12 Raised Garden Bed Ideas to Consider For Your Landscaping
August 14, 2025If you’re thinking about putting in a garden, you might feel a little bit overwhelmed with all of the different possibilities. If you’re a beginner, a raised garden bed is usually an easier option because it offers better control of soil drainage and easy access to plants. Here are a few raised garden bed ideas to consider for your landscaping:
- Choose custom-designed beds.
- Opt for built-in brick raised beds.
- Try trough garden beds.
- Start with stacked stone beds.
- Consider classic wooden raised beds.
- Use sheet or corrugated metal.
- Use logs for a raised bed border.
- Ease your back with elevated beds.
- Consider flower boxes.
- Design a small hoop house.
- Use potting containers.
- Do double duty.
1. Choose Custom-Designed Beds
If you want a unique landscaping design idea, consider custom-designed raised garden beds. You can design these beds to be any style or shape that you prefer. You can also choose how high the bed is, as well as add any built-ins, like a bench.
You can also take this opportunity to design an entire garden living space. With built-in seating and garden beds, adding a table creates a nice outdoor rustic living space. This creative idea for outdoor living spaces is a great way to enjoy nature and watch the progress of your plants as they grow.
2. Opt For Built-In Brick Raised Beds
If you want your garden bed to match your brick home, consider using brick. This classic material will give your yard an interesting design element and can match either your home or patio. Make sure you choose bricks that can withstand wet conditions.
You don’t need to stick with red as your only color option. There are many different designs and styles of bricks to choose from. It’s also a great way to add some cohesion to any other design elements in your yard, such as a fire pit.
3. Try Trough Garden Beds
If you’re looking for an easy and quick way to have a raised garden bed, consider using a metal animal feeding trough. You won’t need to assemble it, except you may need to drill some drainage holes so your soil doesn’t get too wet.
The metal troughs will give your garden an interesting industrial look, which can work well with an industrial farmhouse design. Metal troughs will conduct heat, keeping the soil nice and warm. This is especially nice early in the spring.
4. Start With Stacked Stone Beds
If you’re looking for a raised garden bed for your flowers, consider a simple bed made of stacked rocks or stones. Filling these stone garden beds with wildflowers or other perennials softens the cold stone look. This hardscape trend in landscaping is a great way to add some visual interest to your lawn.
5. Consider Classic Wooden Raised Beds
Wooden raised garden beds are classic for a reason. Made of wood and stained to keep them protected from the elements, these beds are a great way to have a large raised bed garden. It’s also a popular rustic garden design idea to try.
You can choose beds in any shape or size, or a variety of shapes and sizes. You can plan out your garden to include vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Mixing in some of the best plants that keep bugs out of your garden among vegetables and flowers can be helpful! Plus, some of these plants include herbs that you can use in your cooking.
6. Use Sheet or Corrugated Metal
If you’re looking for a more modern raised garden bed idea to consider for your landscaping, consider using sheet or corrugated metal. Decorating with corrugated metal can give you an interesting and industrial look to your garden.
For a traditional design, stick to square or rectangular beds. If you prefer a more contemporary design, you can try coiling sheet metal into a spiral. A spiral design would be perfect for growing certain plants together, like herbs.
7. Use Logs For a Raised Bed Border
Utilizing logs is a great way to give your garden a rustic feel. You can either use a few logs to create your raised beds, or you can take a smaller section of logs and turn them on their end. To help those logs stand up, make sure you have a wooden board nailed inside before you fill the beds with dirt. In addition to creating a raised garden bed border, a garden path idea is to use a fence or complementary material to create a border for the pathway.
8. Ease Your Back With Elevated Beds
Gardening can be really hard on your back. If you want to garden but prefer not to spend hours kneeling on the ground, consider elevating things even further with raised beds that are about waist-high. Make sure the legs or bases are sturdy enough to hold the weight of the soil, so you don’t end up with a mess later down the road.
Some types of elevated garden beds or containers can also be a great option if you want your beds to be portable. This might be ideal if you plan to put your garden beds in your backyard, but want to move them to your deck or patio in certain weather conditions.
9. Consider Flower Boxes
If you only want a few plants to be in raised beds, you might want to try using flower boxes. They’re a great idea to liven up your deck or patio, but you can also try hanging them on a sturdy fence. These flower boxes would be a great place to grow things like herbs, especially if a flower box is close to your kitchen. This is also a great spot to plant perennials. When the perennials pass their season, you can put in fall perennials or decorate them with greenery over the winter holidays.
10. Design a Small Hoop House
Greenhouses are a popular type of backyard structure, but they require a good bit of commitment. If you’re not quite ready to commit to a greenhouse, a hoop house raised bed allows you to garden over a few seasons.
Using some lightweight chicken wire or netting, create a tunnel over your raised beds. Then, cover the netting with white plastic to create a mini greenhouse. Not only does this protect your landscaping in the winter or other extreme weather, but it can also keep pesky animals away from your plants
11. Use Potting Containers
For an easy mix-and-match process, consider using potting containers within raised beds. This way, you can move certain plants to different areas if necessary. It’s also easier to change the design of your raised beds if you desire.
12. Do Double Duty
Sometimes, you can take one spot in your backyard and do double duty. For example, maybe incorporate some built-in seating with a spot for a raised box. A raised box with built-in seating can be very practical because it offers extra seating in your garden area or on your patio, and it can make weeding and other garden activities much easier.
You could also take an eyesore from your garden and spruce it up by adding some extra raised beds. If you have a spot where you keep your trash bins and recycling receptacles, consider building a storage area to house your bins. Add a raised flower box on top, giving the area some beauty with some plants.
These are just a few raised garden bed ideas to consider for your landscaping. Gardens are a popular custom home landscaping idea that increases the curb appeal of your home. If you’re ready to get started on designing and building your own custom home and dream backyard, contact Custom Home Group at 717-284-4090!