Best Choice Products 8x4x2ft Outdoor Metal Raised Garden Bed, Deep Root Planter Box for Vegetables, Herbs & Flowers, 478-Gallon Capacity, 100% Non Toxic Materials - Peacock Blue

First off, this is the second of these items I have bought. The first was a week ago. They say it can be assembled by one person in 45 mins...my experience was that it took about 20-30 mins longer than that...but I was being careful. Both times the item arrived with some damage to the packing box but none to planter itself...so they are well packaged. The assembly instructions were pretty clear. There are a lot of small pieces...dozens of wing nuts, bolts, and washers. The first planter I purchased was perfect...exactly the right number of wing nuts and bolts and a few extra washers. The second time they were a wing nut short. I was very careful opening the fittings and immediately placed each type into a small bowl, so I know I didn't lose one. I contacted the vendor via the chat function of their help website, within a minute I was switched from AI to a human who quickly and efficiently gave me the help I needed and the planter was finished with a replacement wing nut the next day. The speed and efficiency of the customer support are why I decided to give them 5 stars despite the one missing wing nut. So, I now have two of these end-to-end along the side of a pathway. They look great...they're filled with compost and topsoil and are very solid. They work just as they should and I am very happy with the purchase. The solid product, pricing, and excellent customer support mean that I would definitely be comfortable buying from this vendor again.

1 year update — these garden boxes have worked out very well. I have them on a slight slope and dug a bit in to the slope on the back side of each box to ensure each box is level. I currently have 7 of the 6’x3’x2’ boxes. I assembled them myself and moved them to the garden on my own. Not terribly difficult but an extra set of hands would have been helpful. The boxes feel a little flimsy upon being built but once they were places & filled, they were fine. I am careful not to lean on the edges of the boxes as they would surely bend. Also, the support bars are very lightweight and bend very easily, if you’re not careful. As a side note, I did not use the rubber edging/trim that comes w/each box. I can’t imagine it would stay in place & I saw no benefit. I placed my boxes in 2 rows, the rows and boxes are all 3’ apart & the spacing worked out very well. It was easy to maneuver around each of the boxes. I added a hog panel arched ‘trellis’ between the 2 rows of beds. I did not need to use t-posts to secure the hog panel as it is wedged between 2 of the garden boxes (end-to-end). As the boxes are a pretty good size, it took quite a lot to fill them & I followed the ‘lasagna’ method for filling w/cardboard on the bottom, then branches & twigs and leaves & lawn clippings. Then a layer of compost, more grass clippings and finally a mix of garden & top soil. Once planted, I kept the beds mulched all season long w/fresh layers of grass clippings. The boxes are open to the ground on the bottom & I had no issues with drainage. Also, the use of grass clippings as mulch helped minimize the amount of hand watering I needed to do (we did not use any chemicals on our lawn!). Initially, I used hay as mulch for a couple of my boxes & spent the entire season picking weeds from those beds (lesson learned)! The grass mulch definitely helped but I feel like I still watered a fair bit (south facing, full South Carolina sun). I made hoops from bamboo that I split & used 3 hoops per bed & covered them with netting held down w/garden staples to keep birds & other critters at bay. This worked great, even kept the deer out. I added a small compost container with a screw top lid (I cut off the bottom of the container & buried each container so the lid was at the top of the soil). Throughout the season, I added kitchen scraps… egg shells, fruit/veggie peels/skins, etc. to the containers but I think I’ll skip this step this coming season. I’ll continue to compost but will do so in my central compost setup and will amend the soil in the boxes w/compost, as needed. By the end of the growing season, I had experienced multiple inches of settling in each box, as a result of the breakdown of the components of my initial fill method. I expect I’ll add a few inches of a mix of compost, grass clippings/leaves and garden/top soil before planting my boxes this spring. I really do like these garden boxes a lot. They are functional & I am very happy with how they look & how they’re holding up. In fact, I plan to purchase one more box this spring, for a total of 8.

