Raised Beds vs. In-Ground Gardening: How to Choose the Best Option

Should I garden in raised beds or in the ground? This is the question everyone asks when starting a garden—myself included.

Raised garden beds are everywhere. They look beautiful and structured, and positioned as the “right” way to start a garden.

On the other hand, gardening directly in the ground is vastly cheaper and often more low-maintenance. Not to mention this is how the human race has been growing plants for thousands of years.

Since the beginning of time.

Why mess with a system that works?

All this leads us to a new question: are raised garden beds better than in-ground?

The answer is yet another question. Which one fits your space and how you actually want to garden?

I’ve been growing food and cut flowers both in raised beds and directly in the ground for years. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.

Because of that, I don’t believe there’s a one-size-fits-all answer, nor do I think we need to pick sides.

What I do want is to help you decide which option works best for you. One that works with your life instead of against it.

And yes, I’ll also share why I use raised garden beds and when I don’t.

Let’s dive in.

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

What Do Really You Want from Your Garden?

When new gardeners ask whether raised beds or in-ground gardening is better, what they’re usually wanting to know is “how do I avoid getting this wrong?”

s a fellow perfectionist and penny-pincher, riddled with indecision and a fear of failure, I say that’s fair. Starting a garden already feels like a lot to learn and a lot to do.

The fear of choosing the wrong setup from the get-go can feel paralyzing. At least for me, it was.

But, what I’ve learned from the past several years of gardening is: there’s no wrong choice.

The only choice that doesn’t work is the one that doesn’t match your needs, your space, or your goals.

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Before we compare raised beds and in-ground gardening, let’s take a step back and figure out what you really need and want from your garden.

Ask yourself:

• Do I want to be a hardcore homesteader, or is gardening just a side hobby?
• What’s my budget? Am I willing to spend more to make things look how I want?
• What kind of soil do I have (rich, rocky, compacted, sandy, clay, etc.)?
• Do I want to keep things easy to reach, or is that low-priority?

These answers matter more than any trend or gardening rule you might have heard.

Because a garden that fits your goals and lifestyle is a garden you’ll enjoying maintaining.

And a garden you like being in will get watered, weeded, and cared for. That’s exactly the kind of garden that’s going to thrive.

Once you know what you want from your garden, choosing between raised bed gardening and in-ground gardening becomes much less stressful.

Let’s compare the two.

For Extra Credit: Read one of these two posts on garden goals and lifestyle: “A Potager Is the Only Vegetable Garden You Need” or “How to Plant a Low-Maintenance Vegetable Garden.”

Raised Garden Beds: Pros, Cons, and When It Works Best

A raised bed is like a really big container. Raised garden beds sit above the native soil either placed directly on the ground or elevated off the ground.

Raised beds set on the ground may be bottomless and open to native soil.

They can be built from wood, metal, brick, or stone and vary in size and height.

Many gardeners like raised beds because they look tidy and structured, and they offer more control over the soil. For some gardens, raised beds are simply a preference.

In others, they may be the only realistic option.

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Why Choose Raised Beds?

Soil control is the greatest advantage of gardening in raised beds.

If your soil is rocky, poorly draining, contaminated, or infested with tunneling pests, raised beds let you skip all that entirely.

You get to choose the soil mix you want to grow in from day one.

Additionally, raised beds warm faster in the spring and (with the right mix) drain well. This is good news if you’re growing in a cold, wet climate with heavy, frequent rains.

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Raised beds would be the best choice in this situation to give plants a chance to thrive.

For best plant health, you’ll want to have the right depth. Raised beds need to be at least 10″ (25 cm) deep, which is ideal for many vegetables.

You can also opt to have bottomless beds, which would be the best of both worlds. That’s what I did!

Raised beds may be best if you:

• Have rocky soil that’s hard to dig in
• Are gardening on a slope or hillside where soil would erode
• Want to improve your soil right away
• Need easier access to plants for harvest and tending
• Want to go easier on your knees
• Need to protect your garden from tunneling pests
• Prefer a more structured, defined garden
• Just like how raised beds look!

