From rustic to modern, there are nearly endless raised garden bed ideas for growing vegetables, flowers, or whatever you like. While there are plenty of kits you can buy and assemble, you also can opt for DIY raised garden beds using upcycled or repurposed materials. Building your own raised bed lets you customize the design and get creative with materials. Depending on the look you're going for, you can use logs, brick, or even metal for a more modern style. Here are some raised garden bed ideas that don’t require an engineering degree to build or advanced gardening skills to maintain.
Raised Bed Cottage Garden
A series of raised garden beds painted white and planted with chili peppers, bell peppers, kale, sunflowers, marigolds, and chard bring a cottage garden look to this backyard. The beds’ design complements the trim on the garden shed, which is surrounded by colorful flowers.
DIY Brick Bed
This inexpensive, DIY raised bed is made by dry-stacking brick. A series of upright wooden posts holding horizontal rods support the fruit-laden tomato plants so they don’t break—a prettier solution than tomato cages. The soil in the bed is mulched to keep moisture in and weeds out.
Log Raised Bed
Make easy, rustic raised garden beds with logs turned on end. The secret to making those logs stand up? Nail a 2x6 board inside the logs before you fill the bed with soil. The log beds complement the tree branch fence lined with hog wire to keep out unwanted wildlife.
Easy Paver Bed
Want to DIY an inexpensive raised bed, but woodworking isn’t your thing? Make one out of pavers turned on end. Choose pavers that are at least 4 inches thick, lay them on their sides, and put mortar between the joints to reinforce the sides. This is a great way to use pavers left over from a pathway or patio project.
Raised Vegetable Garden
Low, angular raised beds hold a variety of veggies like tomatoes and peppers, along with flowers and herbs in this kitchen garden. The grouping of raised beds is set off by a picket fence painted green, its scalloped top contrasting with the hard angles of the beds.
Modern Metal Raised Bed
This is one of the most stylish raised garden bed ideas that makes the perfect addition to any modern home. Sheet metal coiled into a spiral creates a contemporary raised bed. This one is planted with culinary herbs like dill, mint, cilantro, and chives. Their soft, overgrown shape contrasts with the hard lines of the raised bed, creating pleasing visual and textural contrast.
Stacked Stone Bed
A raised bed made of stacked fieldstone looks like part of the landscape. A mixed planting of succulents, iris, and roses creates a western spin on a cottage garden, while the sedum spilling over the side of the bed softens the hardscape.
Mailbox Garden Bed
A raised garden bed made of 2x6 cedar boards provides healthy soil for a curbside mailbox garden. Planted with colocasia, sedge, and mandevilla, the raised bed gets visual pop from the similar colors of the scarlet picket fence and red and hot pink flowers.
Raised Bed on Legs
Elevated garden beds are an excellent option for gardeners who want to avoid bending over to weed, feed, and prune their garden. They’re also good if you want a portable bed you can move to different areas of your property in pursuit of optimal growing conditions. This one made of treated wood has been placed on a deck and planted with lettuce and marigolds.
Raised Bed Outdoor Room
Create an outdoor room with a grouping of raised garden beds. Here, the curved sides define the space around the dining set and act as patio walls. The beds are planted with a mix of edibles and ornamentals that can be enjoyed from the sitting area.
Concrete Block Bed
Make an easy, inexpensive DIY raised bed with concrete retaining wall blocks. These are dry-stacked and capped with concrete paver stones fixed in place with exterior construction adhesive made for hardscaping projects. Concrete blocks are more affordable than natural stone and longer-lasting than wood, so they’re an excellent material for a DIY raised bed garden.
Backyard Oasis
This raised bed is made of engineered stone panels cast from real stone and attached to cinder block beds. They’re capped with flagstone pavers and planted with drought- and sun-loving aeonium, aloe, and angelonia. The bed adds privacy and defines the space around the flagstone paver patio. Cast stone panels are an inexpensive way to get the look of a stacked stone bed.
Wooden Raised Beds
Classic raised garden beds made of wood and stained to protect them from the elements are a good way to pack a lot of plants into a small space. This bed is planted with a mix of herbs and ornamentals, including succulents, lavender, basil, dill, and rosemary. Plastic yard flamingos add a touch of whimsy to this garden.
Round Raised Bed
This is one of the most stylish raised garden bed ideas that will bring a modern, industrial feel to a kitchen herb garden. This one is made of weathered metal and filled with several varieties of basil and nasturtium. A metal obelisk in a matching weather finish provides support for the vining plants and architectural interest in the space.
Easy Wood Raised Beds
Metal raised bed corner brackets make it easy to build raised container gardens. They come in a range of heights and can be stacked to build higher beds. Attach them to planks of wood with screws, and you have a near-instant raised bed. Place them in your yard, fill them with soil, and you’re ready to plant.
Stucco Raised Bed
This raised garden bed is made of cinder blocks covered with stucco and finished to look like concrete. It makes for a bed with visual heft and clean, minimalist lines that would be at home alongside a midcentury mod house. The lush mixed planting includes canna, coleus, ornamental grass, and rose campion.
Stone Paver Bed
Stand thick stone pavers on end to create a low-sided raised bed garden. Sink a third of them in the ground to create sturdy sides without mortar. Use real stone if you’re a purist with money to spend or concrete pavers cast to look like natural stone if you’re on a budget. This bed is planted with herbs and watered with a drip irrigation system.
Stock Tank Raised Beds
Stock tanks, also called cattle troughs, are essentially giant metal water bowls for livestock. They’re usually made of galvanized metal, plastic, or fiberglass. They make sturdy raised beds that are high-sided enough to keep you from having to bend down to the ground to weed, feed, and tend your plants. You can buy them at feed stores and tack shops. To turn them into raised beds, drill holes in the bottom for drainage and line them with landscape fabric before filling them with soil and plants.
Fence Post Corners
Wooden fence posts cut in half and sunk into the ground make inexpensive, decorative corners for raised beds. These fence post corners tie visually to the uprights on the adjacent picket fence while adding a decorative touch to the raised beds.
Slope-Conquering Beds
These raised garden beds are made of single, foot-wide planks of wood nailed together. They’re 20 feet long and partially sunk into the ground on one end to level out the slight slope of the yard and create a level growing area. The beds are arranged in tidy rows and planted with vegetables.
Brick Beds
If you love the look of brick, stack and mortar them to create sturdy raised garden beds. These are capped with 2x4s. The bricks and wood in the beds echo the materials in the outdoor fireplace and pergola, creating a unified look in the landscape.
Raised Bed Potager Garden
Inspired by the ornamental kitchen gardens of Europe, these simple, raised wooden beds are artfully arranged and filled with vegetables and herbs. A hedge cut into a natural fence surrounds the garden, and a walkway provides access to the beds. The raised beds aren’t fancy, but their surroundings give the space an elevated look.
Diamond-Shaped Raised Bed
Who says raised garden beds must be square? No one, and that’s why this one is shaped like an elongated diamond. The bed fits into a narrow backyard and leaves room to walk around it. It acts like a frame for the shrubs and flowers in it.
Driveway Garden
Turn a driveway or a courtyard into a garden with a series of raised beds placed atop pavers. This is a great solution if you have no yard or if the sunniest spot on your property is paved. These wooden beds are painted a shade of teal that echoes the doors on the outbuilding and matches the surrounding fence and gates to tie the entire space together.
Good Old Wood
A little carpentry makes charmingly rustic raised garden beds. These inexpensive beds are two wood planks tall and full of tomatoes and other tall plants supported by DIY supports and a trellis made of unfinished wood and wire. The effect is country salvage, and they’re designed for maximum gardening efficiency.
