Try searching the forums and even online - I found a lot online last year when I was researching. A couple I remember were cedar, or concrete blocks lined with plastic.

I have a friend that just made raised beds with leftover siding strips - I think they are concrete? They were leftover from fixing the house.

I make mine out of small trees,just lay them long wise.. They also have non toxic finishes you could apply to give the wood longevity.. Or you could just mound up soil and forget the structure.

Joe

Guy at hardware store said not to use pressure treated wood due to poisons,

Then he is providing you with very outdated and inaccurate info. Toxic chemical production of pressure treated wood ended in 2002 when the use of arsenic and the other chems used was federally banned from use except for limited commercial construction use and the safe label now is attached every individual board.

There is plenty of info about all this available on the web so he needs to do some research. Currently produced pressure treated lumber is approved for garden bed use and even for playground construction.

You can choose to use it, just check the labels on the wood. Or you can use any number of alternatives available - cedar, redwood, plastic composite lumber, concrete blocks, bricks, decorative stone, to name just a few - even recycled railroad ties as long as they are well aged.

Dave

Also, we get a lot more than two years out of untreated lumber in our raised beds. We typically replace the wood every 5-6 years. It may not look as pretty in the last couple years before replacement, but it serves its purpose.

We used plain untreated lumber and glavanized screws. They are all 4foot by 8 foot by I think 10 or 12 inches. Then 2X4X8s cut into 2 foot pieces with one end cut into a wedge and the opposite end screwed to each end of the 8 foot pieces of wood. husband pounded them into the ground while I "helped" then screwed the 4 foot sections in. This is our second year with them, so far so good

lots of stuff can be used even nothing at all

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden

Lets see some more pictures.
I am very curious to see everyone's ideas and ingenuity

pressure treated or surface treated lumber purchased nowadays are perfectly safe imo.

my first post. I've read this for a couple years... so much great information. I doubt guys like dave, jon and others have any idea how much time and disappointment they save people by being so generous with there experience.

anyways these are my beds 2 by 4x16 from landscape timbers, timberloks, and some EMP.

best of luck this season folks :)

Wow, nice looking beds ejdiv. Some of the most attractive I have ever seen. Thanks for posting.

Dave

thanks dave. I appreciate what you do around here. i'm sure that's a pretty common feeling.

@ ejdiv : your beds look great! They have proper height which so many people did wrong. If the bunch of things at the other end of the left bed is corn then they are too crowded.

I used stone pavers that I've scrounged - they are free, and since I just lean them up, they are also movable when I want to shift beds around or dig out potatoes or sweet potatoes.

I used vegetable oil to treat the wood frames for some beds I made recently. Time will tell how well it works, but it did soak right in and it is an oil so it should repel water. Most importantly, it's non-toxic.

We used rocks that we scrounged up. I had wood for 2 beds already but after we designed the garden and calculated the costs, up the hill we went with the wheelbarrow...

Had hoped we'd hear back from the OP by now. Would be nice to know if any of this info is of help or even being received.

Dave

Hi this is the orginal poster great pics inspiring to look at others work thanks

Here's mine ,got the idea from great people of GW.

Wow, I love how you did those walkways.
I need to replicate that....GREAT WORK !!

I've used cedar or redwood for all my raised beds.

This is a current photo of the beds that were built a couple years ago:

{{gwi:38231}}


This is how they looked on install:
{{gwi:38232}}


Other than natural graying, they are solid w/out any rot or mildew. I expect they will last a long, long time.

@ceth_k thanks.. and your right and your right :)

its corn and I was a little aggressive with the planting... they did better than you might think but i'll be making an adjustment this season. as much as you can learn reading here, corn planting is one of those things that there seems to be no consensus on.. some art to it.. makes it a fun challenge to optimize your space.
Ed

Here is a redwood bet I just built for someone this weekend, 12' x 4'. Redwood is great, lasts a long time and looks beautiful. However it is expensive and not available in most of the country.

Climate should be considered when choosing materials for a raised bed. I live in a wet warm climate and untreated wood and rot plus termites can destroy a bed in less than 2 years.

Concrete blocks can be a good answer where soil works well with a single row of blocks. I've never liked the instability of block two rows high. And block with an outside width of 4 ft reduces the planting area on a 8 x 4 box by 44%.

About 10 years ago I went to using poured in place concrete for multiple beds. For about $50, reusable forms can be made and then the cost of materials for a bed comes down to about $60 for 3.5 inch thick walls 16 inches high. Considering the strength, stability, service life, height of walls, and cost, nothing is better for a warm wet climate. And the planting area is only slightly reduced from using 2 inch lumber (21%).

Here are some pictures of a charming garden where they made the beds from logs. I would have absolutely considered this if trees grew straight on my property.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raised beds with logs

These pics are really old, but you can see the structure. I liked the blocks because I was able to install them myself without many tools.

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden in year two.

I made mine out of the 4x8x16 concrete blocks. I used the "lightweight" blocks for the base layer and then the solid ones for the upper layers.