Another question related to this: If I used a non toxic stain, even if it leached into the soil, I wouldn't have to expect a problem, because everything would be nontoxic, no?

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 possibly 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. YMMV

Emily, you should watch Craigslist and freecycle for free materials you can use for sides. Although you can just make raised mounds without sides, that doesn't work well for me for a variety of reasons. Read on and see if they might apply to you. 1) My land is on a very slight slope, and it rains a lot sometimes, so eventually soil wants to run downhill into the neighbor's yard. The sides keep my soil here. 2) I have enthusiastic weeds such as quack grass and creeping charlie by my gardens, and the sides make it a little harder for them to get into my gardens. 3) I use all free ingredients in my lasagna raised beds, and the old produce (such as peaches, apples, limes, and other round fruit) would roll away while I am piling up the layers of stuff. The leaves would also be more prone to blow away before I get the next layer on top of them. 4) Creating tall lasagna beds is easier than double or even single digging, at least with the kind of vegetation around my house. Back to craigslist and freecycle --> Watch for people giving away boards, concrete blocks, bricks, plastic children's pools, etc. We build most of our raised beds out of old lumber. The first two were from random old lumber, one bed is actually an old waterbed frame I saw in a friend's burn pile, another is from machinery crating from another friend's place of business, another with boards my brother removed from around his former residence's play equipment. One is made of concrete bricks I got on freecycle. Then I have 3 of those flexible children's pools, I put holes around the side about an inch from the bottom for drainage. One was from freecycle, the other two I found in the trash. In summary, be creative and FIND some materials, I can assure you they are out there. U.S. citizens are the most wasteful people in the world, use that to your advantage. Then fill the beds with leaves, old produce, manure, used coffee grounds, grass clippings, whatever you can come up with, again for free. Best darn gardens in the world. Marcia

Coldlime, CCA has been used to pressure treat lumber since the 1940s. Since the 1970s, the majority of the wood used in outdoor residential settings has been CCA-treated wood. Pressure treated wood containing CCA is no longer being produced for use in most residential settings. That said, people do it all the time. You'll have to decide for yourself. Below is a link to an article that may be of help to you in deciding. There have been many discussions here at gardenweb on this subject. You can do a gardenweb search on "pressure treated lumber" if you'd care to read some of those. One last thing...there is a vegetable gardening forum here at gardenweb. If you post this query there, you'll get a lot more responses than you will here. Here is a link that might be useful: Does Pressure-Treated Wood Belong in Your Garden?