Raised vegetable garden ideas

15 Raised Bed Garden Design Ideas

Peg Aloi

Peg Aloi is a professional gardener covering plants in various contexts, from recipes to heirloom orchard fruits. Her area of interest is the folklore of plants and herbs. She's worked as a garden designer for public housing, individual homes, and businesses, and gives workshops on various gardening topics.

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Updated on 06/08/22

Reviewed by

Kathleen Miller

Reviewed by Kathleen Miller

Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and Horticulturist who shares her knowledge of sustainable living, organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. She founded Gaia's Farm and Gardens, a working sustainable permaculture farm, and writes for Gaia Grows, a local newspaper column. She has over 30 years of experience in gardening and sustainable farming.

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The Spruce / Autumn Wood

Raised beds can be as humble or creative as you like. A raised bed planter can be a permanent fixture for perennial plants to settle in and mature. The initial cost of getting your raised bed set up will depend on how elaborate you make it, but once in place, raised beds are no more expensive to maintain than traditional gardens. They offer a lot of benefits.

What Is a Raised Garden Bed?

Raised bed gardening involves growing plants in soil that is higher than the ground. Most commonly, you can do this with some type of enclosure or frame made of wood, stone, bales of hay, or even repurposed material like old dressers.

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Custom-Designed Raised Beds

devonandearth / Instagram

Raised bed gardens can be fit just about any space. With a little creativity, you can create an entire garden sitting area. This multi-level raised bed incorporated simple straight lines by Peter Donegan Landscaping. It comes complete with a potting shed and lamppost. Add a bench section, like the one at the end of the front bed, and you have seating for the outdoor dining area. As the plants fill in and the wood weathers, this garden will take on a natural, rustic appearance.
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Built-In Raised Beds

_maple_house / Instagram

When making a raised bed, instead of going in-ground, you can place it where the sun or shade is the best for the plants you want to cultivate. You can also prevent tunneling pests from decimating your plants. Plants can be healthier and more productive in a raised bed because you can control the quality of the soil and water drainage. If you build the sides wide enough to make a bench, you can even sit and garden. For those with back problems, the positioning can make it easier to tend the plants. Raised beds of brick or wood, as pictured, can also enhance the design of your homestead or backyard.
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Grow Bag Raised Beds

theurbangardenher / Instagram

Another great advantage of raised bed gardens is that they sit well above the underground frost line, so the soil warms up faster in the spring, and you can start planting sooner. The material used for your beds makes a difference here: metal holds more heat from the sun. But grow bags are a good option as they don't freeze solid and soil in them defrosts rather quickly. Also, it is a great way to provide the heat needed to grow Mediterranean plants like sage and lavender. Grow bags may seem too easy; but within minutes you could have a great raised bed garden!
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Herb Spiral Garden

OK-Photography / Getty Images

Spiral gardens are a popular permaculture technique. They increase the amount of usable planting area without taking up more ground space in your garden. You can easily build them out of stone, brick, wood, or simply pile up the soil. The unusual shape and swirl of plants make for an eye-catching focal point in your garden. Herbs are the plants of choice in this photo, but you can grow anything using the spiral design.
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Trough Gardens

lynnelambourne / Instagram

One of the easiest ways to create raised bed gardens is by using animal feeding troughs. There is no assembly required, but be sure to drill some drainage holes in the bottom before you add the soil. The metal gives the garden an industrial look and conducts heat, warming the soil in the spring. You can use new or used troughs, depending on availability and your desired look. Depending on what you chose to grow, the plants may need a bit of extra water during the hottest part of summer.
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Square Foot Raised Beds

hollyhillflowers / Instagram

Square foot gardening involves dividing the growing area into small square sections, typically 1 foot per square. The aim is to produce an intensively planted vegetable garden or a highly productive kitchen garden. This can be measures and divided with various materials, including netting.
Using a raised bed for growing vegetables allows you to control the soil quality and prevent it from becoming compacted. Vegetable roots can grow unimpeded. The beds do not have to be very high off the ground to get the benefits from being in a raised bed. Even 6 to 8 inches can be enough.
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Flower Boxes as Raised Beds

