Making a Raised Bed Garden with Cottage Style

Love cottage styled gardens? Here’s how we made a custom picket fenced garden with raised beds and cottage style.

Anyone else love a quaint cottage garden? One that’s an escape from the world, overflowing with pretty flowers to cut and veggies to harvest? I’d always dreamed of having a place like this to enjoy, but our too big in-ground vegetable garden we’d inherited from the previous owners had gone to the weeds. I dreamed of something more easy to maintain and closer to the house. Here’s the story and process of Making a Raised Bed Garden with Cottage Style.

Making a Raised Bed Garden with Cottage Style

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Planning a Cottage Style Picket Fence

A couple years ago when we all had more time…because everything was closed…Mr. Fix-it had the idea to build a picket fenced garden. I was excited he had the motivation and we quickly started measuring out the space we were thinking.

In our 2 1/2 acre yard we have a dorky little screen porch. The former residents had built it for their mother to park her camper there and live. Electricity runs to the porch, so we have lights in it, too. Through the years, we’ve used it for parties and I used it for a couple vintage sales. But for many years it’s turned into my “junk storage” building. It’s my backstock of out of season outdoor decor, furniture I haven’t gotten to refresh yet, and junk parts and pieces. I like to say it’s my own little store where I shop for inspiration;)

The plan was to build a picket fence in an “L” shape around two sides of the porch, so hopefully it could be a potting shed someday. I started designing and sketching the cottage style picket fence I was picturing, so Mr. Fix-it and the boys could make it happen.

(Way back there by our septic hill is where the big weedy veggie garden used to be. Those pine trees had grown up and were shading the whole area too)

Once the fenceposts were cemented in, we could see the overall space. I was excited to see how this would help us enjoy our yard more and create privacy from the road.

Building the Picket Fence with Cottage Style

Mr. Fix-it built each fence section with long dog-eared cedar boards. He built each section laying down and then stood it up and connected it to the posts. Our whole yard is sloped, so we decided to have the fence go with the slope.

To get the nice, gradual swoop I was picturing for each section, we used a string and then marked off where he should cut. He did all straight cuts on each board, but the overall creates the swoop.

It was so exciting seeing it take shape! We got the first square done on the house side and then started the back part of the “L”. We call them zones 1 and zones 2.

We left spaces on either ends where the fence met the building so we could have gates there. We wanted to easily be able to get in and out and access the yard.

(You can see the street side-the front- of the porch is very ugly. I’ve got ideas of how we can make it cute…but I’m being patient)

Making a Raised Bed Garden

Instead of building raised beds with wood (that would eventually rot), we decided to buy metal raised bed garden forms. I researched the different kinds available and chose the Vego brand 17″ variety in a pretty green. Vego raised beds have been painted to keep the plant roots cool. They also have a nice rubber edge on the top so it’s not sharp.

The plan was to have 6 raised beds in zone 1 with a nice wide path down the center, so we could pull the trailer in. It would also help to move furniture in and out of the porch.

THIS is the Vego garden raised bed that we purchased.

We bought 6 of the 17″ 10-in-1 raised beds. There are 10 different configurations you can make from one kit (see the options on the link above). For our space, we put together all 12 of the pieces to make 4.5′ x 7.5′ beds.

The kits are fairly easy to put together. The pieces feel nice and sturdy and well made.

Our only hiccup was dealing with the slope in our yard. We couldn’t have the dirt and veggies sliding down the hill. Each raised bed needed to be level.

Mr. Fix-it’s engineering brain thought long and hard on it and came up with a plan. He took the 6th Vego kit and cut the whole thing in 1/2 horizontally.

The 2 beds on the left (the sloping side), needed to be pieced and dug in to get them level. You can see how the raised beds are pieced in these pics.

The beds also come with bracing rods to keep the containers taught. You can see them here.

Filling the Raised Bed Gardens

Next we needed to fill the raised bed gardens and prepare them for planting. We started by covering the grass completely with cardboard. Then we filled the bottom to fill up space with logs from our yard.

(Note: you can see in this picture, we also put galvanized small square fencing on the bottom portion of the wood fence. We dug it in to keep the bunnies out.)

Next was a good layer of organic matter. We used leaves and pine needles from our yard on top of the logs.

After that was regular soil and then the good garden soil on top.

The Finished Raised Bed Garden with Cottage Style

We decided to keep the back wall of the garden tall for privacy and so I can plant tall flowers as a backdrop. It also helps it feel more like a room when you’re inside;)

The garden gates are designed with an arch to oppose the look of the swooped picket sections. The main gate is double so we can open it wide and get the tractor and trailer in. The tall gates on either end are single and are not used as often.

Enjoying Our Cottage Garden with Raised Beds

We’ve had the garden a couple years now and have been amazed at how it’s transformed our yard. It provides a lot of privacy behind it and has become the new hang out to sit and look at the woods.

I love how the cottage style garden is a whole other space to enjoy and decorate. Not only do I love filling it with veggies and flowers, I love to hear the birds chirp all around me and watch the butterflies flit about.

We wrapped the fence with a garden border filled with cut flowers. Last year we wood chipped the walkways between the raised beds. I’m hoping this year we can rebuild the porch and make it look like a cute potting shed. Each year this cottage garden matures and looks better!

For more garden inspired decorating and table setting ideas, see HERE.

This year I need to take pics from inside the garden. It’s definitely my place to unplug, so I just don’t think about it. I’ll try to remember to give everyone a garden tour this summer.

My friend Stacy’s new book is a great gift idea for yourself or a friend who wants to learn more about gardening. Find it HERE.

Shop Vego garden raised beds HERE.

Making a Raised Bed Garden with Cottage Style is definitely a labor of love. But it can become another space to decorate, enjoy and provide fresh food and flowers!

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