11 Perfect Raised Garden Bed Kit Ideas & Products

A raised garden bed kit offers a wonderful alternative to building out a planter box by yourself. If you’re in a time pinch or just prefer to not take on a new DIY project for any given reason, creating your backyard vegetable garden can still happen right away by using ready-made garden beds.

These raised bed kits reviewed below can be used for anything from growing herbs on a patio garden, to building out a full-on backyard raised garden bed farm.

The many kits available spark new garden design ideas. That’s because a raised garden bed kit can come in so many different types, sizes, designs and materials.

• You can use quality, 100% natural cedar raised beds.
• or you can start playing adult-lego with the HDPE plastic modular raised beds for sale on Amazon.
• You can buy raised planter boxes with legs (referred to as “elevated garden beds”).
• Or you can get galvanized steel ones if metal raised bed materials suit the look you’re going for.

All of these raised garden beds kits for sale I review below are top notch quality and have many honest reviews and answered questions on their product listings.

Raised Garden Bed Kit Materials Matter

Here’s a great chart made by the Ecology Center website.

We’d been using cement cinder blocks that are said to be able to leach toxins into the soil, so now we plan to replace them and go the cedar raised bed route.

Cement uses fly ash quite often, along with sand and rocks.

The issue with using cement for raised bed building is the fly ash which. Fly ash is a byproduct of coal burning that contains heavy metals and other potentially harmful materials that can leach into your garden bed’s soil.

If you’re going to use cement for building your raised garden beds, it is recommended to coat the cement with a polymer first or to use a liner over it.

One interesting note from this chart is that bamboo and wood logs are the safest of all the raised garden bed materials. Cedar wood, which I assumed best, does possess low potential of leaching.

The downside of bamboo is its durability. They say it’s one of the hardest woods, but the truth is, it is very hard and durable after it’s been chemically cured. Natural bamboo can be tough, and there are things you can do to finish it naturally, such as soaking it in water. So if you are in an area where bamboo grows, it’s a great way to go. But after the first year or so, you may need to replace parts of it to keep it maintained.

11 Best Raised Garden Kits For Sale & Available Online

Now that you’re fully convinced that raised garden beds are the way to go, here are 11 well-reviewed raised garden bed kits.

Each is a worthy solution for your current food-growing needs.

1. Cedar Raised Bed Kit

The best type of raised bed is always going to be the most natural. And that, if you ask me, is this traditional, unfinished, 100% natural cedar wood. Nothing fancy. No self watering capabilities or inner liner. This is straight wood, with slats set up ready for you to slide them into eachother and put your soil inside.

Pure cedar wood, quick to assemble, and ready to use just minutes after it arrives at your door.

Can you place cedar raised beds on concrete?
Yes, but you’ll need landscaper’s cloth to prevent losing soil (water will still drain out though)

2. Another cedar gardening bed WITH liner

Second best to the straight cedar would be the 100% cedar with weed liner on the inside.

3. Galvanized Raised Garden Bed Kits

They make galvanized steel raised bed kits of different colors and shapes if this is the type you’re looking for.

This one I was looking at is made by “Mr. Stacky” and is 12 inches tall which allows for nice breathing room for plant roots.

This one is powder coated beige on the inside and a nice grey on the outside. Its base metal is steel alloy, something verified with a magnet test by a past customer.

4. HDPE Plastic Raised Bed Kit

You may not have ever considered using plastic for raised bed gardening, but in actuality, the “UV-Protected High-Density Polyethylene” (HDPE) plastic is quite safe. You might already be using those huge 55 gallon HDPE water drums to store water, so why not use it on your garden to make raised beds?

While you can make your own DIY garden beds with wood, and possibly with galvanized steel, the plastic one would be a unique material that is nice to be able to conveniently purchase online. It’s rot resistant much like the galvanized.