Perfect for gardeners who do not have access to decent ground soil for growing flowers and veggies. Easy to assemble, easy to fill, aesthetically pleasing, easy to maintain. Recommend first loading the interior with a 6" layer of recycled cardboard (remove tape, staples, sticky labels beforehand) dried broken twigs, dried leaves and tree branches to assist with drainage. Then comes the fun! This size planter box will require approx-imately 8-10 (maybe more, maybe less) 40 lb. bags of potting soil. But, once it's filled, the planter is great for deep rooted veggies and plants. Once everything is in bloom, it looks very nice. I've bought two of these planter boxes and I'm happy with both purchases.

These are beautiful! Took a while to assemble, I got 3. Lots of bolts and wing nuts, but everything went together smoothly. Having dirt delivered tomorrow, then can't wait for spring to start planting!

We added a bunch of these planters along the side of our big, pretty industrial looking, shop building. They have added a lot of space to grow herbs, flowers, and veggies as well as a lot of beauty to an otherwise not very attractive spot on our property. The beds are well made with much stouter metal sheets than I was expecting for the price. They were well packed for shipping and arrived with no damage at all. They are not hard to assemble, but it is much easier with two people and a power screwdriver. Doable with one person and by hand, but if you are assembling 9 of them, that would take a while. The most time consuming part, like others have mentioned, is getting the parts out of their packaging. This seems like something the company could easily fix. Prying every wing nut and bolt free from it's sticky shrink wrap and having to peel the plastic coating off each metal sheet takes about half of the total time of assembling. While the bubble wrap between sheets that is already there would prevent scratching and putting the hardware in a bag that does not require prying every little piece loose would cut the time to assemble in half while not detracting from anything else. Other than that factor, assembly was quite simple. They are quite sturdy once all the bolts are tightened. We filled with cardboard, then small branches, then a mix of topsoil and well rotted wood chips. We made sure to fill in layers, watering and semi compacting each layer carefully so as to not push any of the sides out of square as we went, but it seemed like that would be fairly hard to do with how sturdy the assembled box is. The finished beds are a wonderful height for working in without bending. They are big and deep enough (we have 6'x3'x2' beds) to hold moisture pretty well, even in our dry climate, so constant watering is not required. So far, in their first year, they look like they are holding up in like new condition and we expect to get many years and probably a lifetime of use from these beds. We are more than happy with the purchase and would buy more if we ever need beds in another location.

These raised beds were easy but time-consuming to assemble. I was OK with that, because they need to hold a lot of soil/weight, and the many bolts help hold them together. The color was nice, too. I already have plants growing in them and they look very neat and respectable. Be mindful of the corner pieces, as it's easy to attach them the wrong way. Otherwise, the hardest part of setting these up is filling them. It's a lot of space to fill. I watched some YouTubes on various ways to fill raised beds, and opted for a sand layer near the bottom for drainage, and a mulch layer below the top soil. I mixed coco coir (available on Amazon) in with top soil just under the very top layer to retain some moisture between waterings. You can do your own research and look at products you might want to try. I also bought some fertilizer, as raised beds need that occasionally. Amazon has many varieties. NOTE: The trellis and stakes seen here are sold separately. The wooden stakes can be found a lot of places, and the "trellis" is an arched cow panel (idea from YouTube). I didn't buy either from Amazon, but Amazon has some very nice options for all of these things.

Such a beautiful addition to the garden ! I chose the charcoal color . Assembly was easy , but tedious . The product is heavier gauge than others . The coating seems like it’ll hold up to the weather . All the edges were rolled , no need for gloves . I would recommend this product . 5 stars !

Overall, the bed looks nice. It came with a few scratches on the inside, but that was not an issue. My huge complaint is the protective plastic they applied. I purchased the 6x3 bed, and it took me over 3 hours to remove the protective plastic. I tried every way to remove it, horizontal, vertical, but neither worked any better than the other. The plastic was applied in sections, so if you were ever lucky enough to "get a run" on a piece, it would only go so far. Removal also left behind adhesive residue. I have another brand of raised bed and the plastic was all in one sheet and did not leave behind any residue. Unfortunately, that experience will factor into purchasing another Best Choice bed. Once you get past the frustration of the plastic removal, the bed itself is decent quality and is relatively easy to put together. More detailed instructions would be nice, but since I had another raised bed I knew what to do. My biggest concern is the material of the hardware (bolts and wingnuts.) It will be interesting how long they last. Would I purchase this bed again? Maybe, especially if the manufacturer addresses the protective plastic issue.