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Or just put down a bunch of wood chips and then put compost between the wood chips. Yes, it won't be "raised" but it will be nicer!

To each their own. I paid $79 a piece for my 8'×3'x1' raised beds from Northern Tool. The top sides of the metal are folded over & smootherd out & do not snag you. It gets 108° for 3 months straight in our summers of hell.. my metal beds don't dry out as quick because I have an inch of straw mulch covering all my soil, as any no till living soil beds should have. I have had an amazing season for vegetables. Have harvested more than I ever have before. Not to mention the old wood beds I made were more expensive & rotted in 2 years in our Texas humidity. Guess it all depends on the Gardener.

HAve to say I truly agree with your sentiment here. We bought raised beds with the intention that they are tax deductions for "Home Improvement/Landscaping". We are in the city s, people are fussy about aesthetics over function. Raised beds are everything you've said! Thank You ! Jeff

We love the metsl raised beds. They will last 20 years, are beautiful, cost less than a third of wood beds, and are superior in all ways

😮 not going to be negative here so let’s just agree to disagree.

I have over 24 Birdies Beds. Made in Australia, not from China from Amazon. Fantastic beds worth every penny. Allows more growing space. Earth naturally goes down when materials are composting, that would happen in a wood bed too. Wood beds do not last and decompose. I put covers on my beds no problem. The earth dries out along any raised bed because the earth is raised and the raised bed material is exposed to the sun. They are absolutely the best to use in every garden.

Sharp edges are a no no. I check all, pots etc for sharp edges.

You are boiling the soils with METAL or PLASTIC containers, unless you want to COOK something for your BREAKFAST. USE TERRACOTTA CONTAINERS, it has been successfully used since million years ago. Full pack CONCENTRATED ENERGY you can find in it. WORKING as TEMP STABILIZER. It works. Or you can add TERRACOTTA BRICKS surrounding inside the metal bed. You get the look, as well as the POWER and sustainability. I know you STILL WANT the art of packaging part.

Framkly I find these metal beds ugly and unnatural-looking for gardens. And also as you mentioned, too expensive. I would probably need 25 raised beds if I used them for my entire garden. Also would be too much work to build out of wood, and too expensive. So guess what? My garden is planted directly into the ground. It's worked for thousands of years and it works for me. I do separate the bed areas and surround each with large stones from the nearby river, and build up the soil slightly in the beds from the paths in between.

Steel is recyclable.

I live in the outback of Australia, hot to an extreme, dry to an extreme, and I have a yard full of specifically Birdie's metal raised garden beds, yes, the painted ones. I've never had a problem with heat, nor drying out too fast, no rust, no problems at all. Then again, Birdies is an Aussie company, they make their beds for Aussie conditions, they've been around for a long time, was the first company to make and sell them and their beds have been in Aussie gardens for over 15 years. I'd say you get what you pay for, but there's a lot of dodgy metal bed companies popping up nowadays that are charging big dollars for the crap they're selling, but it's obvious from just looking at your beds that they're of rather low quality, so for you to have had problems with them is not surprising at all. As for problems filling the beds, it's got nothing to do with the bed itself, if you fill a wooden bed of the same dimension in the same way with the same materials, you'll have the same cost and sinkage.

Be careful with those comfrey near your fruit trees, I made the same mistake (after watching all the permaculture CZcams’s) when I started my orchard about 8 years ago… let me tell you, the comfrey made roots as big as telephone poles after about 4 years and really choked out all my trees. I had planted them about 2-3 feet away, way too close!! It was a huge mistake and I spent countless hours carefully digging them out, while damaging all my fruit tree roots. Dig them out now before it’s too late 😂😂 honestly plant them far away, then just use the leaves around your trees.

I have had my metal beds for over 7 years now. 2’ high. I’m in Delaware near the beaches. My gardens are awesome and I share tons of produce with my neighbors. 5 of my metal beds were only $25 each. IMO, a lot of what she said didn’t make sense to me. I tried wood, it rotted in 3 years. But to each his own, i love my super cheap raised beds and will continue to buy more as needed.

Love my metal beds. I had mine for seven years and buy a new metal bed each year. They do not cost $300 has you said but more like $165. All your objections are invalid or minor.

I have 9 yes nine various sized 17 inch deep Vego metal raised beds in South Florida and have no soil heat or skin burn problems. These beds are coated, have trimmed top edges and have performed exceptionally well for me. I can easily change sizes to fit my needs. Fantastic beds!!!

Mine holds too much water at a time when it rains.

Oh I would love to find some thing that would distract the baby bunnies from eating all of my butternut squash babies! I'm also looking at some of the shorter clover species that I could use to replace our lawn in the city.

Paint it white, while being a roof painter in Hawaii, I have notice that light colored roofs was cooler to walk on barefoot ed than darker colors; white was the coolest.

I’m using repurposed diamond plate metal to create raised beds, hopefully the re-use justifies the metal

I think brand matters. My Vego beds don’t get hot and have a rubber gasket to protect you from the edges. I bought the first 2 four or five years ago and have added a couple each year. The first ones still look like new. I have to add soil each year to wood beds as well. The first year is the worst because of settling. I am forced to make a major move in a few months. I will be able to disassemble my beds and take them. Of course I lose the soil. I am 75 and building wood beds is difficult but these I put together with no assistance. This is like many products. If you buy the knock offs you don’t get the quality and features of the original.

If your soil is too acidic, the zinc from the galvanizated metal will leach into your soil

Red cedar is the best

Maybe try and focus on your positive stuff rather than bag others who are far more successful than yourself. The product has applications

Looks like a crap grade bed, lots of just wrong info and incorrect logic.

Good job

I use livestock tanks...works great!

I have 2 small metal raised beds and I'm not having any issues with mine

We've been working during about these.

