After battling couch in my garden beds for what seems like forever I've
decided to change my approach to the garden. I want to put in (or have
someone else put in) some raised beds. However I have some questions:
What wood is best to use? Railway sleepers? How high should the beds be to
be effective?
Would you first try to kill the couch where you are going to put the beds or
just put it all straight on top?
What sort of fill/soil mix would you then use?

Thanks

Liz

g'day liz,

you can use almost any material you can get hold of or that you like,
x-railway sleepers could have creosote in them, and cca treated timber
is full of nasties. you will find that if you buy new railway sleeper
size timber it will last for a long time. i went to the recycle timber
yard and found that 10" wide panels of clip lok roofing cost 5 bucks a
length and 2 lengths with 4 stainless steel screw made a self standing
border 5 meters long and 1 meter wide 6 meters is a good maximum
length but never wider than 1 meter.

best heigh is 10", 12" if you want 6" will do if border material is
limiting.

see my garden page at my site for ideas on how i do my raised beds too
easy.

don't worry about killing grass use newspaper then lay the medium in.

keep in touch let us know what you decide and how you go.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you send.

Staycalm wrote:
After battling couch in my garden beds for what seems like forever I've
decided to change my approach to the garden. I want to put in (or have
someone else put in) some raised beds. However I have some questions:
What wood is best to use? Railway sleepers? How high should the beds be to
be effective?
Would you first try to kill the couch where you are going to put the beds or
just put it all straight on top?
What sort of fill/soil mix would you then use?

Thanks

Liz


Don't use railway sleepers - they will rot within a reasonable period
(like around 6 years). Use treated pine - sleepers or other sized
planks. Had mine in for some 15 years now without any signs of damage.
And use galvanised bolts/nails/coachscrews/whatever to hold them together.

Re depth. Depends on what you want to grow in the beds. At least a spade
length deep but preferably deeper especially if you are going to grow
deep root vegetables.

Re the couch. Leave it but cover the area with newspaper, 10 sheets
thick, then put the soil over it. The couch will be killed.
Alternatively, spray area with Roundup but covering with 'paper is
cheaper and you don't use any chemicals.

Soil. You can buy good quality soil at garden suppliers but please be
WARNED that some sell soil which 'they' call "veggie mix" and it could
be made up of a lot of sand and organic material which quite quickly
becomes impervious to water- the water does not penetrate past 5mm from
surface and one needs to use lots of surfacant to make the water
penetrate some of the way :-(. I speak from experience: I bought this
"The best, mate, for your garden!" 'veggie mix' - it WAS expensive, at
that time (8 years ago) it was $47/metre - and a total waste of money
:-(. Even mixing in bulk cow manure and mushroom compost at the time I
bought the stuff did not help.

Cheers.


--
Sound that shatters silence is called noise. Sound that enhances silence
is called music.

"Staycalm" wrote in message

Would you first try to kill the couch where you are going to put the beds
or
just put it all straight on top?

Try to kill it first. You won't succeed of course because nothing short of
a full blown nuclear attack will kill the mongrel stuff, however, you may
slow it down a bit.

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 14:12:23 +1100, Basil Chupin
wrote in aus.gardens:

Don't use railway sleepers - they will rot within a reasonable period
(like around 6 years). Use treated pine - sleepers or other sized
planks. Had mine in for some 15 years now without any signs of damage.
And use galvanised bolts/nails/coachscrews/whatever to hold them together.

Isn't there a danger of the arsenic and even more drastic chemicals
like benzine leeching into the soil. Isn't this a worry if you are
growing veggies?

I ask because I have been think ing of doing this myself but am
worried about the chemicals in the wood.

You are right about the length oif time the timber lasts I have some
supporting a bank that has been there over 20 years and is still
exhibits no rotting or any form of degredation.


Regards
Bruce

g'day neddys,

CCA treated timber is on it's way out due to safety issues, over in
canada and the USA i believe that is well under way. the CCA treated
timber issue has the potential to be as big a problem as what fibro
walls ans roof panels are that were used for yonks in the building
industry, so would be very carefull using CCA timber it could become a
stumbling bock in lots of ways as owners of homes with fibro' no doubt
realise. the implications as you can realis are enormous nearly all
power poles are CCA treated and many modern homes ahve been built
using CCA timber in construction.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you send.

