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#1
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Hello all
My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. |
#2
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Hi Tony it's best not to use any treated wood with food that you eat because
of those chemicals, I'd use old railway sleepers for a raise bed. Also for any info on veggie gardening you might like to visit www.myveggiegarden.com Tony tmg124AThotmailDOTcom wrote in message ... Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. |
#3
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New Vegie Garden advice required
"Tony" tmg124AThotmailDOTcom wrote in message ... Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. I have been looking into this myself recently. It depends on how big you want the beds, how long you want them to last and what you want to spend in time and money. Here is what I've found FWIW. Manufactured concrete blocks tied down with reinforcing rods are strong, durable, available and look OK but they can become expensive unless your beds are quite small or you can use recycled materials. An option probably worth costing to see if it suits you. You can also get specially made interlocking concrete wall blocks for gardens and retaining walls but these are even more pricey. They look nice and are easy to erect, if money is not an issue this may suit. Sleepers are very heavy for this application and the size will cost you extra - you don't need the walls to be that thick and they are hard to handle alone. Also used sleepers might be soaked in stuff like tar or creosote which I wouldn't like in my vege patch, I would check this before buying. Their size will make sleepers last longer than lighter timber, except if you have whiteants in which case you are just supplying more food for the little buggers, unless the sleepers just happen to be of the species that the ants don't like. Untreated hardwood of the more durable species is my choice. I am in a rural area and its available and fairly cheap. If you buy such stuff at the suburban timberyard you will probably not have any choice in species, it will just be 'northern rivers hardwood' or something like that, so it could be a lucky dip as some species will last well in contact with soil and others will not. As for treated timber ... the argument rages. Various authorities will say that the heavy metals that make them poisonous to organisms causing rot are locked up safely and others will say that it leaches out significantly and you are at risk with an edible crop next to them. A google search will give you a zillion words of emotive prose on this and as far as I can see no clear answer. David |
#4
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New Vegie Garden advice required
There is always www.abc.net.au/gardening then look for Pete's patch to see
how he did it. Tony tmg124AThotmailDOTcom wrote in message ... Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. |
#5
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New Vegie Garden advice required
There is always www.abc.net.au/gardening then look for Pete's patch to see
how he did it. Tony tmg124AThotmailDOTcom wrote in message ... Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. |
#6
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Tony wrote:
Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. mine are brick. jane |
#7
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Tony wrote:
Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. If only I didn't have a Dog That Digs, I'd be doing this too! My preferred material would be a double layer of old railway sleepers (ie old and well-weathered), because they're a good height to sit upon as you weed. However, being that old railway sleepers are getting scarce and new ones are *green* with nasty copper salts and cost a bomb, I'd go for el cheapo solutions. The best I've seen is corrugated iron sheets cut into strips and kept upright with star posts cut to size. That's a lot of cutting, I know, but I s'pose the elbow grease is what makes this solution a cheap one! Maybe a trip to a demolition site or a rummage around someone's back paddock might bring up some old timber or iron sheets you could use? Whatever you decide on can be disquised by growing small creeping plants alongside (eg. native violets or thyme or mint ... etc...) -- Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia PS. I saw a program once that showed individual veggie plants being grown inside old tyres! |
#8
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Tony wrote:
Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Okay, I've done this in various ways. You have to decide how big?, how permanent?, how expensive (how much you will spend)? Our first raised garden bed was three layers of "sleepers", i.e. sawn timber. In five years they bowed outwards because the termites had eaten half of them down to a shell. Curiously, the ones the termites did not touch ended up as sides for out compost bed and still survive. The next raised garden bed was genuine "used railway sleeper". I brought a truckload of 50 through a local garden supplies. They were of mixed quality, I think I ended up with about 40 that were usable as borders. The rest went as firewood. I have not seen these (red & yellow wood) attacked by termites after ~ 10 years. Our latest (temporary?) is just three sheets of 12" wide roofing stuff that came from a neighbour having a clean up. It is just gone into an area that "my wench" turned over with a shovel to remove the kikuyu. It is actually the edge of a very large pile of soil. The sleeper ones are three sleepers high (side on)(3'). I just trimmed to dimensions, notched the corner, then drilled a pin hole through and dropped a 4' pin through all three layers. {:-) The sleepers were dumped into the front yard (literally). I used a Triton stand with log jaws to hold the sleeper