16 designs, from a 4 × 4 box to a U-shaped walk-in bed. Each is drawn at the same scale from above and from the front beside a person 5 ft 6 in tall, with the boards, blocks or pickets to buy and the bags of soil it takes.
Eight of the beds from above at one scale. The plants are drawn a foot apart.
Simple board beds
Rectangles of 2 × 6 boards, two boards high: the least soil to fill per square foot of bed, and the quickest build.
The classic 4 × 8 ft bed
Reach the middle from either long side, and every board is used whole or cut once from an 8-ft length.
Three feet wide: the middle is 16½ inches from either long side inside the walls, an easy reach from both sides, for a side yard or a smaller budget. Against a fence, build the 2 × 8 instead.
23½ in to a flat 2 × 6 edge you can sit on, and 3 ft wide: close to the 24 in and 3 ft the University of Georgia gives for an adult working from a wheelchair.
Outside
8 ft × 3 ft
Height
23½ in
Soil
25 bags of 1.5 ft³ (36.4 ft³), 21 in deep
Buy
14 boards 2 × 6 × 8 ft
a 4 × 4 post, 132 in in all (6 posts of 22 in)
100 exterior screws, 3 in
a 2 × 4 tie across the middle, as in the tall plan
Ten inches of soil in a floored box raised off the ground on legs: the University of Georgia calls this ideal for wheelchair access, and it saves soil.
Outside
4 ft × 2 ft
Height
30 in to the rim
Soil
4 bags of 1.5 ft³ (5.5 ft³), 10 in deep
Buy
4 boards 2 × 6 × 8 ft for the box
a 4 × 4 cut into four 30-in legs
floor boards with gaps between them, and a fabric liner
A 2 × 6 ft box set on the soil of a 4 × 8: 21 in of soil in the middle for tomatoes and squash, and a 10.5-in ring around it for herbs and strawberries.
Outside
8 ft × 4 ft
Height
22 in
Soil
23 bags of 1.5 ft³ (34.1 ft³), the 4 × 8 filled to its rim, the top box 10 in deep
A round bed 6 ft across with a path cut to a compost basket in the middle: kitchen scraps go in the basket, and the 2-ft ring around it is in reach from the path or the outside.
Outside
6 ft × 6 ft
Height
24 in
Soil
27 bags of 1.5 ft³ (40.4 ft³), 22 in deep
Buy
stacked stone, blocks or edging for a 24-in wall around a 6-ft circle
a wire or mesh basket 2 ft across
Blocks, pickets and metal
The same idea in other materials, from no-cut concrete blocks to the cheapest wood bed.
A concrete block bed
No saw and no screws: the blocks sit dry, two high, and the hollows along the top can take herbs or flowers.
The least wood of any bed here: six fence pickets and one 8-ft 2 × 2. Thinner than 2 × 6 boards, so it gets a post every 3 ft and will need replacing sooner.
The board beds follow the method of our build plans: 2 × 6 boards on edge, which measure 1½ × 5½ inches as sold dry, the long boards used whole, the end boards fitted between them, and a 4 × 4 post (3½ inches square) inside each corner and at least every 4 feet. The University of Georgia Extension asks for a vertical support that often on boards only 1 inch thick; these boards are 1½ inches and keep the posts at that spacing anyway. Boards are counted by cutting the pieces from 8-ft lengths, longest first, allowing ⅛ inch for each saw cut; a side longer than 8 ft takes a 12-ft board.
A concrete block sold as 8 × 8 × 16 inches is ⅜ inch smaller each way, so it is drawn and counted at 7⅝ × 7⅝ × 15⅝ inches, laid dry with no mortar joints. The picket bed uses the common 6-ft cedar fence picket, about 5½ inches wide and ⅝ inch thick, with 70 inches left once the dog-ear end is cut square; check yours before cutting.
Soil is the space inside the walls with the posts taken out, filled to 1 inch below the top unless the card says otherwise, in bags of 1.5 cubic feet. A plain 10 inches suits most crops, the University of Georgia Extension says; the depth guide goes crop by crop. To order soil for any of these at another depth, open it in the soil calculator.
These are layouts for beds on open ground. None is an engineered design or carries a load rating; for a planter on legs, a deck or a patio, read the hard-surface guide first.