Ned Sawanca wrote:
On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 14:12:23 +1100, Basil Chupin
wrote in aus.gardens:


Don't use railway sleepers - they will rot within a reasonable period
(like around 6 years). Use treated pine - sleepers or other sized
planks. Had mine in for some 15 years now without any signs of damage.
And use galvanised bolts/nails/coachscrews/whatever to hold them together.


Isn't there a danger of the arsenic and even more drastic chemicals
like benzine leeching into the soil. Isn't this a worry if you are
growing veggies?

I ask because I have been think ing of doing this myself but am
worried about the chemicals in the wood.

You are right about the length oif time the timber lasts I have some
supporting a bank that has been there over 20 years and is still
exhibits no rotting or any form of degredation.


Regards
Bruce

The bit about the leeching of chemicals from the treated pine has been
done to death in this and other forums :-). As far as I am concerned the
amount of leeching would be so small that it wouldn't matter.

I suspect that you get more crap into you from the environment around
you - like being in your house where you are inhaling all sorts of
carcinogenic fumes, get contaminated by the teflon coated kitcheware and
the plastic cling wrap; and if you are a male (which you are) and you
are in the habit of wearing Japanese Riding Boots (thongs that is) then
you are absorbing estrogen from the rubber which rubbing between your
toes and will end up growing boobs.

Cheers.


--
Sound that shatters silence is called noise. Sound that enhances silence
is called music.

Basil Chupin wrote:

Don't use railway sleepers - they will rot within a reasonable period
(like around 6 years).

Err, my "sleepers" rotted out within 5 years. Helped by the termites
(why is that panel bowing outwards).

My railway sleepers have lasted nearly 10 years. Yes, they are slowly
rotting, but compared to the cost of "sleepers", I'm happy.


Use treated pine - sleepers or other sized planks.

Just a personal 2c, but I will not touch that stuff.
I garden to remove chemicals from my food. Not to add toxic ones.

Basil Chupin wrote:

The bit about the leeching of chemicals from the treated pine has been
done to death in this and other forums :-). As far as I am concerned the
amount of leeching would be so small that it wouldn't matter.

I suspect that you get more crap into you from the environment around
you - like being in your house where you are inhaling all sorts of
carcinogenic fumes, get contaminated by the teflon coated kitcheware and
the plastic cling wrap; and if you are a male (which you are) and you
are in the habit of wearing Japanese Riding Boots (thongs that is) then
you are absorbing estrogen from the rubber which rubbing between your
toes and will end up growing boobs.

Cheers.


Loved the bit about the oestrogen! Thanks for the smile!

I don't know the answer to this question, but I have wondered why we
haven't heard any reports of people passing away abruptly (or even
procrastinatorily) from treated timber garden improvements. Wouldn't you
think that if the copper salts are all that significantly toxic to
people, there'd be an actual death rate from their use? Does anyone know
of any figures? I mean, if you look in the Australian Year Book, there's
actually a death rate from being hit on the scone by a Bunya Pine Cone
(or, at least, there was last time I looked which was, admittedly, a
good while ago).

I'm afraid I'm with you, Basil! The amount of growth hormone and
antibiotic and other chemicals we actually *eat* each day in our
processed foods ought to have killed us all by now. Like it or not, we
seem to be evolving to cope with all the toxins we generate in and for
our foodstuffs.

My favourite bugbear is pesticides! My DH uses enough Baygon to sink the
Missouri, let alone a tiny cockroach. I *have* to wonder what it's doing
to my family! (NB. This is where your Riding Boots come in - they're far
more effective on cockroaches than *any* insecticide!) ;-D

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, Australia

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
snip

Cheers.


Loved the bit about the oestrogen! Thanks for the smile!

I don't know the answer to this question, but I have wondered why we
haven't heard any reports of people passing away abruptly (or even
procrastinatorily) from treated timber garden improvements. Wouldn't you
think that if the copper salts are all that significantly toxic to
people, there'd be an actual death rate from their use? Does anyone know
of any figures? I mean, if you look in the Australian Year Book, there's
actually a death rate from being hit on the scone by a Bunya Pine Cone
(or, at least, there was last time I looked which was, admittedly, a
good while ago).

