Vego Garden Raised Bed Review

Introduction

Over the last few years I’ve been working to trial different metal raised beds on your behalf to determine if one is better than the other, so today I wanted to do a review of the Vego Garden. I was gifted the garden as part of their Brand Ambassador program and want to provide you with an honest review of the product. In this review I’ll take you through the garden we own, who Vego Garden is, my experience building the garden, the cost of these raised beds and my overall thoughts. Once I get a few seasons in I’m going to provide a 2 year update so if you aren’t quite sure of it by the end of the article, make sure to come back next season.

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Our Vego Garden at a Glance

Purchase our Vego Garden U-Shape garden here (save $10 with the code ‘URBANGARDENINGCANADA10OFF’)

Check out my other metal raised bed reviews here:

• The Best Metal Raised Beds 2025
• Vego Garden vs Sproutbox Garden – Is One Better Than the Other?
• Grobox Garden Raised Bed Review
• Sproutbox Garden Raised Bed Review
• Sproutbox Garden Raised Bed Review – 2 Years Later

Who is Vego Garden Raised Beds

Vego Garden is a US-based company that specializes in bottomless raised gardens. The Classic, Novel and Woodgrain series are made from zinc, magnesium and aluminum (Aluzinc) coated steel while the Modern series is created out of powder-coated commercial grade galvanized steel. All of their gardens are expected to last 20+ years outdoors, or until you decide to recycle it and replace them.

Receiving & Building the Vego Garden

The Garden

I decided to buy the Standard U shape garden in the classic style because I have a long narrow space that I want to have a garden in. I like the U shape because it feels immersive when you step into the garden. And I chose the standard size because of the narrow space we have. It won’t take up too much space with its width. They do have an option for a Large or Jumbo size where the sides come out further, if you have a larger space, but it wouldn’t work for our space. Because our yard is quite long, I also got 3 extension kits so that we could extend the back of the garden while keeping it narrow. I also got some solar lights which will be a cute addition to the garden.

Receiving the Garden

Receiving the garden was a bit of an experience. The first Vego Garden I received came in a tattered up box with quite a few panels with scratches on them. Not only was the box ripped open, but there was hardware spilled all over my driveway and half a dozen panels were scratched. I reached out to Vego to let them know and they were quick to ship me a replacement garden. I do want to note that this experience is also as a Brand Ambassador, so I would like to hope they treat their customers the same way as well, but this is the perspective that I’m experiencing it from. From time of ordering to getting the second garden, it took just about a month.

After reaching out to them, I received the replacement garden fairly quickly, but one thing I did notice is that this garden came in a completely different style of box, with different instructions, and the packaging of the hardware was different as well. The replacement garden came in far better packaging and the instruction manual was more detailed. In this one it gave the hardware count which I appreciate. I’m not sure if they’re in the middle of changing out their packaging and guide, but the second box was much better packaged.

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Building the Garden

Similar to Sproutbox Garden, the first step was to remove the plastic film on each of the panels. For me, this is always least enjoyable part of the entire setup. Vego differs from the other raised bed companies in that they put plastic on both the outside and the inside of the panels. Personally, I feel that putting plastic on the inside of the panels is unnecessary since it’s going to be filled with soil in the end. Plus it just leads to more work removing the plastic, and more plastic waste. By the time I had pulled off all of the film, there was a lot of plastic waste, which feels opposite to the idea that their gardens are meant to be 100% recyclable, with certain packaging being labeled as compostable.

While removing the plastic, I did cut myself on more than one occasion on the edges of the metal panels. So I highly recommend wearing gloves, a long sleeved shirt and pants when working with their garden beds. The film is there to protect the colour and panels from damage, however this was easily the worst part of the entire setup and I would have preferred no film on the garden panels at all (or at a minimum, not on the inside of the panels to save half the waste). Especially after cutting myself a few times all in the name of removing the film.

The next step was to lay out all the panels according to the instructions. After doing this we decided on where we wanted the extension kit panels to go. Each panel is 1.5′ wide, however the extension kit panels are 2′ wide so we needed to make sure it was balanced. Because we stopped following the instructions and modified the garden, we did need to get some additional hardware to extend the tension rods, but it only cost us an additional $1! I briefly looked online at the jumbo garden and wondered if I could have just gotten that one and modified the shape – however I’m not sure if I’d have run into the same problem where we had to get some additional hardware to lengthen the tension rods. I do think it would be cool if they offered multiple layouts for these U gardens, whether it’s longer in the back, or wider on the sides. However, we do a lot of our own handy work so finding hardware for the tension rod hasn’t been a major issue for us.

It was quite simple for us to buy some bolts to extend the tension rods. We used the 2′ rods plus the 2.5′ rods that came in the extension kit and screwed them together. Home Depot didn’t sell double sided bolts so we bought the type we needed and used a hacksaw to cut the bolt head off. It was simple to do and did the job perfectly. We also changed the height of the tension rods along the centre of the U shape because once we extended the length of it, it was wobbly on the top. This was also a quick fix where we placed tension rods at multiple heights just to bring some stability back to the garden.

Overall the garden was super easy to build. The 17″ high garden is simple for one person to build, however the long back is easier to hold up with two people. It didn’t take more than an hour, and the most cumbersome part is tightening all of the bolts. There was also extra hardware leftover at the end which I liked because it’s always important to have extras in case something is wrong with a few pieces.

Next, the rubber edging gets installed. It was quite easy to add, however it does take some force to install it around the corners and where the panels overlap.

