[Greenbuilding] best lumber for raised vegetable beds

[Lawrence Lile]

Do you mean Cedar, as in Eastern Red Cedar, the common Midwest Weed tree which will sprout up in any abandoned field?  I was wondering how that stuff lasts in earth contact.  I have the same problem, needing to build garden beds, and I also have a lot of cedar trees that need thinning.  Although they provide cover for wildlife, they provide little else, and they shade out any native plants underneath, making a cedar monoculture. A few of them are a good thing, but a grove of them is not what I would call a healthy woods, and I have a grove.  Used the four biggest ones as beams in my house. 

I wonder if Cedar will split into rails well?  


--Lawrence Lile, 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org [mailto:greenbuilding-
> bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of William R Bloom
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 10:22 AM
> To: Green Building
> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] best lumber for raised vegetable beds
> 
> I have used cedar before, its good.  It was readily
> available in the midwest.  Here in New Mexico, you find
> primarily redwood at the home stores, considerably more
> expensive.  I have used regular dimensional lumber before.
>  Here the home stores stock douglas fir or even better,
> hemlock fir lumber.  I would consider those grades if you
> can get them over spruce-pine-fir (spf).  Southern yellow
> pine, a favorite of the treatment industry, is stout wood
> and resists the harsh pressure chemical treatment process,
> but I have found unless you have the lumber restrained, it
> ends up resembling a pigs tail after it seasons.
> 
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