How the Founding Batch works.

The Founding Batch is the first 250 cedar raised garden beds and planter boxes we build, sold before the first one exists, for delivery beginning January 2027. You pick a size and grade on the hub, pay the founding price, and we cut and assemble the batch in Bolton, Ontario. This post walks through it in the order you will meet it: what it is, the price, the payment, the wait, the delivery, and every way out. Nothing here differs from the pre-order terms; it is the same agreement in a plainer order.

What it is, and what it is not

It is a purchase with a delivery date. Under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act that makes it a future performance agreement made over the internet, which is why the confirmation email is long: the law wants you to have the itemised price, the delivery date, the cancellation and refund rights, and our name and address in writing, and you get all of them in one email you can print. It is not an investment, a pledge, or a campaign that fails if it does not fill. Nothing in it gives you any interest in the company, and the cap of 250 is a ceiling, not a target: every order placed is built and shipped whether the batch fills or not. If you have used crowdfunding sites, this is the opposite of that in the two ways that matter. The price is a price, and the refund is a right.

How the price is set

Every founding price is built from cost: the cedar for that size, the steel legs and hardware, the liner, the carton, courier shipping to any address in Canada, and a margin that covers the cutting, the assembly and the shop. The launch price printed beside it is the same cost at the margin we need once the batch is gone, and the founding price averages 32% below it across the line. There is no struck-through regular price anywhere on the site, because Canadian law has a test for reference prices: a seller has to have really sold at the reference price in volume, or really offered it for most of the time, before claiming a saving against it. The launch price passes that test the honest way, by being charged. Where the market was cheaper on the day we checked, the compare page says so, size by size.

What you pay, and what happens to it

You pay the founding price plus sales tax at the rate for the province the order ships to, and nothing else; shipping is inside the price and the total is on the screen before you pay. The card is charged once, through the same Helcim checkout our fence customers use, and we never see or store the card number. The money buys the cedar and the steel for the batch as one lot, which is the reason to pay in full now rather than a deposit: a batch is priced as a batch, and a 250-unit run at these prices only works if it is bought as one. The confirmation email, sent the moment the payment clears, is your copy of the agreement.

Every way out, in order

Before your order ships: Cancel any time before your order ships. Full refund within 15 days. Email or phone with the order number; no reason, no fee, no form, and the refund goes to the card you paid with. If we are ever more than 30 days late against the delivery date in your confirmation, you can cancel for a full refund within 15 days, which is your right under the Consumer Protection Act and not a favour from us. After delivery: damage on arrival, photographed within 48 hours, is replaced at our cost with nothing to ship back; defects in materials or workmanship are handled the same way; and a change of mind within 30 days, with the bed unused and in its carton, is refunded in full with return shipping paid by you. That is the full list.

The wait

From the first cut to shipping you get a production email every two weeks: cedar in, legs in, end panels bolted, cartons packed, with photographs from the shop floor once there is something to photograph. The first units are also where two numbers on the site get replaced. The weights on every size page are estimates from the drawings until we weigh a bed, and the assembly time is a design target of about ten minutes until we time one with a stopwatch. Both get published, whatever they turn out to be.

Delivery

Deliveries begin January 2027. Every Founding Batch order is delivered by 28 February 2027. Orders ship in the sequence they were placed, by courier, flat in one carton with the end panels already fitted to their legs, and you get the tracking number the week it goes. Shipping to any courier address in Canada is included; remote addresses that need a freight forwarder are quoted before you pay, not after. If you are near Bolton, you can collect the carton from the shop instead. The full list of sizes is on the raised garden beds and planter boxes pages, each with its carton weight.

If a date moves

We do not expect it to, and we have planned the batch with room. If it does, the terms say what happens and it is not up to us: we write to you with the new date, and you choose between accepting it in writing, with the store credit we offer for the delay, or cancelling for a full refund. Silence is not acceptance. An order we have not heard back on keeps its original date, and keeps your right to cancel with it.

What could go wrong, stated plainly

This is the first batch of a new product from a shop that has built fence panels, not planters. The pictures are renderings, drawings and labelled illustrations, not photographs, and we say so on every page. The weights are estimates. The assembly time is a target. Courier quotes could move our costs, in which case the model reprices future orders and yours stays what you paid. If any of that is a reason to wait, wait: the launch price is the next price, it is printed beside the founding price on every size, and it will be there when the photographs are. The rest of the questions, about the wood, the sizes, shipping and assembly, are on the planter FAQ.

How to reserve

Pick a family, then a size; the size guide sorts balconies, patios, side yards and family plots, and the calculator tells you the soil. Choose Clear or Knotty on the size page, pay, and keep the confirmation email; it is your copy of the agreement. Then we cut.