How to Build Raised Garden Beds for Sitting

Sketch out a basic plan for your garden. Include raised garden beds that will be decorative and easy to access for maintenance. They should be less vulnerable to damage by wildlife and pets, and they should help you focus your watering where it will be best used. Raised garden beds will create a strong visual effect so it is a good idea to design them into your landscape with their overall impact in mind. If you want to get double-duty out of the beds by using the walls for seating, making a plan first will help you create the best design for both aesthetic effect and practical use.

Plan the front wall of the raised garden beds to edge the side of pathways or patios. The walls should be located in areas where people will be likely to want to sit.

Construct walls from cement blocks or brick that will be stable enough to support the weight of people sitting as well as strong enough to handle the pressure of the soil being retained behind in the planting area. You can use cast stacking blocks made for retaining walls built without cement. Or build your own wall from scratch with cement mortar, bricks or cement blocks and rebar set inside the holes of the blocks for stability. You can use different colored blocks to create designs, put stucco over the surface to make walls smooth or paint your walls to make them decorative.

Build walls at a comfortable height for seating. Eighteen inches is a good height for walls to function for sitting.

Top your seating walls with outdoor cushions to make them inviting and even more ornamental.

Plant the beds behind seating walls with colorful, scented plants. You can use sharp or spiny plants, but set them back so they won’t make sitting on the wall uncomfortable. Keep the same concept in mind for plants that attract a lot of bees.

Build raised garden beds for sitting to add color, texture and comfort to your garden. Think in terms of using the front walls of garden planters for sitting space to expand your entertaining space.