Old-growth redwood lasts many years, I've stayed in redwood cabins 125 years old that will be around after my kid is dead. Second- or third-growth does not last as it hasn't had the time to build up the tannins and goop to repel critters. And save those trees and purchase a different consumer product. Pine and linseed oil is fine, as you may find you want a different arrangement.

My 2¢

Dan

I just used plain old spruce 2x6 since they were cheap. The price of cedar makes me feel faint. Only one year old, but they are doing okay so far. They have a nice grey patina. If I build any more, I will probably use wood glue on the screws and at the wood joints, just to offer some additional holding power for the longer run.

Have you considered any of the composites?

Eaglesgarden - sorry for my ignorance - what do you mean by composites? Trex or that type of thing? How would those compare, price-wise, to cedar or redwood?

Thanks for your help!

You can watch the sales and get composite fairly cheaply, but if you go tomorrow you'll surely pay more. But being recycled, in the long run they are better for the earth and our society so cheaper. All about scale.

But surely EG has some fancy-shmancy structure to explain the benefits... that I'll want to tinker with in my yard... ;o)

Dan

I'm putting in 8 new 4x4s this spring (well, as soon as the snow melts, actually). I'm going to HD tomorrow to get the supplies, in fact, and I plan to use 6" wide composite that comes in white. I don't know the actual name of the product, but I know it when I see it. We rebuilt part of our front porch last year using it, and it was about 3x the cost of pressure treated lumber we would have otherwise used.
So, yes, the initial cost is high, but these beds should last forever, basically.

my4cowboys,

Exactly, Trex, Lifetime Lumber, etc. The cost is high initially if you buy new, but you won't have to worry about replacing it....ever! As Dan pointed out, if you are able to find some scrap/recycled pieces the price will drop drastically!

I only brought it up, because you seemed less concerned with price than with durability. They do not leach into your soil, and should last a lifetime. I believe that the price is comparable with the old-growth redwood that Dan was mentioning earlier.

I used Cedar on mine. I copied a plan I saw in This Old House, but used 4by4's instead of 6by6's for the walls. I have never heard of problems with termites around here. I expect them to last forever, but you'll have to ask me in 20 years how they hold up.

I put in a 4 by 8 raised bed in cedar and my wife loved it so much I had to put in two more. One is 4 by 10 and the other is 4 by 12. The cedar is beautiful. The design is basically 4by4's stacked 4 layers high and capped with 1 by 6 planks of cedar. I'd go with 2 by 6's if I did it again. I don't have room for any more of them. We spent a fortune, but they are as much of an architectual element of our landscape as they are a garden bed.

Just an update: I did in fact buy all of my local home improvement store's composite boards that were in stock. I bought 8' lengths that are 3/4" thick by 7 1/4" wide. I believe the 3/4" thickness will be OK because composite is technically stronger than wood, and I'm going to double-stack the heights to make a 14.5" high bed which will give me a lot of flexibility in what I can grow where (leeks, long carrots, etc.).
I paid just over $20 for each 8 foot length, and they ripped them in half for me. The total cost of lumber for my 8 beds is going to be about $650, plus the cost of galvanized deck screws ($25 for 5 lbs), 6" mending plates so I can double stack the boards (about a buck each), and wood glue.

You might get some bow in the middle of the boards so be flexible for that possibility. Otherwise, that's not a bad price. Sounds good from here!

Dan

Dand is correct. A single piece of rebar driven into the ground, and connected to the board with a pipe strap (or conduit clamp) would work well to eliminate the bow.

http://www.hardwarestore.com/pop-print/larger-image.aspx?prodNo=435

Wait, my beds are going to be 4x4, not 8x whatever--you think they may bow? Is that because they're only 3/4" thick?
Hmm. Hadn't really considered that. I can certainly add the rebar and pipe strap with no problem, it's just one more thing to do.

8 feet will bulge considerably. 4 feet may bulge a little. It's up to you. I probably wouldn't do the rebar until I saw the bulge. Then, dig out a little to straighten the wood, and put the rebar in place. With 8 feet, I would do the rebar before filling the bed.

