Building a raised vegetable garden...with Trex?

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Perhaps slightly, but I wouldn't use pressure-treated lumber for a food-crop garden either. While the risk is minimal, I'd prefer not to take the chance.

http://cetulare.ucdavis.edu/mg/articles/n032504.htm

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=989&storyType=garde

those articles and studies concern CCA, which as they point out was taken out of consumer use about 5 years ago.

Any while it should still be something to consider, using CCA still caused levels that were found to be well within the limits for human consumption.

 

[marvdmartian]

For short term, non pressure treated lumber will work, but I'd be surprised if it lasted even 2 seasons. It will be the feast you're giving away to any wood boring insect out there (though any woodpeckers in the are might love you!).

When my folks bought their 2nd travel trailer, years ago, my dad decided that he wanted a parking space for it next to the garage. Problem was, the land sloped down away from there, as it's designed to do for drainage, and he didn't want to park the trailer on a slope. We dug down, about 3' out from the side of the garage, then used t-posts and 2x12 heartwood redwood, to make a retaining wall (real fun, pounding t-posts down into the clay with a sledge hammer, until only ~2.5' are sticking out of the ground!!).

I think he probably replaced the boards before they sold that house, in 1988. But that wood had been there for at least 15 years, in every sort of weather that you find in upstate NY, and never split or rotted. :awe:

 

[PaperclipGod]

For short term, non pressure treated lumber will work, but I'd be surprised if it lasted even 2 seasons. It will be the feast you're giving away to any wood boring insect out there (though any woodpeckers in the are might love you!).

I built a small raised bed out of cheap pine a few years ago. It rotted a ton the first year, but 3 years later it's still holding well enough to keep the bed together. It's lasted longer than I thought in that regard. But if you're worried about looks then that probably won't work.

 

[0roo0roo]

your concern over using pressure treated lumber is over-blown.

why risk it...

 

[StageLeft]

I am not going to have a very high box so will be shoveling (don't have a pick or desire to buy one) the existing soil into a heap and then back in mixed with some other stuff (gonna ask a garden center what that other stuff is), that way I'll have maybe a foot of soil that is actually loosened up and good for plants. Not sure that's ideal, though, but it's my plan.

your concern over using pressure treated lumber is over-blown.

One link said you cannot even use PT in gardening if it's organic. In any case, the stuff is literally treated with a poison so using it next to vegetables is just common sense.

what new formula for PT lumber? why is it too risky?

Look it up on wiki, the formula changed a few min ago.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/pressure-treated-wood-in-beds.aspx

Read the last section. ACQ and CA are the only types of PT lumber available to consumers.

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/are-pressure-treated-woods-safe-in-garden-beds.aspx

 

[Marinski]

I used 5/4 x 6" cedar boards from homo depot and 2 x 4 for corner support (optional), cost was $35 total for a 4' x 8' bed. For the filling I used a couple bags of peat moss, pro mix or premier, the square ones that are 3 cu ft. (they dont look like much but they expand), and the rest I just used top soil and peat humus. You could throw a bag of perlite, vermicilite, and sand in there too if you want.

 

[gaidensensei]

Does mold really matter on a vegetable garden?

Fairly certain you wouldn't want to be accidentally ingesting mold.. right?
Yeah you can wash it off and stuff, but if the foundation can easily be mold penetrated, the wind will blow their spores all over the place. Lots of ascomycota & zygomycota division fungi can asexually reproduce in methods like that.

Just sayin', maybe it might be a deciding factor or not if you want to keep it in mind.

 

[meltdown75]

LOL gaiden... all this time i thought your username was "GARDENsensei"

 

[gaidensensei]

LOL gaiden... all this time i thought your username was "GARDENsensei"

If I were a master of gardens, you'd all be coming to me for advice!

 

[slightlyhuman]

trex is awesome, for building rails

 

[WHAMPOM]

I am building a ~26 linear foot vegetable garden. I'm not using PT lumber. Even the new formula for it is too risky, I think. I was going to use PT only for stakes but probably will actually return that, too.

So the only alternative I see is Trex, even though it's obscenely expensive. I did not see cedar or redwood at home depot. I don't know how long an untreated/unpainted version of those would last anyway.

If I go with regular building wood would I even make it two years with a vegetable garden or will it rot out with a vengeance? Should Trex, in contact with moist soil 12 months of the year, still make it several years?

Let the treated lumber air dry and give it two coats of a good latex primer. I have ten year old raised beds (10'X5'X12") still in good condition, though I did redo the corners with stainless screws when the nails rusted out.

