Simple Raised Beds

The wife wanted to have her own herb garden. The constraints were that it needed to be near the house and it because that would mean it would be in 'our' area, it had to look nice.

So, instead of just digging some turf up and planting some herbs, I decided to make her a raised bed herb garden.

It's really basic, just made out of decking boards secured to stakes in the corners and at intervals down the sides.  I did have the original idea of using railway sleepers as I think they look lovely, with the rustic, weathered effect but they are rather expensive.

So all I did was to dig out the measured area, knock in some stakes and then screw the decking boards to the stakes.  I have to say they do look good and are inexpensive.  I did end up putting a small raised area on the end, which this year has had lettuce leaves in.  Next year we may look at extending the other way as we are trying to create seperate areas in the garden.  This one being our 'adults' area.

There has been talk about also making the vegetable area into raised beds, though I haven't decided yet.  Any suggestions?

The other thing I built which was very similar, though not a raised bed, was a large planter.

In our back garden there is a large metal manhole cover on the edge of the grass. It's an eyesore, but we can't do much with it.  I decided to make a planter large enough to cover it.  This was made in a similar way to the raised beds and from the same materials.  Therefore it hasn't cost much to make plus it blends on well.

Raised beds can work really well, though you do need to keep an eye on watering a bit more.  They do how ever look very attractive and provide focal points in the garden.