I'm 70 years old and down sizing my flower beds and my vegetables are down to just a few due to physical limitations and I'm switching to raised beds. My hubby made me two raised beds out of wood pallets last year and I just got 2 of these delivered!
SO EXCITED!
Very surprised there's no raised bed forum offered here.

I'm 73 and cutting back my gardening dramatically this year, too, @Cottage_Rose. I have Degenerative Disc Disease and took a very bad fall the day after Christmas. From here on out, I'm limiting my gardening to maintaining what I have, keeping those beds as clean of weeds as I and my weed wacker can, and no more new plantings. Just can't do it anymore. I have 2 raised beds down at our rural cabin an hour away for a few herbs, green onions and peppers; here at our in-town place, I'm just doing 10 garden bags in a row down my rear driveway (which is never used. It IS essentially our back yard. I lost nearly everything I planted last year in the side garden in the horrific freeze/ice storm in Texas Feb 2021 and I'm just not going to replant much there. Got to be realistic

One could be argue that gardening in a raised bed is... gardening. But given the number of questions and posts about raised beds that appear on this site, it might be a good idea.

There are a gazillion different ways to construct them, and another gazillion opinions and recipes for fill soil. Could be a nice place to exchange ideas

I think it's a great idea! Raised beds are my dream garden. Maybe an experienced raised bed gardener will start a new topic?

I have raised beds and they do present a different set of challenges for sure.

To fill my new big raised beds I'm doing the "hugelkultur" method.
Bottom to top...
cardboard
~large logs
~sticks and leaves
~potting mix
~worm castings, ~vermiculite and coco coir.

I was very pleased with my 2 raised beds last year and my stuff grew really well. I put Dahlias in one and they thrived! I probably over crowded them but they were gorgeous!

Cottage Rose,

That is one of the nicest raised beds I've seen!
Enjoy your good produce at the hight you would see it at the store.

Lush!

Great results, Cottage Rose! Can you describe how your husband used wooden pallets for a raised bed, and the advantages and disadvantages?

Why not create a general "2022 Raised Gardens" thread in the All Things Gardening forum?

That would probably work as well or better than creating a standalone forum.

I see many forums that were created with enthusiasm, but seem to have little or no activity.

In addition, the notifications for new posts on a watched thread seem to be much better than the forum notifications.

Oops! I read the question wrong.

I think Frank's idea is a good one. The fact that you can grow the exact same plants in raised beds as a normal bed makes it seem redundant. Op is that a metal wall on your raised bed? It looks cool. My son in law bought a kit and it seemed that a few of the concrete holders and some 2x6 or 8's from Home Depot would have been cheaper and studier.

Older raised bed gardener here and I'm putting in my two cents.

I have gardened in seven smaller raised beds for many years now. Primarily vegetables with a few herbs interspersed.

Raised bed gardening does offer many options which could be open to discussion. What size, what height, what soil, bed construction.

Raised beds also offer many challenges, some which are similar to conventional gardening, some unique to the raised beds. How to keep tree roots from entering and competing for moisture and nutrients. Another for me is how to keep fire ants from taking up residence.

Different from conventional gardening in some ways. As my beds are smaller, I search for plant varieties with a smaller footprint which isn't necessary when gardening in ground.

I don't think raised bed gardening would necessarily be redundant but I am not a fan of a separate forum. When a forum is set up, folks seem to loose interest in participating. Eventually we are back to square one.

On the other hand, if someone starts a raised bed chat thread, I would be a willing participant.

Cottage_Rose said: I was very pleased with my 2 raised beds last year and my stuff grew really well. I put Dahlias in one and they thrived! I probably over crowded them but they were gorgeous!

Stunning!

I like my raised veggie garden bc it keeps the rabbits out.

In some cases raised beds for planting flowers, trees, veggies, shrubs there is not always a choice.
In my garden nothing was here but pasture and hard pan clay soil like concrete. After a few years of trying to amend the clay which just ended up a waist of time the clay was back by next season.
Raised beds was a great answer in this case . All the young seedlings and starts from trees and shrubs have all grown well. I put dump truck loads of mushroom compost across several areas of built up beds of 6-8" . With the compost addition it is applicable to assume the added compost will shrink up to 3".

Just the combo planting pictures in my data base shows how well it worked out. I started from scratch and knew nothing about gardening. Before raise beds I was loosing to many new plantings as clay even amended is tricky to tame.

Now if I could harness that energy again I would do it all again… just to add more new plants to my collections. But… second thought …..