Konoplytska / Getty Images

Raised beds have very few limits. If you have a sturdy fence you can attach wooden boxes as small raised beds; like window boxes, but on your fence. These can look good all year long, with annuals filling in as perennials stop blooming. During the winter holidays, you can also decorate these areas with seasonal greens and decorations as a unique decor idea.
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Cinderblock Raised Beds

mountaincrestgardens / Instagram

There are many ways to build raised beds out of recycled materials. Concrete blocks or cinderblocks are one of the most popular. Note that some older cinder blocks may contain fly ash, which is the "cinders" that remain from burning coal. It is still being debated whether this is safe to use around edible plants. If you get new blocks that are made out of concrete, you can avoid the ash issue. The new blocks are substantially heavier than older cinder blocks but are OK to use for a vegetable garden. Be careful though—concrete blocks leech lime. Lime can raise the soil's pH. To be on the safe side, use plants that thrive in alkaline soil. These sturdy succulents and sedums are hardy and not too fussy about soil so they're a good choice for these planters.
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Hoop House Raised Bed

hamaksatcher_garden / Instagram

With a little pre-planning, you can create a multi-season vegetable garden. Raised beds give you more flexibility to control the growing conditions in your garden and make it harder for animals to get at your vegetables. If you build a hoop house on top of a raised bed, you can be prepared for any weather, handle frost, and give yourself a headstart in the spring. This lightweight netting is sturdy enough to hold a cloth covering in case of frost.
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Raised Bed Border

mkistryn / Getty Images

Raised beds are a terrific option for yards with steep slopes. By building up the beds at their lowest sections you can create the illusion of a level garden. Make your beds wide enough so that you can still have a layered flower garden with a border of shrubs framing the back of the garden and plenty of room for perennials that will provide colors, textures, and edge-softening drapes. This garden in Italy features a succession of raised beds edged with rocks to make the most of a steep slope location.
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Space Saving Design ideas

ransomebuilds_diy / Instagram

Gardeners with limited space can often use raised beds designs in a creative way to make the most of what they have. This clever design puts a wooden raised bed flower box (made of reclaimed materials) on top of the trash bin storage area: sprucing up what's normally a drab spot and bringing beauty to a utilitarian functional area. The string lights and decorations add a personal touch.
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Raised Bed Arbor

BethAmber / Getty Images

Using a trellis or arbor with a raised bed makes it even easier to harvest vegetables and keeps them neater than if they were sprawling on the ground. Vertical gardening allows you to grow more plants without taking up more space. This raised bed with zucchini plants shows that your design can be as simple as creating a basic frame by tying two dowels (or bamboo poles) together and tethering them. Other crops may benefit from stretching garden netting across the trellis structure.
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Lasagna Garden Raised Beds

nanceband / Instagram

Lasagna gardens are essentially layered gardens that don't require digging, but the term has come to mean using materials other than soil beneath the topsoil layer. In this case wooden raised beds are constructed, filled with cut wood and grass clippings, then have a layer of top soil added. This cuts down on the heavy weight and expense of using soil all the way down, if your plantings don't produce a deep root system.
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Milk Crate Garden

yorbaplants / Instagram

Repurpose milk crates and make your raised bed portable. This milk crate raised bed is easy to set up, and you can configure into any shape you like. If you need your plants closer to your kitchen, or you want to place it in a shadier spot, just pick up the crate and go. These containers already come with drainage holes. And, when you need to change the soil, you can just lift the crate and dump the contents in the compost pile and start again.
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Raised Bed and Container Design

Rosemary Calvert / Getty Images

Maybe you have brick raised beds and want to make them feel fuller and more decorative. Placing containers below the level of the brick wall allows you to play with different levels that draw the eyes up and down, and allow for an almost unlimited variety of sizes and shapes. You can even plan out your planting so that you provide four seasons of visual interest. Containers can also be moved to change up the design any time you want.

