If you’ve not yet explored ALDI’s garden range, then this budget raised bed could be the backyard bargain that tempts you into the middle aisle. It’s sleek, sturdy and the combination of slimline, space-saving dimensions and smart powder-coated metal finish make this elevated planter stylish enough to grace any patio, big or small. And that’s before we even start on that seriously pleasing price tag.

I love to mix low-price gardening items bought from grocery store ranges with accessories that are ten times the price, to achieve a landscape-designer look for less. I’ve upgraded a cheap color-pop coffee table on my patio with a classy centerpiece bowl of succulents, and it honestly looks a million dollars. And you’d never guess my string of solar lightbulbs came from ALDI because it’s nonchalantly sitting in a smart wire basket whose cost I daren’t confess.

The trick is to pick and choose the bold but unfussy pieces from cheaper stores such as ALDI, Lidl, Target and The Home Depot, then zhuzh them up for outdoor living. The Belavi raised planter from ALDI fits the bill perfectly, and could be used with so many stylish planter box ideas. Available in three colorways, it will suit a wide variety of outdoor spaces.

Article continues below

What To Grow In a Raised Planter

The elevated Belavi bed would work brilliantly planted with herbs, perhaps positioned alongside a barbecue or outdoor dining table so it’s handy for fresh pickings. The raised growing space a high planter provides means herb leaves stay much cleaner, with fewer pests and less splashback from soil. You can snip the aromatic leaves to add to drinks, too – and if you’ve never tasted a G&T flavored with a few basil leaves, or a light lager freshened with a mint stalk on a hot day, then we need to have words!

The same slug-free benefits apply to growing vegetables and there are some fabulous modern veggie container varieties that have been bred specifically to thrive in a planter. Many produce full-sized crops on dwarf plants, so you could fit a few into ALDI's 5+ gallon planter. Made of galvanised, powder-coated metal, the planter is durable for year-round use so as well as summer harvests of container tomatoes and salad leaves, you could grow winter crops like kale and carrots.

Elevated planters look fabulous filled with trailing plants that you’d normally grow in a hanging basket, too. In a raised bed, you can closely control the growing environment and create the perfect conditions for an abundance of lush leaves and blooms spilling over the rim to cascade onto your patio paving. Add some bright bedding plants, and you’ll have a planter full of thrills as well as spills.

How To Use a Raised Planter In Garden Design

A core principle of garden design is repetition and, when a garden item is as affordable as this planter, I always consider whether I could buy not one, but two or three. Repetition is key to cohesion in a garden, whether it’s achieved with plants, colors or hardscaping. And a piece of garden equipment with a strong, defined shape such as this Belavi planter can be very useful to help bring that pulled-together look.

You could place a planter either side of your back door, outdoor sofa or a path to create pleasing symmetry. Another route to raise your garden style dial a good few notches would be to use three planters with the ‘same, same, different’ design rule. This principle uses three items: two of them are exactly the same, and the third has one element that’s different. So, you could fill two matching planters with the same selection of flowering plants but use textural foliage plants in the third. Or how about using the same plants in all three containers, but choose two black raised planters and one blue?

Our brains are wired to constantly search for patterns to make sense of our world, so this design rule of 'not-quite-three’ is highly effective.

Another of my clever DIY designer tricks to make small gardens seem bigger would be to fill one planter with a large-leaved trailing plant such as ornamental sweet potato vine ‘Marguerite’, available from Burpee, and position it near the house. Then fill a second planter with a small-leaved trailing plant such as dichondra ‘Silver Falls’, also available from Burpee, and site it away from the house but still within sight. Your brain will automatically assume that the second, smaller-leaved planter is further away than it actually is, to make sense of the leaf proportions.

Use a Planter For Outdoor Living Too

ALDI’s planters are designed for indoor as well as outdoor use, so how about using one on your patio and a second indoors filled with houseplants, blurring the boundaries of your inside and outside living?

This metal planter is just the right proportions for an ice-filled drinks cooler on the patio, too. Or how about using a couple planted with ornamental grasses to define a seating area, or as part of your layered privacy planting to screen your garden from neighbors' prying eyes?

More Metal Raised Bed Planters

Last year, ALDI’s raised planters sold out within days so, if you didn’t make it to the middle aisle in time, don’t fret – there are plenty more raised garden beds that will work equally hard in your garden design.