If Budget Is Limited

Let’s be real. Cost is a huge deciding factor between raised beds and in-ground beds. It simply costs more to build the container beds and fill them. However, you can have a great raised bed garden on a budget.

Here’re a few things to keep in mind:

• DIY wood beds can cost less if you have the materials
• Metal, brick, and stone are pricey, but last practically forever
• Cedar lasts longest, but you can take steps to make any wood bed last longer (See my post on making wood raised beds last.)
• You can fill beds partially with free biodegradable waste that will compost in place (grass and leaf clippings, wood chips, newspaper, cardboard) to cut down on soil needed
• A bulk order for soil takes more work to get into beds but costs less than buying bagged soil

If you have your heart set on raised beds, but have a tight budget, then add them to your garden little by little. Garden in the ground now and buy the raised beds you want one at a time to spread out costs.

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In-Ground Gardening: Pros, Cons, and When It Works Best

In-ground gardening is the traditional method of growing plants straight in the soil. Gardeners may mound the soil, or line the beds with planks or rocks, but they are not building containers as in raised bed gardening.

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Soil does not need to be added to an in-ground bed, though most gardeners will enrich the soil by adding compost, manure, bone meal, or some other type of amendment.

Why Choose In-Ground Gardening?

One huge advantage of in-ground gardening is that plants are able to grow deep. They’ll have practically unlimited space for roots to grow and be able to extend root systems far in search of water and nutrients.

Growing in the ground is better for keeping soil temps stabilized during hot or cold weather.

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Native soil also allows plants to better acclimate to the conditions in the garden. This is a great bonus if you are planning to save seeds from your garden.

It may be obvious, but gardeners also aren’t having to replenish the top few inches soil when growing in the ground.

Last, but not least, in-ground gardening is the most budget-friendly way to start a garden.

You can start a garden in the ground for just the cost of a few basic gardening tools and some seeds.

I enjoy the ease of planting straight into my in-ground beds in late spring. Just rake, plant, and water. Simple.

In-ground gardening may be right for you if you:

• Have good starting soil or are willing to improve it yourself
• Want to keep costs as low as possible
• Have space to spread out
• Love a market or country garden look
• Want to have a huge garden right away

There’s a lot to love about gardening directly in your native soil, so don’t count it out!

Extra Reading: I wouldn’t want to start gardening in-ground without my top 10 favorite gardening tools in this post.

If You Need to Fix Your Soil for In-Ground Gardening

Few gardens start with perfect soil right out of the gate. Our garden sits on former farmland, but the clay soil got compacted from heavy machinery when building our house.

Fixing soil that’s depleted or compacted is possible (and worth doing) through sheet mulching, amendments, cover cropping, or tilling.

Sheet mulching is a great option to fix depleted soil.

I use this method all the time to build new garden beds over lawn. It’s the least draining physically and you’ll be able to plant into the beds right away. Find out how to start whole sheet mulching process in this post.

Adding amendments—compost, well-rotted manure, bone meal, blood meal, and others—will also fix depleted soil by giving soil life a quick boost.

Cover crops, or crops planted to enrich and cover soil, can drastically improve soil in just one season of growth. Most gardeners use peas or hairy vetch to add nitrogen to the soil, and tillage radishes to loosen compact soil.

Lastly, a one-time tilling of the garden bed works great to loosen soil that’s compacted. Add compost, and you’re set. You don’t want to till every single year, though. Read why tilling does more harm than good in this post.

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What I Chose and Why

When my husband and I started planning our first garden at the end of 2020, I knew I wanted raised beds. My top priorities in gardening (vegetable gardening especially) were:

1. Easy to reach and work in
2. Easy on the physical labor (I’m not getting any younger!)
3. To make it look good because it’s so close to the house

I also liked the structure that raised beds provide both in the winter and in the growing season. (The juxtaposition of free-flowing plants in rigid boxes is just perfection.)

I’ve noticed that raised beds are easier to protect from frost, insects, and pests. The beds are all the same shape and size, so I can just pop on hoops and fabric in minutes.

