good wood for a raised garden?

[David Winer]

Whatever wood you use for a raised bed, I suggest coating the inside faces with roofing "cement," essentially tar mixed with a solvent to make it paintable with a stiff brush. I have flower boxes (cypress) that have lasted many years painted on the inside with roofing cement. Low cost stuff, by the way.

[Robert Engel]

Composite decking ;-)

Also, +1 on the ACQ PT wood. If you stain it it won't look that bad.

Depending on the degree of exposure just about any wood in direct contact with soil will eventually deteriorate.

Termites is one of the biggest problems around me. An elevated planter is a good idea in this case.

I've seen termites in heart pine, which isn't supposed to happen.

[Brian W Evans]

I just built some beds with cedar and galvanized steel roofing - an idea I got from a book about raised bed gardening. Mine are 2.5 feet deep, 15 feet long, and 3 feet wide. I used stainless steel cable strung across the beds in a few places to prevent bowing out of the sides. Cedar isn't cheap around here (I believe it's western red cedar and I'm on the east coast), so I'm not sure I'd do it again this way even though I'm pleased with the result. Cedar 2x4s and the roofing are available at Lowes in my area.

If I had it to do over again, I think I would try cement block or something similar. This would be cheap, strong, and would last forever. If looks are an issue, the block could be clad with something to make it look better - maybe even tiled. Some of that porcelain wood-look tile is surprisingly attractive and inexpensive.

By the way, a useful tip is to put hardware cloth under your raised bed to prevent moles from stealing your veggies from underneath. My neighbor is constantly losing plants to these sneak-thieves.

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[Joe Spear]

By the way, a useful tip is to put hardware cloth under your raised bed to prevent moles from stealing your veggies from underneath. My neighbor is constantly losing plants to these sneak-thieves.

11111IMG_20170621_112119.jpg

Moles don't steal your plants. They eat worms and insects and their larvae. They could damage roots with their burrowing, but the roots would grow through the hardware cloth anyway and could get injured. If the plants are getting stolen, look for evidence of rodents doing the dirty work, not moles.

[Bill Dufour]

Moles = Good. Gophers are vegetarians they will pull plants down from the roots until they eat the entire plant. Interesting to watch your flowers shaking in the wind, on a still day, as they get shorter and shorter.

[John K Jordan]

... If the plants are getting stolen, look for evidence of rodents doing the dirty work, not moles.

I find groundhogs the worst - just one can wipe out a huge number of plants in one night. Rabbits are next - they like to raise their young right in the garden. Deer love to eat gardens too but I figured out how to chase them away with 25 cents worth of peanut butter - not one in our garden for years now.

For wooden beds I prefer black locust and osage orange. Eastern Red Cedar is good too if you get some without the white wood. When I get logs of any of these I usually saw some 4/4 and 8/4 for garden use. I plan to install more raised beds this fall and transplant all my strawberries.

JKJ

[Brian W Evans]

Thanks to those who pointed out that moles are not the problem. We don't have gophers in CT, I don't think, but something is stealing my neighbor's plants from below - you can see the holes with tunnels leading to them. Whatever it is, hardware cloth will stop them. My beds are 2.5' deep, with hardware cloth and landscaping fabric underneath, so I don't anticipate too many roots extending below ground level. Other critters are stopped by my 8' tall fencing.

[Lee Schierer]

You most likely have meadow voles that are eating your plants. They tunnel year round.

[Joe Spear]

We don't have gophers in CT, I don't think,

You most likely do have gophers in CT. They are pests in my Massachusetts garden. They mow everything down and even eat tomato leaves if they are hungry enough.

[Mark W Pugh]

........ I figured out how to chase them away with 25 cents worth of peanut butter - not one in our garden for years now.


JKJ

Please elaborate.

[John K Jordan]

"Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan ........ I figured out how to chase them away with 25 cents worth of peanut butter - not one in our garden for years now. JKJ"
Please elaborate.

