Raised flower beds can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. You can upcycle materials such as pavers, wood planks, and bricks for easy DIY raised beds or buy a kit with all the necessary equipment you need for your raised bed.
Raised flower beds come with several benefits, including increased soil control, portability, better soil drainage, soil customization, and easy access to flowers.
If you plan on using planters for your raised flower bed ideas, ensure the bottom of your container has drainage holes to avoid drowning your plants’ roots. For more permanent raised beds, consider lining the bottom with straws, plastic bottles, or large stones to improve drainage.
We’ve compiled some of the best and most straightforward raised flower bed ideas that will only require your wit and hard work to bring them to life.
Take a look!
1. Border your Cottage Garden
A little paint job can make a charmingly stylish raised flower bed. Here, the wood planks for the raised flower bed were painted a similar color to that of the enclosed garden’s surround for a cohesive look.
Plenty of primrose blooms brighten up the space with vibrant color, with two metallic floral accessories giving the raised flower bed a fresh and modern look.
2. Define a Walkway
A rustic metal fence sets off this lush raised flower bed, its weathered gray finish allowing the colorful blooms to take center stage.
Alliums and delphiniums add height to the compact setting, while summer salvia, peonies, and foxgloves burst forth with lush hues.
3. Accent Your Perennial Garden
With only a bit of pre-planning, you can build a raised flower bed that can fit in almost any outdoor space. Recycled wood planks were used to make this raised garden bed, which is topped off by a boxwood shrub.
The rustic wooden planter provides a lovely green contrast to the wild perennials, and you can move it around to a new spot whenever you feel like it!
4. Opt for Wooden Raised Beds
One excellent way to pack numerous flowers into a small space is to utilize classic wooden raised garden beds.
The Tropaeolum majus (nasturtiums) in these raised flower beds have been tumbled in a dashingly professional manner, while Borago officinalis (borage) and Alcea rosea (hollyhocks) add a touch of whimsy to the garden.
5. Go for a Corner Garden
If you want to maximize the amount of usable planting area without taking up too much extra space, consider a corner flower garden. You can easily build a raised bed for your flower garden using brick or stone like the one featured here.
The brown rocks complement the brown picket fence for a unified look, with a rainbow of flowers that includes black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, petunias, coreopsis, sweet alyssum, verbena, Russian sage, and boxwood, making for an eye-catching point in the corner garden.
6. Complement the Exterior
This elegant raised flower bed makes the perfect addition to any gothic or dark exterior. Black wood planks for the raised flower bed match the dark, rustic facade, creating a muted yet contemporary look.
The flower bed is planted with dashing tulips that create a pleasing visual and textural contrast to the dark exterior. Don’t forget to add some creeping plants for your living wall.
7. Curate a Buoyant Combo
Create a raised flower bed of your dreams by filling container planters with textural plants and lively blooms. The two planters featured here use Gaura lindheimeri ‘Gautalwi’ as the centerpiece plant in the arrangement, flanked by Petunia ‘Supertunia Bermuda Beach,’ Peachy Keen Superbena and Superbells Coralina Calibrachoa for added dimension.
Strips of Lavandula angustifolia ‘Sweet Romance’ accent the planters with lush foliage, color, and fragrance. This planter garden will not only give the same convenience and aesthetic of raised beds, but it will also make it easy to change flowers as the seasons go by.
8. Include Vegetables
One easy way to create a raised garden bed is to recycle a metal trough.
Here, metal trellises and wire netting were added to support and protect the numerous flowers and vegetables such as cosmos, petunias, marigolds, carrots, parsnips, peas, onions, and spinach.
9. Utilize Edging
With creativity, raised flower beds can fit almost in any space. Here, a small garden edging border defines the pathway and acts as a raised bed, incorporating simple curved lines into the landscape.
Place a bench in the thick of your flower garden, like the one against the wooden fence, for a conventional outdoor seating or dining area. Once the plants in the flower bed reach their full potential, this garden will take on a natural, rustic appearance!
10. Consider a Brick Raised Bed
A brick raised flower bed will not only enhance your backyard’s design but also withstand the test of time. Here, a Celtic Wall system was used to create the raised flower bed, topped by a Reverse-a-cap for a wide seating area.
When making the raised bed, always choose bricks that can tolerate continuous wet conditions. Also, place your flower bed in a spot where the plants will receive adequate sun and shade.
11. Upcycle Pavers
There are numerous ways to build raised flower beds using recycled materials. A paver garden border is a terrific option for steep, sloping land, like the driveway featured here.
Plenty of perennials, including petunias, cosmos, sage, Lamb’s-ears, and verbena, provide texture, color, and edge-softening blooms, creating a layered flower garden that frames the rustic stone wall and wooden fence. This is an excellent way to utilize unused pavers from a patio or pathway project.
