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Raised garden beds and planter boxes are a great way to utilize space for your gardens as well as elevating the plants to a manageable height for tendering to your garden.

If you are not sure what a ‘Raised Garden Bed’ is, it is a garden area that is elevated from ground level and enclosed in certain building materials to create walls.

Garden beds and planter boxes can be constructed using Timber sleepers, prefabricated steel (usually Colourbond), masonry link wall blocks, moulded fibreglass and even re-purposed material like corrugated iron, above ground pool surrounds and even wash basins or bathtubs!

There are some great advantages to creating a raised bed garden in your yard.

The area will be neater and will take full advantage of the space you have in your yard. With your soil contained within the beds, your pathways around the garden beds will be cleaner and safer.
They require less bending or kneeling to tend to. Much better for your posture, bad back or dodgy knees!
If your yard has poor soil quality, or no soil at all, you can bring in quality soil or growing media to give your garden the best opportunity to thrive.
If you design a layout with multiple raised garden beds, you can tailor your soil and fertilizing regime to match crops by segregating plants in different beds.
Helps protect your plants from being stepped on by well-meaning children or rampant pets!
Depending on the material you construct your beds out of, they can add a nice aesthetic touch to your landscaping.

When planning a raised garden bed, or beds, give plenty of thought to their position so they are in the optimal spot to allow sufficient sun/shade for the plant’s requirements. Remember, once you have constructed, filled and planted in a raised garden bed, it is a major challenge to relocate that garden. Your next decision is what to plant. Traditionally, most people use raised garden beds to grow vegetables. However, you can utilize these beds for annuals, perennials and even small natives or bushes if it suits your landscaping plan. Always check the root system of any plants you intend growing in raised garden beds to ensure they won’t cause damage to the raised bed structure or strangle other plants within the bed. As mentioned before, you can choose to segregate or ‘partner-plant’ your crop to regulate the various fertilizing needs of each plant species.

Once you have got your beds ready to go, there are some key points to follow to get those veges & plants thriving.

Ensure you place drainage material in the bottom of the bed and drill some outlets around the base. Drainage gravel or Hardwood Chip is ideal. This will ensure the growing media (Soil) does not become waterlogged, resulting in ‘wet feet’ and stunting plant growth.
Use a premium organic soil (Like our Gardener’s Choice or Premium Bulk Potting mix) to allow the right balance of moisture retention and fertilizers to ensure steady plant growth.
Plan your plants placement. Different plants and vegetables may have different nutrient needs, so placing similar-need plants together means you can add ferts & nutrients within a ‘zone’ and this won’t affect plants needing less food to grow.
Once planted or seeded, apply a layer of sugar cane or Lucerne mulch on top of soil. This will prevent evaporation and potential ‘crusting’ of soil. Crusting soil will prevent water permeating the soil and render it hydrophobic.
Mulch will breakdown and feed into the soil acting as a soil sweetener. Lucerne mulch will add nitrogen.
In the case of vegetables, once your first harvest is complete, turn over (Till) the soil, replant and add topical fertilizer as necessary.
Plantar boxes can be topically fertilized as growth and health indicates.
You can also go to the extent of placing netting over the beds to ward away pesky scavengers.

Wicking Gardens

Wicking gardens are self-watering garden beds that use a reservoir of water at the base, allowing plants to draw moisture upwards through 'capillary action' (wicking) as needed, mimicking natural riparian zones.

This bottom-up watering system dramatically reduces surface evaporation, conserves water, and provides consistent moisture for healthier plant growth, making them ideal for drought-prone areas or busy gardeners.

The beds are usually a fully enclosed unit including a waterproof base, a water reservoir (often gravel or porous material), a barrier fabric (geotextile), and a fill pipe with an overflow to prevent overfilling.

How they work

Water Reservoir: A layer of porous material (like volcanic gravel or woodchip) at the bottom holds water.
Wicking Action: Soil sits above the reservoir, separated by a fabric, allowing water to be drawn up into the soil.
Self-Watering: Plants absorb water directly from the moist soil through their roots, just when they need it.
Inlet & Overflow: A fill pipe delivers water to the reservoir, and an overflow pipe ensures the water level stays correct.

The benefits of a wicking garden include water effeciency by minimizing evaporation, less maintainence due to reduced need for watering and consistent moisture levels in the soil to reduce plant root stress.

Whichever style of raised garden bed you choose, the key for any garden is to get the right balance of moisture retention and drainage - hence why drainage at the base and mulch at the surface is so important.

Then it’s just a matter planting your seeds, getting your yummy vegetable recipes ready and wait for your harvest!