Raised beds are a popular way to grow vegetables in home gardens and for good reason. They warm up earlier in the spring, extending the growing season, drain well and allow you to control the soil. These benefits facilitate certain crops such as tomatoes, peppers, carrots and melons that benefit from warm, loose soil. Read on to discover the 10 best vegetables to grow in raised beds.

Why garden in raised beds:

As stated above, there are many benefits to gardening in raised beds. The main reason is that they require much less work than an open field garden. It doesn’t take long to realize that raised beds also help grow crops that typically struggle when in clay soils.

Here are 7 good reasons to grow in raised beds:

– The soil warms up in early spring.
– Raised beds drain well.
– They are ideal for sites where the existing soil is poor, rocky or contaminated.
– Deep, loose soil facilitates the growth of roots such as carrots.
– It can be planted intensively in raised beds, maximizing the harvest.
– Raised beds generally have fewer invasive weeds.
Raised beds look neat, which is a plus if you are growing food on a patio in front of your house.

While it is true that any vegetable can be grown in a raised bed, some crops are easier to grow or enjoy the benefits of raised beds.

Top 10 Vegetables to Grow in Raised Beds:

1) Dwarf beans

Dwarf beans are one of the best vegetables to grow in raised beds because they are quick, easy, and compact. Most varieties are harvested in just 50 to 55 days after planting. Dwarf beans are a warm season vegetable and can be planted only after the last spring frost.

If planted in cold, wet soil, the seeds will rot instead of germinate. Early warming and well-drained soil from raised beds help dwarf beans get off to a good start. To ensure a long season of tender pods, I sow seeds every 3 weeks from late spring to mid-summer.

Green beans are another option for home gardeners, but dwarf beans are easier to grow in raised beds because they do not require support. Green beans can reach a height of 2-3 m and should be grown in bean towers, bamboo poles or nets. One of my favorite ways to grow green beans in my raised garden is to use heavy-duty wire mesh at the back of my flower beds or create green bean tunnels between raised beds.

2) Peppers and peppers

There are dozens of types of peppers to grow in a garden with fruits in a varied range of colors, sizes and shapes. Pepper and chili plants thrive in warm, well-drained soil. I used to struggle growing peppers in my garden until I switched from open field plantings to raised beds. It was a game changer! So that? The soil in my raised beds warms up much faster in late spring than my in-ground garden beds. The plants adapted better after transplanting and responded with rapid and vigorous growth. That’s why peppers are among the best vegetables to grow in raised beds.

Another reason raised beds are best for growing peppers is that they prefer light, well-drained soil. That doesn’t mean they want to be grown in dry soil, they don’t! Peppers need regular watering, but do not want to be in saturated soil. Growing them in raised beds and mulching them with straw or shredded leaves promotes healthy growth and lots of peppers and chilies.

3) Tomatoes

Tomato seedlings love warm soils, and planting in raised beds, especially in colder regions, can give you a head start in the growing season. In my old garden in the ground, I was only able to transplant tomatoes in mid-June because the soil was too wet and cold. With raised beds, I now plant my tomatoes in May.

The deep, loose soil in my raised beds also allows me to plant tomato seedlings deeply. This promotes the development of adventitious roots along the part of the stem buried underground. A larger, more robust root system improves the plant’s ability to absorb water and nutrients.

One last note on growing tomatoes in raised beds: there are definite and indeterminate types of tomatoes. Determinate varieties, also called bush tomatoes, generally grow from 1 m to 1 m20 in height. Indeterminate varieties or climbing tomatoes can reach 2 m or more in height. I grow both types, but indeterminate tomatoes are harder to deal with in raised beds because they need strong staking or supports. You should also tie back new growth from indeterminate tomatoes each week. Determinate varieties are shorter and require less work. Support determined tomatoes with sturdy tomato cages. Trailing tomato varieties such as Terenzo and Tumbling Tom are perfect for planting at the edge of a raised bed.

