All The Benefits Of Using Galvanized Steel For Your Raised Flower Garden Bed

Building a raised garden bed for your flowers is satisfying, but it's also lots of work. Most gardeners gravitate toward wooden frames for their beds, since the supplies are readily available, and they're not too expensive. However, the untreated wood that's essential for wooden raised beds has a short life span. The sides can eventually bow out, and the boards tend to splinter away from their hardware at the corners. Within a few years, you'll find yourself hauling in new lumber to replace your rotting framework. The cost savings you counted on by building a wood frame can be quickly eaten up.

Before heading to the lumber yard, consider swapping your plans for wood-framed raised beds for ones made from galvanized steel. What exactly is galvanized steel? This material is an already tough steel coated in zinc to protect it from corrosion. This type of raised bed stands up beautifully to whatever the seasons throw at it. Check out our ultimate guide to starting a raised garden bed to get off to an even better start.

The durability of coated steel is just the beginning of the advantages these container kits have over building your own wooden raised flower beds. Do note that while these metal kits are marketed as garden-safe, err on the side of caution and only use these sturdy beds for non-edibles. There's significant evidence that toxic metals from the galvanization leach into the soil and contaminate vegetables grown in them.

Let's say you're building just one wooden-frame raised flower bed. You've decided on an 8x4-foot bed with a depth of 10 inches. You purchase three 2x10s at about $15 a piece, eight metal corner braces at a little less than $3 a piece, and a 1-pound box of wood screws for around $12. Assuming you already have the tools you need to complete the build, you'll only be out around $80. Not bad! However, to keep horrors like arsenic from leaching into your soil, you need to purchase untreated lumber for your frame. Without pressure treatment to protect the lumber from the elements, untreated boards can begin to break down in just a few years. 

While there are easy ways to fix rotted wood, many of them don't apply to wood that's in constant contact with damp soil and all types of weather. If you need to replace the boards every five years over 20 years, you're looking at a cost of $180 just for the lumber. This brings the total cost of your wooden bed to over $200 over its lifetime. For the same dimensions as the DIY wooden bed, there are inexpensive galvanized steel bed kits like this one from Home Depot that ring up at about $70. Assemble it and add soil once, and you're ready to fill it with floral delights.

There's no need for power tools when you put together your galvanized steel flower bed. Say goodbye to tying down fluorescent ribbon-waving lengths of lumber in the back of your truck before you leave the lumber yard. You won't even need to buy additional screws. Galvanized steel raised bed kits come with a collection of smaller panels that you connect with the included hardware. In fact, most kits come with all the tools you'll need if you need any at all. Connect the sections with hand-tightening nuts and bolts or a few turns of an included Allen wrench.

The dimensions of galvanized steel bed kits have other advantages for streamlined setup. You won't have to determine how deep your raised bed should be, since the panels are designed at optimal heights. If you want to trick out your beds with helpful accessories, most companies that manufacture the containers also offer add-ons that are made to fit their beds. Outfit your beds with protective netting, trellises, irrigation systems, and season-extenders without worrying whether they will fit your new flower bed.