Coastal North Carolina’s moderate climate offers the perfect backdrop for nearly year-round gardening, allowing green thumbs to relish in their horticultural hobbies almost without interruption. However, our seaside location comes with its own set of challenges, notably the sandy soil that necessitates frequent amendments to nurture a thriving garden. Many local gardeners, including myself, have turned to raised beds to combat this issue, creating optimal conditions for our plants. After struggling with a short wooden raised bed that yielded less-than-satisfactory results, I decided to try the Extra Tall 10-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Bed from Vego Garden. Here’s how it transformed my gardening experience.
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Assembling the Raised Bed
I had been eyeing the Vego Garden raised beds for over a year. Not only are they corrosion resistant, but they also come in a variety of pleasing colors. I really wanted to go large, because my end goal for my vegetable and fruit garden is a large variety of plants that include squash and melon. At my previous home, I had built wooden raised garden beds just a few inches off the ground, but it wasn’t enough for amending the soil. I needed something taller, so I could build more layers of dirt and compost.
One day, I was targeted by a Facebook ad for a buyer’s credit. Luckily, Vego Garden was also running a sale through their Facebook store. The combined discounts got me a pretty good deal, so I ordered the Extra Tall 10-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Bed in Olive Green, so it would blend in with the surrounding nature. Since my purchase, Vego has expanded their line to include more colors (including a beautiful terra cotta color) and more modern-looking beds.
Vego Garden Extra Tall 10-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Bed
Vego Garden Extra Tall 10-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Bed
The box included 4 corner pieces, 4 1.5-foot side panels, 4 2-foot side panels, 4 bracing rods, and a variety of fasteners. These pieces can be assembled to create rectangles or squares, so there’s some flexibility to fit your intended space.
Included Pieces
Each pieces comes covered in a protective film that you pull off prior to assembly. This was not too difficult, but be careful because the metal edges can be sharp.
Protective Film
Assembly is a 2-person job. I started the process by myself but had to call my husband to lend a hand. As the sides got longer, they got flimsier, which made it near impossible to fasten the pieces together. After all the pieces were in place, the bed was much sturdier and could stand alone.
Installing the Edging Cover
The kit also comes with a roll of edging cover. As a mom, I’m very thankful that this was included, because my kids love to check on the garden every day, and they would have surely cut their fingers on the metal edging.
Before I go on, I want to mention there is one thing I regret about my first assembly – not ordering a net cover or trellis system. These add-ons are held in place by the side screws. Once the raised bed is assembled and filled, it’s a huge pain to add an official Vego Garden add-on. So, if you want one of these, don’t wait.
Vego Garden Raised Bed Assembled
Vego Garden Raised Bed Assembled
Filling the Raised Bed
That’s a whole lot of space to fill! Don’t worry, you don’t need to spend a bunch of money to fill it. To keep out weeds, we first laid down flat cardboard boxes to create a barrier. Then, we picked up all the pine cones and yard debris that had appeared over the winter and added it on top of the cardboard.
Raised Bed Half-Filled
Prior to filling the container, I researched the trees and plants in my yard to make sure I wasn’t adding anything that would hurt the nutritional balance of the soil or the health of vegetable plants as it breaks down.
Dirt Added
Planting in the Vego Garden Raised Bed
On top of the yard debris, we mixed raised bed garden soil and Black Kow manure, both of which can be purchased in bags at your local garden supply store.
Tomatoes, Peppers, Peas, and Herbs
Tomatoes, Peppers, Peas, and Herbs
Around mid-season 2023, we added a make-shift trellis with garden wire and stakes. This worked well for supporting our peas as they grew. We also added fertilizer as the plants showed signs nitrogen deficiency (yellowing/fading leaves).
Peas
Our peas grew like crazy! I made some home made stir fry with them, which was awesome. They tasted so good. I also learned about the power of neem oil, because they attracted aphids. While neem oil is an organic pest control, it can mess with pollinators, so it’s best to spray it in the evening so it dries by morning, when they bees emerge to gather pollen from flowers.
Tomatoes Mid-Season
Our tomatoes grew well into the middle of the season. After that, blight appeared. It was disappointing, but we still managed to get enough tomatoes to make homemade spaghetti sauce and classic Southern tomato sandwiches.
Mushrooms in Soil
Mushrooms growing in the soil is a sign your soil is healthy, but it’s also associated with decaying organic matter. We had many more mushrooms last season than this year, so I attribute this to the large amount of yard debris we put under the soil. As the the debris rots and breaks down, it enriches the soil, but you will notice the soil sinking. Ours went down about 8-10 inches. For the second season, we added about 10 bags of high-quality raised garden bed dirt.
It’s good practice not to plant the same crops in the same location year-to-year, because diseases and pests can hang out in the dirt. So, we changed what we planted during the second season. Here are some pictures of the plants we grew.
Vego Garden 2024 – Strawberry Plants
Vego Garden 2024 – Squash Plants
When you sow larger leaf plants like squash or even plants that can get really bush, like tomatoes, in a raised garden bed, it’s important to trim lower branches to allow air flow around the base of the plant. This, and picking up dead leaves off the soil, also help remove places where pests can hide and breed.
Vego Garden 2023 – Bush Beans
It has been such a joy to see all our plants grow and produce fruit. There’s something incredibly fulfilling about gardening and successfully growing our own food. We’re hoping to expand to a second raised Vego garden bed sometime this year. This would give us a second bed to rotate crops through year-to-year.
What I Would Do Differently
The Extra Tall 10-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Bed from Vego Garden is a great product. I don’t have to bend over to garden. It’s high enough to be out of reach of the resident bunny. It provides lots of depth for healthy roots. It also doesn’t get burning hot to the touch during the hottest summer days. But, as I mentioned before, you need to plan ahead if you want to use their add-ons, because they attach to the bed through the screw holes used for assembly.
This summer has been a struggle with birds stealing my strawberries. I put mesh fruit bags over them as they start to grow, but the birds have figured out they can rip them off the plant and carry them across my yard to eat. I wish I had the full-bed net system to keep the birds and other critters off my plants.
It’s also been a very dry late spring and summer. I water the bed every other day and that requires me to drag the hose across the yard. It would be nice to have a watering system, especially as we add more raised beds.
Overall, my husband and I are very happy with the Vego Garden raised bed. We look forward to buying more beds in the near future. I especially have my eye on one of the smaller beds for my herbs.
Vego Garden Extra Tall 10-in-1 Modular Metal Raised Bed Review
