Every Question You’ve Asked About the Vego & Birdies Garden Beds – 150-Day Update

What garden beds do you have? 

Birdies TALL 8-in-1 Garden Bed – Save 5% with code MEADOW on qualified products

Vego EXTRA TALL 9-in-1 Metal Garden Bed

Why did I want a raised metal garden bed?

Gardening, for me, is a hobby and an investment. I’ve dabbled for 10 years but never had a serious garden until I moved here. My 3 x 8 cedar and metal bed was $210 3 years ago and would be $350 now – and it already looks a bit ragged since I didn’t treat the wood. 

Why did I choose the tall version?

Easier gardening as a woman of a certain age. Also, we have a creek behind our house that, from time to time, does escape its banks and flow through the yard. With the tall raised beds, that helps protect my crops from any typical rising water.

Did you get these garden beds for FREE?

No. I purchased the beds myself – and received no incentive to create the original unboxing video. Since then, I have received thank you gifts and additional products to review. Whenever I’ve received something for FREE, I will CLEARLY let you know they were for FREE. And that will NEVER affect my opinion. In fact, I’ve told the companies that have reached out not to include me in their program if I wasn’t allowed to offer an honest, unbiased opinion. 

Do you have an affiliate code or coupon code?

Yes. After reviewing both beds, I did choose to become an affiliate for both companies because they both have features and products that I like. What that means is if you click on one of my links, I will receive some compensation which helps support my efforts to make more of these videos for you. And it doesn’t cost you any extra. On the Epic Gardening Website For Birdies, you can use the coupon code MEADOW to save 5% on your purchase only through Epic Gardening in the US. 

Birdies Raised Garden Bed Save 5% with code MEADOW on qualified products

https://lets.growepic.co/73j50/michelleinthemeadow

Vego Raised Garden Bed   https://glnk.io/vzw5/9 

How much did you pay for the garden beds?

I purchased both the Birdies and Vego beds in December 2021 and likely got a Christmas Coupon or Special Deal along with Free Shipping. Each bed delivered was around $301, and the price was within $1 of one another. They do go head to head on pricing, so if that matters to you check each site before you make your purchase to see who has the best current offer. And remember to look for coupons. For Vego they have various coupon offers on the site, and for Birdies, it’s 5% off with MEADOW on the Epic Gardening website.

How long did it take to assemble them?

Alone it was around 1:45 (if I recall) – faster if I had had help and wasn’t dealing with a torn rotator cuff. 

How do they hold up in the heat? In the cold. 

Folks from Zone 4 to Zone 10 have weighed in and no one yet as said the cold or heat has affected the walls of the bed. 

How much sun do they get?

Summer 10 hours + 

Winter 8 hours

What kind of metal are the beds made from?

Aluzinc combination –

Birdies has been on the market for a long time and tested in hot climates – so we expect it to hold up.

https://epicgardening.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402925174171-Are-the-materials-used-in-Birdies-beds-safe-to-grow-in-

Vego is newer to the market – so time will tell if their claims of being “designed” for 20 years are true.

https://vegogarden.com/pages/feature-material

 

Does the bed come with Bracing Rods? 

Now, this is a point I’ve been hearing some comments on. The raised garden beds I purchased did include the bracing rods. 

Bracing Rods  Birdies 8 in 1 TALL comes with 2, 

Vego 9 in 1 Extra Tall comes with 4

Others have commented that they didn’t get bracing rods – and looking at both the Epic Gardening and Vego websites – not all beds include bracing rods. 

How many screws were used for assembly for my configuration?  

The Vego 12 panels and uses screws in every other RIB  for a total of 72 screws, washers, and nuts.

The Birdies Bed has 10 panels and is designed for screws in every RIB for a total 100 screws and flange nuts.

Which edging is better? 

Since my first video, I have decided that I like the Birdies UV Stabilized Edging better. The problem I had with looseness I was able to repair with a strip of flex tape.

Vego edging is metal reinforced – and I scraped the cover when installing the cattle panel and now it’s rusting a bit. I COULD put some Rustoleum on it – but this is a true head-to-head comparison – so I’m going to let it ride. 

Can you buy more edging? 

I do not see where that’s possible on either website.

Are you seeing a difference in gaps where the Vego doesn’t use a screw in every rib?

There are minor gaps, but the panels overlap and the gaps are tiny. It does not seem that this will cause any problems. Time will tell.

Can you expand the beds or make them longer?

Yes. Check out  @Flicker Hill Homestead to see their monster extended Birdies Raised Garden Beds. They put four beds together, and it looks awesome. https://youtu.be/JbodeojLRZ8

https://youtu.be/HPpjrEcEEwo?t=35

https://www.youtube.com/c/FlickerHillHomestead

Vego does sell expansion panels – currently Birdies does not. Flicker just made MORE square beds for trees with the extra corners. 

Which Bed Is Bigger? 

Vego is taller at 32”, but the surface area is smaller at 22.75 SF  

Filled it ONLY with soil 2.25 cubic yards  61 1 cubic ft bags of soil

Birdies is 30” with a larger surface area in my configuration 24.78  SF

Full of Soil 2.29 cubic yards 62 1 cubic ft bags of soil

Birdies is a WEE bit larger in overall volume

Which bed has thicker metal?

