Wooden raised beds are great for small garden plots to grow vegetables. And some people also use them to grow flowers. Because the soil level is higher of the ground in a raised vegetable bed, it reduces back strain when you bend over to tend to your garden.

You can use many different types of planks to make wooden raised beds. You can go to the salvation yard and get old timber and use that to make a raised bed. Or you can buy treated wood. You can buy ready-made wooden raised beds. All you have to do with these is hammer the attached posts into the ground and you are ready to fill the raised bed with soil.

We made our raised beds from ‘dung boarding’ these are long treated boards that are used by farmers to hold ‘dung’. The boards are 15ft long. We made our beds 12 foot long and 3 foot wide, so we need 2 boards per raised bed. Each board cost us £15.00 or around $25 dollars.

Some people use scaffolding planks, railway sleepers, or just wooden planks they have spare. You can use anything, but do be careful that some of the treatments used on the wood can contaminate the soil which you will add into the raised bed.

After you have made your wooden raised beds you add the soil. Topsoil is best, but if topsoil isn’t available you can use any soil you have. Then you can start adding compost or manure (or both) to improve the soil structure. We also add grass clippings which really improves the structure of the soil.

Raised beds prevent soil compaction; they also provide good drainage and also work as a barrier to slugs and snails.

You can fit a raised bed in a corner of your garden. So you can grow vegetables without the need to dig over your garden. Raised vegetable beds are easy to make and a great way to grow your own vegetables