May 20, 2025, 12:50 pm | Read time: 5 minutes

Frame beds bring order to the garden, are cost-effective, and are easy to set up. Gardening author Katharina Petzholdt explains why it’s worth building such a bed and how to do it.

Advantages Over Raised Beds

Compared to raised beds, frame beds impress with minimal material use and quick setup: A few wooden boards, stakes, and screws are sufficient, and filling them with a simple compost-soil mix is more straightforward. Frame beds that are not anchored in the ground can also be easily relocated to new sites.

Advantages of Raised Beds Over Ground-Level Beds

Compared to ground beds, the clearly defined border ensures that the soil reliably stays in place. Additionally, the soil quality within the frame can be specifically managed. Another advantage is that the frames make it difficult for weeds to invade the beds from outside. Those with slug problems in the garden can apply copper tape or slug-repellent coatings to the outside of the frame.

Also interesting: Good and Bad Bed Neighbors for Tomatoes

Disadvantages Compared to Raised Beds

The low construction requires working in a bent-over position and, therefore, does not offer back relief like a raised bed.

Disadvantages Compared to Ground-Level Beds

Even durable wood eventually rots over time. After a few years, the frames need to be replaced, which involves additional labor and material costs.

Suitable Types of Wood

The durability of the frame largely depends on the type of wood used. Softwoods like spruce or fir are inexpensive and easy to cut but rot relatively quickly. Larch, Douglas fir, or oak withstand the weather much longer, though they increase the construction costs of the bed. It’s important that the wood is not treated with harmful substances.

Suitable Ground

Frame beds can be easily set up on lawns. The grass is covered with unprinted, adhesive-free cardboard, overlapping the pieces by a few centimeters. Before filling the bed with soil, the cardboard should be thoroughly watered. As the cardboard decomposes, the weeds underneath die off. If the frame bed is to be built on bare ground, the surface should be thoroughly loosened with a cultivator or digging fork.

Build Your Own Frame Bed for Your Raised Bed

Required Materials for a Wooden Frame Bed:

• 2 boards for the short side: 0.2 m wide and 0.7 to 1.2 m long
• 2 boards for the long side: 0.2 m wide and 1.5 to 2.4 m long

All 4 boards should be at least 2 cm thick.

• 6 round stakes, with a diameter of 3 cm and a length of 0.5 m
• Stainless steel screws

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Mark the bed area and drive in the stakes: At the corners of the measured area and in the middle of the long sides, drive the stakes about 25 to 30 cm deep into the ground, leaving about 20 to 25 cm protruding.
2. Attach boards: Align the boards flush and fix each board to its stakes with at least two stainless steel screws. It is advisable to pre-drill the holes to prevent the wood from splitting.
3. Lawn edge as a weed barrier (optional): Insert a metal or plastic lawn edge along the inside into the ground, so a few centimeters protrude. The lawn edge prevents grass and weeds from invading the beds from outside.
4. Vole protection (optional): If you fear voles, you can lay a fine mesh wire grid on the ground before filling the bed. Keep in mind: For deep-rooted vegetables like parsnips, carrots, salsify, or black salsify, space will be tight due to the low height of the bed. Even with vole protection, the vegetables are not completely safe, as the voles could also invade from above.
5. Slug protection (optional): A copper band or slug-repellent coating along the outside makes it difficult for slugs to enter the bed. Be sure to note: Leaves or shoots should not hang out of the frame bed, as slugs could use them as a bridge into the bed.

Mobile Wooden Frame Bed

If you like to change the location of your beds occasionally, you can build a mobile wooden frame bed. Instead of stakes driven into the ground, this variant uses either steel angles or solid corner posts to connect the boards. The resulting frame is then placed without fixation on the cardboard-covered or loosened ground.

More on the topic

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Garden Planning These Bulbs Should Only Be Planted in Spring

Filling the Wooden Frame Beds

A mixture of two parts, good garden soil and one part mature compost, has proven effective for filling.