A galvanised raised bed is the fastest way to turn an open terrace into something you can actually grow food in. It is also the heaviest thing you will put up there, and the one decision that is genuinely hard to reverse once the soil is in.
Weight, honestly
Wet growing mix runs well over a tonne per cubic metre. A 4×4 foot bed one foot deep holds roughly 0.45 cubic metres. Do that arithmetic before you order, and if your building has any doubt about the terrace slab, put the bed over a beam line or against a supporting wall rather than in the middle of a span.
The waterproofing under it
- Terrace waterproofing is designed to shed water, not to sit under a permanently damp box.
- Stand the bed on feet, pavers or a batten frame so air moves underneath.
- Leave a hand-width gap to the parapet so you can sweep and inspect behind it.
- Check the drain path stays clear once the bed is in place.
Sun and reach
Four feet across is comfortable when you can walk both sides; against a wall, two feet is the practical limit before you are standing in your own bed to reach the back. Our round beds get ordered for exactly that reason — they give the same growing area with every part of it within arm’s reach.
Assembly
The beds we carry bolt together from curved or straight panels and need no cutting. Assemble in place. A finished bed is not something two people carry across a terrace, and we say so on the listing rather than after delivery.