Building a raised bed: instructions and video

Whether made of pallets, wood or with a kit: there are many ways to build a raised bed yourself. We'll show you how.

raised beds They come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and are made from a wide variety of materials. Traditionally, a raised bed is made of wood. Raised beds made of pallets are particularly popular at the moment and raised beds made of stone are also a real eye-catcher. Below you will find construction instructions for the most popular materials from which you can build a raised bed yourself.

Build a raised bed yourself: choice of location and basics

The choice of location is of great importance for the construction of a raised bed. The subsoil should offer stability for the bed and should therefore not have been freshly heaped up. A level location, where there are no large tree roots and which is well lit (possibly even sheltered from the wind), is ideal for a raised bed. More help for choosing the right one raised bed location can be found in our special article.

Weed fleece and rabbit wire protect the self-made raised bed

In any case, one should be attached to the underside of the raised bed as closely as possiblerabbit wire attached to keep annoying rodents such as voles away. A hand or electric tacker is best suited for fastening. In the case of beds that are difficult to attach to (e.g. stone beds), the wire is laid out on the ground and the bed is erected above it.

If there are many root weeds (such as bindweed, bindweed, stinging nettle, etc.) near the raised bed location, an additional weed fleece between rabbit wire (close mesh) and raised bed content to be attached. This protects against weed infestation for at least a few years.

Pond liner in the raised bed: Protection against rotting and rinsing out of soil

Raised bed linings are generally a matter of taste. Especially in beds with larger distances between the boards or stones, a lining, for example, can help pond liner or thick fleece (e.g. weed fleece taken twice) makes sense because it protects against escaping water and soil. When using film, you should definitely make sure that it does not contain any plasticizers. The more expensive the material, the more worthwhile is a lining, because this naturally protects the wall material from weathering.
Black linings also cause the raised bed to heat up more, which is definitely desirable. The film should be applied to wooden materials in dry weather so that the wood is not damp. The lining is best fastened with a hand tacker at the top edge of the raised bed. If you want to optimally protect the bed from weathering, the foil should overlap the edge of the raised bed.

When preparing to build a raised bed yourself, keep the following points in mind:

• choose a location that is as bright, flat and as far away from trees as possible
• Underside of the raised bed from protection against voles and weeds with rabbit wire (closely meshed) and if necessary weed fleece undress
• Side walls with thick fleece or pond liner lined and thus counteract the rotting of the wooden side walls or the washing out of earth through large gaps

Raised bed made of pallets

Build a raised bed from pallets yourself: building instructions

To ensure that the raised bed made of pallets is stable, it is advisable to place the four raised bed corner posts on concrete or stone slabs (approx. 30×30 cm) to “set”. Their position must be precisely matched to the size of the pallets so that there is space for two corner posts of the pallets next to each other. It is best to try out whether the position of the concrete slabs fits before screwing the pallets together. Use a spirit level to check that the plates are aligned at zero. If necessary, some soil under the plates must be removed or filled up. When that's done, the four pallets can be attached to each other. To do this, it is best to place two pallets opposite each other, each on the longer side, so that the height should be 80 cm. The tops of the pallets are facing the other pallet. Now the two remaining pallets, also standing on the longer side and with the upper side pointing inwards, are leaned against the other two pallets on the outside.

If you now have a slightly rectangular box in front of you, the pallets can be fastened together. Of course, you can also build a square raised bed out of pallets. The pallets are best screwed together with 3 brackets per corner. If you want to protect your raised bed from weathering on the outside, you can coat the pallets with wood stain (preferably water-based). The further procedure with rabbit wire, lining and the like has already been described above. The raised bed made of pallets can be optically embellished by attaching boards under the spaces on the outside of the pallets and thus creating "flower or herb boxes". The boards don't have to fit exactly. On the contrary, gaps are optimal for water to drain. In any case, these small boxes should be lined with foil, which should be provided with holes on the underside. In this way, the accumulation of water, which plants so hate, is prevented.

Building a raised bed from standard Euro pallets in quick succession (120 x 80 x 14.4 cm):

• If you form a rectangular raised bed out of four Euro pallets, it will measure 120 x 120 cm.
• Four concrete or stone slabs (30 x 30 cm) are positioned at the corners so that the corner posts of the pallets can be placed on the stone slabs.
• Use a spirit level to check that the panels are level.
• Two pallets are placed on their longer side on the two plates that are 149 cm apart. The top of the palettes faces the other palette.
• Two more pallets are leaned against the other pallets from the outside, also with the top of the pallet facing in.
• If a matching box with a height of 80cm results, the pallets are screwed with 3 brackets per corner.

Raised bed made of pallets: advantages and disadvantages

A raised bed made of pallets offers many advantages. The above assembly instructions suggest only one of many possible construction methods. If you let your creativity run free, a raised bed made of pallets can look completely different. For example, it could be twice as big or mounted on another pallet instead of on the floor. This "floor pallet" could be fitted with rollers and thus construct a mobile raised bed. However, with this or other ideas, you should never lose sight of the dimensions and weights. A raised bed that is 80 cm high is definitely too heavy to put on rollers. Another advantage of the raised bed made of pallets is the low workload and that only a few materials are needed. At best, you can buy used Euro pallets from companies or get them relatively cheaply from hardware stores.

