Raised beds are a garden designer’s secret weapon, and not just because they look good. Perhaps you worry that you don’t have enough room for raised beds or that a raised bed or two will disrupt the design of your garden?
Photograph courtesy of Sam Tisdall Architects.
The New Front Yard
In London, architect Sam Tisdall designed a tiny 800-square-foot house with an enormous vegetable garden in raised beds in the front yard.
Seaside Sprawl
At their summer house in Little Compton, Rhode Island, Dan and Dara Brewster ceded much of the lawn (and view) to a sprawling kitchen garden with raised beds.
Triple Threat
Vegetables, flowers, and fruit.
Photograph by Lori L. Stalteri via Flickr.
On a sloping property in West Sussex, England, garden designer Annie Guilfoyle of Creative Landscapes designed three tiers of terraced beds; the middle level is used as a vegetable garden and the lower level is dedicated to growing fruit.
A Stacked Deck
For more, see Before & After: A Kitchen Garden in Sussex, England.
In Hollywood’s hills, garden designer Lauri Kranz of Edible Gardens LA conceived a chic enclosure more reminiscent of an Apple store than of deer fencing.
Edible Backyard
In Connecticut garden landscape architect Janice Parker created a procession of raised beds, a row of “five strong planters spaced so the very ugly manhole covers in between them, which are for drain-out and maintenance on the coast and can’t be grassed over, can’t be seen,” she says.
Clever Camouflage
Tennis, Anyone?
Ceramicist Frances Palmer transformed a neglected tennis court into a verdant garden, using the surface as a foundation for rows of raised beds.
A Concrete Plan
LA-based landscape designer Kathleen Ferguson transforms a sunny corner of a garden into a mini edible garden with a closely clustered collection of small raised beds.
We admire stained and painted raised beds in gardens, such as Swedish designer and entrepreneur Agneta Enzell’s black raised beds.
Black Beauty
Photograph by Sandra Pettersson.
Sunset designers created a checkerboard effect with raised beds, with a single variety of plant in each box in a demonstration garden at the magazine’s Celebration Weekend 2015.
Photograph courtesy of Sunset.