This is just a handful of ideas for creative ways of making raised beds in your garden. Repurposing materials into something useful is a great feeling, and gardeners are nothing if not resourceful. Raised beds can help you make better use of your space and find new and often eye-catching ways of growing food and flowers.

10 Raised Bed Garden Ideas

From DIY projects to store-bought kits, use these raised bed garden ideas to take your garden to a new height!

Every editorial product is independently selected, though we may be compensated or receive an affiliate commission if you buy something through our links. Ratings and prices are accurate and items are in stock as of time of publication.

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Courtesy @thekiwihome/Instagram

Copper Raised Garden Bed

A copper raised garden bed would be elegant, but copper is prohibitively expensive. Instead, try this trick from @thekiwihome. She purchased a galvanized steel tub, then gave it a makeover with copper spray paint. Now it looks the part without the steep price tag! She also added drainage holes and casters so the bed can be moved as needed.

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Courtesy @tohavetohost/Instagram

Wood Raised Garden Bed

A professional woodworker crated these raised beds from @tohavetohost. But you can build a wood raised garden bed yourself. Cedar or redwood work best because both are naturally rot resistant. Or purchase a wood raised garden bed kit to make it even easier.

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Courtesy @myfirstbackyard/Instagram

Cinder Block Raised Garden Bed

Make a raised bed garden like this one from @myfirstbackyard with concrete cinder blocks. Cheap, easy and no digging required — just build it on top of the ground. This is a great choice if you’ve got hard soil you don’t want to dig up. Decorate the blocks with outdoor paint to give your raised garden bed an artistic finish!

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Courtesy @metalgardenbeds/Instagram

Galvanized Steel Raised Garden Bed

Galvanized steel works because it’s resistant to rust and extremely durable. The steel also reflects heat, making your soil the ideal temperature for growing. These garden beds from @metalgardenbeds come with 26-gauge steel walls, corners and all the hardware you need to put them together.

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via merchant

Tiered Raised Garden Bed

A raised garden on different levels, like this one from Plow & Hearth, lets you separate your plants for visual interest and easy identification. The tiers offer three planting depths to accommodate different root needs. And if your flowers or vegetables have different soil requirements, fill each box with the appropriate type of soil.

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Family Handyman

DIY Stacked-Stone Raised Garden Bed

The natural edges of this rough-cut stone raised garden bed gives it an organic look that blends seamlessly into the rest of the yard. This project doesn’t require any special skills, just some muscle to lift the stones. The only specialty tool you’ll need is a diamond blade in your circular saw.

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Family Handyman

DIY Corrugated Metal and Wood Raised Garden Bed

Here’s another raised garden bed you can build yourself with corrugated metal sheets and pressure-treated wood. Keep in mind, filling this planter requires almost a cubic yard of soil. To save money, fill the lower half with another material, like plastic milk jugs (with caps screwed on tight) or plastic buckets placed upside down.

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via merchant

PVC Raised Garden Bed

For a raised garden bed you can put together in minutes, check out this Deluxe Raised PVC Garden Bed. It features an easy snap-in-place assembly system, with no tools required! The high walls (15-1/2-inches), made of durable, maintenance-free UV-resistant polymer plastic, allow for deep-soil gardening.

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DigiPub/Getty Images

Brick Raised Garden Bed

A raised garden bed or path made from bricks or pavers is sturdy and long-lasting. As the bricks age with time, the material takes on more character, giving your garden space old world charm. The octagon shape makes an eye-catching statement and provides plenty of angles to tend to your plants.

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fotolinchen/Getty Images

Woven Willow Raised Garden Bed

Woven willow garden beds and fences (AKA wattle) transform your basic garden into an enchanting English one. Aesthetically, the organic material blends seamlessly with the rest of the landscape. And it’s great for your plants because the woven branches insulate the soil and allow good drainage and airflow.

