I have no specifics to say, but have looked into this in the past and came to the conclusion that if damp dirt is always going to be against the rot-proofing, the protection will not last long.

The longest lasting protection comes from chemicals that soak into the surface (and nothing you do will affect anything more than the very surface) and affect the fungi chemically. These unfortunately tend to be unreasonably poisonous to people. Rot is powerful.

They also have fake wood made from recycled milk jugs. I hear they last forever and don't look plasticky.

So no matter if I put a weatherproof sealer on the wood like a water seal it won't help? My beds are 10'x4'x10" high. I will look into that recycled material you mentioned.

You could try treating the wood and then lining the inside with plastic. Others have made raised beds without sides, just having it slope on the edges which would be the least expensive method. You do not say how many beds you have, but cinder blocks would not rot, or the blocks used to build retaining walls, etc.

I have 4 beds which I am cutting down to 3 and moving the garden more to the right and refencing it in due to deer and other animals with smaller mesh holes in fence.

I experimented with one cinder block bed and took it apart after 3 years. Thought it heated up the soil too much and something in the cement may have been leaching into the soil? Nothing grew well in the bed.

The plastic lumber is supposed to last a long time, but is really very expensive. I considered going that route too.

I thought about lining the inside part of the boards with plastic stapled onto the boards but, I never did go that route, but I imagine that is a way to go. I don't' remember hearing about anyone's experience doing that. Plus I was really trying to cut down on use of plastic.

As I mentioned before, in the end I went with the Hemlock which was better than pine and not as expensive as Cedar.

Sorry, I don't have another suggestion.

I will need to replace some boards this spring also. I was wondering is anyone knows anything or has used the sealer spray that seals leaks in gutters. Seems it is similar to the product they spray on pick-up truck beds. Anyone know what in this product?

Just wondering if it would be safe for food.

I have had great results with concrete edgers. This is year five and I have enormous yields in my beds.I keep all the paths mulched and the soil inside the beds too. Year round. I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with concrete. I watched for special at Lowe's. When I started my beds, I built the walls two blocks high. The next year, I added two more rows.

Here is a link that might be useful: My raised beds

Cedar is a naturally insect and fungus repelling wood, but as you mentioned, it can be expensive ....

There are varieties of 30-year ground contact lumber available, but as someone mentioned, WET ground is NOT covered in the gaurantee.

If it were MY raised garden bed ...... I'ld re-build the beds with 3 - 4 layers of plastic barrier underneath and on the sides up against and stapled to 30-year ground contact lumber (protected from the wet/moist soil by the plastic) and on the outside for better appearance and to repel the worst of the insect population, a facing of cedar. Also, mulch with cedar chips in areas of the garden that can handle the changes to PH.

That having been said .... using concrete edgers or blocks as Donna mentioned looks nice too. Another method would be to take reasonably conditioned lumber and cheap (broken bags that are sold at discount) concrete and pouring your own walls and edgers. If they aren't meant to be a load bearing wall, you can easily get away with not using rebar or some other kind of interior structure.

I don't know if you'd be interested in this or not. They're not always cheap........but stocktanks can make good raised beds. Some people use various metal ones, but I chose to use Behlen's food-grade poly stocktanks.

I drilled holes in the bottoms and lined the holes with 1/2" hardware cloth. The things I planted in them did very well. I'm not sure how they would hold up over the winter. I'll have to wait and see. One I have raised up on several bales of straw.......which have held up perfectly over the summer. And the other I have raised on several cement blocks with wood on them. The ones I bought weren't cheap, but I'm sure you could find others cheaper.

xx, you have a beautiful site there, with a lovely backdrop and a natural slope. As you move to the right, I can envision a two-level terraced garden structured with composite decking planks. They are expensive but last forever, no termites.

If you paint your fence dark green or black is will look dressier. Putting a run of plastic hardware cloth around the base of the fence might keep out the critters.

Really a pretty site, good luck with it.

SkieM - You would put 3-4 layers of plastic as a barrier on the ground under a raised bed? Not quite following that. Not only for drainage issues, but youâÂÂd be cutting off the soil in the bed from the soil Microherd.

The metal sided beds are very interesting looking. I wonder if they increase the heat not only of the soil, but of the person trying to work around the bed? They do get hot in the sun, yes?

Prairie, I haven't noticed any heat radiating off of them. Can't speak to the soil temps; I put lots of wood in the bottom a'la hugelkultur beds, so I'm hoping the waterlogged wood will actually keep them cooler, and that the metal will hold moisture in better than my wood-sided beds. Here, maintaining adequate moisture in raised beds is an issue. I planted beets, rutabagas, turnips, radishes and carrots in them at the end of July and we've had plenty of high 90's weather and these root veggies have been doing just fine, so I'm not too worried about soil getting too warm.

Thanks for letting me know. Nice to think there is an alternative to the wood. I wonder if you constructed them yourself, how old they are and how long they are expected to last? Do they rust at all? I assume they are galvanized? I wonder how constant moist soil in contact with it will effect it?

As far as the safety of galvanized stuff, you might google that question, in regards to galvanized metal stocktanks. I decided to go with the food grade poly tanks, because some of the literature said that zinc levels might get a bit high in the soil, from the zinc in the galvanization process.

Ahhh - I wondered about the galvanized process. Thanks Catherine, I will give it a google. :-)