Creating a Raised Bed Garden

» Bob26 - Raised garden beds

I want to have formal raised beds in my front yard. I want to grow herbs and veg. so I do not want to use pressure treated lumber, Would it be all right to use maybe redwood or cedar? Pine would rot away in no time or get termites. To use bricks would take to many for I want to go up a leased 10 to 16 inch's in height!

-- posted by Bob26

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» Marge_Talt - Re: Raised garden beds

In response to message posted by Bob26:

Sure, you can use redwood or cedar - pretty expensive lumber, but it will last quite a long time.

Actually, I grew veggies and herbs for many years in raised beds using treated lumber and am still here to tell the tale. It's a controversial subject, tho' and if you prefer not to use it, don't.

You might also consider those masonry units designed for building retaining walls; they fit together and don't require any mortar and would be quite permanent, as well as formal in appearance. They are available at most of the D.I.Y stores around my area, like Home Depot.

I built a very formal raised bed garden using flagstones set vertically for the sides. The only thing you need to do is make sure you can bury at least 6" and more is better. I think, if I were going to do it again, I'd set a 4" thick concrete block on the inside and mortar the face stone to it, just to make certain they stayed vertical...where I didn't get enough buried, they are tending to bow out a bit...but that was a dumb error on my part.

If you use wood, make sure you use at least 1" thick lumber and 2" thick is better. Get some 2" x 2" pieces and point the ends and drive them in on the inside corners and about every 3' along the edges and nail your boards to them. If you use a nominal 12" wide board, you will end up with a 10" deep bed. For 16", you will need to use two 8" boards and you'll end up with a bed about 15" deep, which is quite deep enough for just about any root crop. Unless your native soil is solid rock or some other horrible substance, you really don't need to raise the beds much more than 6" or so to grow veggies and herbs. If you can fork over the underlying soil, just to break it up, those plants with deep roots will be able to penetrate it and they will feed off the good mix you fill your beds with. However, deeper is nicer, it will just take a tremendous amount of fill material.

You can also use regular concrete masonry units, but you'd need to mortar them together. If you did that, you could stucco the outside of them or even use some of the decorative split-faced blocks; some are very nice.

I agree, you don't want to use untreated pine - it will rot on you in a year or so.

-- posted by Marge_Talt

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