Free design appointment at any showroom · Lifetime guarantee — if it ever breaks, we fix it
Drystone Beds Designed in England since 2011
Designed in England since 2011

Raised beds, hand-built to last. Built from timber that outlasts the garden plan.

We make raised garden beds from solid timber and weathering steel. Made to order, built in our workshop, delivered flat-pack or assembled.

0 Years established
0 Installations completed
0 Products in the range
0 Projects completed
Featured pieces

A few rooms, a few favourites.

Picked by our senior designers — pieces that work in many homes, photographed in ours. Save any of them to your room for your next appointment.

Designer's pick
oak bed

Oak Raised Bed 120cm

Hand-built from kiln-dried English oak, 120 × 60 × 30cm.

oak bed

Oak Raised Bed 180cm Deep

180 × 90 × 45cm. The deeper profile — 45cm internal — suits root vegetables and avoids the back strain of

New collection
oak bed

L-Shape Oak Bed

Two 120cm runs joined at a right angle. Useful for corners, for wrapping a patio edge, or for separating

steel bed

Galvanised Steel Bed 120cm

Hot-dip galvanised mild steel, 2mm wall, powder-coated in a single forest-green finish. 120 × 60 × 30cm.

Lifetime
steel bed

Galvanised Steel Bed 180cm

180 × 90 × 40cm. Same hot-dip galvanised construction, powder-coated forest green.

planter

Cedar Tall Planter 60cm

Western red cedar, 60 × 60 × 80cm. Tall enough to work standing.

Designed in England since 2011 Naturally lit furniture, drawn in our studios
30+ showrooms across the UK Postcode locator inside — find your nearest
Free design service In-store and at home, with no obligation
Lifetime Guarantee If it ever breaks, we fix it
The full range

Filter by size, material, depth.

From a single-width herb bed to a full kitchen-garden layout. Prices start at £250 for the standard run.

0 pieces in the catalogue
Material
Style
Finish
Lead time
oak bed

Oak Raised Bed 120cm

Hand-built from kiln-dried English oak, 120 × 60 × 30cm.

oak bed

Oak Raised Bed 180cm Deep

180 × 90 × 45cm. The deeper profile — 45cm internal — suits root vegetables and avoids the back strain of

oak bed

L-Shape Oak Bed

Two 120cm runs joined at a right angle. Useful for corners, for wrapping a patio edge, or for separating

steel bed

Galvanised Steel Bed 120cm

Hot-dip galvanised mild steel, 2mm wall, powder-coated in a single forest-green finish. 120 × 60 × 30cm.

steel bed

Galvanised Steel Bed 180cm

180 × 90 × 40cm. Same hot-dip galvanised construction, powder-coated forest green.

planter

Cedar Tall Planter 60cm

Western red cedar, 60 × 60 × 80cm. Tall enough to work standing.

oak bed

Bespoke Bed Commission

Non-standard dimensions, integrated bench seating, or a run of matched beds for a kitchen garden — we build

accessory

Raised Bed Soil Mix 60L

Blended in our yard: 40% topsoil, 40% fine compost, 20% horticultural grit. pH-balanced at 6.5.

accessory

Weed Membrane Liner

Cut to fit the base of any bed in our range, or supplied in a 1m × 5m roll.

accessory

Oak Cold Frame

Sits directly on top of a 120cm oak bed. Hand-built oak frame with a double-walled polycarbonate lid, hinged

tool

Hand-Forged Steel Trowel

Drop-forged carbon steel blade, 180mm, riveted to a steam-bent ash handle with a brass ferrule.

tool

Hand-Forged Dibber

Carbon steel, hand-tempered, 220mm overall. The tip is ground to a single bevel — cleaner entry into firm

service

Tool Resharpening Service

Send us your trowels, dibbers, hoes, or border spades — bought from us or not.

oak bed

Three-Bed Oak Set

Three 120 × 60 × 30cm oak beds, made together in one workshop run. Matched grain where possible.

Founded 2011 · Designed in England

Drystone Beds. Furniture made to outlast trends, generations, the company itself.

Solid timber. Weathering steel. Mortise joints cut by hand. That's what we make.

In 2011, Robert Marsh got tired of watching good gardeners put their beds together from pine that rotted in three seasons. He'd spent the previous decade sourcing materials for a landscape contractor, and he knew what held and what didn't. So he built the first six beds in a rented unit with a bandsaw, a mortiser, and one other pair of hands. We've grown since then — seven people now, a proper workshop floor — but the approach hasn't changed.