I resisted the urge I purchased stock tanks.

Aesthetically pleasing?? My neighbour has lots of these and I feel like I'm living next door to a scrap metal yard. And don't get me started on that weed fabric they're all using. Who'd want to eat food grown in a sea of plasticy chemicals.

Could it be the orientation of the planters that is causing the overheating? It seems to me if the planters are placed in an East to West direction, the narrow ends would have reduced exposure to the Sun's heat.

Interesting. I don't find these metal beds aesthetically pleasing. I would just plant in the ground if I owned property, but I rent. I got the cheapest untreated wood I could find for me beds and think the plants themsleves will be the aesthetic part 😊

I plant in growbags which I place in 18qt dishpans where I keep 3" of water or liquid fertilizer mix !

Thank you for posting this opinion. I agree that those metal raised beds are ridiculously expensive for what they are. My mind immediately goes to how many pounds of garden edibles I'd have to grow to to justify the cost, when I could more easily buy veggies from the supermarket at far less cost. Sort of defeats the purpose gardening when you think about the real cost of a radish that you may grow in the damn things.

I am glad that you made this video. However, I will still buy them.

absolutely correct. i make my metal beds from used metal roofing and only use them for heat loving plants like melons. if fact any fruit crop does pretty well in them. i also make them 4' wide. and i put a board on top to lean on. still, i would not use them for veggies. and all of my raised beds cost me less than one of those you show here. when they first became popular, i looked at them and did not see how they were better than mine. as for filling your raised beds. i get tree service people dump their arborist wood chips and i age them. i never purchase soil, compost, or mulch because of this. you just have to plan ahead to be successful. fresh chips will reduce in volume to 1/3, so you need to start with 3x the volume you need. it also takes 3yr! i have a continuous flow of chips for my orchard. they dump fresh on one end, i use aged from the other. the very large chunks of wood, i make bio-char with. in 15yrs, i completely changed the soil of my whole orchard. i do not have to water my mature fruit trees at all now, even when i get no rain for 4 months. i do seed the piles with cover crop after the 2nd year which attracts deer and turkeys that poo over the pile while eating and further enhance the balance. after 3yrs i can grow anything in it. i do not buy any fertilizer either. each year my production and soil quality improve and i buy less to do it. to succeed we must work in accord with nature 🙂

I've had a garden for over 20 years and have always used wood. Personally, any time I can do something once and not have to do it again, I'm going to go that route. As I get older, I realize I've done A LOT OF STUFF around the house and therefore that means I have a lot of maintenance. I built a tool shed from scratch many years ago and the roof needs de-mossing and my compost bin has broken down and needs rebuilding and my screened porch floor rotted out and needs fixing. I told my wife that I literally could spend 8 hours a day just fixing things around the house. I've recently gotten into hydroponics and if things go well with that, I think I'm going to switch over to that more. But even with my raised beds, I think I'll be switching to metal. 20 years from now, it'll still be there and I won't have yet another chore in rebuilding it.

Good to know! TY 👍

and reason 4 - they are an eyesore 😂

I agree with everything you’ve just said I stayed away from these beds because I know that they would heat up however I have considered them for possibly front landscaping for aesthetic purposes, but I know that the front lawn gets a lot of sunlight and gets really hot so common sense tells me to just stay away from them. I have wooden beds that are now about eight years old and they are still holding up strong. I’m in the process of redesigning my backyard to something more simple and plan on doing just one wooden raise bed.

Sorry, those were poor excuses. First, stop being a follower. Second, metal is going to lay longer than wood and yes you can recycle the metal. If the wood is going to break down, rot or get attacked by termites, that's not cost affective. That means i have to buy another one. Third, yes, warm soiled veggies and fruits love them. I'm growing watermelon in mine and I love it. Sorry it didn't work for you, but I highly recommend them.

good job!

Interesting

I think the preformed composite corners are the way to go . Just use cedar 2Xs and make them any size

Here is what I have found with metal beds. Do not buy galvanised beds, if you do, paint them white outside. Line them with with plastic on the inside vertical surfaces as the zinc oxidises over time and the zinc oxide is soluble and upsets the soil balance. Buy painted beds. They are available with the same coating as roofing sheets . Make a 2 by 4 timber frame to sit on top of the tub on 4 posts fitted inside the tub and problem solved. 15 years ago I built 5 raised beds 5 * 20 * 2.5 ft from recycled timber. Within 5 years the timber was starting to show wear .By 10 I was replacing planks. This spring I flattened them all and have gone back to the oldest and cheapest , but most back breaking way of gardening. No raised beds.

I grew tall weeds around sun exposed sides of the cattle troughs to keep them cooler in SW Missouri. They were cheap to buy at an auction.

Should have bought Birdies garden beds from Australia,they are available in the US,we have used them here for years…Our soil was never overheated,i was able to grow bumper crops in all seasons. You want hot Summers we have 40c degree Summers here. They have a low carbon footprint.I am sorry i just don’t agree with you. You get what you pay for.. Buying cheap you get cheap.I wouldn’t have bought them from Amazon. I top my garden beds with compost as i would if i had in ground garden beds.No different So don’t get the point of them costing you a packet to fill and top up. I know people who have been using the same Birdies raised Garden beds for 16 years. Anyway.I will continue to use them,and advise people of the benefits. Happy Gardening.🌻🙂 .

What about having concreate one .I don't like wooden it is not long lasting drying out quickly due to holes between planks

Metal beds are great for keeping pests out, if tall enough. They last longer than wood. I actually prefer them.

It was very much appreciating your content and perspective on the middle beds, but then I was put off by your personal attacks on other gardeners and their motives for using and sponsoring the beds. Maybe next time just relate your personal experience and leave it at that.