Raised bed gardening offers many advantages over in-ground gardening, from better control of the soil to less bending over to seed, weed and water. My guest this week, Master Gardener Scott Wilson, lays out the benefits and the how-tos in his new book, “Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening.”
Scott previously had a career as a U.S. Air Force pilot and had dabbled in gardening all over. After retiring from the Air Force, he found the Master Gardener program. He now lives in Colorado and has been gardening full time for 25 years. He began his popular YouTube channel, Gardener Scott, 15 years ago and has amassed more than 418,000 subscribers.
Scott Wilson, aka Gardener Scott, is a Master Gardener and a successful YouTuber.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
“Because I’d been an educator in the Air Force, it was just a natural progression for me to begin teaching gardening classes to the community,” Scott says.
He developed a mentor program within the Master Gardener program and that led him to being hired by a local school to develop a school garden —with 24,000 square feet of growing space and a 42-foot dome greenhouse.
“As much as I knew, and as much as I’d been teaching, I recognized there was a lot I didn’t know about growing food for a school district. And we ultimately were growing over 2,000 pounds per year,” he recalls.
He went on YouTube to learn what to do, but that was 15 years ago, and the information on YouTube then was not suitable for the average gardener.
“So I started the Gardener Scott YouTube channel. I had a Gardener Scott blog, and the intent was to get out research-based quality information in a way that gardeners of all levels could understand and appreciate, but most importantly, learn from and then be motivated to do it,” he says.
It’s the same idea behind his book: “to really motivate gardeners to garden.”
“I think gardeners are among the best people on the planet, and the more gardeners we can make, the better it’s gonna be for all of us,” he adds.
His YouTube channel began as a supplement to his blog, and he only posted new videos occasionally. But then a video he made on how to make a tomato trellis got 100,000 views, and that woke him up to the potential YouTube could offer, he says. He began doing one video a week, and a couple years later, he began doing two a week. Five years ago, he added a weekly livestream, and YouTube recognized him as a creator on the rise.
“I feel that the quality I have now of my production, of my delivery and even of the topics I choose are much better now, much more well-rounded than they were when I first started all those years ago,” he says.
He likes to make videos on what’s new and different — what no one else is covering.
Scott Wilson’s Colorado garden.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
‘Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening’
The cover photo on Scott’s book is the demonstration garden of the Colorado Springs Horticultural Art Society, which Scott was formerly a trustee of.
“In preparation of the book, I’ve taken photos from everywhere I visited over the last two or three years, and when I saw that garden in particular at the peak of production here in Colorado Springs, I took a picture of it in addition to thousands of others,” he says.
He also took photos in Texas and Tennessee, but the Colorado Springs demonstration garden photo was the image his publisher liked best.
Scott says it is also one of his favorite photos, showing what can be accomplished with raised bed gardening.
A tall, shallow raised bed herb garden.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
Raised Bed Gardening Benefits Outweigh the Costs
Every hobby raises the question, do the costs outweigh the benefits?
“Gardeners take it beyond the hobby level and we actually become passionate about gardening, and how can you put a price on your passion?” Scott asks. “And so that’s the way I approach it.”
Gardening does wonders for mental and physical health. Spending time out among nature lowers my blood pressure and is probably extending my life too. (As an organic gardener, I’m not exposed to any crazy chemicals.)
Raised bed gardening can have more upfront costs than an inground garden, but the benefits last a long time.
“Once the bed is made, you get to use it for years and years and years,” Scott says. “So if you essentially amortize the cost of that bed over time — you know, I get 40 pounds of squash in one of my raised beds, or a couple dozen pounds of potatoes.”
Scott gardens organically too, and if you’ve compared prices at your grocery store, you know that organically raised vegetables are more expensive than conventionally raised produce. So the financial benefits of raising your own vegetables are even higher when using organic practices.
“If you went to the store to buy what you’re growing yourself, you make up the cost of a raised bed potentially within the first year, definitely within the second or third year,” Scott says.
I make my Ultimate Tomato Cages out of livestock panels, which run $30 or more each. Some people balk at that cost, but I remind them that these tomato cages will outlive us.
Cattle panel trellises support vining crops, for vertical gardening.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
Benefits of Raised Bed Gardening
Like Scott, I want people who are new to gardening to be successful at it and not feel overwhelmed because things didn’t have a positive outcome in their first year. Soil can have a lot to do with making or breaking your success.
