Both beginning and experienced gardeners love raised garden beds. Here are 30 cool ideas for raised garden beds, from the practical to the extraordinary.
More gardening ideas: tips for gardening with kids, front yard landscaping ideas, and creative flower bed ideas.
30 Raised Garden Bed Ideas
Both beginning and experienced gardeners love raised garden beds, since they can be filled with good soil, require minimal or no digging, are easier on your back, and will give you less weeds. Here are 30 cool ideas for raised garden beds, from the practical to the extraordinary.
Wood Raised Garden Beds
Use wood to create a custom garden bed box that fits your space and style with these ideas for inspiration.
Corner Wooden Planter
Build this corner wooden raised garden bed with three separate sections. Perfect for a sad corner in your backyard!
Elevated Raised Garden Beds
Get your garden even higher off the ground to prevent rabbits and other animals from stealing your veggies! Build an elevated raised garden bed. Here’s how.
Raised Garden Bed Kits
There are kits that you can purchase that includes all building materials and instructions to make your own raised garden beds. Great for DIYers who want to build but don’t feel like doing all the measuring. This one is really nice; it includes a gate and fencing and even an option for an automatic watering system!
Divided Raised Garden Beds
Add wood dividers in your beds and plant one herb or plant in each spot. Neat and organized! Perfect for herbs that can be invasive, like mint! (image via artandappetite.com).
Raised Garden Beds on a Sloped Backyard
Do you have a slope in your backyard that you don’t know what to do with? Build (or hire someone to build) raised garden beds on the slope! See some great pictures here and don’t miss the extra information and helpful advice in the comments.
Raised Garden Beds with Casters
If you need to move around your raised garden beds regularly, just add casters to the bottom of your raised beds! Perfect for small patios with concrete or tiled floors.
Self-Watering Planter
Put in a perforated drain pipe in your raised garden bed to make it self-watering. That will save water and help your plants grow well. Helpful for when you go off on vacations!
DIY Garden Enclosure
Prevent deer and other animals from gobbling down your produce by building a raised garden bed with an enclosure, complete with a gate door.
U-Shaped Raised Garden Bed
Grow a large garden that you can easily navigate around with this u-shaped raised garden bed. Find instructions how to build your own here.
Cedar Fence Garden Beds
Use cedar fence pickets to build raised garden beds that will set you back only $10 or a little more, depending on your store’s prices. What a smart idea!
Raised Bed Pest Cover
Keep pests out of your garden by building this raised bed pest cover to put over your garden beds!
Raised Wood Pallet Garden Bed
This clever pallet garden bed requires no building – just a good stapler and landscaping fabric!
Raised Herb Beds From Drawers
Paint a couple of old drawers in a fun design and use them as little raised garden beds! Great for herbs and other small plants.
Metal Raised Garden Beds
There are many easy to create metal beds using galvanized metal or watering roughs. Check these ideas out.
Culvert Garden Bed
Use culvert to create raised garden beds to add an industrial look to your backyard!
Metal Decorative Corner Supports
Add some jazz to your wooden raised garden beds with decorative corner supports! They’ll also help make the construction of your raised garden beds a bit easier and keep them sturdy. These dragonfly-themed corner supports would be fun additions to any garden!
Galvanized Livestock Watering Troughs
Watering troughs will last a long time and has a great industrial look. No DIYing needed except to drill in a few holes in bottom for drainage.
Wood and Corrugated Steel Raised Garden Beds
Nice combination of wood and corrugated steel, a handsome marriage of nature and industrialization! An economical solution to DIYing your raised garden beds. Here’s another (gorgeous!) example.
Aluminum Can Garden Bed
Drink a lot of soda? Save your cans to make aluminum can raised garden beds! Use cement to keep the cans together and cover it all with stucco for a really nice look. Image via Gardentenders.com
Stones, Bricks, and Other Materials
There are so many cool ideas using stones, bricks, and even kiddie pools for unique garden bed ideas.
Herb Spiral
Herb spirals make very cool-looking raised garden beds and are great for people with little space for gardening.
Cinder Block Raised Garden Beds
Build a raised garden bed easily and cheaply with cinder blocks. Give it a finished and modern look by adding concrete caps on the tops!
Mosaic Raised Garden Bed
So pretty and economical! Use the art of mosaic (with broken, left-over tile, broken wine glasses, etc) to decorate the tops of your cinder blocks and cement blocks.
Raised Planter Stand with 55-Gallon Drums
This is a great way to build waist-high garden beds and a smart way to use a couple of 55-gallon juice drums if you already have some laying around. You could find these drums on Craig’s List or businesses that use them, just make sure that they are food-safe.
Cement Mixing Trays on Planter Stands
Build a planter stand (check out the previous tutorial listed above) and then put in cement mixing trays to hold the soil and plants.
Concrete Raised Garden Bed
Here’s how to DIY a beautiful concrete raised garden bed with a nice curve and a corner. You can adapt the plans to fit your space.
Kiddie Pools as Raised Garden Beds
Kiddie pools might not be the most beautiful raised garden beds, but they might be right for you if you’re looking for a cheap and quick solution that takes only minutes to set up. Or you could use one kiddie pool for your kids’ own garden!
Keyhole Gardens
Keyhole gardens, which are widespread in Africa, include an active compost pile in the middle of a raised garden bed. This method holds moisture and nutrients in the gardening soil and helps you use less water. Perfect for hot and dry climates but they would work anywhere!
Stone Raised Garden Bed
Stone raised garden beds are beautiful and will blend well with your home if you have a stone path or a stone exterior. They are more long-lasting than wood, albeit more expensive, but you can save on costs if you build one yourself.
Dry-Stacked Flagstone Garden Bed
This tutorial uses no mortar – just heavy flagstone stacked on top of each other. Gorgeous.
Image via paintspeckledwithpawprints.com.
Brick Raised Garden Bed
Traditional and permanent! Especially perfect for you if you have a pile of bricks waiting to be used. Here’s how to build a brick raised garden bed.
Old Tires as Garden Beds
You can easily find old tires from car shops for free. Save them from the landfill and use them to create raised garden beds.
Hopefully, these raised garden bed ideas have inspired you to build or buy your own! It’s a wonderful feeling to serve food to your family that you’ve grown in your own backyard. Find a lot of great advice and information on raised garden beds with this wonderful resource.
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Originally posted 07.09.2015 // Updated 4.28.2021
I’m Elisa and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and our two little girls. I used to teach reading and writing, but now I stay at home with my two kiddos and read and write in my spare time. I also love to undertake DIY projects, find new recipes on Pinterest, and dream about someday finally completing our home. Above all, I love to learn about new things and sharing my new-found knowledge with others.”