12. Uplift the Fence
@ADRIAN SMITH – Landscape Architecture
Wooden fences make inexpensive, rustic backdrops for flower gardens.
Here, Potentilla fruticosa ‘Happy Face White’ (shrubby cinquefoil) and Spanish lavender tie visually on each side of the concrete stepping stones while adding a decorative touch to the rustic wooden fence.
13. Infuse Your Space with Color
Turn your courtyard or backyard into an exuberant garden with a series of raised flower beds atop a gravel yard.
The tulips and grape hyacinths in these raised flower beds liven up the space with vibrant colors and contrast nicely with the cedar planks for the raised beds.
14. Frame Your White Picket Fence
Here, a small raised garden bed planted with lobelias, daisies, astilbes, and lupines creates a nice visual pop for this white cottage picket fence.
15. Hang it Up
There are very few limits when it comes to raised flower bed ideas. Here, rustic coco coir hanging baskets act as small raised flower beds and bring a natural feel to the space.
A stacked brick raised bed beneath further reinforces the naturalistic theme. At the same time, ornate metal arbors provide architectural interest in the space and bring a modern, industrial feel to the flower garden.
16. Provide Support with a Lattice Wall
One way to grow more flowers without taking up too much space is through vertical gardening. Incorporating a lattice wall, like the one used in this idea, makes it easier for vining plants to show off and prevents them from sprawling on the ground for a neater look.
The simple design features verdant pink roses that force their colorful blooms on anyone passing the brick herringbone-patterned walkway. Purple clematis climbing up the lattice wall brings contemporary hues to the garden.
17. Make it Multi-Purpose
Here, an inexpensive, DIY raised bed made of dry-stacking bricks allows for a gorgeous flower bed in a space with limited square footage.
The clever design also doubles as porch steps, with Rosa ‘Flower Carpet White’ roses sprucing up the rustic bricks and bringing beauty to the outdoor space.
18. Relax in Style
If you have a wooden raised flower bed, consider placing container planters below the level of the bed to make it feel fuller and more decorative. Here, vibrant pink begonias add a dash of color to the dominant green garden filled with privet hedges and a couple of olive trees.
This design enables you to create different levels that draw the eye up and down, not to mention allowing for an almost boundless variety of shapes and sizes. The container planters are adorned by hydrangeas and will especially be helpful when it comes to providing seasonal visual interest!
19. Landscape with Rocks
The gray slate chips used here may not look pretty on their own, but one beautiful way to increase their appeal is to use them in a raised flower bed.
Just look at how they bring out the colors of the pentas along this wooden fence; simply exquisite!
20. Evoke a Dreamy Feel
This simple raised flower bed is filled with textural plants artfully arranged along a white picket fence.
The flowers, including catmint, roses, and bearded irises, bring soft, muted hues that give the bright white wooden fence an elevated look.
21. Match with the Fence
The colorful agapanthus used here are a wonderful way to bring color and texture to a raised flower bed.
The blue flowers echo the painted fence and gate to tie the space together.
22. Channel Your Creativity
Well-thought-out landscaping ideas usually integrate outdoor seating in intentional, picturesque spots. Take this design idea to the next level by incorporating your seating with a raised flower bed.
Here, the raised bed not only supports blooms and foliage for a lush outdoor retreat but also acts as a backrest for bench seating. The raised flower bed adds visual heft to the space, with its slabbed top keeping in line with the mid-century modern landscaping.
23. Contrast with the Fence
One significant advantage of raised flower beds is that they are built to sit well above the underground frost line, meaning you can begin planting sooner since the soil will warm quickly during spring.
Here, the raised bed is made of stacked stones and contrasts nicely with the wooden fence while still looking like part of the landscape. Impatiens, hostas, sweet potato vine, and creeping phlox soften the hardscape, while petunias and lobelia in the hanging basket add interest above.
24. Go for Perennials
Perennials, unlike annuals, come back every year to offer us a brief yet beautiful show.
This raised flower bed is filled with Rudbeckia hirta (black-eyed Susans), Echinacea purpurea (coneflowers), and Iris germanica (bearded iris) for a garden that steals the show whenever the sun is out.
25. Opt for a Rustic, Contemporary Look
@Pro-Land Landscape Construction Inc.
Grouping a couple of raised flower beds is an excellent way to create an outdoor room.
Here, the rugged rock boulders make easy, rustic raised flower beds that add natural beauty and define the space while complementing the pavers, firepit, and seat cushions. Boxwood shrubs in the bed further enhance the formal look, with limelight hydrangeas evoking a tranquil atmosphere.