Originally Published: May 24, 2022

Erica Young

Erica Young is a freelance writer and content creator, specializing in home and lifestyle pieces. She loves writing about home decor, organization, relationships, and pop culture. She holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Arizona State University, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Top 14 Raised Bed Garden Ideas • inTrends

Gardening Achievements: hands in mud, head in the sun, heart with nature. Caring for a garden means feeding not only the body, but also the soul.

Alfred Austin

Gardening is really good for the body and soul, but can be terribly hard on the back and knees. Discover the raised bed; a wonderful gardening option that allows everyone to enjoy gardening.

Not only does raised bed gardening become physically easier, raised beds can also be a beautiful design element in your landscape. The rows of raised garden boxes are presentable and tidy, with walkways between them providing an opportunity to add additional decorative materials to your yard. Browse our top garden bed ideas and find inspiration for your own garden design today.

Raised garden bed ideas against the wall

If your house has a sunny backyard wall, it's a good idea to place your garden in front of it. Some homes since the middle of the last century have included this style of built-in flower boxes. If you're lucky and there's enough sunlight, this is the perfect place to put your garden. Otherwise, it will be quite easy to build a garden bed with your own hands along a wall or fence.

Cinder blocks, laid stone, bricks and recycled wood are all great materials for building a raised bed along a wall. The depth of the bed should be about 60 cm, so that it can be easily reached to the very end. The ideal depth for raised beds is 30 to 60 centimeters. If you're growing a climbing or flowering vine, be sure to hang a trellis behind the bed so the vine has something to grab on to.

Raised garden bed ideas for summer cottages

Raised bed gardening is perfect for today's small gardens. Instead of the classic rows of vegetable crops planted directly in the ground, all kinds of vegetables are placed in raised garden boxes. These neat raised beds are easier to navigate and manage than the old garden beds.

If you have animals in your backyard, garden boxes can protect your valuable plants from them. Protect your garden or herb garden from birds, rabbits, raccoons, and other wildlife with wire mesh or a detachable pest control. They help protect your plants when you're not around and can be easily removed to maintain your backyard garden.

Complete Garden Bed Ideas

One of the easiest ways to start gardening is to purchase a complete garden bed kit. They are gathering quickly. If you can't find a prefabricated garden bed, consider using galvanized tanks instead. They will also give your landscape a cheerful country house vibe.

You can also build a raised bed by stacking cinder blocks into low walls. You can complete this simple version of the raised bed design in a day. Besides, it's inexpensive. Use them to grow food, but keep at least one as a flower bed if you like fresh cut flowers. Or plant flowers in the holes on each cinder block to create a flower border around your garden.

Indoor garden bed ideas

An indoor raised bed is a raised bed with a wire fence around its top. This type of garden box is very useful if you have a lot of pests in your area. The enclosure is usually a wood frame with wire mesh or some other type of wire panel. This type of garden enclosure allows you to protect your precious food, herbs or flowers.

Your garden enclosure can be as tall as a room or much smaller. Some small garden boxes have hinged tops that lock at night and open when you need to weed or harvest.

Raised Flower Bed Ideas

A raised flower bed adds beauty to your yard - front, back or side. You can purchase garden planters in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes. Set them singly for a mixed container garden look, or group them for a great overall garden design.

Representative and informal flower garden design works with the garden bed. Clusters of wild flowers can look like they have grown naturally, creating an informal garden atmosphere. You can achieve formality by stacking layers of tall, medium, short, and hanging plants for a floral-like arrangement. Be sure to use soil types specifically designed for growing flowering plants.

Landscaped raised garden ideas

Raised beds fit perfectly into any landscape. If you like the look of the baskets, make your beds out of a wicker fence. You can make this attractive raised bed idea out of twigs woven using the basket weaving method. Their round shape will add beauty to the landscape, and you can use trellised tepees to support climbing plants.