Every bed is made to order. We don't hold finished stock. A customer tells us the dimensions, the timber species, the corner detail, and we cut it to those numbers. That's it. We don't do off-the-shelf sizes, and we don't use finger-jointed timber or screwed-together butt joints. Mortise-and-tenon at the corners, or through-bolted steel brackets on the steel range. Either way, it moves with the ground without opening up.

We use kiln-dried English oak, Douglas fir, and Corten weathering steel. The oak comes from a sawmill we've bought from since 2013. The Corten we profile-cut to order — no stock panels sitting in the rain going to waste.

We don't install. We don't do garden design. We build beds, we pack them well, and we deliver. If something's wrong on arrival, we fix it. That's the whole offer.

Be part of a community of gardeners who buy once and don't replace. Take the next step — talk to us about your dimensions before you order anything.

Robert Marsh

— Robert Marsh, founder

Built to be dug, not admired.

We make raised beds that earn their place — properly jointed, deep enough for roots, made from timber we'd use in our own gardens. Join us and grow something that lasts.

0 Years designing in England
0 Showrooms across the UK
0 Pieces designed and made
0 Lifetime claims honoured
The people behind it

Who builds your bed.

Robert Marsh

Robert Marsh

Founder & Workshop Lead

Robert started the workshop in 2011 after ten years sourcing materials for a landscape contractor.

Alan Griffiths

Alan Griffiths

Senior Cabinetmaker

Alan joined in 2013 with eighteen years of joinery behind him, mostly fitted furniture and staircases.

Stefan Brandt

Stefan Brandt

Materials & Supply

Stefan manages timber procurement and quality checks on every delivery — he's turned away more loads than

Carol Whitfield

Carol Whitfield

Customer Service

Carol handles all order queries, lead-time questions, and post-delivery follow-up.

Browse the beds

Find the right bed for the plot.

Raised beds in a few sizes, built from materials that won't rot out in two seasons. Take the next step — pick a size and we'll talk soil depth.

Letters from clients

Rooms, in our clients' own words.

Long-form notes from clients who have lived with the rooms we designed for a season or two. We print them as they were written — only verified, never filtered for tone.

★★★★★

"Third season with the cedar-lined raised bed. It hasn't moved, warped, or let in a single slug from the base joints. I measured the corner angles last spring out of curiosity — still square to within a millimetre. My wife grows chard in it year-round. The timber has greyed exactly as I expected, no splitting. Straightforward to assemble, which I appreciated."

Richard P.
Richard P. retired engineer
★★★★★

"Ordered the deep-root model after two seasons of frustration with shallow beds. The extra depth made a real difference for parsnips and carrots. Delivery was well-packaged, timber arrived dry. Assembly took me about forty minutes on my own. No complaints."

Lars J.
Lars J. allotment holder, 12 years
★★★★☆

"Good quality timber, noticeably heavier than the flatpack beds I'd tried before. The joints fit cleanly and the fixings are decent gauge — not the thin screws you sometimes get. I'd have liked a brief note on sealing the cut ends before first use, but I found the answer by emailing the shop and they replied the same afternoon. Would buy again."

François L.
François L. first-time buyer
★★★★★

"I've specified Drystone Beds on three separate client projects now. The build quality holds up to professional scrutiny — the board thickness is consistent, the corner posts don't flex under loaded soil, and the finish is clean enough that clients notice. Lead time was accurate each time. That matters when you're coordinating with landscapers."

Gerhard K.
Gerhard K. garden designer, 20 years
★★★☆☆

"The bed itself is well made — solid, good timber, sat level on uneven ground with a bit of patience. My issue was dispatch: the site said three to five days and it took nine. No communication in between. I emailed on day seven and got a helpful reply explaining a supplier delay. Sorted in the end, and the product is genuinely good, but the wait without an update was frustrating."

Oliver M.
Oliver M. customer since 2022
★★★★★

"Two beds, side by side, now into their second full growing season. Tomatoes in one, courgettes and beans in the other. The timber has taken on a good colour and there's no sign of the joints opening up despite heavy watering all summer. I've recommended these to two neighbours already."