The final step is to fill the garden with soil. What I like about the 17″ height is that the wheelbarrow can juuust about dump directly into the garden. We only needed to make a small ramp and then it was able to be dumped directly into the garden, making it so much easier to fill. We did add some branches to the bottom of the garden, but 17″ isn’t super tall so it wasn’t that hard to fill with soil. According to their website, the standard U-shape needs 1.9 cubic yards of soil. However, we added 3 extension kits to our garden making it 14′ long, with two large gardens on each side that are 5.5′ and 4.375′ wide each. The total square foot growing space is 62 square feet which is equivalent to their jumbo garden (64.75 square feet) and they say the Jumbo garden takes 3.4 cubic yards, so we decided to order 3 yards. This turned out to be a mistake because we now have over a yard of soil leftover on our driveway.

Either the soil company sent us more than 3 yards of soil, or I don’t think that the garden takes the amount of soil labelled on the jumbo garden. I did put both measurements through a calculator and they agree with their website, but my driveway says otherwise! I would definitely recommend if you get the standard size, and even if you extend it like we did, to stick to just 1.5-2 yards of soil. Especially if you intend to put any branches or logs in the bottom of the garden. It fills up quickly!

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Raised bed options – from shape to colour

In my opinion, this is where Vego Garden excels, in the sheer amount of selection that exists. What drew me to them was just how much they have to choose from. It isn’t just colour or shape, but they have different patterns (Classic, Novel, Wood, Modern) and also some neat add-ons.

In addition to the styles, they have different shapes, heights and colours. They even have elevated gardens with wheels that you can use on your patio, porch or deck and are easy for those with mobility issues.

Finally, the gardens come in many different colours. The Novel series has up to 6 colours to choose from with super fun options like orange and yellow, while the Classic series has up to 7 colours for some of the gardens.

Accessories

Not only does Vego Garden have a wide selection of gardens, but they also have great accessories that they offer. In addition to the garden bed and the extension kits, I also got solar lights that came in the matching Olive Green colour. They’re magnetic so they’re super easy to add to the garden and move around if you don’t like their original placement. An unintended benefit of the magnetic lights is that they help hold insect netting, frost cloth or poly over the gardens when you need it. I really found them to be helpful in place of clips.

They also have other accessories like trellis systems, cover systems, and even irrigation kits.

How much does it cost?

When budgeting, make sure to include the cost of both the garden bed and the soil required to fill it.

The garden

Vego Gardens range in price from $135 to $2,000CAD (for multi-packs). The average price is from $300-$400CAD (regular price). They seem to run sales fairly often so I definitely recommend seeing if you can get your garden during a sale. Be aware that they do charge shipping on their products when ordering from Canada. It costs $25/garden to ship, so the more you order, the more the shipping costs will be.

The soil

These gardens are bottomless, which means they must be filled completely. When budgeting for your garden, it’s important to look at the capacity of the garden to understand the cost to fill the raised bed.

For example, the 17″ U standard size garden holds 1.9 cubic yards of soil. That is a lot of soil! To help with the cost of soil, we recommend filling the garden with branches and trunks, like the Hugelkultur method. Additionally, we layered the bottom of the garden with cardboard to help prevent any weeds from growing into the garden from below. One item to note is that with this method, the soil will settle over the season and winter, so you will have to top up the soil in the garden the following season.

Overall experience using the Vego Garden

This was our first year with the Vego Garden and I have to say, I LOVED the shape we ordered. I’m so glad we got the U shape, and I’m so glad we extended the size of it. I love the large square ends to it, and the length. We were able to fit SO many plants in it! If you only have space for one garden, honestly, this would be it.

It’s still a little too early to tell how well it holds up, but I promise you I’ll be updating this review once we get into our second year with the garden. I’m curious to see how the colour on the panels holds up to weed-wacking and other daily garden tasks.

When it comes to the colour, I love the Olive Green. It’s super beautiful but it does blend into the garden a little bit. If you want a pretty colour that doesn’t stand out too much, Olive Green is a great choice. I’m also excited with how we were able to modify it to fit our space.

My biggest complaint is that I wish I had an unlimited budget to try all of their other gardens, such as their Elevated Gardens and the Cascading one which both look really neat.

Apart from the colour and if it will stay on the gardens, the other thing I was interested in seeing is how I feel about the 17″ height. I love how easy it was to fill up but was a little worried that it’s too short for gardening in. I grew mainly tall plants in my garden such as tomatoes, eggplants and peppers so it helped with reducing bending, but it did make it easier for animals to get in to enjoy some of our produce. I was definitely concerned it would be too short, but it wasn’t that bad. I still wonder if the 26″ would be a more preferred height, and if I ever get one, I’ll let you know!

Overall, I’m pleased with how the garden looks and am excited about the solar lights. I’m just cautious during spring and fall to not mess with the migratory birds and the lights impacting their travels, but the lights aren’t overly bright. If the first garden came in good condition I think my overall experience would have been really positive, but since they were quick to respond and rectify the issue, overall it was a good experience.

Is a Vego Garden worth the money?

As with all metal raised bed gardens, the answer to this question depends on your garden goals.

If having metal raised gardens is important to you because you live in a humid place, or you love the look of metal gardens, Vego Garden has an incredible selection of gardens in almost any shape, size or colour you could hope. They allow you to create a unique-to-you garden.

If you’re budget-conscious, or aesthetics is not your priority, than this may not be the right direction for you. There are other metal raised bed companies in Canada that have lower prices, but sometimes come with limited colour and size options. Amazon does have a selection of raised bed gardens for a lower price, however I recommend only purchasing from a reputable company on their website. I did purchase one to test for you so stay tuned for that review coming soon. I’m not sure if there are standards for using metal/steel products with food safety, but do your research before opting for the cheapest option, because it might come with a catch.

If you’re looking to create a chic garden aesthetic, have a generous budget, and want some cool options, I highly recommend Vego Garden!

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