 

[StageLeft]

Let the treated lumber air dry and give it two coats of a good latex primer. I have ten year old raised beds (10'X5'X12") still in good condition, though I did redo the corners with stainless screws when the nails rusted out.

The stuff takes weeks to properly dry, unfortunately, even if you buy it kiln-dried!

I went to lowes. Their cedar section was full of nameless "whitewood". Only stuff I liked was trex or PVC trim, which is a wood product 100% plastic and same cost as trex. Looked really good but was white and I didn't want to paint, so went with Trex at $30 per 12' plank, unfortunately.

 

[spidey07]

Let the treated lumber air dry and give it two coats of a good latex primer. I have ten year old raised beds (10'X5'X12") still in good condition, though I did redo the corners with stainless screws when the nails rusted out.

That's why I did as well. Skorb, I used rebar to give it lots of strength so it didn't bow. Worked extremely well as I put them about two feet into the ground.

 

[StageLeft]

I do have some rebar kicking around, I may use that to help keep the trex in place instead of stakes...

 

[Homerboy]

picking the lumbar is the easy part.
How the hell do you keep the rabbits, raccoons, squirrels and other varmints out of there!!!???

 

[StageLeft]

picking the lumbar is the easy part.
How the hell do you keep the rabbits, raccoons, squirrels and other varmints out of there!!!???

Believe it or not at least in my yard--knock on wood--the only problems I have are insects/bugs. No critters at all. Across the street they get some deer and rabbits but I'm in a circle within my subdivision and apparently the animals simply don't bother crossing. I see a rabbit each winter but have never detected any damage to veggies. Most other people fence theirs off but somebody across the way from us has never had to and I'm hoping that after last year's virgin season and no issues I won't have any this year, either

 

[spidey07]

You're very lucky then. Squirels and rabbits are my mortal enemy.

 

[StageLeft]

There it is. I didn't bother leveling the top as that would have required another $30 in Trex. This is 8X4. Trex is interesting, a real pain to drill pilot holes in as the plastic strands around the bit and you have to manually untwist it after each hole. Otherwise it should be good. i didn't bother staking; I don't think I need to as there's actually not much pressure on the sides. I'll rebar if it ever comes to that.

 

[spidey07]

There it is. I didn't bother leveling the top as that would have required another $30 in Trex. This is 8X4. Trex is interesting, a real pain to drill pilot holes in as the plastic strands around the bit and you have to manually untwist it after each hole. Otherwise it should be good. i didn't bother staking; I don't think I need to as there's actually not much pressure on the sides. I'll rebar if it ever comes to that.

Hell son, just till up some of the area behind you and plant 20 full rows. Yeah, you won't need any reinforcing. Mine was 2.5 feet tall so the amount of soil and weight was significant including the 6 inches of gravel beneath it for drainage.

 

[BoomerD]

Hell son, just till up some of the area behind you and plant 20 full rows. Yeah, you won't need any reinforcing. Mine was 2.5 feet tall so the amount of soil and weight was significant including the 6 inches of gravel beneath it for drainage.

Heh-heh...yeah, if I had that much room, I'd definitely have a much larger garden...and not in raised beds.

The BIGGEST reason I built raised beds is that I had about 2 yards of compost/dirt left over from a large tree bed that I built a few years back and didn't want to just give it away on craigslist or put it in the trash a few shovels full at a time. Raised beds gives me a way to use that extra soil PLUS it also gets it "off the ground" to make it easier for me to tend.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

You'll probably find that Trex leaches chemicals into soil.

 

[iGas]

I don't buy into the raised garden with wood & what not. My experience with friends & family that the cost of lumber, soil & water is going to be much greater than the vegetable return, unless it act as a sand box for you to have fun in.

A mound garden is more logical if you are serious, and wood mulch, straw, mushroom mulch/manure, or peat moss & rhyolite/perlite to hold water and air (lower cost of watering and increase yield) ++ some horse/cow manure for nitrogen.

I also have grown potatoes in extra strong garbage bags (3 layers of potatoes), and it works extremely well. Roughly 20 lbs of absolutely fresh & delicious potatoes per bag.

 

[gaidensensei]

Cool pic Skoorb. You look like you could make some extra dough off photography, even if that was just a simple pic of the garden.

 

[Squisher]

I used 2 X 10 cedar. I had to go to a lumber yard.

You could really save money if you could find someone to sell you rough cut lumber.