This one comes in a 3-pack of 4ft by 4ft quadrants that are 9 inches tall. It’s not as tall as the steel one above, but it’s a great deal and plenty of height for proper vegetable growing. They say the plastic absorbs heat from the sun to help the roots grow.

5. Elevated Cedar Planter Box

This one allows for 5 trays of plants, herbs or vegetables you can grow. And when you water the top tray, it cascades down to the ones below.

6. Elevated Garden Bed (WITH LEGS)

Here’s another in the same arena as the cedar planter box above. But this one is not really a “vertical farming” patio planter box. It’s your traditional raised bed with legs.

If you have back issues, or prefer not to be hunched or bent over which most gardening requires, then this is a perfect option for you.

This one here is a different great option, very similar to this elevated garden bed with legs. It’s a 2-tiered raised bed on legs. It’s cedar wood and the unique feature that makes it great, besides the 2-tiers and the legs, is the greenhouse cover. This one is a very great raised garden bed kit idea!

7. Deer Proof Raised Bed Garden Kit

You must attain your own lumber to make this raised garden bed kit. However, it does have everything else.

8. Modular Composite Raised Garden Bed (+ water irrigation)

This one is a special one very worth picking up. It’s made by a company called “Watex”. Its wood composite material makes it termite and rust resistant.

Plus, it includes a “Miro” irrigation system. From all the reviews, it actually spreads across the whole bed and works good. And the setup is easy, not requiring any tools. You just slide the pieces together and it’s good to go.

9. 3-Tier Wood Raised Beds

If it works as good as it looks, then this is one very useful raised garden bed kit to pickup.

10. EZ GRO Raised Garden Bed Kit (A Good Vegepod Alternative)

This EZ GRO raised bed kit is just as good as the Vegepod, but for different reasons.

Its Unique Factor: EZ GRO uses a proprietary material called, AirFlow fabric which lets excess water drain out while providing perfect air flow through the soil that reaches the roots evenly. It’s also BPA free and UV resistant.

So if you’re to try out a fabric raised garden bed kit, EZ GRO is not too expensive, and many reviews share how they were able to grow and harvest a nice amount while using this fabric gardening box.

11. Vegepod Self Watering Raised Garden Bed System

The Australian designed “Vegepod” makes it easier than ever to grow your own food. I call this one a “system” and not a “kit” because it’s on a whole other level than all the raised bed kits in this review article.

The Vegepod is the most amazing gardening tool I’ve ever seen created. I’m early in my journey of gardening tools, but it’s going to be very, very difficult to top how useful and perfect this gardening system is. The specs are described below. Well worth every dollar, and for what you get, I’d say the value is 100% there.

The Vegepod is the most interesting of the bunch by far. At first you might not realize it, but if you really look at what it actually does, you will be impressed.

The Vegepod goes up off the ground, has its own mist-spray watering system you can just plug into your hose, and that comes with a timer for days when you’re just too busy to think about it.

It has a shade cover that also protects against any rodents or pesticides that may come your way through the air (maybe from those “clouds” they make for us).

Yes, the Vegepod is the number 1 item on many’s Christmas list this year. If money is not an issue, and you have someone in your life that you want to see start growing food, then this is quite the special gift to give.

The Rock Wall Garden: FREE

Raised bed garden bed kit products are truly endless. But it goes well beyond just ones you can buy online.

God has gifted us with natural modular raised garden bed supplies you can have for free… rocks and stones.

I’m updating this post to share a new rock garden bed we’re working on. We have to find a few more rocks first.

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A post shared by Sprouting Fam (@sproutingfam)

Below is a stock image I found online, but it’s a good example of a raised rock wall garden bed using flat stones stacked one on top of the other, about a foot high or so.

Pin

I believe the proper term would be a “rock retaining wall” or a similar term, so you can put that search into Google and view many fantastic rock raised bed examples from around the world.

