Raised beds?

[Growingchef]

What is best used for raised beds old railway sleepers, old scaffold boards, treated timber or any other? I am having to make another as I have planted to many seeds this year my seond year of growing my own I am waiting for an allotment in the village were I live so I am making do at home.

[JennieAtkinson]

Hello Growingchef and welcome to the Grapevine.

You might like to do a search on "raised beds" as there has been quite alot of discussion in the last few weeks about what is best to use. Hope that helps.

[puravida]

I read up a little bit on this before I built mine - I think the main thing you need to be wary of is any contamination that could spready from the wood to your lovely veg.

Railway sleepers would probably be fine for raised flower beds, but they contain quite a lot of heavy duty preservatives and lots of oil etc from the trains so not very nice to grow veg next to.

Scaffold boarrds should be okay but not sure how well they are treated so may rot within a few years? Might be wrong.

Pressure treated timber used to be treated with all sorts of nasty stuff but more recently this has been changed and it is not so bad now. I used pressure treated in the end because it is cheap, readily available and I didn't want to have to replace rotten boards ever year or two.

I'm sure there's loads more info on here though!

[Cheffi]

I have just ordered direct from Link a Bord. They use recycled materials to make their boards. They are cutting it to my measurements as well and if I was to ever move I will want to take my greenhouse and my raised bed. The initial cost may be a bit costly for some but they are maintenance free and will last a lifetime.

[Growingchef]

Thanks for the replys I will be getting an allotment by this time next year or earlier if our parish council can ease out the existing tennat, so the beds at home are not for long term I have made one up out of my daughters old paddling pool and another from old wooden wine boxs from work if I can work it out i will post some pics I have picked up one old scaffold board from work now just need two more. Look at link board prices and nearly fell over as I am just short term they are out of the question.

[The Sage of Brouhaha]

I used a load of gravel boards that were treated and have stapled black plastic anywhere soil would be in contact with the board (the inside and the bottom) to stop any of the evil they've been pressure treated with leeching into the soil.
Here's a photo, not all of them have been sunk into position yet. You can just make out the black plastic.

I would expect scaffold boards would also be treated timber too as scaffolders wouldn't want to be risking walking around at height on rotting boards.

[dinky_doo]

what i am using are pallets on which wall board is delivered on i ask on building sites and at all diy stores the wood is generally 7ft long and roughly 4 inch wide so thats roughly8 7ft strips and you get a some 3x2 thrown in too

[BayViewPlot]

My raised bed are from recycled doors..

they may rot but I hope will do the job for a year or two while I get some metal sheeting etc

Don't think the paint will be a problem but open to be corrected

This should prevent the undergrowth of masses of coltsfoot and other weeds

[Peter]

Sleepers are fine.

There is a national supplier of all grades, new, used, treated, untreated at http://www.railwaysleeper.com/?gclid...FQ3mlAodzybvxQ

This unquantified "nasty stuff" argument is too familiar.

The secondhand ones will have been heavily treated with creosote and then installed under rails, Then for many years they have sat there on very coarse gravel in sun and rain. They will also have been washed by on-board train toilets, so plenty of bacteria working on digesting that load will have helped digest any other surface deposits .

I have some for the base of my greenhouse and one made into a small raised bed, the only "chemical worry" I have with any of them is to remember NOT to sit on the side of the raised bed as there is a tiny patch round a knot in the wood which very gently weeps tar, just enough to mark clothes, permanently .

Look at the website, weigh up the costs and compare against other materials.

Oh and someone siad they used old doors, how old?

Lead based paint anyone?

[BayViewPlot]

Thanks for the tip on the lead, have done a bit of a search and it might be worth sending a sample of the paint (to a testing company such as 'leadtest') if I can't find anything to replace the doors with.

http://www.leadtest.co.uk/f.htm

[The Sage of Brouhaha]

I wasn't too bothered about the CCA treatment and thought it was unlikely to get into the soil until I received my gravel boards. They were fresh timber and had just been treated and there was definitely excess treatment on them. The outside was powdery and sticky and drips formed when I screwed into them. I felt that there was a danger it could leech into the soil so covered it.

The HDRA are against any use of treated timber in an organic garden and B&Q refused to cut a piece of treated timber I bought from them in store for fear of 'releasing arsenic into the atmosphere'. But the timber suppliers play down the risks and say you only need to avoid using it for food preparation surfaces. I think it's hard to work out whether there is a risk when using them around veg beds or not. Once the excess treatment has washed off I would have been much more comfortable using them.