in many beds, in say a 50’x50′ space (lucky you!).

Either way, it’s the same process for every situation. First, measure the space you have for your beds and write all your measurements down.

2. Sketch

Here’s where you really get to let your creativity run wild.

Taking your size constraints into consideration, begin to draw out a desireable plan.

Graph paper is very useful when sketching because you can create an image that is to-scale (and therefore will actually fit in your space). You can print it for free online or just pick some up at your local paper supply store.

Depending on the size of your yard, allot a foot or two for every square.

Experiment with different sizes and shapes, multiple and fewer beds. Try out several different options until you come up with something that is practical, beautiful and unique to your space.

Shape.

Playing with different shapes is the fun part of designing your own beds. While you have to take space constraints into account, there are so many options as far as bed shapes go.

You have squares, rectangles, triangles, L-shaped beds, I’ve even seen hexagon and star-shaped beds. The fun part is making them all fit together in different patterns to serve your specific space.

For example, if you have a rectangle-shape space, you can do four trianges in the middle, then add rectangles at either end to fill your space with 6 raised beds.

Or for a square space, you could make a diamond-shape in the center with four squares, and then add four triangles on each corner to fill out the square area.

These are just ideas, but using different shapes to piece together your beds like a puzzle brings such a creative and unique touch to your home.

3. Make your sketch come to life

Before you actually go out and purchase your wood, do yourself a favor and place scrap wood (or string, or any other material you have on hand) down to see if you really like the layout.

By doing this, you’ll be able to make sure you love your design and the flow of the layout in the space.

You’ll be able to get a feel for of the width of your pathways, how big or small your beds will be, and if you really love the shape. Make any changes you like before moving forward.

• 

• 

This step, along with your graph paper, will give you the desired measurements for your raised beds and will be your guide when purchasing your wood.

After doing this, I changed my layout from three separate boxes to an 8’x10′ (at it’s widest and longest) L-shape bed and one 4’x4′ bed for space and efficiency. There are 2.5′ between the beds for walking paths.

At it’s most narrow section, the L-shape bed is only 2.5 feet wide. I LOVE it as it is so easy to work in. I don’t have to walk to the other side of the bed; I can just reach right over!

This is what we came up with for our lop-sided space. It’s not to scale, just a quick sketch.

It’s still a work in progress (stay tuned for lots of updates this spring!) but we have a plan that we’re working towards, which saves stress and money in the long run.

How to build your beds.

Making the beds themselves really was a simple process.  

4. Gather your materials

What you’ll need:

• wood (more on this below)
• saw (OR get it cut at the store)
• drill
• driver
• screws
• level
• a friend to help you

Things to consider about the wood you use:

Type of wood

Cedar is ideal as it’s the least rot resistant and will hold up wonderfully to the elements over the years.

It is also the most expensive.  Redwood is a good alternative. 

We used Douglas fir.  It will not last as long but we could not find redwood anywhere.  And I wasn’t ready to spend on cedar. (Maybe one day.)

Do what works for you and your budget.

BUT whatever you do, **DO NOT USE PRESSURE TREATED WOOD!**  It is treated with chemicals that you DO NOT want to ingest!!  The chemicals seep into the soil and your plants suck them up through their roots, so when you eat the plants you’re also eating those chemicals.

So the organic veg idea just went out the window.

The thicker the wood, the better

Be aware that no matter what kind of wood you use, it will rot at some point. For this reason, I recommend going with at least 2″ thick wood or more to delay that process.

Yes, it is more expensive, but it is VERY worth it. I went with 2″ thick wood. Stacked 4×4’s also make a really beautiful bed.

Wood height

Your raised beds should be at least 8″ tall, but ideally more like 10-12″.

This is important for root vegetables (potatoes, onion, carrots, etc.) that need enough space to grow downward. It will also give you the space to have a separate growing environment away from your native soil.

Also take into consideration the amount of bending you want to do in the coming years. For ergonomics, tall raised beds are really nice.

You could add extra pieces of wood on top of your beds as the years go by, or you could just make your beds taller from the beginning!

They’re also gorgeous, but you will have to spend more on the extra wood and soil.

I wanted our beds to be a foot deep, so I went with 12″ boards. This gives enough space for our root vegetables and allows for plenty of room between our nice raised bed soil and our native rocky, sandy soil below.

Support wood

You’ll also need to purchase 2×4’s to attach your boards to that will support your raised beds. Each corner of your raised beds will need a supporting 2×4 that will stand vertically.

Formula:

# corners + height of beds in inches = amount of 2×4 in inches
divide that number by 12 = amount of 2×4 in feet

For example, if you’re making your beds 12″ high and have four square beds (16 corners), you’ll need 192 inches, or 16 feet of 2×4. In that case, purchase two 8-foot 2×4’s.

You could make shorter supports so that they will be covered with soil and won’t show in the bed (make them two inches shorter or so) BUT make sure that you do not plant anything over them because your crop’s roots won’t have anywhere to go.

5. Prepare your materials

Cut wood to size.  

Based on your design plan, cut your boards to size. If you don’t have a saw of your own, that’s ok! You can typically get your boards cut for you where you purchase it, or ask a friend with a saw to help you.

Thank them with brownies now and zucchini later!