Add creativity to your garden plan by alternating the materials used to create each bed. For example, place a round galvanized container garden between two wooden garden boxes. Make a wood bed out of recycled mahogany, repurposed wooden pallets, or treated wood made for the purpose. Refrain from using recycled railroad ties, as they allow harmful chemicals to enter the soil.

Raised Bed Garden Layout Ideas

How you plan your raised garden garden design will depend on the size of your yard and how much sunlight your plants need. The garden bed can be one small container, or your garden design can include multiple flower pot options throughout the yard. Make sure that the size of your garden area is proportional to the size of your house and yard.

Don't be afraid to get creative with plantation and garden design. Arrange pie-shaped garden beds around a central sculpture or fountain. Visually soften the edges of your growing area by running grassy paths between garden boxes. If you don't want to mow your grass, cover the ground with landscape cloth and lay a thick layer of pretty gravel or mulch over it.

Metal Garden Bed Ideas

Metal is a popular choice for garden pot designs, especially among those who love rustic style. Galvanized inventory tanks are one of the easiest options for metal garden beds. If they're too big for your yard, look for smaller options in metal or a combination of metal and wood. A small vegetable garden can easily be turned into a flowery patio by filling a galvanized tub with compost.

Frame the flowers in wood, then frame each side with corrugated metal panels for a contemporary combination of metal and wood. The metal garden border is easy to install and perfect for cropped, curved garden beds. Note that the only downside to using metal in construction or edging is that it can rust over time. If this happens, your garden will no longer look as neat as you would like, although some people prefer the rusty look.

Tiled or tiered garden bed ideas

A tiered or sloping yard requires an elevated garden bed design that adapts to the terrain. Tiered garden ideas include staggered planters with taller plants on the upper levels and lower ones below.

The soil itself inside a large raised bed can be sloped to match the natural curves of the ground below. Gardening with square meters works well on a slope when each 4×4 bed is laid in several overlapping rows.

Small garden bed ideas

In a way, a small raised bed is the simplest. Although your vegetable crop will also be small, it is much easier to plant. In a small garden, there is less room for weeds, which speeds up daily care.

Small tall garden boxes are also more economical than a series of large raised beds. The keyhole garden is pie-shaped with a carved wedge or a square U-shaped design. Such small raised beds can accommodate a surprisingly large number of plants.

Raised vegetable garden bed ideas

Vegetables generally do very well in raised beds, as they can contain the ideal type of soil for growing. In addition, in the spring, the beds warm up faster, extending the growing season. Growing vegetables with edible roots, such as carrots and beets, in a raised bed makes harvesting much easier.

Raised bed garden uses drip irrigation, especially during the hot summer months. Low-flow irrigation systems like micro-sprinklers or weir hoses are easy to adjust and are unlikely to over-wet your soil.

Leg Raised Bed Ideas

If the soil in your area is too wet, you can build a leg bed to keep the soil moist. Having a space between the bed and the ground will help you properly regulate moisture levels and ensure optimal drainage for your beds.

Leg beds come in large and small sizes and you can adjust the height yourself to make gardening easier for your height. You can also use open top garden boxes for planting areas.

Raised garden bed ideas with trellises

If you intend to plant alpine roses, broad beans, morning glory or other climbing vines, you will need a trellis in your garden. A trellis (lattice) is a classic lattice structure between a garden bed and a wall or fence. Or a trellis can be similar to a wigwam in its construction, consisting of pillars radiating from the edges of a round planter and converging at the top.

Climbing plants can add visual interest to your garden, whether you use it for growing flowers or vegetables. Create a natural barrier between two garden boxes by placing a trellis between them. In a few months, your vines will have grown to form a green wall separating the two lots.

Wooden or pallet raised bed idea

Raised beds made from recycled wooden pallets add a rustic feel to many home gardens. You can paint, stain, or leave the wood bare, depending on the look you want. Use extra wood for a headband that is wide enough for seating and planting. Some types of wooden garden beds include seats on one or more sides.

Wooden raised beds require a little more maintenance than some of the other options, but you can also easily upgrade them if you want to expand or create a deeper bed.

