My garden is going to be a master piece, truly a garden The Good Life would have been proud of and the RHS will be proud to declare "most awesome".

Right now however my garden is a "wildlife reserve" filled with butterflies, lady birds, bumble bees, frogs... and weeds.

One of the items on the "to do list" is to create raised bedding plants so that the neighbours will be saved my backside blasting rays of sun at them every time I go outside to tend to my crop (keeps the leather supple leaving it outside).

Can any keen gardeners suggest a material to create the raised beds? We've looked at old railway timbers (or indeed new timbers) but mother (being very fussy as woman are want to do) wants a few more suggestions before we kiss my hard earned pennies away on getting wood.

Another question - how high do you have your raised gardens? Has anyone found the perfect working height and would care to share this information?

Have a lovely day everyone!!

Well Clara. I designed my back garden to be all w/c friendly and with different height raised beds. Even though I'm C4/5 I used to be able to tend all the beds myself, but I'm not as young and fit as I was, my PA's do some planting and weeding, which they enjoy. See photo below. I have other photos if you wish?

Click to view attachment

That's lovely Scribs, but looks pretty expensive to have installed..

Clara,
A garden near me has just had a raised bed installed. They used decking planks for the walls that were just nailed to well treated square stakes driven into the ground. The walls were then lined inside with black plastic to keep the moisture from the soil away from them. Another piece of decking board was used as a capping all the way round and mitred at the corners.. I reckon that if this was reinforced a little underneath, it would serve as a seat too. It looks quite neat.

Using decking planks means you can easily build the side walls as high or low as you want, and as sawing to length and nailing are the only skills required, it should be possible as a D-I-Y project with just a little AB help.

Scribs - that looks amazing! Unfortunately as Greybeard said, it looks expensive and my budget is some what low (perhaps I could pay by instalment - brick by brick?)

Greybeard - I really love that suggestion. Not least because it's something we could have a go at ourselves (where as things like railway sleepers need the big boys bringing in for the weight factor alone!) and shouldn't look as "heavy" as everything else we've looked at. I will go and look at prices this week!

THANK YOU!

Try Wickes. They seem to have a lowish price and the best selection of lengths I've found.

Don't forget to brace it well as there will be quite a weight behind it.

......... and leave a plot or two for your '"wildlife reserve" filled with butterflies, lady birds, bumble bees, frogs.....'!!
They gotta live too ya know.

A very inexpensive alternative is to use multiple flower pots of varying sizes. I pick them up at yard sales & thrift stores from time to time. Then as I have different plants, I make do with what I have. Plus, I can have them placed where I want them & have them moved around too to change the look. I'll take a photo of mine tomorrow during daylight!
Take Care,
Stella