Without going into all the background; the short of it is that I prefer gardening in raised beds. I'm also a lover of colors; my latest purchases for my expanding garden area, are colorful raised beds.
Last year I had my old fence around my garden replaced with a black chain linked fence. The inground border that I had around my fruit and vegetable garden, became obsolete. It was no longer evenly spaced from the fence, and there was no way I wanted to resize it, and pull the weeds that had popped up from last year.
I gave it some thought as to what I might do to make gardening life easier on myself. I knew I preferred gardening in raised beds; I had so much more control on the soil that I gardened with, and it was just easier to reach whatever needed reaching.
In my search for raised bed options that I could place around the perimeter of my newly fenced in garden, I happened upon metal raised beds that came in colors! I was pretty much sold on it, but did do my diligent research. After much searching and contemplation, I decided on raised beds from Plant and Plot. You can see three of the colors that I purchased in the photo above. I also purchased two orange raised beds that are smaller.
The raised beds from Plant and Plot come in a variety of sizes, and shapes. The initial size that you order will determine whether or not there are other shapes to build from that kit. With this smaller raised bed kit, it only had the one option, a small rectangle. This finished bed measures 4 x 2 x 1.5 feet. It comes with stabilizing cords that are anchored from one side and are stretched across to the other side. All of the side and end pieces in this kit are to be screwed together. All tools are included in each kit, including the Alan wrench for installing the screws.
By the way, these have an open bottom. They are listed as weather resistant, rust proof, and are made of galvanized metal. I covered each section of ground with cardboard for several days or more to help kill off the weeds and such, before installing the raised beds.
As mentioned, the larger size offers various configurations to choose from. This particular kit that I ordered offered 9 configurations; however, you will only have enough end pieces to build one unit from the kit.
I did however find an option to purchase a 6.4 x 2 x 1.5 size kit. I used this option to build my purple raised beds. For the blue raised beds, I ordered the 8 x 2 x 1.5 size, and just used two less side panels to build those.
The larger size units, came with bendable flaps that fit into the holes of the panel installed next to it. The top, middle, and bottom holes are attached with screws and nuts the whole way. The flaps had to be lined up first though, and some of the flaps needed to be bent out more to line up correctly. I used the end of a Phillips head screwdriver to lift the end of the flap upward, away from the panel, to achieve this. Although the image in the instructions showed someone bending these flaps downward by hand, when attaching it to the next panel, I found that I needed a rubber handled tool to help do the job. That allowed me to press the flap down without slipping off of the metal flap.
The larger sized beds also had rods to install from side to side to help stabilize the bed, rather than the tension cords. This depends on the which configuration you want to build though. Overall, I was able to do it. I got most of them put together without any assistance.
One major note, if it is a windy day, it is best to build where the wind isn't and then move the bed to the desired installation location. I ended up building some of mine in the basement and then my husband and I moved them to the outdoors.
Another note, it is really best and easier if you're not trying to install these on a slope. It can require some extra digging to get the raised bed to sit down further on one end than the other, and level it out. I can honestly say that I got one of my raised beds completely level! Yay me.
Some of the installation was more time consuming than others, but once I got the hang of it, it went pretty well. I did end up ordering more, in various sizes, a total of ten in all.
This link will take you to the Plant and Plot raised bed page on Amazon. Other styles and other companies' raised beds are displayed there as well, where you can browse and see which ones you are drawn to.
Happy gardening.
Cheryl Paton
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
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