Scott’s native soil in Colorado is terrible, with less than 1% organic matter and low in micro- and macronutrients. Raised bed gardening overcomes this.
“To build a good soil and grow in a garden bed that’s in-ground, it takes years to develop that good soil,” Scott points out.
But when starting in a raised bed, a gardener can purchase or make a blend of good garden soil and fill the bed.
“You don’t need to spend years making your bad soil better,” Scott says. “You can start right away with the good soil. and your plants, of course, will benefit immediately because the soil really is the key to gardening success.”
Scott’s raised garden beds are highly productive.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
Raised Garden Bed Building Materials
Scott has been living at his current home for five years. He began his garden there with two basic wooden raised beds. He added six beds the following year, and then a year later a big, square, fully enclosed area, each side 25 feet long. He followed those with some metal beds and stone beds.
“When you add it all up, I have almost a thousand square feet of growing space just in my raised beds,” he says. “And there’s wood, there’s concrete block. There’s galvanized steel, there’s the painted steel kits. There’s stacked stone. I have hybrid beds where part of it is concrete and part of it is wood. And then most recently I’ve been experimenting with the cement board to create a much lighter-weight raised bed.”
Scott’s preferred bed style in his vegetable garden is wooden boxes made with 2×10 or 2×12 lumber. He injured his back a number of years ago, so he likes that he can sit or lean on the edge of these beds while he sows seeds, pulls weeds and thin plants. And because raised beds give the garden some height, it’s easier to see those weeds.
He uses the painted metal beds to separate one area of his yard from another, creating garden rooms.
“The stone beds that I built over the last year are just breathtaking, and so those will become perennial and annual flower beds to really just become a primary focal part of my garden,” Scott says. “So I have a lot of favorites. It’s like your children, you know, how do you pick your favorite child? Well, it depends on the day of the week and it depends on what they’re doing. And that’s kind of the way it is in my garden as well.”
What to Consider Before Installing a Raised Garden Bed
“If you start with a goal in mind of the reason you’re gardening, that’s a good place to start,” Scott says.
Decide if you intend to grow a vegetable garden, a perennial garden, etc.
You may think an area that gets full sun is the best place for a raised garden bed — but it’s not if you ultimately want to grow plants that prefer shade.
Take the time to observe the movements of the sun and shadows. Determine the distance from your water source. Note whether animals walk through the area you have in mind.
Another consideration is the distance between beds. Scott leaves 2 feet between beds so he can get from one to another easily, and just over 3 feet between beds down the lengths where he needs to push a wheelbarrow.
Critters are a big consideration, especially burrowing rodents like gophers and moles. Scott has hardware cloth at the bottom of all of his beds to keep them from getting to his crops from underneath.
When I built my raised garden beds 13 years ago, I didn’t consider that moles would come from my crops. A couple years into gardening in the beds, moles found my garden. They excavated tunnels in my raised beds, dining on all the earthworms in the good soil.
Scott’s beds are high enough to keep rabbits out, but Scott also has deer pressure on his garden. He places hoops over his beds to deter the deer.
Hoops and floating row cover are used to exclude pest insects and deer.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
Raised Garden Bed Longevity
Untreated fir used for building a raised garden bed will eventually break down. Scott lives in a dry climate, so he can easily get 10 years out of a basic bed, but gardeners in wet climates may need to replace the beds or the components after just three, four or five years.
Cedar or redwood are more resistant to decay. They are more expensive upfront but will last longer so they may be cheaper in the long run.
Scott notes that pressure-treated wood concerns many gardeners, but he participated in soil study with Oregon State University that found no issues. He sent soil samples from each of his various beds — stone, metal, concrete, untreated wood and pressure treated wood — and small amounts of copper leaching were recorded that had no effects on the plants whatsoever.
Pressure-treated wood can last a considerably long time at a lower cost than mahogany, cedar or redwood.
Cement backer board typically used behind shower tiles is primarily a cement-based product, though depending on the manufacturer may contain some cellulose or other materials.
Scott has been experimenting with cement backer board raised garden beds because they are inexpensive to make.
His cement backer board bed has been through Colorado summer and Colorado winter, heavy downpours and thunderstorms, with no indication that it’s degrading.