The height of a normal raised bed made of pallets is ideal for gardening at 80 cm, but such a high bed also swallows up a lot of filling material. For garden owners who have plenty of organic material available, this shouldn't be a problem. For other gardeners who may have just enough space off their patio for the raised bed, having to buy tons of raised bed filler from the hardware store could be a disadvantage. Another disadvantage is the lower durability of the pallet wood compared to other types of raised beds. After all, Euro pallets are mostly made of softwood, which weathers much faster than, for example, the thicker hardwood boards of a wooden raised bed or stone.

Wooden raised bed

Build your own wooden raised bed: building instructions

A raised bed made of wood can be built in many different ways, depending on your requirements. At this point it is explained to you how you can build a simple but absolutely suitable wooden raised bed yourself in a rather simple and inexpensive way.

Build your own wooden raised bed: shopping list for a raised bed about 70 to 80 cm high

• four corner posts, at least 1 m long, with a thickness of 8 x 8 or preferably 10 x 10 cm made of hardwood
• depending on width approx. 6 slightly longer boards (depending on the desired size of the raised bed approx. 150 to 200 cm long)
• depending on width approx. 6 slightly shorter boards (depending on the desired size of the raised bed approx. 90 to 120 cm long)
• the boards should be about 3-5 cm thick, "unedged" boards from the sawmill can also be used

tip: If you are building a raised bed yourself for the first time, cheap spruce wood can be used for "experimentation". If the bed is to be as weather-resistant as possible, boards made of hardwood such as oak or beech are better suited.

• 1 large pack of nails that are a few cm longer than the boards are thick
• Tools: hammer, sledgehammer, hand or cordless tacker, if necessary saw
• rabbit wire (closely meshed), possibly Wood stain (water-based), if necessary weed fleece and or pond liner (see above)

Build your own wooden raised bed: step by step

Step 1: The raised bed area is measured exactly according to the desired bed dimensions. At the four corners of the measured area, the wooden posts are driven about 30 cm deep into the ground. Do not hit the posts directly with the sledgehammer, but use an impact protection (e.g. a small board). If you also want to protect the corner posts from weathering, you can also drive the boards into the ground with metal ground sockets.

step 2: To protect against gnawing small animals, a rabbit wire is placed between the corner posts and attached to the timbers with a hand tacker.

step 3: The boards are now gradually nailed to the corner posts from the outside, starting from the bottom. So that less force is exerted on the corner posts, it is advisable to drive the nails into the boards one to two centimeters on the ground.

step 4: If you want to lay out a weed fleece on the floor, you should attach it to the sides of the lowest boards with a hand tacker. You can read above how to proceed if you want to line the bed from the inside.

Raised bed made of wood: advantages and disadvantages

Raised beds made of wood are an absolute classic. Wood looks lively and blends beautifully into the garden with its natural brown tones. It doesn't matter whether it's green leaves, colorful flowers or bright orange ones pumpkins: Everything looks beautiful with the natural wooden brown. Assuming you use cheap spruce wood (perhaps unedged), then a wooden raised bed is not an expensive proposition either. Boards are easy to saw, so a wooden raised bed can be built very flexibly in all imaginable sizes. If you want a raised bed that is as durable as possible, you are just as well advised to use wood as a material if hardwood and a wood stain are used. Instead of hammering the corner posts into the ground, they can also be fixed in ready-made concrete screed using post supports. Although this is much more complex, it ensures greater stability and protects against weathering. In comparison to stone or plastic, however, wood cannot keep up in terms of weather resistance.

More materials and kits for raised beds

Raised bed kit: What are the pros and cons?

The advantage of a raised bed kit is hard to ignore. Instead of having to saw boards to the right dimensions yourself, you only have to purchase a kit and, depending on the type, screw it together or put it together and set it up. But the fact that the dimensions are already given could prove to be rather negative, especially for allotment garden owners. Likewise, there are often limits when it comes to individual height design. Depending on the optical requirements, such a kit can also be a lot more expensive than cheaply procured wood or pallets. Ultimately, the decision will probably depend on the leisure and time that you can spend on the construction of your bed.

Raised beds made of stone, plastic or metal have the unbeatable advantage that they are far more weather-resistant than wood-based raised beds. Plastic raised beds are still relatively cheap to buy, but there are big price differences for metal versions or stones, depending on your preference. There are basically two options for raised beds made of stone: the stone bed built with mortar and the stone bed built dry. Of course, the former scores with stability, dry construction serves as a retreat for many various microorganisms and thus brings indescribable services for nature and species protection in the garden. As beneficial insects, the little animals that find shelter then also benefit the gardener.

More information on the advantages and disadvantages of Natural stone raised beds can be found in our special article.

You can find more inspiration for “raised beds” on our Pinterest page
raised bed ideas