I'm afraid I'm with you, Basil! The amount of growth hormone and
antibiotic and other chemicals we actually *eat* each day in our
processed foods ought to have killed us all by now. Like it or not, we
seem to be evolving to cope with all the toxins we generate in and for
our foodstuffs.

My favourite bugbear is pesticides! My DH uses enough Baygon to sink the
Missouri, let alone a tiny cockroach. I *have* to wonder what it's doing
to my family! (NB. This is where your Riding Boots come in - they're far
more effective on cockroaches than *any* insecticide!) ;-D

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, Australia

Just for the record and for a totally inane first post to the group - Lemon
Preen has the fastest knockdown on cockroaches of anything in any kind of
bottle you can buy - short of belting them *with* the bottle anyway. grin


--
Chris

Dad of DS R(06-06-03)
Dad to be again on the 15th!

"eurekaoz" writes:
haven't heard any reports of people passing away abruptly (or even
procrastinatorily) from treated timber garden improvements. Wouldn't you
think that if the copper salts are all that significantly toxic to
people, there'd be an actual death rate from their use? Does anyone know
of any figures?

Environmental carcinogens are cumulative, they generally take years to
decades before any cancer becomes apparent. It's not the copper, it's the
arsenic that is the carcinogen.

Just for the record and for a totally inane first post to the group - Lemon
Preen has the fastest knockdown on cockroaches of anything in any kind of
bottle you can buy - short of belting them *with* the bottle anyway. grin

It might work for your local roaches, but will it work for those in
other localities? There are a lot of different species. I'll keep your
suggestion in mind. A couple of times each summer a large cockroach will
fly in through the kitchen window and with a clatter of wings spin around
the usually-empty sink bowl. I never quite know how to dispose of it:
hit it with a thong and there's a stinky mess to then clean up, or spray
it and everything nearby with a pressure-pak of toxin. I've now settled
on torching the thing: I grab the oven lighter (it's like a cigarette
lighter with a long barrel and a trigger) and I scorch the cockroach in
the sink with this nifty little flamethrower. (Relax, there are no
curtains on the windows to set fire to!)

Speaking of vermin: of late there has been a lot of talk on the radio about
destroying cane toads. It seems that a waterpistol filled with Detol is the
most effective method. A few squirts and the toad is dead within minutes.
The golfclub has a certain appeal to some, but can be dangerous to the
"golfer" or bystanders if the poison glands squirt up into their face.

Still, I can't believe there is no common substance that is attractive to
cockroaches and in the process will poison them.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
"eurekaoz" writes:
haven't heard any reports of people passing away abruptly (or even
procrastinatorily) from treated timber garden improvements. Wouldn't you
think that if the copper salts are all that significantly toxic to
people, there'd be an actual death rate from their use? Does anyone know
of any figures?

Environmental carcinogens are cumulative, they generally take years to
decades before any cancer becomes apparent. It's not the copper, it's the
arsenic that is the carcinogen.

Just for the record and for a totally inane first post to the group -
Lemon
Preen has the fastest knockdown on cockroaches of anything in any kind of
bottle you can buy - short of belting them *with* the bottle anyway.
grin

It might work for your local roaches, but will it work for those in
other localities? There are a lot of different species. I'll keep your
suggestion in mind. A couple of times each summer a large cockroach will
fly in through the kitchen window and with a clatter of wings spin around
the usually-empty sink bowl. I never quite know how to dispose of it:
hit it with a thong and there's a stinky mess to then clean up, or spray
it and everything nearby with a pressure-pak of toxin. I've now settled
on torching the thing: I grab the oven lighter (it's like a cigarette
lighter with a long barrel and a trigger) and I scorch the cockroach in
the sink with this nifty little flamethrower. (Relax, there are no
curtains on the windows to set fire to!)

Speaking of vermin: of late there has been a lot of talk on the radio
about
destroying cane toads. It seems that a waterpistol filled with Detol is
the
most effective method. A few squirts and the toad is dead within minutes.
The golfclub has a certain appeal to some, but can be dangerous to the
"golfer" or bystanders if the poison glands squirt up into their face.

Still, I can't believe there is no common substance that is attractive to
cockroaches and in the process will poison them.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)


Mortein surface spray smells of orange peal works for She who must be
obeyed.
Jim