Common Raised Garden Bed Mistakes (To Avoid)

Raised garden beds have many benefits for gardeners, but common mistakes can make raised beds less effective. Gardener Scott discusses 10 common raised garden bed mistakes to avoid when choosing to enjoy the benefits of raised bed gardening. (Video #144)

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[thisguy]

100% this man is the bob ross of gardening. what a great dude.

[cleoxo]

Old bookshelves make great raised beds. I've been able to find them in thrift stores and even at the side of the road. They provide a very cheap or free option. I grow my lettuce varieties and green onions in these beds. These are very old bookshelves and are made out of solid wood, not plastic or particle board. Look around, they work very well.

[mrnobody]

I put sand bags along the bottom so that when you kneel its nice and soft on your knees, warm as well.

[williamwaters]

I have two raised beds, one wood, the other corrugated metal. I'd also like to add that the soil dries out faster because the sun shines on the walls. I have to frequently water them. Mine are 2 1/2 feet tall.
I love them.

[josephliddle]

Lawn mower width is something to consider in spacing between beds.

[skgroovin]

It took me five seconds to say "oh I love this guy, I'm all the way in." Great voice, great info.

[biffjohnson]

Great video, Scott. It’s important to remember this when filling your newly-built raised beds: the soil will settle. By up to 50% or more. So fill the beds, tamp it all down, and fill them again. I filled one 4x12 bed, got hasty with the planting, and forgot to consider soil settlement. Now my carrots don’t have enough room to grow. As long as I’m learning from my mistakes, I don’t mind making as much. Thanks!

[JOYSmakesmusic]

Exactly the information I was looking for!!! I couldn’t seem to search for it properly. And whenever I look for raised bed layouts, it only gives how to arrange the plants but not the dimensions of the entire garden bed and the area around it. I’m SO glad I found this!

[elverman]

I like your style of presentation. Very calm, full of useful advice based on personal experience, and straight to the point.

[amac]

0:49 - Mistake #1 - Making your bed the wrong size
2:22 - Mistake #2 - Putting the bed in the wrong spot
3:00 - Mistake #3 - Wrong spacing between beds
4:04 - Mistake #4 - Filling your bed with the wrong soil
5:00 - Mistake #5 - Using the wrong material to construct your bed
6:04 - Mistake #6 - Not using mulch
6:51 - Mistake #7 - Not amending the soil
7:22 - Mistake #8 - Not having an irrigation plan
8:28 - Mistake #9 - Ignoring your pathway
9:20 - Mistake #10 - Not using hoops

[Zenstudent]

I get a strong This Old House vibes from gardener Scott. I like that

[mikel]

OK, this one got my third thumbs up for 2022. Great production, no BS, no irritating background "music", and very informative. Thanks for all of it.

[stevenbiars]

This guy is the Bob Ross of gardening. I love the laid back personality and great info.

[darkhoursofday]

Great video! I just finished prepping my 7th and 8th raised bed (Adding and tilling vitamins and organics into the soil and checking PH and moisture levels). A couple things I'd add though are to put chicken wire at the bottom of your raised bed and cardboard on top of that. The wire keeps the gophers out and the cardboard makes sure that any weeds still lingering in the ground soil die and don't invade your garden. They sell weedblockers... but cardboard works just the same. I spent half a day setting up a drip system and scrapped the whole thing. I wasn't happy with the lack of freedom and realized that one of the things I love about gardening is taking a quiet 20 minutes in the morning to check each plant and hand water them, trimming and pampering every section. I was spending time to rob myself of that.

[robertshatcher]

I use cinder blocks for my raised beds. They don't deteriorate and I can plant some additional plants in the cinder block holes. Cucumbers grow well in the holes.

[deliciousirony]

thanks for adding the metric measurements - thoughtful and aware of all of us outside the U.S!!

[Mark_Nadams]

Almost time to replace the sides of our raised beds again. I've always used 2x12's that need replacing every 5 or 6 years in the past. This gets old fast and I'm not getting any younger. This time we are thinking of making a form and pouring short connectable cement walls to make our next rebuild last, so I won't need to rebuild it again. Those were all good things that Gardener Scott mentions to consider when you build your raised beds. One more tip: In deep raised beds like his, you can save $ and fill the bottom half hugelkultur style, with old rotting logs and leave the top 12" for your well amended soil and compost. The rotting wood will add to the organics as it decomposes and provide a mycorrhizae inoculant for the soil microbes to thrive.

[tbluemel]

I have torched all my wood raised beds based on centuries old Japanese practice known as shou sugi ban. Properly charred wood will resist well against rot, bugs and I think helps with soil-borne diseases. I expect my wood beds should last at least twenty years and probably much longer.

[karmabrothercat]

Thank you Scott, I started my raised bed garden 5 years ago and made almost all 10 of the mistakes you pointed out. I had to slowly amend the mistakes over the last few years. Thank you for sharing 🙏

[bbtruth]

I remember my old house and the 14 raised beds I built. It cost a lot of money and was a ton of work to fill them with good soil and compost. Worth the work though. My friends own that house now and years later still use the beds. Happy to see they are getting used.