Depending on how long the bed is a 2" incline can be quite a lot by the time it gets to the low end. That means water issues - low at one end and pooling at the low end.

How to level them all depends on how they are made. Can't really say without knowing that.

If it's just a wood frame then all you have to do is jack up the low end and tack in a board wedge the width and height of the difference. Then add more soil to even out the top.

Dave

I have to suspect that your soil surface is level, or will eventually get that way if you don't want to use a rake (gravity is on your side) but your raised bed frame might not be. If that's the case, it won't make any difference to the vegetables. But as noted, just jack up the low end to make it look nice.

It is difficult to have level contents when the container itself is not level. The soil surface may appear to be level but it isn't.

Dave

I can tip a pail of water and the surface of the water will end up being dead level. Of course soil doesn't flow as easily as water, but you can rake the soil level and gravity will keep it that way. It'll look kinda funny though with the sides not lining up. In the long run after repeated heavy watering, the soil surface will tend to level out.

Because of the slope where I have built my beds, many of them are not level. The biggest problem with this comes down to water flow. The bottom of the bed gets the water that drains off. To counteract this, I often make a small "wall" out of soil across sections of the bed. I do this more for seeds to help water stay in areas where I need them to germinate. For larger plants, I just put them into a good sized depression or well where the water can collect and filter down into the root zone.

I guess I don't understand. What happens when you just level soil in the beds with a rake? That is if I lay a box at an angle on a hillside and put soil in it I can level out that soil pretty easily and that soil will stay level even if the box isn't level. If I lay a tub of water at an angle on that same hillside the surface of the water will be level all by itself even though the tub isn't level. When I say "level" I mean that one side of the soil isn't higher than an other side.

Yes you can't use the side of the box to tell you when the soil is level. Maybe you need a bubble level to help you do that.

Yes if you have a sloping bed the low side will get all the water.

The appearance of the surface isn't the issue Dan. It is the contents and effect that incline can have on the contents. OP asked about the effect on plants.

I wasn't clear above. The surface may appear level but there is less soil depth on the high end - in this case as much as 2" + less. And that can make a big difference for the plants on that end.

Using your water bucket analogy - tip the bucket and the water level on the high end drops, isn't nearly as deep as that on the low end. Add more water to your bucket and it quickly flows to the low end just as it would in the raised bed taking the soil with it over time.

Dave

I have three beds and all are 1-4" out of level. 2" is negligible in my opinion. Unless your bed is heavy clay and pools water, I wouldn't expect soil drift from one side to the other. If some does, yearly amendments will relevel the bed. I really wouldn't worry about it.