Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Tiered Garden Bed Review

I always liked the idea of growing fresh fruit and vegetables. For a long time, I'd kept trying various methods to make my gardening experience better. Then I found out about raised garden beds. There is less bending, and the soil is also easier to work with, since it is soil that you add.

The tiered garden bed that I purchased is by Suncast. It came as a kit that had to be assembled.

I have been quite pleased with my raised garden beds. So much so that I started out with one, and have since grown my garden to having four of them. I also enclosed the whole area with fencing. I used old screens to line around the bottom to keep the rabbits out.


raised garden bed


Update 1: The last time I checked, this particular raised garden bed was no longer available, at least online, when I did my search.

Upon further checking, I thought you might be interested to see another option. This model caught my attention one day when I was out shopping in Mendards. I did some online research and watched several videos about its use, and reviews have been pretty favorable.


elevated garden bed


The above elevated garden bed is by Keter. It measures 19.4 inch wide by 44.9 inch long, and stands 29.8 inches high.

It has a simple watering system with a reservoir in the bottom. It has a float at the bottom of the tube which will raise the little leaves at the top of the float mechanism, that will let the gardener know when the excess water should be drained. It has a cap that is opened to let the water flow out into your bucket, garden, or whatever. This will help to prevent root rot.

It is rated as indoor/outdoor.

This is the smaller version. It is rated as urban for herb gardening and balcony planters.


elevated garden bed


The small raised garden bed measures 14.7 inch wide by 32.3 inch long, and stands 30.7 inches high. It also includes a tray for starting seedlings.

It also has a reservoir and float system. You can see the little green leaves that are attached to the float mechanism, in the upper left of the unit. The smaller garden bed also has a shelf, which will be a convenient place for me to place my gardening tools.

Both of these garden beds are made of resin, polypropylene, and look to be well built. I will give further updates once I get one of my own.

Update 2: I purchased the smaller one and looked forward to gardening success. Some things to know. When there is a heavy rain, and the plug in the bottom is plugged in, standing water can fill in around the plants, which wasn't so good for them.

Leaving the plug unplugged, helps the water to drain better, which can also dry out the soil much quicker when there are longer time periods in between the rain showers.

My take on this, is to be sure how you want to use this type of raised bed and how much attention you are willing to give it. For me, I'm preferring the raised beds that sit directly on top of the ground. Drainage then goes down into the soil below.

If I were to ever replace my current raised beds, I think I would go for the galvanized metal raised bed option. I like that it sets directly on the ground. I like that it lasts longer than wood raised beds.

raised garden bed

Galvanized Metal Raised Garden Bed

Happy gardening.

Cheryl Paton

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