Basically, they are the same thickness – less than 1/100th mm difference with Vego being the tiniest fraction thicker.

Which was easier to assemble?

The Birdies had a 2 piece screw configuration making the individual screws a bit easier – but it has 28 more screws than the Vego.  

Are they bottomless?

Yes – if you have a problem with critters that dig up – you may want to put some hardware cloth in the bottom. 

How did I fill My beds 

⅔ with logs, mulch and leaves. One BIG mistake I made was rushing through the filling. I should have been more deliberate in packing in the mulch around the logs before adding the next layers. I new the beds would settle but it was much faster than expected. 

How much did it cost to fill the beds?

I buy in bulk 4 – 8 yards at a time for $50 yard + delivery.  I also hired labor to help me get them filled up – which was about $250

Bulk Purchase made it about $55 per bed for high-quality soil + tractor + labor 

For either configuration you’ll need at least 1 cubic yard of soil 

A bagged solution from Home Depot may be the Kellogg All Natural Soil. It would take about $110 for the initial fill – not counting on the settling

And now that I’ve done this price comparison – with the tractor costs – to move the soil from the front and then again to the beds – wasn’t cheaper. But with my rotator cuff problems, it was the best I could do. 

Want to know how much soil you need? Check out this post at Epic Gardening: https://shop.epicgardening.com/pages/filling-your-birdies-beds-with-soil

Where did I get the logs and such for the bottom fill?

Make friends with a Tree Person. Logs from multiple tree removals in my yard and my neighbors. Wood chips from the tree person. Leaves from scavenging the neighborhood.  Some folks tell me they would be embarrassed – I love repurposing free resources around me.  

What did I do right?

1. Having a raised surface to work on 
2. Using power tools for the screws
3. Only pulling the plastic from the edges and then finishing the removal after assembly. 
4. Making them the right width for my reach and location

What would I do differently?  

1. Had help to flip the beds over during assembly 
2. Leveled them BEFORE filling them
3. Added the landscape fabric BEFORE filling them 
4. More careful pushing in the cattle panel
5. I would have left the edging in the sun for a few days to acclimate and be easier to work with
6. Contracted and not stretched the edging – Check out  @Geeky Gardens to see his video on the best way to put the edging on your Raised Garden Bed – and some adorable possums, too.
   https://youtu.be/Qhf2B-DSW_8
   https://youtu.be/osnKi2mCFp0
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMFogQBv0a-5sAT59sKMQBA
7. I would NOT have added my edging on either bed until the beds had been set up and filled
8. I would have assembled in a shady part of the yard – and not on concrete so I wouldn’t have worried about scratching them up, or at least had a drop cloth on my concrete. 
9. Finally, I would ensure the beds were fully expanded on the braces before filling. I’m not sure exactly how we got this wrong, but the braces do stick out about an inch.  

What is that trellis?

It is a 16-foot Cattle Panel from Tractor Supply.  I used rope to fold and hold the ends together and tilted it into the bed. It is only held by friction and gravity.  And it did cause both beds to bend a little. Next time I would put one T post on each side to prevent scratching the edging and bending the bed.. 

What are the hoops and netting? While they held up just fine in the summer’s heat. The netting did capture a few critters and they couldn’t escape, so now I’m looking at other options.

Vego has a cover system and frost kit; Epic sells a trellis kit for the Birdies beds where you add your own locally purchased pipes.  

What kind of Landscape Weed Cloth?

Purchased on Amazon – I’m on my 3rd roll between here and my mother-in-love’s house, I haven’t had ANY of it deteriorate – but I need to replace some that I sliced holes in.

What amendments did I use with the soil.?  

NONE the first time. I completely forgot. Working on making my own but I do have some organic Espoma fertilizer that I have been adding in. 

What is the mulch?  Am I worried about it affecting the plant growth? 

I started with an Aspen and Pine shaving mix. Going forward – as long as I don’t see problems – I’ll be using Pine Pet Litter Bedding Flakes from Tractor Supply – THANK YOU to the viewer who made that suggestion. 

$53 a few months back – now would be $73 for 8 cu feet

$8 for the same amount at Tractor Supply 

Why not straw?

While I was in a sling I couldn’t maneuver the bales – AND the last batch of straw i had was SEEDY leaving ALL of my other beds WEEDY

Where are they made?

Birdies is made in Australia – purchased through American owned company Epic Gardening

Vego is made in China – purchased from VEGO – which is has a corpor

Which do I like better? 

I spend as much of my budget as I can supporting made in the USA. There isn’t a bed like this that is currently US-produced.  I have found 2 other companies now that do make their raised beds in the USA – so I am saving up to buy some of those to add to the comparison collection. BUT they are not tall like these. 

For this style of bed – they are neck and neck  – in size, feature, and function. For more beds like this I’ll likely buy Birdies, they give me 2 more square feet of growing space for the money. 

That said Vego has some other bed types that I really like. For instance, the Dragon Fruit rolling bed with supports for the dragon fruit. 

Vego has a full kit so I can have insect netting and a frost cover.