The best spot for your raised beds

Raised beds can go almost anywhere, as long as there's enough sun. But the best spot for your Makkelijke Moestuin is close to home, easy to see, and preferably a little sheltered.

Here you can read where you should - and shouldn't - place your raised bed or beds, and what to keep in mind.

Out the back door and into the garden

Where can you put a Makkelijke Moestuin?

Maybe the better question is: where can't you? When you garden in raised beds, you're not dependent on open ground, and that gives you a huge amount of freedom.

That means it can work almost anywhere: in a small city garden, on a balcony or roof terrace, in the front or back garden, or even on the roof of a shed.

But for the best results, the spot should meet these conditions:

at least 6 hours of sunlight a day, but preferably 8 or even more
sheltered from the wind
easy to see and as close to your kitchen as possible

If it doesn't, your plants will grow less well.

Look: when we started Makkelijke Moestuin in 2008, we didn't think about this carefully enough yet. A few of my first raised beds were right in the wind, and my mother's self-built brick raised bed was even in shade for a large part of the day:

*Saskia's very first raised bed - from 2008*

But it soon turned out that the plants in those beds didn't grow as well as the ones in the other raised beds that did get enough sun and less wind.

So to help you avoid that, I'll walk through everything with you:

Vegetables need 6-8 hours of sun

Plants need sunlight to grow. That's how they produce most of their own nutrients.

Plants need 6 to 8 hours of sunlight to produce their own nutrients — *Plants need sunlight to produce nutrients*

Put your raised bed in a spot that gets enough sun in summer. For leafy vegetables - like lettuce and spinach - 6 hours of sunlight is enough.

All other vegetables need more: they do better with 8 hours of sun.
Tomatoes and other summer vegetables prefer even a bit more:

*Yellow snack tomatoes and climbing zucchini give more and tastier fruit in full sun*

How do you figure out how many hours of sunlight there are?

First, see which spots in your garden get sun. Pick a sunny day and check them at different times. Some spots, for example, are in full sun in the morning but in shade in the afternoon.

Write down when the sun shines on each spot and when it doesn't, then add up the hours.

Also keep the time of year in mind. A spot that is still very shady in early spring may get enough sun in summer, because the sun is much higher then.

Manja's MM raised beds are in the front garden

Leafless trees in spring can cast a lot of shade in summer.

With trees, it's often the other way around. In summer - when they're full of leaves - they cast much more shade than in spring or autumn.

Still, in almost every garden you can find a spot that gets 8 hours of sunlight, even if it isn't the most obvious place.

Maybe it works if your raised bed is raised up a bit, or maybe the front garden is better - like at Manja's:

*Manja's MM raised beds are in the front garden*

Above all, choose the best spot you can, because that makes the difference between a modest harvest and a great one.

Oh, and if you have several raised beds: feel free to put them in different places if that works better in your garden. They really don't all have to stand next to each other.

By the way: the number of hours mentioned above mainly applies to summer. In spring and autumn, the days are shorter, the sun is much lower, and your plants grow more slowly anyway. Then at least 4 hours of sunlight is enough.

What if your garden is in the sun all day?

Then you're lucky. It means your raised beds get plenty of sunlight from early spring.

But if you get weeks of sun and high temperatures in midsummer, that's a bit too much for most vegetables.

Raised beds make that pretty easy to solve too: just give them some shade during the hottest part of the day.

*Raised beds are easy to shade when needed*

Protection from the wind

If you can, protect your garden from the wind.

In most places, this shouldn't be a problem. But here in our garden, the wind is unpredictable. The wind-whipped plants don't look as perky as the protected plants.

If you garden on an open roof terrace, a wind barrier can help.

*In our office garden, a fence shelters the raised beds from the wind*

Keep it in view

Out of sight, out of mind is 100% true for a vegetable garden. If your raised bed is tucked away somewhere or hidden behind a hedge, you'll soon forget it and harvest less from it. Even watering can easily fall through the cracks.

So put your raised bed as close to the kitchen as possible. Ideally, somewhere you can see it from your window. Then you can quickly walk into your vegetable garden while cooking and pick something tasty:

Bart's raised beds are right in front of his kitchen window

Bart's raised beds are right in front of his kitchen window.

No suitable spot at home?

Then there are still plenty of other options.

Think of an allotment, a vegetable garden at your parents' or grandparents' place, or a shared garden with neighbours or in the communal space of your apartment building.

Gardening together is not only practical, but often really fun too.

*Sneeuwklokje's raised beds at an allotment site*

Got a spot in mind?

Do you know where your raised beds can go?

Great. Then the next step is figuring out what you need to set up your Makkelijke Moestuin.

You can read about that on the next page.