Hi there,

I am planning to build a potager garden in my backyard this year. I'd like to include four 4'x4' raised beds in a symmetrical design with 3' paths in between them in a "plus" shape (hope that makes sense!). My current plan is to use fieldstone or flagstone steppers with moss in between them for the paths. My question is about the best material options for the small raised stone beds.

Last year I focused on my front yard, which was originally a small sloped lawn. I terraced that with a dry-stacked retaining wall. So, I have a little bit of DIY experience with stone. Here's a picture:

{{gwi:285830}}

At the end of the exhausting, steadily raining day of building that wall, I had some stone left in the pallet on the sidewalk in front of my house. I needed to do something with it and rather haphazardly built this raised bed around a dogwood tree as an afterthought. Wish I wasn't so tired when I did that! It needs some redoing. I was just looking to get the extra stone off the sidewalk in a hurry.

{{gwi:285831}}

The potager garden will be enclosed in a picket fence in front of the garage you see in the background of the above photo. I plan to paint the garage, add reclaimed shutters and a windowbox, etc, so it will look more like a cottage. The potager will be the "front yard" of the "cottage." The area is very tight (the building is 12' wide and about 1' from the property line), and I'd like to keep the potager symmetrical. I did OK with the wallstone for the other projects, but this space will be so tight that I don't think the wallstone is a good choice. The cap stones I ended up using for the other wall and bed are a foot deep in places, which would seriously diminish the planting area in the planned 4' x 4' raised beds.

So, I'm looking for an alternative. I really want the stone look rather than just using cedar or redwood (obvious alternative). I really prefer to use natural stone rather than cement pavers because I want to the garden materials to be in keeping with my 100-year-old home. Is there a stone solution that would have less depth? Would fieldstone be better? How about some sort of oversized, rectangular cobblestone paver oriented vertically? Other thoughts? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Lisa