Preserving Wood Planter Boxes And Raised Beds

[greenthumbomaha]

Please share your tips for preserving your wood planter boxes, raised beds, birdhouses, etc. There have been scattered posts but a thread on this topic might prove useful for both successes and failures.

Some examples of my future staining projects:

Gronomics elevated bed for lettuce- Western Red Cedar (their brand cedar oil recommended, other options ?)

Pennington "Wood" window planter boxes- not the best wood but it should do the job, would like to maintain the stain color to match house

Thank you for any alternative solutions to maintain a rich color using a safe material for growing edibles.

- Lisa

[Worth1]

Many of you all would want to eat anything out of my beds they are treated lumber.
The new stuff not the old stuff.

My goal is to use the wood sides for forms and do stone work around the beds.
Then when the wood rots away there will still be beds.
Another option is to line the insides with some sort of vapor barrier or plastic sheet.
Several coats of marine grade polyurethane?

Worth

[kurt]

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...ghlight=bamboo IS ASPHALT A TOXIC HAZARD TO ANYTHING IN THE ENVIRONMENT?
No. Asphalt is insoluble and does not react with water. In fact, hot mix asphalt (HMA) has been used to line
surfaces of fish hatchery ponds and community water reservoirs. For example, the Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California has used hot mix asphalt liners in its reservoirs for over four decades. Asphalt is also
used to seal potable water supply pipes. Another important use of hot mix asphalt is industrial retention ponds
and landfill liners. Asphalt liners prevent harmful substances from leaching into the soil and possibly contaminating
ground water.

[greenthumbomaha]

http://www.lowes.com/pd_191757-303-1...ood&facetInfo=

Rephrasing my post from above. This is the same brand as the planters I just purchased.It isn't the very best grade of wood, but I'd like to try and keep it new looking and colored for as long as possible, rather than have it weather to gray. Anything work on this soft wood to retain color?
- Lisa

I'll line the inside with weed fabric to keep the soil from washing out. So no toxic worries, just for vanities sake.

[greenthumbomaha]

While I'm on a roll. any lower cost ideas for this one?

Gronomics elevated bed for lettuce- Western Red Cedar (their brand cedar oil recommended, other options ?)



http://www.amazon.com/Gronomics-RPB-...ords=gronomics

[Worth1]

You have a saw?

Worth

[greenthumbomaha]

Yes, and 10 fingers which I need to plant seeds

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

Yes, and 10 fingers which I need to plant seeds

You only need 1 finger and 1 thumb on each hand to plant seeds.

I was going to suggest you build your own for way less money.
I clicked on the link to the planter box and later I was on a wood working site.
Low and behold there it was in all of its glory the same planter box in an add.
This is starting to happen more and more these days.
Worth

[drew51]

I use an acrylic stain. It is a water based product. Soap and water clean up. Often acrylic paint is used to prevent sunburn on fruit trees. Painted at 1/2 strength directly on trees. So I assume it's not toxic. Treated wood these days has a copper in it, and appears to be safe too. I spray my trees with copper twice a year. Plus all the pipes in my house are made out of copper. The new plastic decking wood is color fast, and doesn't rot. Lot's of alternatives.
I just build my own. It's so cheap, and that way i can spend the money saved on other items, gardening is not cheap!

[Lorri D]

Perhaps try an acrylic stain or paint on the outside and stick to linseed oil, orange oil &/or soy for
the inside. SoySeal is an example of some stuff that I have heard of, but never used. Lorri D

[drew51]

Yeah i left the inside of my beds unstained. Linseed oil maybe a good alternative, I just don't see any of these products lasting long though.
Possibly Cedar or the fake wood. The new treated wood is so lame now it doesn't hold up. Maybe a couple years longer than plain old pine. Cedar and the fake wood are expensive. I could not find 12 inch widths or 2 inch thickness like on pine. You would have reinforce them, and they too will eventually rot.
Stone pavers would last, but they do move, and again are expensive.

My beds...




Same beds two months later 2013 08 15

[Hermitian]

I make mine out of landscape block. For larger beds I use keystone legacy block. It has great drainage and you can reconfigure it if necessary. For smaller beds I use narrow cinder block with rebar - BUT I do not put cement grout between the blocks because I want drainage. I do fill them with mortar so they are sturdy.

[Buzz]

In the early 90's I had to redo my beds due to the wood rotting out. I obtained enough of cinder block at garage sales to rebuild my 5X10 beds, 2 blocks high, and glued them together with Liquid Nails construction cement. The holes were left empty and have occasionally filled some with potting soil where I grew herbs or Strawberries very successfully. I generally cover the unused tops of the blocks with unglued caps. Since we have a gopher problem, I lined the bottoms with 1/2" hardware cloth. In this drought the deer have become a real problem. I found a roll of chicken wire on sale, made corner posts out of 1" PVC inserted into 18" 1-1/4" PVC sleeves that were driven into the corners and centers of the beds. A top rail of 1" PVC was finally made to hold up the wire since the deer had, in their desperation, learned to push down the wire. The fences are easily rotated like doors to allow clear access to the beds. The beds are still in use today, 22 years later, with no sign of movement, cracking or deterioration.
Buzz

[greenthumbomaha]

Are we on the same page with acrylic stain for cedar too?

Lorri D & Drew51, I've used linseed oil on teak benches, and it did grey after a few years. Sanding and refinishing brought them back to a nice wood tone. Lat year I used Danish oil.. very , very expensive and took multiple coats to get a rich wooden look. Not sure how long it will last. Would be cost prohibitive for raised beds if reapplication is needed every two to three years.

Worth, no building projects for me. I know better

Buzz, Hermitian I have neighborhood restrictions. I'm thinking of erecting a raised bed on the setback, the ready made slide together kind in case I have to move it someday. I'd be stretching it to use blocks. Don't want to invite the inspector.

- Lisa

[drew51]

Acrylic stain is easier to remove when refinishing. i find it not that tough, but it supposed to look good longer. I have a cottage made of cedar and used the acrylic stain. As removing the oil stain was extremely tough! I put this stain on 3 years ago, i went up this winter. it's on an island that has no cars. I had to go to a bigger island, and walk there along the shoreline to get there. Anyway here is cedar with acrylic stain, 3 years old. The cedar here is 49 years old.


The front window used to be a bay window, 2 years ago i removed it. It was rotting out. I tried to pay contractors, but getting trunks on the island is expensive, and time consuming. You have to stay 24 hours at least, no contractor was willing, so I put smaller windows in that I could handle myself.
Simple trim. so easy to trim out. The cabin was built in 1965.