Best Choice Products Raised Vegetable Garden Bed 3 Tier Elevated Planter Kit Gardening Vegetable

I ordered this and it arrived within approximately 1 week so I was happy with that. Unfortunately, that was the last of my happy feelings with the product for the next several days. It arrived on Monday and Tuesday I decided to open it and assemble it. When I opened the box, there was a lot of wood but seemingly no hardware to assemble it. I looked for the instructions and realized it all slid together. Then I looked at the wood. The wood slats had angled ends and the corner pieces looked like they had keystone slots to slide the boards into. All of the slats looked slightly bigger than where they were supposed to go. I attempted to slide the first board I picked up into a corner piece. It wouldn't budge. I ended up getting the mini mallet I have to tap it in. I tapped about three times and then the corner cracked and split in two. I was angry but figured I would assemble the rest of it and use Gorilla Wood Glue on that piece. By the time I finally finished gluing different pieces back together (5 or 6 total!), it was 6 days later and I had heard cracking noises from all of it. Only the very top rectangle had no problems during assembly. I think that was because the sides were shorter. Now that I have it all assembled, it does look nice in my yard. However, I probably won't really be able to plant in it until next spring and I am concerned that having it sit out in the weather until then might cause the glue to breakdown and allow the entire piece to fall apart! Wish I had purchased something else. Save yourself the headache and frustration of too narrow grooves and easily damaged wood and buy something else!

I knew the quality wood wouldn't be the best with this garden bed, from other reviews. I got lucky and didn't have the worst assembly issues, the wood cracked in one or two places for me as well, but it didn't compromise the integrity of the structure. I used some Tung Oil to protect the wood from the elements, and I hope it helps it last for at least 2 seasons. So far so good, once I added the soil, about 14 cubic feet (7-8 bags), some of the levels moved out of their joints. This is annoying but is workable for now.My biggest caveat is that it doesn't fit that many plants, it is smaller than it looks in the images, since plants need space around each other but I got a decent harvest for my 1st veggie bed.

The wood is so soft I guess that when you start putting it together the end pieces start splitting. Whoever cut the panels did not cut them correct. I was constantly having to whittle off wood. My husband actually had to help put it together. I almost sent it back but couldn’t get the pieces apart after I got some of them together.

Pine is a very soft, knotty, and already splitting. Boards are only 3/8" thick. Dovetail cuts in the corner-connecting pieces are not clean; cut too fast, with a dull bit, or both. Likewise boards have rough ends. Pieces do not slide together and must be forced; even after a little whittling to smooth surfaces. Softness and poor milling make assembly difficult. Multiple corners have broken, not able to install all three tiers.Not possible to combine multiple sets into one structure. Corners are cut which allows two boards to be connected; 90 degrees (two sides). Would have been nice to have corners cut for 90 and 180 degrees (three sides) connections; or better yet, cut all four sides.Had I seen it in person I would never have purchased. Previous raised garden lasted seven years; not counting on this one to last but a couple of years. A lot of work for little benefit.

I had issues assembling it. Now that it's together I see my errors assembling it but it's kinda too late to fix it.