Tips for Planting a Raised Garden Bed

Best Choice Products provided me with the raised garden bed featured in this post. As always, all work done for this post, and all opinions, writing, and photographs are 100% mine. Please click here to read my full disclosure policy.

I have issues. Specifically, I have garden issues.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you might remember that we had an awesome garden at our old house. You might also remember this photo:

What’s wrong with this picture?!?

We’ve had issues with critters eating our garden at the Bungalow, too. Plus we have two large dogs, one of whom likes digging in the dirt. I felt like I was never going to get to have a garden in my yard.

I found this raised garden bed at Best Choice Products and figured it could solve these issues! The garden would be high enough to keep out critters and dogs. I could finally have a critter-free garden!

Since this is my first raised garden bed, I did some research on the best ways to plant and tend a raised bed. Here’s what I found.

My top tips for planting a raised garden bed:

(1) Buy a raised garden bed kit.

I know, I’m a DIY blogger – I should be telling you to build this! And while you certainly can buy the wood, cut the wood, screw it together, find a liner, find legs and attach them, etc. etc., you could just spend about $50 and buy this beautiful raised garden bed instead:

Best Choice Products sells this raised garden bed kit and it’s currently on sale for $50! (Regularly priced at $249.00.)

This was so easy to assemble. Although the instructions say you only need a drill or screwdriver for the post caps, it’s also helpful to have a rubber mallet to bang the sides into the grooves in the legs.

Start to finish, this bed took me about 30 minutes to assemble. It honestly could not have been easier.

What I love about this raised garden bed are (1) it was super-easy to assemble; (2) it’s made of solid fir wood – durable and it smelled really good!; and (3) it comes with a liner for the bed – no need to get one separately.

(2) Choose a good soil.

Once you’ve got your raised garden bed built, you need some good soil for your plants. I chose an organic soil designed specifically for vegetable and herb gardens. Don’t just shovel regular ol’ dirt in there or use a soil not formulated for veggie gardens.

(3) Choose veggies wisely.

Make sure you choose veggies and herbs that are right for your garden at the time of planting. This means:

• Choose veggies and herbs that are right for the season. For example, it’s good to plant lettuces now, now that the weather is cooling off.
• Choose veggies and herbs that are the right size for your garden. You can’t plant watermelon in a raised bed like this. But peppers, kale, lettuces, herbs, and more are the perfect size.
• Don’t over-plant your raised garden bed. Sure, a full garden bed looks nice and all magazine-y, but you have to give the plants room to grow. Check out what the plant’s tag says about how much space the plant needs before planting something next to it.

(4) Water well.

Your plants need water – just enough to make the soil moist. Don’t overwater them, and make sure that you water them any time the soil is dry.

Another big plus to a raised garden bed like this is that you can place it or move it close to a water source! Plus, you can water the whole garden with a watering can. So easy!

(5) Choose a sunny spot.

Choose a spot for your garden that gets ample sunlight. The great part about a raised bed garden like this one is that you can easily move it if you find that your garden isn’t getting enough sun or is getting too much. How great is that?!?

Now sit back and enjoy the veggies of your labor! (See what I did there?)