13 Affordable Raised Bed Ideas to Decorate Your Garden

Neat and Affordable Raised Garden Ideas.

Who among us has not dug in the garden, cursing everything in the world? For many, a trip to the dacha causes extremely negative emotions associated with the processing of various crops, which can be found in any grocery store all year round. Most of all (especially young people) the seasonal “potato cycle” infuriates, because in the absence of proper care, root crops grow small and in small quantities, as they say, “planted a bucket - collected a bucket”. This situation can be changed by the so-called high beds - special designs, thanks to which the crop becomes much larger, it is easier to grow it, and such a garden looks neater.

1. Cabbage in bags

Non-woven high beds.

Nonwoven Raised Beds are perhaps the easiest and most affordable way to create a warm place to grow your plants. By providing regular watering, in this way you can grow any vegetables and root crops.

2. Strawberry flower bed

Strawberry flower bed made from a wooden box.

Growing strawberries in small raised beds greatly simplifies care and increases yields. According to Novate.ru, strawberries in small tall boxes look much prettier and neater than in the usual beds.

3. Garden behind a fence

Neat garden with high beds.

If you don't want to turn your dacha into a solid garden, just separate a piece of land for beds. Behind the fence, install several boxes to create high beds. Buy special soil, select drainage, fertilizers and insulate structures. You will get a neat garden that will save you from exhausting garden work, but will bring a stable rich harvest.

4.

Potato box

High wooden potato bed.

Anyone who has ever experienced growing potatoes on the ground knows that they are often attacked by Colorado potato beetles and other pests. If you are not going to grow a whole hectare of potatoes and do not want to spend the whole summer hilling and spraying the beds, the Novate.ru editors recommend paying attention to the high beds. For example, you can put together tall boxes from boards, equip them with doors, insulate them, pick up drainage and plant potatoes. Then all you need is to water the beds on time and prepare for harvest.

5. Cucurbits in bags

Growing melons in bags.

Growing pumpkin crops: watermelons, melons, zucchini, pumpkins in bags is an ideal solution for a gardener. The garden looks neat, the fruits ripen faster, and the plants require minimal care.

6. Pumpkin arch

Pumpkin arch in the garden.

If you are tired of putting up with the fact that your pumpkin, melon or squash crops are constantly attacked by pests, it is worth considering an alternative way to grow these crops. To do this, you need to build some kind of arch. Plants will braid the supports, and the fruits will come off the ground and be far from pests.

7. Egg trays

Radish bed in egg trays.

Growing radishes in egg cartons is a unique planting method that can minimize plant care. This way of growing will avoid mulching and constantly maintain the necessary soil moisture.

8. Raised garden

High bed in a wooden box.

Wooden boards can be used to create a large high bed for growing a variety of crops. Equip the box with several trellises for climbing plants and divide it into zones. Thus, you will get a neat high garden, which will annually bring a rich, high-quality and early harvest.

9. Beds from profiled sheets

High beds from boards and profiled sheets.

High beds made of wooden corners and corrugated board look very stylish and perfectly keep warm. Such containers will serve you for more than one year, will allow you to put the garden in order and greatly facilitate the process of caring for plants.

10. Round beds

Round beds made of corrugated board.

Profiled sheeting is a flexible material that can take on many shapes, which means beds with profiled sheet walls can be round, oval or rounded. This building material is also quite resistant to damage and perfectly retains heat, which makes it ideal for creating a variety of raised beds.

11. Garden in tires

High beds in tires.

Enterprising gardeners can use used car tires to create raised beds. The rubber from which the tires are made is durable and perfectly retains heat. This makes old tires a practical and affordable material for creating the popular tall structures for growing crops.

12. Cinder blocks

Cinder block bed.

A magnificent bed of cinder blocks painted in bright colors will not only be a warm place for growing plants, but also a spectacular decoration of the garden area. By the way, flowers can be grown in the holes of cinder blocks, which will make the design even more attractive.