Have you seen the price of lumber lately? Lumber has gotten so expensive that building raised bed gardens has become unaffordable. I discovered the cheapest lumber that’s high quality for raised bed gardening! Lumber dealers don’t want you to know about this secret wood!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 The Benefits Of Raised Bed Gardening
1:25 Recent Lumber Prices Increase
2:15 My Secret Lumber For Building Raised Beds
3:40 Lumber Cost Comparison – HUGE SAVINGS!
5:08 Lumber Size Comparison For Building A Raised Bed Garden
7:08 How I’m Using This Cheap Lumber
8:50 Adventures With Dale
If you have questions about how to build a raised bed garden, growing edible landscaping or a food forest, want to know about the things I grow in my garden, are looking for gardening tips and tricks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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String Trellis Tomato Support Clips https://amzn.to/3wiBjlB
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8A
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#gardening #gardeningtips #raisedbedgarden #raisedbedgardening #diy
43 Comments
I'm pinning this comment for all to see: Modern residential pressure treated lumber is safe in your garden. Modern residential lumber uses micronized copper azole as a preservative, abbreviated MCA or CA. it is non-toxic and safe for use in your garden. Many decades ago, chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treatment was used, but this has long been banned in residential applications and is only used in commercial, industrial and marine settings. Unfortunately, some organic gardeners keep spreading this false myth. Don't use wood utility poles and railroad ties that are CCA treated. Modern MCA/CA lumber is safe. If fact, you can go out and buy OMRI-certified liquid copper fungicide for use in your garden.
If you are concerned about copper leaching, don't be. Not only have many garden channels documented soil tests in their garden showing negligible leaching from copper in treated wood, the substance is non-toxic, anyway. If soil leaching disqualifies "organic gardening," then you cannot use treated water from a city/town water supply, you cannot use rainwater collected in plastic rain barrels due to phthalates leaching, you cannot use a garden hose or drip irrigation tubing due to leaching of phthalates, and you cannot use well water due to the leaching of phthalates, either. Where do you draw the line?
The "organic" label has a lot of meaning in a grocery store – it means your food hasn't been doused with toxic chemicals. In the backyard garden, "organic" is a largely meaningless distinction. We aren't dousing our plants with chemicals in our backyards, and what you grow in your backyard will be superior to the best organic grocery store produce.
I'm a single frugal mom so I discovered landscape timbers over 12 years ago and use them on my walkways, garden beds, building fences, etc because they were always the cheaper option. Recently we learned about Cull lumber (discounted damaged lumber) but since Covid in 2020 and hurricane Ida in 2021 they no longer offer it at Home Depot. Now I'm using pallets as my Go To discount)free lumber choice
Many thanks for the only money saving tip on lumber! I went to Home Depot three days ago and bought 20 of these for $3.88 each, a great price. Lowes was $5.58 each. I decided to add another row of timbers on the garden bed so went back to Home Depot yesterday to buy 6 more – price was $6.68 each! Thought it was a pricing error, but the manager came over and said the price had gone up. That's a 59% increase literally overnight. I ended up getting the 6 extra timbers at Lowes for $5.58. I refuse to be the victim of price extortion! Thanks for your valuable tip about these landscape timbers, the ripoff price increase notwithstanding, you saved me a bunch of money compared to dimensional lumber.
I don't like the grass here in North Carolina. It is full of anthills, and it's also very hard and prickly. Not a good combination for a lady loving to go barefoot on her property.
It’s 2023 ,March . Nothing is cheap anymore!!!!🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈😡😡🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈
What do you do about tree feeder roots? I have to go to containers because of the feeder roots are taking all of the nutrients from my soil.
guys DO NOT use pressure treated lumber. PT lumber has a ton of chemicals that are harmful to your plants!!
By far the most impressive part of the video was bringing it home in the Camaro!
You Rock! I should find your video earlier!
thank you so much. Didn't even think of this.
Great idea, and <3 for Dale
Good idea using landscaping wood. Getting the oil in the ear reminds me of my experience exactly. One down, one to go.
I use landscape Timbers as fence posts for fence repair on small horse farm
Why do you leave your wood bare? Why not coat it in a non-toxic sealing oil or a wax if nothing else?
