A garden structure (typically 4x8 feet and 12-18 inches deep) filled with quality soil, allowing gardeners to bypass native soil problems and control growing conditions.
Build a frame above ground (wood, composite, stone), fill with quality soil, and plant. Raised beds solve poor native soil problems, improve drainage, warm faster in spring, and are easier to work in (no bending as much). They're more expensive initially but save years of soil amendment. They're ideal for small spaces, containers, and poor soil sites.
Raised beds are the fast solution to poor soil. Better than spending years amending in-ground soil, they work immediately.