Bluesky Project: Raised Bed Garden Near Patio - January 2026

The hits-and-misses that I've had with cut flowers and vegetables this past year has me (already) thinking about next year.  I wanted to make 2025 the year of 'even more cut flowers' and with all of the dahlias that I planted, we made that happen.  But, the constraints of our property mean that I'm close to the limit on what I can do going forward.  We have a ton of garden space in the backyard.  But, MOST OF IT is in shade.  That means that if I want to grow more things like dahlias and other cut flowers that need sun, I have to rethink things.  

I could plant up more of the front yard or...I could do something bigger.  

That something BIGGER is a cut flower garden.  In a part of the backyard that *is* in sun for a good part of the day.  

And, a cut flower garden that uses raised beds.  We had raised beds in Elmhurst that lived inside of a fenced-in enclosure.  That garden produced a BOUNTY every season.  Vegetables, herbs, flowers.  It was big and productive.

If I was to build a new raised bed garden, I would look no further than my most-influenced-by garden content creator Erin the Impatient Gardener.   Five years ago, she posted about her vegetable garden and the fence enclosure they built.  Here's a post showing how she built her raised beds with timbers.  

She talks about how they did the ground prep, then stacked the timbers 21" tall.  She built 12 total beds.  Here is a photo of her beds:

Source via Impatient Gardener

One option would be to create a dupe of hers, but on a smaller scale.  

A more economical approach would be to not use raised beds, but start in the ground.  Or, use shorter beds that can be built up with both timbers AND soil over the years/seasons.  The cost isn't just in the material that makes up the bed frames, but also in the soil.

Before we talk about design and materials of the beds (they'd be Go Away Green, of course), I supposed I should talk myself through location.  

Here, below, is the area that I'm talking about.  The green box is the location of the pizza oven.  The patio is marked and the potential garden area is in orange.  The teal area is what is currently planted with the Greenspire Linden espaliers and boxwoods.  The purple area becomes no-man's land.  In between this garden area and the back fence gate.   Complicating things is that we use that gate a lot - both to come-and-go with everything from the lawnmower to wheelbarrows.  And, it is how I get around to cut dahlias and Disneyland Roses that are planted in that sideyard.  

As spec'd right now, the space is 27 feet by 24 feet.  Leaving 6 feet for boxwoods and Lindens, that leaves 27x18.  

Some rough math shows that I could create a smaller-scale dupe that has six beds plus a stock tank pond in the middle.  Still have to account for a potential path and gate on multiple sides.  In this layout, I've also set the front back from the patio to allow for movement/a path in front of this, too.  

As I begin to shape up my 2026 priority list, this might get on that list.   Lots of details to figure out, but fun to dream about in the dark part of post-Christmas Winter.