Easy Fruits to Grow in Raised Beds

Raised bed gardening has completely transformed the modern backyard. When it comes to creating a fairytale theme, flowers, often falling in a familiar spectrum of frilly or sensational masses, are suggested. Yet, if you consider the historical Grimm fairytales, briar patches abound, often tipped with wild thorns that tear flesh as the protagonists stumble through relentless dark in desperation while wild beasts nip at their heels. 

Most berry bushes grown in gardens are tamer, especially when grown in raised garden beds, which solve the age-old problems of poor native soil, back-breaking weeding, and drainage issues. For a specialized environment, check out Vego’s berry garden beds. While the fugitives in fairytales could not afford to sample a wild blueberry bush, lest they fall prey to the beast, home gardeners often report that fresh berries rarely disappoint, a rare sentiment in the volatile world of gardening.

Here are a few berries that bring back the taste of summer. 

1. Strawberries

Supermarket varieties of strawberries are better than watermelons, a finicky fruit that runs the gauntlet of either being overly hard or too watery. Still, the superior experience lies in growing your own strawberries in a raised bed. Strawberries are natural trailers; as they grow, they send out runners that cascade over the edges of raised beds – the elevated position deters slugs from ransacking your strawberry harvests. Use an organic fungicide to protect them from powdery mildew and other strawberry afflictions. Opt for “everbearing” varieties if you want a steady harvest from spring until the first frost.

2. Pink Lemonade Blueberry

Blueberries have a reputation for being demanding, requiring highly acidic soil; they will die if they come into contact with compacted clay soils, the prevailing junk fill in most urban backyards. Raised garden beds filled with a mix of peat moss, pine bark, and organic matter are the ideal solution for this subpar native soil dilemma. By ‘Pink Lemonade’ blueberries are a uniquely pink version that offers a citrusy flavor. Water blueberry plants once or twice a week, applied slowly and regularly. 

3. Raspberries

Wild raspberry brambles are notorious for growing into messy, impenetrable thickets. Raised beds offer the perfect containment strategy, keeping the unruly growth habits of raspberries in check. For the easiest experience, choose primocane (fall-bearing) varieties like 'Autumn Bliss'. If you are into unusual varieties, Fall Gold raspberries are a pale gold version that imparts a nectar-sweet tang akin to honey.  

4. Blackberries (Thornless)

Wild blackberries conjure up notions of tangled, thorny brambles on windswept moors – beautiful to look at, but unpleasant to harvest. Modern breeding has given gardeners thornless cultivars like 'Triple Crown' or 'Chester', which are tailor-made for raised beds. When paired with a simple trellis installed along the bed, these vigorous growers create a vertical wall of deep green foliage and heavy clusters of glossy, midnight-black fruit that are a joy to harvest. 

5. Fig Trees

To the Greeks of antiquity, fig trees were a superfood that has since fallen from grace in the public imagination, becoming a worthless, shriveled commodity. Now, they are having their moment in the sun. 'Black Mission' is recommended for beginners, while 'Brown Turkey' thrives beautifully in the restricted root zone of a raised bed. Grow a fig haven with this curated orchard pack. Figs actually prefer having their roots slightly constricted, which encourages fruit production over excessive leaf growth. Unperturbed by the fierce heat of summer, they carry a natural sweetness. 

6. Alpine Strawberries

The original Grimm stories were rather grim, with dark undertones that would have made modern children editors faint. A few authors have attempted to reclaim the historical authenticity of the original fairytales. The alpine strawberry, a lesser strawberry, is a Grimm purist’s idea of heaven. More closely related to the wild strawberries found growing along the edges of European forests hundreds of years ago than the regular supermarket varieties, they are fairly prolific. Unlike their larger cousins, alpine strawberries do not produce runners; instead, they form neat, compact mounds that stay exactly where you plant them. The berries are tiny and oblong, but they pack an intensely sweet flavor, carrying the rich wild-strawberry taste of its ancestors. 

7. Goji Berries 

To the practitioners of ancient traditional medicine, goji berries were revered as the elixir to longevity. Even now, its mythical status can be seen in its cultivars, with dramatic names like 'Crimson Star' and 'Phoenix Tears.' Due to their high concentration of antioxidants and vitamins, their dried forms are often put into acai bowls. Water your bushes about one-half inch per week.

8. Honeyberries (Haskaps)

For northern gardeners suffering through harsh climates, the selection of plants seems severely limited, with many having a serious drawback. That is where honeyberries come to save the day. The appearance of the berries may seem odd, but they carry a peculiar resonance, or in layman’s terms, they scratch that itch: elongated, deep blue berries covered by a dusky bloom, with a flavor that tastes like a delightful cross between a blueberry and a raspberry. Birds devour them before they are ripe, so be sure to implement row covers. Plant two different varieties close together, as they require cross-pollination to set fruit.

9. Pomegranates

While traditional pomegranates require sweeping, arid landscapes, dwarf varieties like 'Wonderful' or 'Nana' can be cultivated in a raised garden bed. They are remarkably drought-tolerant once established and feature a high resistance to pests. The fruit, with its dense array of red seeds, figure prominently in dark academia, but its flowers are truly representative of the duality of life – vibrant, coral-red trumpet flowers attract a bevy of hummingbirds before developing into fruits that hang like Christmas ornaments. 

10. Gooseberries

Gooseberries are a classic element of English kitchen gardens, though they are often overlooked in the modern era. These sturdy, cold-tolerant shrubs thrive in the partial shade and well-drained, compost-amended soil of a raised bed. The veined fruits turn from tart green to a translucent, grape-like pink as they ripen. Because they grow on compact bushes, they are easy to manage, protect from birds, and harvest within arm’s reach.