for cutting to length and notching. I needed to touch up the chainsaw after each cut. If you don't know how to properly sharpen a chain saw, make sure you learn fast. Smoke is a dead give away that the chain is blunt. {:-) I was then able to transport them to the back yard using a heavy duty wheelbarrow by myself. I think I used a sheer legs/tripod to lift the sleeper then move the wheelbarrow the sleeper around the back to position. I found I was able to lift one sleeper at one end by myself (arse to ground, back straight, all that stuff) to get it onto the stand. Personally, in my 20's lifting one and carrying it by myself was no trouble. In 30's, I could still lift and manouveur them as above, but now, no way. {:-) I use all the lifting aids and help I can get. We heavily newspapered the whole base area, then positioned the logs, then I drilled each layer in position. I made the pins from steel rod or reo bar with large washers welded onto the end. For the drill, you will need a triple geared, hi-torque drill, I "burnt out" two 1,000 Watt drills, then I found had a 600 Watt triple geared, hi-torque for about $400 from a trade place (weld-quip?). It had no trouble turning up to a 1" wood drill (spiral type with cutting tipe) through the logs. I used various sized drills over the project depending on the bar I could get hold off. The problem with this drill is when the bit locks in, your wrists really take it. I also had lots of old soap chips in water that I applied copiously to the drill and hole (well it works for screws). I had a real chuckle because the drill claims to be rated for 40mm in wood. Yer right, pines maybe. I paid ~$300 for 50 sleepers about 10 years ago. Current quote from the company that has the contract for disposal for (NSW) Staterail is from $8 each + GST, + delivery, etc, etc I keep looking at the various concrete blocks, because you can do something different to straight wall, but the cost is rather high. The roofing strip ones were just bent and held in place by 6 wooden pegs on the outside and soil on the inside. (they make 3 of 4 sides). We also use plastic and woven bags as temporary potato growing plots. Good luck and have fun. The veges are nicer. -- Terry Collins {:-)}}} email: terryc at woa.com.au www: http://www.woa.com.au Wombat Outdoor Adventures Bicycles, Computers, GIS, Printing, Publishing "People without trees are like fish without clean water" |
#9
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Railway sleepers, bricks, reconstituted limestone blocks, rocks, sheet
metal, large planter pots, bath tubs, tyres... I guess it depends on what you want to plant & the look you're after. "Tony" tmg124AThotmailDOTcom wrote in message ... Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. |
#10
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New Vegie Garden advice required
You forgot upright old terracotta sewage pipes. Mine is old solid
bricks (nice man at tip) with inset features of sewage pipes. Put a bit of soil int he pipes and grow something like Thyme (doesn't need as much water) Despite bricks being MOSTLY solids, they still provide a smidge too much harbour for slaters and earwigs etc. But on the up side, I have lots and lots of really nice little skinks living in them too. But didn't I hear something about tyres not being nice if you are concerned about chemicals???? Linda "Wanda" wrote: Railway sleepers, bricks, reconstituted limestone blocks, rocks, sheet metal, large planter pots, bath tubs, tyres... I guess it depends on what you want to plant & the look you're after. |
#11
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Nobody seems to have mentioned straw bales.
My preference would be for railway sleepers but I have seen straw bales used with some success. Cheap(ish, depending where you are), green, effective, just not very permanent. Good luck. I'll be looking at this myself soon. B "Tony" tmg124AThotmailDOTcom wrote in message ... Hello all My wench wants me to build a vegie garden this weekend, but she is concerned that treated timber will contain poisonous chemicals. I need to raise the vegie beds, so any suggestions on what to use. Thank you. |
#12
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New Vegie Garden advice required
Anoth one I have seen suggested is keep your old newspapers, tie in
bundles with string and use them. Drape with hessian if you want them to look nice. Think they would still harbour the slaters and earwigs though On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 22:18:59 +0800, "CINDY CAMPBELL" wrote: Nobody seems to have mentioned straw bales. |
#13
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New Vegie Garden advice required
On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 09:18:16 +1000, Trish Brown wrote:
... and new ones are *green* with nasty copper salts and cost a bomb ... So how do I know if the vege garden we just planted in a bed raised on new-ish sleepers is full of copper salts or not ? When we bought them, they were just for flower beds. But the sleepers don't look green or anything, just like big bits of sawn timber - kinda red if anything. They're a few years old now too. -kt |
#14
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New Vegie Garden advice required
In article ,
"Kane" wrote: Hi Tony it's best not to use any treated wood with food that you eat because of those chemicals, I'd use old railway sleepers for a raise bed. I wouldn't. The ballast (rocks under the sleepers) is treated with arsenic to kill weeds. I just heaped up the soil on my garden beds, and used scrap metal strips and brick as eding. They aren't hugely raised, but they're above the clay anyway. I have put in a border of lemongrass to keep the kikuyu at bay. -- Chookie -- Sydney, Australia (Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply) "...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990 |
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