A brick, stone or concrete garden can be more expensive than wood but will last forever.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
Making Raised Garden Bed Soil
What’s the key to making raised garden bed soil as productive as possible?
“Organic matter, organic matter, organic matter,” Scott says.
Leaf mold, leaf mulch, worm castings, dried grass clippings, manures, etc.
“Now of course, there are caveats with each of these things that we would choose to put into our soil,” Scott says. “But that’s really the basic idea, is just to try to increase the amount of organic in your soil, because most soils don’t have enough, or they don’t have enough variety of organic matter to really supply ample nutrients for the plants.
Scott says he doesn’t feed his plants. He feeds his soil, and his soil feeds his plants. (That’s my mantra too.)
If you don’t make your own soil, you can buy it. Keep in mind that bagged soil can get really expensive for filling raised garden beds. A delivery of compost from a landscape supply company will be more economical.
Bagged soil and compost can be quite different from one region to the next, even when the product is supposedly identical. Brands source their materials locally, so the same product on the West Coast can be quite different on the East Coast, and sometimes bags are rushed out to store shelves before they have had time for the contents to break down adequately.
When shopping for loose soil, Scott says, you can put your hand in it and see what you’re buying first.
Soil rich in organic matter is key to the success of any garden.
Photo: Courtesy of Scott Wilson
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Scott Wilson on raised bed gardening. If you haven’t listened yet, you can do so now by scrolling to the top of the page and clicking the Play icon in the green bar under the page title.
How has raised bed gardening benefited you? Let us know in the comments below.
Links & Resources
Some product links in this guide are affiliate links. See full disclosure below.
Episode 042: Raised Bed Gardening, Pt. 1: Getting Started
Episode 043: Raised Bed Gardening, Pt. 2: Perfect Soil Recipe
Episode 044: Raised Bed Gardening, Pt. 3: Animal Control & More
joegardener blog: How to Create a Productive Raised Bed Garden
joegardener blog: Top 5 Reasons to Garden in a Raised Bed
joegardenerTV YouTube: Choosing Materials for Building a Raised Bed Garden – Pros & Cons
joegardenerTV YouTube: How to Make the Ultimate Tomato Cage
joegardenerTV YouTube: Building Soil for Raised Bed Gardens – The Perfect Soil Recipe
joegardener Online Gardening Academy™: Popular courses on gardening fundamentals; managing pests, diseases & weeds; seed starting and more.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Organic Vegetable Gardening: My new premium online course. The course is designed to be a comprehensive guide to starting, growing, nurturing and harvesting your favorite vegetables, no matter what you love to eat, no matter where you live, no matter your level of gardening experience.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Seed Starting: Everything you need to know to start your own plants from seed — indoors and out.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Beginning Gardener Fundamentals: Essential principles to know to create a thriving garden.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Growing Epic Tomatoes: Learn how to grow epic tomatoes with Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier.
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Master Pests, Diseases & Weeds: Learn the proactive steps to take to manage pests, diseases and weeds for a more successful garden with a lot less frustration. Just $47 for lifetime access!
joegardener Online Gardening Academy Perfect Soil Recipe Master Class: Learn how to create the perfect soil environment for thriving plants.
“Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening” by Scott A. Wilson
Scott Wilson on Instagram | @GardenerScott
Scott Wilson on X | @GardenerScott
Dramm – Our podcast episode sponsor and Brand Partner of joegardener.com
Soil3 – Our podcast episode sponsor and Brand Partner of joegardener.com
Proven Winners ColorChoice – Our podcast episode sponsor and Brand Partner of joegardener.com
Milorganite® – Our podcast episode sponsor and Brand Partner of joegardener.com
Disclosure: Some product links in this guide are affiliate links, which means we get a commission if you make a purchase. However, none of the prices of these resources have been increased to compensate us, and compensation is not an influencing factor on their inclusion here. The selection of all items featured in this post and podcast was based solely on merit and in no way influenced by any affiliate or financial incentive, or contractual relationship. At the time of this writing, Joe Lamp’l has professional relationships with the following companies who may have products included in this post and podcast: Milorganite, Soil3, Territorial Seed Company, Proven Winners ColorChoice, and Dramm. These companies are either Brand Partners of joegardener.com and/or advertise on our website. However, we receive no additional compensation from the sales or promotion of their product through this guide. The inclusion of any products mentioned within this post is entirely independent and exclusive of any relationship.
