The "new" pressure treated are not dangerous (at least that is what "the powers that be, say"...)

You should be good to go ;-)

I used the cherry stained timbers from HD, and was told by several of their employees that they weren't pressure treated. I bought the red ones only because I was trying to avoid the natural toned ones that were PT'd, and only found out that they were treated too when I looked into it further on HD's website, but by then, I'd already built 4 raised beds with them. After doing some reading, I came to the same conclusion as John. Plus, like I said in another thread, living will kill us all someday - at least I'll have died eating fresh veggies, lol.

I looked into this before building my beds and what I found was that most of the treated wood these days is not treated with the toxic chromium and arsenic that was used in the past. Supposedly, they are today treated with mostly non-toxic substance but I can't tell you what that is. I never went that far into it. I have difficulty believing that somehow, the trace amount of chemicals that may leach out of the treated wood are going to be transmitted into the flesh of various vegetables any more than substances contained in dog, cat, or horse feces is transmitted through the root system and into the fruit, leaf or vegetables. I suppose root crops could possible absorb some amount through direct contact if concentrations were high enough but still, I find it hard to believe that it would absorb more than negligible amounts. Considering all the added unnatural chemicals/preservatives/dyes etc, we consume daily in our food and beverages, not to mention everything we breath, I concluded that, for me and my family at least, any chemicals in treated lumber is a non-issue vs. the benefits of eating fresh vegetables.

I have also come to the same conclusion, that the new landscape timer are safe.
I am talking in particular about the 8 foot by 4" round cypress, flatened on two sides.
I am going to use them for some raised beds.

gotta tell ya, the cinderblock raised beds I have seen on this forum are really cool looking and last longer than wooden ones. I am going to use earthtainers for my "raised beds", we have bad bugs in the dirt and I am scared to risk direct planting.

If you use the landscape timbers, get yourself some spikes for landscape timbers and pin them together securely. You can find them in the hardware section of the big box stores. They are just long, heavy duty, galvanized nails. But those timbers have a tendency to curl if they aren't securely spiked together.

@ spaghetina oh great i just recently built my raised garden out of the same stained wood. There werent any signs saying it was PT so i just assumed. Oh well, live and learn.

I'm actually not 100% sure that they're PT. I know at one point I came across the description saying that they were, but on Home Depot's website they don't seem to be listed anymore, and it never says anything about them in the sales ad (also has nothing indicating they're PT on the tags in the store). I'm just operating under the assumption that they are, and going with that.

Do you have pics of your new beds, dirtalloverme? Mine came out looking really Lincoln Loggy, lol.

I've had raised beds (veggie and herb and flower) made with landscape timbers for 4 years now. They're the unstained timbers, and they may also be untreated because they do weather some. I started with just laying out beds one timber deep, but the grass and weeds were too much of a pain. Last winter we raised the beds up to 3 timbers deep and added nice rich soil and compost. The timbers do have to be spiked together. I've got happy, happy plants, and the weeds have been reduced by about 85 to 90%. So I'm a happy, happy gardener.

down the road i think i might go the way of the cinder blocks. I thought I was losing space with blocks but dropping onion and/or garlic bulbs is actually a really great idea