Ah OK, that makes more sense to me. I'm doing all 4 foot beds, so like you said, I will wait til there's a problem to fix it ;)

heres my two cents... im in new york, and used the cheapest wood from home depot, which i think was douglas fir. BUT i also gave it a primer coat of paint, plus two more, both oil-based. not only does it look fantastic, but it ended up being ALOT cheaper for me than cedar wood.
i also painted the inside side of the box, too.

my advice is go with the cheapest grade wood, but give it one coat of paint (not three like i did).

I thought the paint would be toxic on the plants.

I would have thought so too--if I were doing it that way, I would probably use heavy duty plastic to line the interior of the boxes, as opposed to painting them.

Mel (All New Square Foot Gardening) says that if you are going to paint or treat the wood, be careful not to paint the inside of the box where the soil comes in contact with the wood to avoid leaching. He also says that if you use old 'already painted' wood, remember that old paint contains lead, harmful to people.

He suggests that if you ask people at construction sites, they usually are glad to get rid of scrap wood. Again, not treated wood.

old railroad ties ?

I used treated 4x6 stacked on 3 high. Underneath each board is gravel for drainage and i wrapped underneath and the inside of each bed with the black pond liners to make sure of no leaching. I capped each bed off with 1x6 boards of cedar. I made the beds last year and will stain the outside of each bed this spring.

Old cross-ties have issues; You can search "hazard cross-tie garden" and find all you want to know, but here are the high points I am aware of:

First, the creosote used in them is a lot more toxic and less inclined to stay in the wood than the situation with pressure treated residential landscape lumber. There is a reason you only see creosote treated products sold to residential customers as used products.

Second, they are one of the primary vectors for the movement of Formosan termites, which are resistant enough to the chemicals to be able to make homes in the center portions of many cross-ties. You don't want a termite that resistant to chemicals being brought into your property.

I have been told (so this is not some thing I have a source on) that the reason they are sold for reuse (at a loss to their removal cost) rather than being dumped is that dumping them would require a hazmat disposal fee.

I'm in the process of building my first SFG. I'm making four SFG's, they will be 4'wide, 8'long and 6" deep. I wanted to go 12" deep but money is tight with me not working. I'm using Cedar at just over $10 a board (I bought 12 boards). Each bed is going to cost me roughly I would say about $40 to build. I could have paid for a box kit at Lowes for $99.00, but the bed was only a 4x4 that was a 2x4x5.5" in front and a 2x4x11" in the back. I think buying the cedar is so much better. I brushed them with Linseed Oil today. I heard that good natural (safe) sealer, not sure though it if helps with termites. Also Cedar is a more friendly wood to use considering that it is more renewable then Redwood and that makes things easier on the environment.

This is my second year with a SFG. My first year boxes were made of the plain 'ol cheapie 2x6 untreated wood, I don't remember exactly what they were... some kind of pine or fir surely. I followed the instructions in my Square Foot Gardening book fairly closely in terms of trying to do this on the cheap.

I am replacing those beds this year because they've split, cracked and otherwise started to rot already. Not sure if that was because of the wood or because of the overly cold and wet summer we had last year.

My husband and I are starting again, doing three 4x8 by 12" boxes this year, of cedar using some of those aluminum bed corners you can buy online. The corners are expensive and are certainly not a must-have, but we figure it will easier to replace one board if needs be or expand the beds. We hope that will last for several years as opposed to what we did last year. We both have rather limited free time.

We did save money the first year...but if I had to put a price tag on the time we spent building the garden last year on top of the time we're having to spend rebuilding this year, I'd say we didn't save much. If its possible to spend some $$ on materials that will last a long time in your area...I'd recommend it.

Linseed Oil will grow mold outside (I read about a house that was sealed with linseed oil and mold grew all over). Use Tung Oil instead (apparently mold does not grow on it).

I just picked up 2"x12" rough-sawn hemlock to use for our beds. I'm doing two beds at 4'x12'. The total for the wood was under $100. These boards are actually 2" thick and 12" wide. The guy at the lumber mill says they should last between 10-15 years.

My beds are spruce (the cheapest option at the lumber yard) and we are going into year 4 on them. Should get another couple of years on them.