Garden beds, step by step
Interactive lesson: choose the bed shape for your soil, set the sizes and paths, then build a flat bed, a timber frame, a bed filled in layers, a sunken bed and ridges.
Free sample Chapters 1 and 2 (8 steps) are free. The full lesson comes with the Garden beds module. Already bought? Unlock
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The whole lesson as text
1. Shape to suit the soil
You choose the shape of a bed by your soil and climate, not by a picture in a catalogue.
- Flat permanent bed — For good, free-draining soil. The cheapest bed: just soil, paths and compost.
- Mound without sides — For heavier soil and a cool, wet spring, as in most of the UK and Ireland: soil raised 15–25 cm warms and dries sooner. In summer it dries out faster.
- Bed with sides — A frame of 20–40 cm for wet, shallow, stony or contaminated soil and for small gardens. Expensive for large areas.
- Sunken bed — For drought: the arid American West and Southwest, light sandy soils in dry summers. Never on clay or in rainy areas, which means most of Britain and Ireland.
Why: On wet, shallow soil roots suffocate, so you raise the bed. In dry, hot summers a raised bed overheats and dries out, so a flat or sunken one is better. If you're not sure, start with flat beds and watch how the soil behaves for a season.
- Raised sides are easy to add later and expensive to remove.
- In the uplands, the north of Scotland and Canada the season is short: raised, dark-soiled beds facing south gain you a week or two.
2. Sizes and layout
A bed is never walked on: everything you do, you do from the path.
- Width up to 1.2 m — A bed 1.0–1.2 m (about 4 ft) wide, against a wall or fence 0.6–0.8 m. Length 3–10 m; longer and you start stepping across.
- Path 30–50 cm — Room for your knees and a watering can (12–20 in). You reach the middle of the bed from the path without treading on it.
- Main path — The main path is 60–90 cm (2–3 ft) wide: for a wheelbarrow, a mower and two people.
- North–south — The long side of the bed runs north–south, so both sides get sun. Put climbing beans, staked tomatoes and sweetcorn on the north side of the garden.
Why: Your arm must reach the middle of the bed from both sides, or you'll end up treading on it. With 1.2 m beds and 40 cm paths, 75 % of the garden is bed. That's not a loss, because in loose soil you plant more densely.
- On a slope, beds run across the slope whatever the compass says: water is held and soil doesn't wash away.
- For vegetables allow roughly 56 m² of garden including paths per adult, plus about 32 m² for potatoes.
3. Flat bed · Locked
Buy the Garden beds module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
4. Timber frame · Locked
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5. Filling in layers · Locked
Buy the Garden beds module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
6. Dry and wet soil · Locked
Buy the Garden beds module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.