[Greenbuilding] best lumber for raised vegetable beds

[RT]

> Why does it have to last 40 years?
> What's wrong with using something natural and replacing it every 10 - 15?

> The problem with cedar that will actually last 40 years in ground  
> contact is that it is likely from old-growth.

> RPL is often the way to go when looking for durability in exterior  
> applications.

Years ago (20 ?) when garden tools first started appearing with  
plast-eccchhh! handles I bought a bunch (some D-handled spades, forks,  
hoes, cultivators etc) thinking that they should last forever without my  
having to do the yearly treatments with linseed oil that I do with my  
wooden-handled tools.

The plast-echhh ! seemed like a good idea because I thought that I would  
be able to leave them out in the garden in between uses and have them  
right where I needed them.

Of course, I should have known better because *NOTHING* that I've had that  
was made as a plastic substitute for the real thing (wood, metal) has ever  
lasted.

If it's not deterioration as a result of UV exposure, it's shattering due  
to brittleness in cold weather or it's being chewed to bits by some little  
buck-toothed furry critters thinking that it was food .

It was the middle of January or so just this past winter when I grabbed a  
plast-ecccchhh!-handled spade from an open-sided shed (rather than dig out  
the feets of snow in front of the door of a garden shed) to do some quick  
digging...
and the danged thing snapped off right where the plastic shaft enters the  
shank of the blade. @&^#@#*#&(@# eh ?

OTOH, I still have/use some wooden-handled garden tools that my Mom used  
to use in her garden.

As for plast-ecchhhh! lumber:

Many of my neighbours used plast-ecchhh! lumber for their decks. You know,  
the stuff that costs # times what real wood costs.
I have yet to see one that hasn't experienced cracking and splitting, one  
(much to the alarm of my neighbour) splitting in as little as over the  
course of the first winter.


But back to the subject at hand:

I'd suggest that salvaged-from-a-nearby-source (ie within 5 miles or less)  
concrete block would be one of the better choices for the task of  
coralling the soil in raised vegetable beds. I was fortunate to have a  
fellow just three sideroads up from me, deconstruct an old dairy that was  
on his property. Nice, limewashed, 8"x 8" x 16" three-hole CMUs (ie  
thicker walls and webs than the modern 2-holed CMU), stacked neatly so all  
I had to do was back up my truck to the stacks, fill up my truck and take  
'em home.  And he wouldn't take any money from me either.

There are usually any number of sources for salvaged CMUs if one lives  
near a large-ish urban centre because there are always developers tearing  
down old buildings to throw up condos or strips malls etc.

The problem with CMUs is that they're heavy so if you're hauling them with  
something like a pickup truck & trailer, it doesn't take all that many to  
make up a tonne or two so you really don't want to have to make a  
bazillion long drives back and forth to haul them home, hence the "5 mile  
(or so): criteria stated earlier.

Even better would be to have the deconstruction contractor have their  
backhoe load the blocks into their dumptrucks and deliver them to your  
site, usually at no charge other than maybe some coffee and doughnuts to  
coerce them to dump at your site rather than some other site.
-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
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