Raised beds for square foot gardening

[dellboy78]

I am desperate to have a go at square foot gardening but am stalling because I cant decide what wood is best for my raised beds. I dont want to contaminate my produce with nasty chemicals but also want something durable and ideally not over expensive either. I'd imagine there will have to be some kind of compromise though! I found this site

(website link removed)

which sells some nice looking kits treated with Wolmanit cx10 which they say wont leak out and is suitable for food production. I just wondered if anyone on here knows any more about this stuff? Or if anyone has any other suggestions? Please help!

[marchogaeth]

For me railway sleepers are too much "dead space" - they are so wide - if I lived closer to a supply I would be scaffolding planks on the edge of my beds, although I think I prefer to work at soil level the more I do in the garden. I assume you have looked through this thread http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_44388.html .

[Bigmallly]

I agree with the above, using scaffold boards is the cheapest option or if you want it to look more pleasing, you could use decking either 1 or 2 depth tall. Some folk use paving slabs laid on their edge or roof tiles, even wine bottles have been used to make raised beds..........just a few options to consider.

[bearded bloke]

Have you seen ... https://www.woodblocx.co.uk/ ... they put a booklet in the GYO magazine quite frequently, the block sizes in your link look like the will be quite heavy to lift.

[beeterforit]

I have used scaffolding boards there ok but will rot, also used sleepers which will rot when filled with compost

I use 100mm concrete building blocks built on a concrete small foundation under the blocks only , to get the natural drainage.They will have to be built by a bricklayer or good DIY person in grid style to strengthen
I can hear you all screaming that that's a lot of work
My raised beds have so far lasted 30 years the real benefit is they do not get as dry as wooden ones

[TheChemist]

Were are you OP? We have a wood recycling charity near us that sells used wood (and tells you where it's from, and where it's been treated) really cheap. They even cut it to size! Might be worth a look to see if anything similar exists in your area?

[Lumpy]

We used ripped apart pallets with sheet plastic for lining - really cheap as pallets are free and the plastic can be bought off the roll at a garden centre or via internet.
The wood is very sturdy and you get a good work out trying to separate the pieces but we found that it was worth while.

[Kristen]

Beware that pallets used for international shipments have to have been fumigated. That can be by heat treatment, or using chemicals such as Methyl Bromide (no idea if that is bad, or not, though ... but possibly other chemical treatments might be worth avoiding?)

[seasprout]

I use decking planks.

[TrysHard]

I use 150mm deep gravel boards cost about £2 a mtr.

[NatalieCooke]

I found some pallet collars at work. You can buy them on eBay or you could see if your local pallet collection had any for sale.