What do you use as your elevated beds?

FallinLove2007

bc of the bad soil we have i will be doing a raised bed for my veggies, what are your beds made out of? anyone want to share pictures of thiers?

kastle

I used untreated pine (or was it fir)?  I wanted to go cheap (at least relatively cheap) but I wasn't sure yet that gardening would be a continuing interested & I wasn't sure what configuration I wanted.

I'm glad I went that route.  I made some mistakes on my first attempt (beds too wide, I'd like a different layout) and I look forward to the boards rotting out in a few years so I can redo.   When I redo, I'll likely use Trex (or similar).

I have pictures in my blog, link in sig.  You can search (on my blog) for the post called Raise the Beds.  You can see how it looks & what I did.

FallinLove2007

thanks again.  and i cant wait to dig into your blog.  i am so excited about gardening this year

RoRo10733

I don't have any raised beds yet but I will be starting a few this Spring. I did buy one from Sam's Club the other day for $40. It is 84"x42"x8" and made from composite lumber. They have various shapes and sizes on-line.

hoping4septimus

I used cedar to make mine (pics in blog)

FoxinFiji

The original owners of our house were avid gardeners and built 5 raised beds out of treated lumber or cedar we're not sure what they are.  They are 8" wide boards with 4" buried underground and they've held up beautifully for 37 years!  Some have even had some soil erosion around them (thanks to the fact our house didn't have gutters) but because they were dug in so deep they are still very sturdy. 

kastle

OP- if you're veggie gardening, don't use treated lumber.  The stuff used to treat it now "may" be safe even if it leeches into your soil & is absorbed by the plants, but I personally wouldn't risk it.

FoxinFiji

kastle:

OP- if you're veggie gardening, don't use treated lumber.  The stuff used to treat it now "may" be safe even if it leeches into your soil & is absorbed by the plants, but I personally wouldn't risk it.

I was wondering about that, thanks for clearing that up.  All of our beds are flower beds/weeds right now so we're not ingesting anything if the lumber is still giving off some chemicals after all this time. 

Dr.Loretta

12" untreated pine and lots of bird netting. Pix here.

pugznploons

I bought cedar, haven't built them yet though, still need to find lath board....and vermiculite, sigh.  

hoping4septimus

pugznploons:

I bought cedar, haven't built them yet though, still need to find lath board....and vermiculite, sigh.  

I got lathes at Home Depot and Lowes (i cleared out both)... just ask someone with a orange apron...although the first person I asked didn't know what a lath was.

Vermiculite I got at Lowes, but again if you can't find it you can use perilite or just make your mixture heavier on the compost (especially since Mel says to add compost when you pull out plants but never says to add more peat moss or vermiculite.

hoping4septimus

To OP:

Cedar is more expensive, but less likely to rot/ attract termites, etc.

kastle

FoxinFiji:

kastle:

OP- if you're veggie gardening, don't use treated lumber.  The stuff used to treat it now "may" be safe even if it leeches into your soil & is absorbed by the plants, but I personally wouldn't risk it.

I was wondering about that, thanks for clearing that up.  All of our beds are flower beds/weeds right now so we're not ingesting anything if the lumber is still giving off some chemicals after all this time. 

Who knows, they may be totally safe (or made of cedar which is naturally rot-resistant)!  I'm kinda paranoid though.    Using them for flowers is a great idea