In my case, even though we have a saw, I had most of my boards cut for me in the store. I wouldn’t have been able to fit them in the car otherwise.

Check out the 8 mistakes to avoid when purchasing lumber so you can be successful with your project.

I recommend making a “butt joint” for raised beds, which is a more stable joint than the (perhaps more attractive) mitered corners. While they look nice, they won’t hold up as well and will start to separate over time.

It also makes for easier cuts. A win-win.

Remove any grass.

If you’re putting your raised beds on top of the soil, it’s a good idea to remove any grass in the area. While this is optional, it helps to reduce the chance of you having to battle grass growing up into your raised beds later.

Alternatively, you can lay cardboard down (not the shiny stuff!) which will smother the grass and deter it from growing.

Your raised beds do not need a “bottom”. Instead, allow the beds to make contact with the ground. This is ideal for root crops which then have the ability to dig deeper into the ground if they so please.

It will also allow beneficial insects to crawl into your beds, and over time, the rich, organic raised bed soil will also improve the native soil beneath.

Either way, laying cardboard down (not anything shiny) over your soil will help surpress weeds. I do not recommend landscape fabric as it doesn’t break down like cardboard does. Instead, it could hamper root growth and discourage the beneficial insects from getting into your beds.

Consider saving the grass you removed as it can be broken up and put back into the bottom of the beds, reducing the amount of soil you have to purchase.

See more about filling your raised beds below.

6. Build the beds

Secure the 2×4’s. 

Lay out your boards by their permanent location and place a cut 2×4 near each corner. Look at your boards and decide which side is more attractive, then lay that side face DOWN.

Then lay your 2×4 at the edge of the longer boards for each corner. Use your driver to make pilot holes from the 2×4 side to decrease the amount of screws seen on the outside of the raised bed when assembled.  

Then screw the 2×4 support to your board with your drill. It should look like this:

Once all of your corner support 2×4’s are attached to a board, grab a buddy.

Working one joint at a time, stand the boards upright, ensure the boards are aligned and flush to each other and secure the adjacent board to the 2×4 support by again drilling pilot holes and then screwing into the 2×4.

Continue this process for each corner until your beds are complete!

7. Set up your beds

Now that your beds are built (I told you it was easy!), it’s time to fill them up!

Consider irrigation.

Drip irrigation is a wonderful thing.

It saves you time as you won’t have to go out to water daily, and you’ll also save water and have happier plants as they will be watered right at their root instead of overhead.

If you decide to put in drip tubing (or if you think you might want it in the future), put in the solid tubing before you begin filling your beds with soil.

You can always add the actual drip lines later, but having this already installed will save you time later.

Grab a garden spade (or just a shovel if you don’t have one) and make a straight line from your water spicket to the closest area of raised bed.

Pull the grass back and then you can just tuck the tubing under it, feed it under the wood of the raised bed and up into the garden bed.

Do this for each bed so it can have it’s own drip line.

Fill your beds.

As mentioned earlier, if you can get your hands on some (non-shiny) cardboard, this is a fantastic base layer for your beds. The “good bugs” will love it.

If you removed any grass from the area, you can brake it up really well and lay it on top of the cardboard. If you have grass clippings from your lawn mower, this will be perfect here as well.

You can then cover the grass with newspaper and a few inches of leaves. Have a compost pile? You can add some of that in there, too!

The idea here is to layer “green” (grass clippings) and “brown” (newspaper/leaves), just like a compost pile, to be broken down and add nutrients to your soil.

It will also decrease the amount of soil you have to purchase, so it’s good for your pocket book, too! Aim for about the half-way mark.

Once you’re happy with your layers, spray it down with the hose to make sure everything stays in place and to start the decomposting process.

• 

• 

Next, you’ll fill the beds the rest of the way with soil. There are a few different ways to purchase your soil but always go organic.

It is most cost effective to purchase organic soil or compost in bulk. Your local source may have an organic “raised bed mix.” Check out your options.

Unfortunately, I could not find a local source for bulk soil (that’s 2020 for you!), so I purchased several bags of organic raised bed soil from our local hardware store.

It helped that our beds were already half-way filled, but the bags do add up quickly. Definitely purchase in bulk if you can find it.

The rich organic soil went on top. It was gorgeous and smelled SO GOOD. (Is that weird? Where are my garden people? 😆)

8. Plant and Enjoy!

Woohoo for new raised beds! Pat yourself on the back for beginning a new adventure growing all. the. things.

Some of my most successful crops last year were my beans, dinosaur kale, sun gold tomatoes and goldie ground cherries. Definitely worth repeating.

A few tips for planting your first garden:

• Grow what you know you’ll eat. You don’t want to plant a zucchini if you hate them. Mid-summer, you’ll be rolling in them and you’ll never want to look at another zucchini again
• Donate what you can’t consume (friends, neighbors, soup kitchens)
• Radishes. You’ll always feel like a success if you plant radishes.
• Consider vertical gardening to maximize on your space. See how we made our trellises here.
• Remember to rotate your crops each season
• Winter sowing is THE BEST. You don’t need growlights, space, heat, nothing. A plastic container outside is all it takes. Check it out!

---

Questions? We’re here!

Leave a comment below and let us know what you’re growing
this year in your brand new raised beds!

---

Check out our raised bed series

---