10 Benefits of Raised Garden Beds

If you’re looking for raised garden beds for sale, then you already know the benefits of growing this way. But here’s a quick list of raised garden bed benefits in case you’re still wondering

1. Soil easier to maintain (amending is easier too)
2. Controlling weeds is easier
3. Roots spread nicely
4. The drainage
5. Soil aeration
6. Easier to do all gardening
7. No need to deal with tree roots when digging into the Earth
8. Pest control more manageable
9. Saves your back!
10. Mobility factor: You can find ready made raised beds on casters that make moving the garden-bed around easier (i.e. to a heated garage or a more sunlit area during the winter months/frosty mornings)

This video below is of a woman sharing information about her raised garden beds. I’ve never seen her videos before, but she seems very friendly, so here’s good raised bed info from her:

Raised bed vs in-ground vegetable growing

Half the time we prefer to use nothing at all. Actually we start with a temporary raised bed using wooden slabs, and then slide them out a few months later once the soil is settled and weed control around the outside of the bed is in control.

A nice mound of soil and composed flattened out and firmed under your feet can work great. The wooden slabs as a temporary semi raised garden bed isn’t even necessary. This permaculture mound of dirt method is just as good and often used for the ease and naturalness of it. 

If you want to attain all the benefits raised garden beds offer, such as mobility, and location of growing (patio or on concrete floor), then buying a raised garden bed kit of good quality is the way to go. 

Both raised garden beds and on-ground gardens are wonderful ways to grow plants, herbs and vegetables of all types.

Questions Around Raised Garden Beds

Best Types Of Wood?

Up until 2003, the most common preservative used for pressure treated wood was chromate copper arsenate (CCA), a compound using arsenic as its primary rot protectant.

According to the Natural Handyman:

New preservatives with either copper or chromium as the primary preservative replaced CCA, and that changed the safety dynamic dramatically.  Unlike arsenic, which is well absorbed into and retained by the body (explaining its toxicity even in long-term, small exposures), these new products (though toxic in large amounts) are not absorbed efficiently by the body so the miniscule exposures from touching or working with these products are safe provided simple exposure precautions are taken, such as hand washing and collection of the sawdust. 

– The Natural Handyman

Why Buy A Raised Garden Bed Kit?

Raised garden beds are one of the best and easiest ways to grow stuff. But they also require you to build, maintain, get a bunch of soil to fill it up, and then possibly move around if you’re not getting enough sunlight or you want to save plants from incoming frost.

If you want to save time, and efforts learning about which woods and materials can potentially leach toxins into your soil, then just getting a proven, safe ready to use raised garden bed kit is the way to go.

Do you have any other garden bed ideas?

The most interesting kits of them all are the last two on this list; the EZ GRO which uses a patented fabric they call “AirFlow Fabric,” and the Vegepod, which has a patented design equipped with a rodent deterring self-watering and misting system with timer. Advancements in technology can apparently be used for good, too?

Building raised garden beds, or at least having the capability of building them out of anything you have, is a worthy skill that’s easy to learn.

Although we have the luxury of getting a cedar wood raised bed (with liner already placed) next day delivered, for some this is no fun.

You will benefit the most by doing things the more DIY route, but if that’s something you’re not looking to do at the moment, it’s good to have high quality garden bed kits for sale and available online.

Whatever your goals are in gardening, you can do it. There are no rules in gardening until you start to make them for yourself by learning the hard way. The same goes with garden beds. One may end up working better for you than the others, so it would be good to build up a few different types of garden beds to see if one produces better food or more of it.

While searching around for ideas once in the past, I came across this article and bookmarked it. It’s called “42 Stunning Raised Garden Bed Ideas” and it truly does have some stunning examples: Here’s the link to that Gardener’s Mag post.

Thank you for visiting Sprouting Fam!

Do you have a preferred type of garden bed?

NEXT:  This next article, Natural Farming 101, introduces Korean Natural Farming or KNF, the best way to grow food. It revolves around fermented liquid fertilizers and the use of local beneficial local microorganisms.

Last update on 2024-12-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API