# Anyone made raised beds before | Wood experts



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Ok, I'm looking to make raised beds in the backyard. I'm looking for a total of 4 with the aquaponic greenhouse in the middle. Right now because some neighbours long ago imported some wood which had termites the neighbourhood was under termite control a long time ago. 

I'm looking to use cedar as man made wood is uber expensive. I need some wood experts here as I spoke with a CSR at Home Depot @ St. Clair and he recommended me use 'deck board' cedar as the cheaper option to 2" x X" x 8'.

Because of the threat of termites my options are limited to man made wood, cedar, or brick/stone/concrete.

With 5/4 x 6 x 6 it is already ~$16

I'm looking to make 4 raised beds at 3' x 8' with probably 10-16" deep as that would give me the most planting options as I've got root and above ground crops. Could some one help me out if I went with the deck board what size posts would I need to screw those deck boards into and what length screws will I need to get a secure screw into the board? Also longest lasting screws or mid grade ones.

How long does untreated cedar last? I don't want comments on this from those without experience with cedar making suggestions. I'd like real world stats if you could. Yes I know some years it's more wet then others so a ballpark from experience would be nice. I'm thinking I may use linseed oil to coat the cedar which on the flip side may give me 1-2 yrs longer on the other end of the line. 

Thank you kindly in advance. 

I do need help on this ASAP as I've got ~4cu. yard of compost in the backyard which I think rabbits borrowed into over the winter when the trap flipped over I saw holes in it. I'm going to get another 3-4 cu yard of compost this year from the city so I can complete this project. Without the raised beds built first I can't move the compost pile. 

Oh yes..will 3-4cu yard of compost be enough to fill 2 3' x 8' grow beds at the depths I asked for? What if I added 2 x 3.8cu yard of peat moss to each bed? 

Thanks and sorry for the long post. Had to spit everything out quickly which I had the questions fresh.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Thinking of going with this design http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm but 4x4 posts are going to cost a lot (have not checked pricing yet).

Anyone know the rough cost of wood and work with wood a lot to give me an idea of the wood cost per the standard sizes before I cut them down?

Thanks

Looking to have this done before end of the month ASAP.. running out of indoor space for the seedlings.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Note that you may get more advice on a gardening board rather than an aquarium board.

I've been doing raised beds for more than 20 years. Mine are shored up by some thick (2"+) short boards that some contractor used when they dug a deep pit at the end of the street that long ago. They aren't cedar -- they may even be some kind of junk hardwood like elm. They are gradually rotting out, but they still hold the soil in the beds. I use some short pieces of rebar I scavenged to hold them up.

Down here in the city I see the gardening practices of people from all over the world. I see many raised beds made by people from the Azores, Italy and east Asian countries that are just heaped up, with nothing to retain the soil. If your soil is anything but light sand, this works well. 

A raised bed doesn't have to be raised. The basic idea is to improve an area of soil that you can reach into the center of so you never have to walk on it, and you can plant it intensively, without rows. A raised bed will dry out faster, which can be a benefit in heavy soil, but a problem in light soil. 

You should dig the compost into your soil rather tha just dumping it into the beds. For one thing, straight compost may be too rich for your plants. It may be too high in nitrogen. If it's still breaking down, it may consume nitrogen your plants need, depending on what you made it out of. It will subside as it continues to break down. If your soil is heavy (clay, silt) it may form a barrier to roots if you don't break it up first.

As for calculating how far it will go, this is fairly straightforward. Calculate the area of your beds, L x W, then calculate how many inches of compost you can put on each bed if you use it all. Note that soil fluffs up a lot when it's dug or moved, and settles afterwards. So don't count on exact calculations being reliable.

Example of calculation: Imagine 1 cu yard of compost as 36 1" slices with one square yard area. So 1 cu yd will cover 36 sq yards 1" deep, 18 sq yards 2" deep, 3 sq yards one foot deep, etc. You may find it easier to work all in feet rather than in yards. A square yard is 9 sq feet. A cubic yard is 27 cu feet. You can figure all this out from scratch if you make a sketch. This works for people who are allergic to math as well as for the rest of us.

A few more comments: You want to place your beds where they aren't shaded by your greenhouse or any other obstructions. If you can get away from trees, not only will it prevent shading, but you'll avoid the beds getting filled with tree roots. This goes for shrubs as well. They will preferentially run roots into your beds which are full of fertile loose moist soil.

Most likely it's rats rather than rabbits that burrowed into your compost pile, so watch out for them when you dig it up. If this is your own compost pile rather than finished compost purchased from a nursery, note that it will break down to about 1/10 the original size when it's finished. If you made it in the fall, it probably hasn't broken down much yet, although the snow load will have made it settle somewhat, and it may still be frozen in the middle. Note that you can't really plant into coarse unfinished compost, except for some really large sturdy plants like squash, and even then it's a problem when it settles.

I've expended time and effort before giving you practical advice based on experience, and you've ignored it to stick tenaciously to some idea you've read about which may not apply to local conditions. So I'm probably wasting time and effort here too. Alas.


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

Check out the fencing rather than the decking section. I built some raised beds on the cheap a 5-6 years ago and used cedar fence boards cuz they were much less $$$ and the beds are still doing just fine...


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