Using A Raised Garden Bed Design

 

I assume that when most people think of raised garden bed design they immediately think of a small vegetable garden which they may have seen on a TV show about gardening. However, as you can see from the above photograph, raised garden bed design is not always restricted to growing vegetables. This article looks at the various advantages of using raised beds and how best to utilize them into your garden design.

Making The Most Of Available Space

As I have only ever been fortunate enough to afford properties which only had rather a small urban back yard the first thing that comes to mind when attempting to redesign the garden is how to make the very most from the available space or how to make that space appear far greater than it actually is. Very early on I discovered that raised beds offer a wealth of solutions to numerous problems including the two mentioned.

Using a raised garden bed design it is possible to add many dimensions to a small yard garden without too much effort. I once was faced with a very small yard of an unusual shape and I pondered over the problems for far too long. The problems were made far worse by the fact that the soil depth was minimal and so using raised beds and containers was to prove the only solution. Like any good gardener my aim was to create a garden of interest and I had to change my disadvantages into advantages and I hit upon the idea of using the raised beds to create a feeling of depth by increasing the height the further away from the house they were.

Along the back wall I planted climbers to disguise the ugly brick work (which I painted green) but in one area I placed a very tall mirrored surface over which I placed some trellis. I repeated this in various areas and due to the irregular shape this created the illusion that there was more garden beyond the climbers. To enhance this still further I place a false doorway into the wall upon which I placed a hanging basket.

By using a raised garden bed design I used a very small raised bed towards the front and planted it using ground cover and trailing plants and the next raised bed behind was slightly higher and planted with low growing perennials. I repeated this pattern around the garden and at the very back, just in front of the climbers I planted one or two short conifers. While my first raised garden bed design created rather an overcrowded space by thinning out my plants and transplanting others in different positions the following year, I was able to create the desired illusion.

In later articles I will return to the topic of the raised bed as I have so much to share about this wonderful method of growing all manner of plants.

 

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