Nicole Johnsey BurkeFounder of Gardenary

Do NOT put leaves in your raised bed unless you wet and compress them #garden #leaves #fall #plants

6 Oct 2025 · 1 min

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Nicole Johnsey Burke shows how to fill raised beds with fallen leaves without them collapsing. Layer leaves 6 inches at a time, wet and compress each layer, then stop 8 to 12 inches from the top for soil. Done right, the bed settles way less.

Questions this video answers

About 6 inches per layer.

About 8 to 12 inches.

Chapters

Do not put leaves on the bottom of your new raised bed until you watch this video. Adding leaves to the bottom of your bed can be a great way to fill it with organic matter, slowly build great soil and also save money. But if you don't do it this way you could end up with your soil level dropping within days of installing the garden. Install the leaves in layers about 6 inches at a time and compress the leaves and wet that layer down. Then you're ready to add the next layer of leaves. Do this until you've got about 8 to 12 inches left at the top of your raised bed and fill that with topsoil, sand and compost the soil still going to go down but not nearly as quickly as it would if you forgot to compress and wet those leaves. This is the method I used to fill these two raised beds last year and this is how they grew in this one. Learn more in the caption.

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