Mouse,
There are other wood alternatives to PT wood, it all depends on how much you can afford. You could also use cinder blocks or some other form of brick. I have been using PT wood and even though ive been told by the lumberyard that it is safe, I have treated it with a thick coat of non toxic paint and I havnt had any issues, and I have had a few things tested from the garden over the past few years just to make sure. As far as planting you may not be able to fit to much into the bed if you are planting tomatos in there. Tomatos, even when caged or staked well will take up at least 3' of that bed, leaving not much space for everything else. Pepper plants can also get pretty big as well, I had 1 one year get 7' tall and almost 5' wide. Might i suggest planting the peppers and tomatos in 5gal buckets, thus leaving plenty of space for the rest. I would also suggest you plant your cukes at the ends of the beds and let them sprawl out into the isle or up a trellis, also freeing up some space.
I hope this helps, if anymore questions feel free to ask. BTW I also grow in raised beds, Im up to 10 5 x 10's 8 inches deep. and ill tell you raised beds are the way to go.

What's cukes? Would the 20 lb cat litter containers work for tomatoes and peppers? The tomatoes are cherry and the peppers are bell. I have tons of those around. I'm so excited about doing this. I have a 19 month old son who is going to love to help. I would love to have a lot of different beds but I figure I'll start with one. Can I use just compost or do I need something else to mix?

Cukes = cucubers. If you are talking a regular kitty litter pan, id have to say no, its not deep enough to support the root system a tomato needs to produce. You can mix compost with ordinary soil, unless the compost is really really aged i would not recommend straight compost. At least thats what Ive been told. I started out with straight sand and added compost over the years and now the sand is rich dark soil. if you have access to inexpensive tote buckets (the kind you can get at Job Lots or even Ocenstate's, the kind you store stuff in) those do great.

gardenman, thanks for that suggestion! great idea to separate the tomatoes & peppers into containers. i'm at the same point as mouse, this is my first time making a veggie garden. dh is building it and we're doing a 4x8. i am planting broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, sugar snap peas, cukes, carrots, tomatoes & peppers. so now i know to get a couple of big containers to do the tomatoes separate.

If you have cedar or redwood in your area, you can use that, and they will prevent bugs. Or you could use that composite stuff that is a mix of plastic and sawdust ? it?s expensive, but it will problem last longer than you. You can use fir or pine, but it won?t last more than a few years. Or, like Gardenman said, concrete blocks.

If you can get free compost, mix it with your soil. The plants need the minerals in the soil, as well as the compost.

That?s a small bed for all those plants. Again, Gardenman has a good idea about using buckets (with drain holes), or make smaller beds just for the larger plants, so they can stick their roots into the ground if they want to.

The cat litter buckets might be okay (only one plant per bucket), but don?t forget to make several drainage holes (about ?" diameter), and fill them with the same compost/soil mix. Insert a tomato cage into the buckets while the plants are still small.

If you live near a Harbor Freight tool store, get a small electric soldering iron (about $5) (see link below ? push it in so it makes the larger hole, not the little one). They are GREAT for melting drainage holes in plastic! But do it outdoors, as the stink will knock you down (and burning plastic isn?t good to inhale, either). Keep away from children -- they're HOT!

I would trellis the cucumbers (?cukes?) on the north side of the bed, both to save space and to keep them off the ground, which will produce straighter, less damaged fruits. Then you can plant the lettuce and carrots in front of them (on the sunny side).

I would start the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers inside, but sow the carrots and lettuce directly where you want them to grow. The carrots should grow about 2" apart from each other, so be sure to thin them when they?re a few inches tall, or you won't have a crop. Water the carrot bed first, then sow the seeds and cover, then cover the bed with cardboard. Check under it every few days, so you'll know when the carrots sprout, then remove the cardboard. They usually take about 2 or 3 weeks to stick their heads out (look closely, they're hard to see).

Note: it's hard to believe a forum like this doesn't understand what an apostrophe or quotation marks are, but that is what goes in all those places that show a ?

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Small soldering iron

There are places that will deliver compost to you and the price is reasonable. I had alot of raised beds to fill so I ordered from a guy close by and got 7 yards of the riches worm filled compost you could find. But if you go the bucket route with the tomatoes and peppers use pottingsoil mix and not garden dirt. If you put regular garden soil into buckets (even with drainage holes) you will find it gets very soggy and hard. As soon as I figure out how to post pictures again ( I keep forgetting how) i will post some so you get a general idea of what i mean. I find that using contianers (im up to 12 totes now) really saves some space in the raised beds, plus i can move them anywhere i want. Im picking up 10 more (they are on sale for 3.99ea this week) and they will contian my eggplants and hot peppers. I am also going to try wintersquash in 1 of them (i dont care if the vines spread over my front lawn , cus frankly i can grow almost anything but grass (LOL) so it will add green to the fron yard.
Keep us posted (both of you) as to your progress and if possible post pictures so we can see how you progress. You will be very happy with your raised beds.

If you can find a lumberyard with black locust, that is the gold standard for rot-resistant wood in the northeast. Redwood is good, but you pay the cost of shipping it from the left coast. Cedar is the best compromise in New England for price/durability, and composite decking material if you want something highly durable and wood-like in appearance.

For container gardening, consider stacking to get more depth. Drill holes in tho bottom of one container, fill it with your soil mix, cut the bottom out of another similar container, put it on top of the first and fill that. You can screw wood to the sides to make them more attractive, untreated it will weather to a pleasing grey.

{{gwi:36086}}