Tiered Vegetable Garden Designs

Cut the Hill

• If you have sweeping lands that are hilly or only one somewhat steep hill, you can cut tiers into it for growing vegetables. The more room you have to lay out long and wide tiers, the better. Some people opt to hire heavy machinery operators to do the cutting, and then will finish creating the levels by walling them with timber or rocks. Allow room for pathways and easy access to each level so you can reach the plants. Leave at least 2 feet of depth per tier, as many vegetables will perform better when they're given plenty of room for their roots. Installing a self-watering system can help, too.

Plant on Moderate Slopes

• You can take the idea from Section 1 and minimize it, keeping the pathway and access concepts. Plant smaller vegetables that won't crowd out or shade lower tiers. This plan is a bit easier to achieve and can have a quite beautiful appearance. The beds need not be very large --- soil depth is the main issue, especially for growing asparagus. Many smaller vegetables, such as onions, bush beans, patio tomatoes, radishes, lettuces, broccoli and beets, do well in tiered vegetable gardens. If you have plenty of room, cucumbers, squash and zucchini can work, too.

Stack Raised Beds

• Another design option is to make wood-framed stacked beds that serve as tiers from the ground up. You can plant quite a few of the smaller plants in these, along with many different herbs. You can build them extra wide and long, or create smaller 6-foot by 6-foot, 4-foot by 4-foot and 2-foot by 2-foot boxes. The main concern is being able to reach all the veggies so you can weed and care for them. In addition, you'll want to be able to harvest without pulling your back muscles. Look at various diagrams and drawings of raised garden beds for further details.

Concerns

• Tiered gardens have both their pros and cons. On the con side, raised beds will drain much more quickly, so they'll need ample and regular watering, and you'll have to keep a close eye on crop performance. As for the pros, the beds above ground will warm more quickly, which can lead to earlier growth and earlier harvesting. Creating tiers or raised beds maximizes use of space, so you can achieve more by building upward. Pumpkins and long runner plants can take up a lot of space, but if you have room, plant them at the edges and let them run to the sides of tiered slopes. They can overrun raised beds, so stick to the smaller, more contained plants.