It can probably be presumed that the lot grading for the subdivision is such that lots are all graded to drain independently out to the street on each individual property, so that creating a drainage problem for a neighbor is not likely, but then again, this lot could have slopes and drainage across lot lines, in which case interruption of flow is an issue. My understanding from another post by the OP on this same garden was that theot was flat, and the intent to build raised beds was more for aesthetics as well as making vegetable raised beds that would have improved soil conditions and be easier to work. The idea of a french drain as sketched out by the OP, which seemed to form a circle at the base of the proposed raised beds but didn't actually connect with anything, didn't seem to make much sense in terms of actually solving a drainage problem, in fact, if the lot is flat, they would seem to have been superfluous to solving the problem of a wet crawl space under the house, which sounds more like it was related to roof downspouts unconnected to drain lines to take it away from the house. I had originally understood the back of the lot to have the lot behind it at a higher grade with a slope beyond the proposed raised beds, but the sketches did not appear to support that line of supposition. In any case, I'd suggest that the OP either hire a competent landscape architect or designer/contractor to give him more informed advice on solving his problems and avoiding unnecessary expense or useless construction, or read up more to become better informed about landscape construction and particularly drainage concerns as they would pertain to his Fremont location. As it is, the questions have been too general to give truly informed advice, and not enough information has been supplied to really address all the potential concerns. I'd hope that these discussions have been sufficient to alert the OP that he needs to either hire some informed help, or get up to speed with the information needed to make the best decisions on how to proceed. There are definitely times when it saves money and expense to hire expertise...

BruceC, you were wondering about a durable gloss white paint that could be used on treated lumber. I would like to suggest you try my trick. Buy a five gallon bucket of oil based white gloss barn and fence paint (available at most farm stores) and add a gallon of boiled linseed oil. The linseed oil will thin down the paint, and give you a good primer coat. Put on a couple of them if you have time, and then finish with a coat of Latex. The Latex will last a lot longer and will not peel off of the lumber. Too often folks put latex directly onto unprimed lumber and it fails. (I've even had it fail on "pre-primed" materials that I bought as "pre-primed".) Just remember the rule that Latex can go over Latex or oil base, but oil base can never go over Latex, and oil base must always coat raw wood before the Latex. There was also a question about lumber cupping and warping. The best suggestions I can give you on that are air circulation and moisture prevention. Birdwidow recommended setting your stack up off the floor on spacers (4x4's, or concrete blocks with 2x's across them) which will help you cut down on the lumber wicking moisture up from the bottom, also when you stack your lumber place "splinters" or "stickers" in between each layer of lumber. (Splinters or stickers are just one bys layed across each layer to help aid in air circulation). If you do this your lumber, stacked inside a weather tight building, will dry out a lot quicker. In fact down in Florida you ought to be able to dry out green (fresh cut) lumber within a year or two using this method, and have it test almost as dry as kiln dried. I am sure my advice might have those who disagree with me, but it comes from having a Father, a Grandfather, Uncles and god knows how many other relatives in the carpentry and lumbering industries. Plus the other good old fashioned way, try and fail on my own.

Ok, here's a crude calculation just to give you an order of magnitude. Let's suppose you had 10 lb of ash, and it was dug into a 5x5 ft area to a depth of 1 ft. While searching for the actual formula of CCA, I ran across a paper on the metals content of CCA treated wood ash, so I could skip some steps. CCA was made in two grades, 0.25 lb CCA/cu ft of wood and a higher grade 0.4 lb/cu ft. Their sample was 4 kg/m3 which works out to about the 0.4 type. The ash was about 20,000 mg/kg (ppm) Cr, 10,000 ppm Cu and 11,000 As. After a bunch of conversion, that comes out to 36 ppm of additional arsenic added to the 5x5 area if distributed a foot deep (using 1.5 tons/cu yd of soil). I picked As because it's the most toxic of the three metals. Now this is above health-based guidelines for residential soil, which are in the range of 5-15 ppm. Note, those numbers are based on your entire yard being at that level, and living on it for a very long time, with a resulting risk of death from cancer or non-cancer health effects reduced to essentially nothing amongst all the noise of other risks in life (i.e. a rate of 1 in 100,000 or 1 in 1,000,000 excess deaths). You will not experience arsenic poisoning from this soil in the way that you're thinking. It's more like a small incremental increase in health risk, much like smoking a cigarrette (or a whole pack ) won't kill you, but it's not particularly good for you. Here is a link that might be useful: CCA Ash Analysis Paper This post was edited by toxcrusadr on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 12:00

Actually, the moisture content of the wood is the most important factor. If the wood is wet(moisture actually present on the surface) six months may be needed for the wood to dry sufficiently. That call is impossible to make on the Internet. A moisture meter will give a much more definitive measurement. If you can borrow one(many woodworkers have them, as do cabinet shops and carpenters), the pin type is better than surface types. Reason is because no product that is applied will bond when the wood is too wet. And when the moisture content is high, water based products are diluted and do not protect. Oil based products will not adhere and come off in sections or sheets. Best advice, wait until spring. Then use an oil based product. The wood is pressure treated, meaning protection against rot is included. Six to twelve months will not be a factor.