raised garden queston

 Want to put in vegetable garden and have few questions......the only place I
can locate garden is low and does not have good drainage. In early spring
there is usually some standing water ( inch or two) in this area. Spring
rain snow melt etc. When the rain stops the water will disappear in couple
of days, more or less. I am thinking of a raised garden. This is a 500 sq ft
area that I would like to plant tomatoes, beans, beets, carrots, peppers. I
was wondering if  2x10's would work for this project? What about pressure
treated lumber? any advise appreciated.

http://www.gardeningblog.net/2009/04/12/using-pressure-treated-lumber-in-raised-garden-beds/

 

http://www.gardeningblog.net/2009/04/12/using-pressure-treated-lumber-in-raised-garden-beds/

We have a small raised bed for the same reason. We used cedar logs rather
than treated lumber. We felt it was safer.
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http://www.gardeningblog.net/2009/04/12/using-pressure-treated-lumber-in-raised-garden-beds/

Think outside the box.  You don't have to bring the whole garden up to your
level.  You can make benches, or supports out of pipe, and garden to your
heart's content in containers.  IIRC, there are even a lot of boxes that you
can get from military surplus.  Other than that, cut off plastic barrels,
old bathtubs, lots of things that will hold a reasonable amount of plants,
be reusable year to year, and like tomatos, give you a special little
environment there where you can absolutely control the amount of fertilizer
and water that goes in.

I was considering this recently, and went through all sorts of mental
gyrations on lumber, treated vs. untreated, types of wood, lots of things.

One thing's for sure, if you build something that is that big, it's going to
be gawd awful heavy.  That's where some surplus pipe supports come in handy.
Plus, you can reposition stuff around your garden if you don't make big
mondo honkin' structures to hold a lot of dirt.

Just some thoughts.  I've tilled mine for this year, and stuff is growing,
but a full greenhouse is on the list for next year.  Raised boxes, overhead
water system, opening windows, the works.  But I will do a lot of it from
scrap, and the sewing of the woven poly I can do myself.  I just fixed two
of those big ratchet strap contraptions this evening that one would
otherwise throw away.

 
http://www.gardeningblog.net/2009/04/12/using-pressure-treated-lumber-in-raised-garden-beds/

Here's a layman's level perspective of PT (pressure treated) lumber.  Good
information.
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infpre.html

In my area, central TX, CCA version of PT lumber hasn't been available since
2004 at the big-box stores and lumberyards.  Its common for pier and beam
houses here to have PT lumber in them.  Sole plates (bottom plate) for the
framing is also common.

There's no long term observations on current chemicals used for current PT
lumber toward food growing areas.  Redwood, cedar, and cypress are naturals.
I would stick with that around a garden.

If you are deadset on using current PT lumber, avoid ferrous hardware.  ACQ
eats it.
--
Dave