Fix Raised Garden Bed Caving In: Here’s How!

G’day, I’m Mark from Salsa Vision and in this video I’m going to explain why the sides of raised garden beds sometimes cave inwards and how to prevent it from happening. Traditionally, these braces are used to prevent the bed from bowing out under pressure from the soil inside. However, when organic matter in the base of the bed decays and rots, it can pull the soil down too quickly and put pressure on the braces, causing them to collapse the sides in.

To demonstrate this issue, I’m going to take you back to the beds featured in my last video. From this side view, you can clearly see how this garden bed is getting pulled inward. To fix it, I dug two channels where the braces were and then bent them back up, popped the sides out, and refilled with soil. In the future, I won’t have to do this again as the bed will become heavier and the soil structure more solid.

To prevent this issue from occurring in the first place, you could put a log or a piece of 4×2 underneath the bottom brace. This will stop the braces from pulling inwards as your bed’s dropping fast.

To show you the longer term results of this fix, I’m harvesting some onions from a bed that was fixed six months ago. As you can see, the soil has sunk by about six inches in most places and the sides are slightly pulling in again. The good news is that the pulling inwards isn’t as bad this time and as the bed fills with heavier medium, the pressure inside will eventually be great enough to push the sides outwards. Until that happens, I will dig these braces back out again, pop them back up, and keep filling until she’s all good.

I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, make sure you give it a thumbs up and share it around. Thanks a lot for watching! Bye for now. Cheers!