3' x 6' Raised Garden Bed With Hinged Fencing and Trellis (2024)

FAQs

Can you put a raised garden bed against a fence? ›

If you have limited space in your backyard but still want to enjoy the benefits of gardening, then raised garden beds along fences might be the perfect solution for you.

Raised garden beds can help extend the growing season by providing warmer soil temperatures earlier in the spring and later into the fall. The elevated position allows the soil to warm up more quickly in the spring, enabling gardeners to start planting earlier and prolonging the harvest season for cold-sensitive crops.

While untreated wood has a limited lifetime, using cedar, redwood, cypress, or hemlock can prolong the garden's life expectancy by five or ten years, meaning you can enjoy decades with your wooden raised beds. Steel is next in durability, and stone and brick can quite literally last a lifetime.

We recommend a trellis that's tall enough to accommodate growing vines, but not so tall that you'd have to stretch to pick. Our trellises measure 6 feet tall, but anywhere from 4 to 6 feet will work for growing most vining plants vertically. If your vines begin to grow out of hand, pinch off the top tip of the vine.

Ideally, the beds should be around 24-30 inches tall to allow for comfortable gardening without bending or reaching too much.

Avoid using older types of wood treatments such as CCA, creosote, and Penta-treated lumber. Research from Oregon State University showed that pressure-treated lumber does increase soil copper concentrations by a minor amount, but only within 1 inch of the raised-bed edge.

The cons of raised beds

The soil mix also can be a significant, albeit one-time, expense. Raised beds need water more often since the soil is more exposed to air and dries quicker. Similar to growing in containers, the extra watering can leach nutrients out of the soil quicker than in-ground gardens.

Depending on your budget and gardening goals, you can line the bottom of your raised garden beds with wide-mesh hardware cloth, stainless steel mesh, landscape fabric, burlap sack, or newspaper/cardboard.

The Disadvantages of Raised Beds

They heat up more and dry out a lot faster than level ground, which can be a big disadvantage in very hot or dry climates. They can cost a lot of money to create the frames, and fill the beds with soil, especially if you choose to use Mel's Mix (square foot gardening potting soil).

Ideally, we think it's best to consider replenishing the soil between each season i.e. after every Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer harvest; however, if you can only do it once a year, that's alright too.

What is the easiest thing to grow in a raised bed? ›

What are some easy vegetables to grow in raised beds? While many vegetables thrive in raised beds, some particularly beginner-friendly choices include radishes, lettuce, bush beans, and kale. These plants are generally low-maintenance, have shorter growing seasons, or are less prone to common garden pests.

Tomatoes should ideally be grown in a raised bed that's at least 15 to 18 inches deep. Many of my clients in Houston are successfully growing tomatoes in 12-inch deep raised garden beds, but their plants tend to be a little stunted compared to plants in deeper beds.

This feature is particularly beneficial for older individuals or those with mobility issues, allowing them to continue gardening without undue discomfort. Moreover, the 24 inch height of the garden bed allows gardeners to sit on the edge while tending to their plants.

Depending on the length of your garden bed, you may want to pound in some stakes just to help make sure your boards don't move or shift over time. Fill your bed with good quality compost and soil and get planting!

So just remember to select your width based on where the raised bed is going. If it's up against a fence or home, the maximum recommended width is two and a half feet. If there will be access on all four sides, the maximum recommended width is four feet.

If they have put soil against your fence without any membrane or protection against water, this will likely cause the fence to weather and rot quicker, decreasing the life span of your fence.

Gardening in raised beds offers a lot of benefits, and a few drawbacks. Raised beds are a great option for gardening on top of a porch, concrete, or on poor, rocky soil. They're ideal for corralling good soil while keeping it from getting compacted.

They are mounted to a wood and metal fence. Each planter holds the soil in a self-contained unit, preventing moisture from wicking into the wood of your fence. These planters are a very cost-effective way to easily add planters to any fence. They can be attached to wood for small accents.