Thankyou for youre very helpful info!! We purchased some today & your video came up in results just in time for us to make the best plan possible!!
I just checked 8' landscaping timbers at our local Menards , 5.18 each . You are a genius ! Thank you !
We can’t find these anywhere in Utah, they used to be everywhere
If you’re handy with a circular or table saw, try ripping these 8 footers in half lengthwise to actually make two (amply thick) boards out of one. That comes to about $2.50 a board.
Thanks for the tip!
Appreciate you brother 🫡🇺🇸
A next best thing are 2”x10”s which are considerably cheaper at any/all lengths than 2”x12”s.
I just returned from HD yesterday and 12’ ten inch boards were almost half the price as the twelve inch version.
Even better, the 16’ ten inch board was only three more than the 12’.
Why it matters: for less than $40, I can build a 12×4 ft bed that is ten inches high with only two boards
I heard over the years that you should never use pressure treated lumber in your vegetable garden,due to the chemicals they use to preserve it. Is that true? Please send me a response. 3:10 pm. Boston.
PSA: Please use plastic liners on bottom and as a liner. These boards likely have a label stating not for contact with soil because of how they are treated. In construction there supposed to be cemented into the ground.
Are use the landscape timber for a flower garden a bunch of years ago and it worked really well and had a bunch of tulips and hummingbirds verification
i thought treated lumber wasn't good for vegetable gardens
But those raised beds are so low to the ground, that would basically be an in ground garden bed at that point, and if you’re planting on top of grass or hardly compacted soil, it’ll be a while before that soil really loosens up and becomes a good place for roots to thrive. Don’t you think?
Bruh I can’t believe lumber cost that much back then. I just bought a bunch of 2x6s for $5 a piece lol
I use fence panel boards. They are like 2 bucks and change per board. They are dog ear at corners but the board you arrach to usually fills in the gap.
I have to focus on the price because I'm poor living on disability
Uh oh! You messed up!
You STILL have to bend over to plant and maintain that bed!
For SHAME!
So if the mfr troubles himself to treat this wood, why is it so much cheaper?
I love your insight of trading option.
– the number 1 way is to base it on your emotions, not fundamental, not so much of technical analysis.
When a stock was already lower so much (hitting $215), I was thinking that it could fall even more, but the market in fact opened higher next day. — it is the time to buy call option of mid term (or short term).
When the stock approached $300, people wished it would go through, it was the time to bag in the call option profit.
Thank your sharing.
I used treated landscape timbers. Used to get them for $2. The ones at or below the ground rotted. They also don't make a great fence post. They rot as well at or below the ground level. Outside and above ground they are good. I believe you bought yourself – 10 years. But some places are dryer than others as well.
I would not suggest using pressure treated wood for your raise beds. That chemical will leach into your food and then into your body.
this guys awesome love watching his videos
Are the chemicals in that wood good for gardening?
With the toxic chemicals in pressure treated, more than the potatoes are eventually going to have extra eyes on them.
To save some extra pennies you can use wood fence planks as well as the posts you bought. Then it'd take one of those posts and several (6-12 depending on preference for height) planks.
I might add one other tip. If you have a fence company in your locality, they may recycle pressure treated wood timbers from their customers who have replaced their wood fences with new fence. That is the good fortune we have in our city; the salvaged pressure treated wood is given free to the public. Granted, these used wood timbers have for the most part rotted ends where they were embedded into the ground, but beyond that area is good solid wood, and most would yield at least 5 feet of useable timber once the rotted ends are sawed off. So, check to see if your local fencing company offers to give away lumber they have salvaged.
well… i go to scrap section where everything is 70 prcent off. and i treat them with linseed oil. hope it last me long time
They won’t last half as long as pressure treated but realistically you’ll want to stack them 3 high to get a decent amount of soil so your really not saving anything. Buy once cry once, go with 2×10’s
you need 2 timbers for every 2×8 since timbers are only 4" wide (not 8")
Thanks for your video and pinned comment. I'd just like to add that my (non-treated) 2×10 bed is doing fine 10 years on and will make it another 5-10 years. Your method is cheaper however and will last longer.