On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 09:02:09 -0400, "JRYezierski"
wrote:

What are folks using as the framework of their raised beds?
I'm trying some 2x10's rough hemlock pine.Be interesting on how long they
last in zone 5 Western Massachusetts.
Is the new copper treatment for pressure treated lumber any safer than the
old arsnic pressure treated lumber?

Thanks
Jerome


I haven't done any raised beds here because I have flood irrigation
and I have slugs and putting anything, wood or rocks the garbage can..
on the ground usually shelters slugs. I have little bitty gray ones,
and I have the big brown speckled ones.. they can get 8 - 12 inches
long. However, my father had sandy ground, and no flood irrigation.
He used scavenged wood. Whatever he could find. Pallets, plywood,
discarded metal held in place with whatever he had to pound into the
ground.

I realize not everyone wants to have a junky looking garden like that,
but others...like my dad.. are only looking for cheap functionality.

You can use the boards on a pallet to make quite a few things. The
ends are usually hardwood, some are pretty decent oak you could clean
up and carve or somehow use to make furniture or art.. or when cleaned
up, sawn up and used to make those glued together pieces of wood to
make a bigger piece of wood.. like cutting boards.. but I think those
are usually maple. But I digress... the wood can be truly useful if
you're imaginative.

Granted it may not last forever, but a lot of folks end up moving
things around in their gardens several times before they finally come
up with a design they are finally happy with, and some of us are never
happy and want to move things every 2 or 3 years anyway.

It's amazing how you can spot something down an alley while you've
just flitted by it quickly. Your peripheral vision field will snatch
the image and quickly beat it to your brain.. hey! wasn't that a stack
of wood that looks like it was going to be tossed.. and you whip
around the block and have a look-see and check with the owner and get
permission to come back and get that.. if you aren't dressed/driving
the right vehicle at that moment. There are always building sites
that have scrap wood, people tearing out stuff and tossing things you
can make cold frames, raised beds, or any number of things for cheap
to free. I'm poor, and the daughter of parents who lived through the
depression, and my dad hauled trash for years until the city went
"franchise only" and put him out of business overnight. So, I have
the salvage/save/recycle gene, and while I've learned not to save
every cottage cheese carton now.. I still hate to let go of things I
know are useful or will be. When I was growing 40 tomato plants and
15 or 20 peppers, and any other plant I set out, I saved toilet paper
rolls, paper towel rolls, some cottage cheese cartons or yogurt
cartons ..although I preferred things I wouldn't have to pick out of
the garden later, to keep the cut worms away from transplants.

So I vote for Recycled/salvaged/found objects for making raised beds.
Also, what height? Dad made his high enough that he didn't have to
stoop over any further than he was already bend at 90 to 93... about 3
to 4 feet tall between digging dirt out of the paths and putting it in
the beds. Just try to find enough of one type of material if you need
some degree of uniformity. ;-)

Janice