4) Cucumbers

Cucumbers are another warm season vegetable sensitive to cold soil and air temperatures. Early warming of the soil of raised beds is beneficial when sowing tender cucumber seeds or seedlings. There are two main types of cucumbers: bush and vine. Bush cucumbers are only a few cm long and grow well in containers or raised beds. I support the bush cucumber plant in tomato cages, but they can also be plopped down the sides of a raised bed.

Vine cucumbers can also be grown in raised beds, but I plant them at the base of a trellis such as an A-trellis. This prevents vigorous plants from taking over the entire raised bed. Trellised plants also have fewer insect and disease problems and fruits are easier to spot.

5) Carrots

Carrots, as well as other long-rooted vegetables such as daikon radishes and parsnips, are well adapted to the deep, loose soil of raised beds. In flower beds less than 20 cm, respect the types of carrots with compact roots such as Chantenay, baby and Parisian which has rounded roots. If your raised beds are deeper than 30cm, you can grow long carrots such as the Imperator varieties. Carrots also prefer to grow in stone-free soil. When grown in gardens with a lot of rocks or pebbles, carrot roots can split. Planting them in raised beds where you control the soil means the carrots can grow long and straight.

6) Melons

Melons like watermelons are a summer delight! For many years I tried to grow melons in my garden, but I only had small fruits when the fall frosts finally killed the vines. Now my melon harvest starts in mid-summer and continues for almost two months! I also harvest dozens of watermelons and melons at the end of summer. Since I prefer to grow melons in my raised beds.

Raised beds and melons go well together for several reasons: Warm spring soil encourages small seedlings to grow much early so they can grow just as quickly and begin flowering. Loose, uncompacted soil in raised beds promotes healthy root growth. Raised beds drain well, meaning spring rains don’t saturate the soil, melons don’t want to sit in wet soil. The downside to growing melons in raised beds is that the plants tend to climb and take up a lot of space. I plant them on the sides of my beds so they can hang off to the side or grown on an A-frame trellis.

7) Eggplants

Eggplant is a relative of tomatoes and peppers that also thrive in the heat of summer. If planted when the soil is cold and wet, the seedlings will bolt. When I was growing eggplants in my old dug garden, I had to wait a few weeks after the last frost for the soil to warm up or I had to preheat the soil by placing a sheet of black plastic on the soil surface for 10 to 14 days before plant. With raised beds, I no longer have to worry about preheating my soil to ensure my eggplant transplants get off to a good start. The soil warms up early and water from frequent spring rains drains away quickly. I support eggplants raised with tomato cages.

8) Potatoes

Sweet potato plants need a long, warm growing season to produce a good-sized crop of tubers. I was very lucky to plant short season varieties in my raised beds. I plant the cuttings in late spring, about a week after the last frost date. Soon, vigorous plants fill your section of the garden bed. They do not grow well in dense or rocky soil, but thrive in the warm, well-drained soil of my raised beds. Before the first fall frost, we cut the plants and dig up the tubers, what a delight! We also eat the leaves during the summer, without taking too much because we do not want to harm the development of the tubers. The young leaves are excellent sautéed or steamed.

9) Leafy vegetables

I sow seeds for my favorite salads like kale lettuce and spinach in my raised beds as soon as the ground thaws in early spring. These fast-growing vegetables love rich soil, and raised beds make it easy to add compost or aged manure directly to the part of the bed where they will be planted. It’s also easy to sow a pinch of seeds or place seedlings along the edges of the beds so they don’t take up too much space. Fast-growing greens like arugula and curly lettuce are also great for intercropping between slower-growing crops (like tomatoes and peppers) early in the season.

10) Onions

Onions do not like growing in compacted soil. Raised beds provide the loose, well-drained growing medium they prefer, making onions one of the best vegetables to grow in raised beds. Before planting onions in early spring, I enrich the soil with compost. I then plant the onion sets or seedlings 15 years apart. Raised beds provide free-flowing soil after rain or watering, which promotes healthy onion plants and large bulbs.

Physalis, tomatillos, potatoes, and squash are other vegetables to consider growing in raised beds.

And you? What do you grow in raised beds?