Paolo G.
Paolo G. retired, keen kitchen gardener
Before you order

Questions we get from the allotment and the back garden alike.

Timber choice, soil fill, drainage, delivery — answered plainly.

01 What wood do you use and where does it come from?

Solid English oak, kiln-dried, sourced from certified sustainable forestry. The cedar in our Tall Planter 60cm is western red cedar — naturally rot-resistant, no treatment needed to start. We don't use pine dressed up as something else. What you see on the product page is what arrives.

02 How long will an oak raised bed actually last outside?

A long time. Kiln-dried English oak left untreated will weather to a silver-grey and hold its structure for well over a decade in most UK gardens. If you prefer to keep the warm honey tone, a yearly wipe of raw linseed oil does it. The Oak Raised Bed 180cm Deep uses thicker stock precisely because deeper beds carry more soil weight — that's where the joinery matters.

03 Do the beds come assembled or flat-pack?

Flat-pack, bolted assembly. Most customers have them up in under an hour. The L-Shape Oak Bed takes a little longer — closer to ninety minutes. Everything you need comes in the box. No special tools.

04 Can I get a bed in a size that isn't listed?

Yes, within reason. We make to order, so if you need a 150cm run or a different board height, get in touch via the Contacts page and tell us what you're working with. Custom sizes carry a small additional lead time — usually an extra week or two on top of standard.

05 What's the difference between the oak beds and the galvanised steel beds?

Different tools for different gardens, honestly. The Galvanised Steel Bed 120cm and 180cm suit exposed sites, roof terraces, or anyone who wants zero maintenance — the zinc coating is what protects the steel, and it will outlast most oak if the drainage is good. Oak suits kitchen gardens and period properties where the material fits the surroundings. Both grow vegetables equally well.

06 How long does delivery take and which regions do you cover?

UK mainland: three to five working days on standard stock items. The larger beds — Oak Raised Bed 180cm Deep and the L-Shape — ship on a pallet, so delivery is kerbside. We'll let you know the day before. Scotland Highlands, Northern Ireland, and EU orders: contact us before ordering and we'll give you an honest shipping cost and timeline.

07 Can I return a bed if it doesn't fit the space?

If it's unused and in original condition, yes — within 14 days of delivery. You cover the return shipping for a change-of-mind return. Custom-sized beds can't be returned unless there's a fault on our side. If something arrives damaged, contact us straight away with photos and we'll sort it.

08 Do you treat the wood before it ships?

No. We ship untreated so you can choose your own finish — oil, wax, or nothing at all. Untreated oak will weather naturally and is still structurally sound for years. If you want to seal it from day one, a single coat of raw linseed oil before filling with compost is all it needs.

Is our way for you?

You think in rooms. Not in items.

01

You plan a kitchen, not a worktop. You see the whole room and then decide which pieces belong inside it.

02

You prefer solid oak you can sand back in twenty years over veneer you replace in five.

03

You appreciate a designer who asks how you actually use the room before reaching for a swatch book.

04

You expect a piece to be still in your home — or your children's — long after the trend that surrounded it has passed.

Built for men aged 35-65+ — established working professionals, craftsmen, and longtime collectors.

Free design appointment

Your room. Made together.

Book a free appointment in your local showroom or at home. A senior designer will draw with you at the table, send fabric and paint samples in the post, and quote honestly. There is no obligation to buy.

Showrooms

Find your nearest showroom.

Thirty-something rooms across the UK, each laid out as a home — not a shop floor. Step in, sit on the sofa, open the drawers, and book a free design appointment if you wish.

Bath

12 Quiet Street

Mon–Sat 9:30–17:30 · Sun 11–16

Book at Bath →

York

Coppergate Walk

Mon–Sat 9:30–17:30 · Sun 11–16

Book at York →
Made of

The materials we choose, up close.

Solid oak grain

Air-dried European oak · saw-cut visible

Brushed brass

Hand-finished brass · ages with a soft patina

Linen weave

Belgian linen · loose weave, naturally relaxed

Hand-painted finish

Brushed by hand · touchable, never sprayed

Contact Us

Visit the workshop, write to us, or call during opening hours.

Drystone Beds & Workshop

Address
Market Street, Manchester
Email
[email protected]
Phone
+44 161 834 7092

Opening hours

Mon–Fri09:00 – 17:30
Saturday10:00 – 16:00
SundayClosed

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