Fell for the $80 raised garden bed kit hype and regret it

I saw all those Instagram posts about the cedar raised bed kits from Gardeners Supply Co. and thought it'd be easy. Spent $80 on a 4x4 kit and the wood started rotting after one season in my backyard near Denver. The screws stripped out and it fell apart by year two - shoulda just built my own from $30 worth of untreated pine. Anyone else get burned by those fancy kits?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse9941mo ago

My buddy Mike out in Golden bought the exact same kit from Gardeners Supply last spring. He spent a whole Saturday putting it together, even sealed it with Thompson's Water Seal before filling it with soil. By September the corners were already splitting and one side bowed out so bad it looked like a banana. He ended up just dumping the dirt and using the boards for firewood that winter.

martin.felix1mo ago

Man, did you at least try sealing the wood before you put it together? I feel like those kits are designed to look good in ads but not actually last. Idk, untreated pine would probably rot just as fast in Colorado weather anyway. I've heard people have better luck just grabbing some cedar fence planks and building from scratch for way cheaper.