I enjoy walking through my garden and observing how the plants are growing. Raised beds bring everything up two feet closer, so I can inspect plants from root to tip without having to lie flat on the ground.

We decided to keep the boxes open to native soil. No weed fabric, no plastic, no regrets. Nothing to hinder those roots from traveling wherever they want to go.

But… I Also Garden in the Ground

Though I chose raised beds my first year of gardening, nearly every garden expansion since then have been in-ground beds.

For one thing, I was able to expand the garden quickly and cheaply on my own without needing to wait for my husband to help. But I also appreciate having to water less and amend the soil less.

Great for our beds that are farther away from the house.

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And I also got really into cut flower gardening three years after building the raised beds. I much prefer having the tall flowers growing in the ground so I can see them better.

In raised beds, the flowers would be above my head!

For me, having a mix of both types of gardens just made sense because my goals were just slightly different in these two spaces.

Want to see how I’ve laid out my raised and in-ground beds? Take a peek at our Not Quite a Homestead garden in this post. I’ll give you a full text-and-photo tour of the gardens and orchard and spill all the details.

Raised Beds Vs. In-Ground Beds Comparison Chart

To sum it all up, I’ve made a chart comparing raised bed gardening vs. in-ground gardening so you can view it at a glance.

Remember, the goal isn’t to choose the “right” method, it’s to choose the one that aligns best with your goals, your space, and how you want to garden.

Let’s Choose the Best Garden for You (Flow Chart)

Ok, you’ve made it this far and you’re still on the fence? No problem!

I created a simple flow chart to help you weigh the options and decide which garden type is right for you.

If you prefer text, I wrote out the same questions underneath the graphic in a quiz format. You’ll see your results in a separate toggle below that.

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Prefer text? Take the step-by-step decision quiz below. (Same text shown in the flow chart above.)

Start here

1. Have good soil?
   • Yes –> Go to Question 2
   • No –> Go to Question 3
2. Keeping costs low?
   • Yes –> Go to Question 4
   • No –> Go to Question 5
3. Willing to fix soil?
   • Yes –> Go to Question 2
   • No –> See Result A
4. Structured or flexible layout?
   • Structured –> See Result A
   • Flexible –> Go to Question 7
   • Mix –> See Result C
5. Bending or kneeling difficult?
   • Yes –> Go to Question 7
   • No –> Go to Question 6
6. Fixed or movable beds?
   • Fixed –> Go to Question 7
   • Movable –> See Result B
   • Mix –> See Result C
7. Willing to maintain/replace beds?
   • Yes –> See Result A
   • No –> See Result B

See Results Below

Your Results

Result A: Raised Bed Gardening
It’s a match! Raised bed gardening is best for your goals of soil quality, comfort while gardening, and/or structured beds and layout.

Result B: In-Ground Gardening
Great choice! In-ground gardening matches your goals of low startup cost, having a flexible layout with room to expand, and you’ll be maximizing your greatest asset: good soil.

Result C: A Mix of Both
The best of both worlds! You can use raised beds where soil or accessibility are an issue, and in-ground planting for flexibility and experimentation. Choosing both methods allows you to fine tune your garden to get exactly what you need and give plants exactly what they need.

Next Steps: Go Forth and Garden

In-ground gardening and raised bed gardening are both worthy choices. We’ve looked at different situations where one is more advantageous than the other, and you’ve been able to test the pros and cons against your goals.

And whichever one you decided to go with is the best choice for you.

The “right” garden is thoughtfully designed with a setup that fits your space and the way you actually want to grow your garden.

When those things line up, plants grow better, gardening feels easier, and you’re far more likely to stick with it.

Remember, nothing here is set in stone. You are allowed to change your mind.

Fine tune your garden as you gain experience. Make it better and better each year.

What worked for you at first may not be what you want a few years down the road. I love my garden as a whole—the raised bed parts and the in-ground parts. It didn’t start that way and I certainly didn’t figure it all out my first season.

The goal isn’t immediate perfection. It’s progress, enjoyment, and growing a garden that’s uniquely yours.