"Steve" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi there,
The top metre or so of my garden slopes up to a fence border. To make
it a bit neater I decided to hide the slope to the fence by putting in
a raised bed. I have started to do this by cutting ~0.5m lengths of
2'x2' and screwing 2 decking panels to these. The 2'x2' protudes from
the bottom of the decking strips and I hammered these into the soil to
anchor the strips into the ground - they seem quite firm. However since
I put them in on the weekend I've noticed that the lower decking strip
has become darker in colour than the one above it - it seems dirty and
I think maybe its becuase it is getting wet from the soil behind it. Am
I righth in thinking this is bad news and it's going to rapidly rot??
Should I put some poythene or something behind the decking to try and
stop the moisture gettting in and maybe paint the back of the decking
with wood treatment stuff to? ANyone have any thoughts - I'm starting
to think I've wasted my time a bit and I should have built a stone wall
but if I can rescue this it would be better!

If you are using some sort of pine or similar, depends what sort of grade
timber you used, what it is treated for. Untreated wood will rot quickly
exposed to the earth. Decking and fencing timber are treated to withstand
rain but will rot if in/in contact with the earth. There is in earth treated
timber, the next grade up is for house piles and finally marine grade that
goes in to wharfs. If your stuff is decking/fencing timber it will last a
reasonable length of time (a few years probably) but will need replacing
before in ground treated wood (my guess is maybe 5 years). If you are easily
able to replace any rotted planks my advice is leave it in there until needs
replacing and get a better grade next time.

rob