I have an electric fence around my garden (about 150'x50'). The fence is only 3' high and certainly wouldn't stop a deer. I periodically put dabs of peanut butter every 10' or so on the wire. The theory is the deer smell the peanut butter, come close to taste it, and seriously don't like the 5000 volt taste! The theory appears to work. Once deer experience the shock on their nose/mouth they apparently never get anywhere close again!

I read about this idea somewhere at least 10 years ago.

A shocking story: We have deer in our horse pasture almost every day. It has a single electrified tape 4' from the ground and the deer simply walk under it. Once I watched a deer approach the fence from inside the field and lift his nose to smell the tape. He jump backwards with a flip and raced back across the field. When he got to the tape on the opposite side he bowed up and stopped then ran back across the field twice then up and down the fence looking for a way out with no tape. About 20 minutes later he was still in the pasture walking the fence line. I had to leave for a while and he was gone when I got back.

A trapping story: Peanut butter, BTW, is one of the best live trap baits I know for varmints like raccoons and skunks. Any kind of meat or cat/dog food will work too but with the peanut butter you don't accidentally trap the cats too! I spread a bit on a piece of bread and throw it into the back of the trap. Our incidence of chickens and guineas killed and nests (and garden veggies) destroyed has gone down with the trapping.

Once something was destroying our corn so I set three traps in the garden with peanut butter bait. In the first trap I caught a big raccoon. In the second trap I caught two skunks! The third trap caught THREE skunks. That was a memorable day.

JKJ

[Steve Demuth]

I just built some beds with cedar and galvanized steel roofing - an idea I got from a book about raised bed gardening.

By the way, a useful tip is to put hardware cloth under your raised bed to prevent moles from stealing your veggies from underneath. My neighbor is constantly losing plants to these sneak-thieves.

I wouldn't count on galvanized roofing holding up particularly well, particularly in NE soils, which lean toward the acidic. Your mileage might vary, but there isn't that much zinc on most stuff you get from home or farm stores. And, if the gardener uses any type of NPK fertilizer, they're basically dumping an ionic soup onto that zinc/steel. Not a recipe for longevity.

The hardware cloth is a good idea, although it's voles (not moles) and other rodents that you mostly have to stop. Moles are basically worm and grub eaters, and with the exception of having a taste for just germinated pea and bean seeds, don't eat vegetables (although their near surface tunneling can be very disruptive to plantings). Chipmunks, gophers, voles, and out here on the prairie, pocket gophers, on the other hand think carrots and beets are candy. But the hardware cloth isn't going to be all that long lived either - I'd give it maybe a 5 year effective life.

[John K Jordan]

I forgot to mention I electrify the garden fence with the same livestock fence charger I use for the horse pasture. This one is solar powered, bought from the local farmer's co-op.

JKJ

[Steve Demuth]

I have an electric fence around my garden (about 150'x50'). The fence is only 3' high and certainly wouldn't stop a deer. I periodically put dabs of peanut butter every 10' or so on the wire. The theory is the deer smell the peanut butter, come close to taste it, and seriously don't like the 5000 volt taste! The theory appears to work. Once deer experience the shock on their nose/mouth they apparently never get anywhere close again!

You've got some exceptionally trainable, or not very persistent deer. I use a two layer, 7 wire fence, a 20K Joule, 12K Volt charger, and bait to keep them out of the orchard, and it's still only moderately successful. Once they get hungry after there is some snow on the ground, they're through that to dig for apples and munch twigs in trice. What has finally brought them under control though, is a llama and two dogs. The llama patrols the pasture and keeps them from coming in from open areas, and the dogs create enough mayhem inside the orchard to make lunch at our place not worth the trouble. The llama is particularly fun to watch - she's a guard animal for the sheep flock, and she keeps them safe from coyotes by being very thoroughly checking out anything that enters her domain. A deer comes over the fence, and llama just starts walking straight toward them to figure out who this new addition is, just like she would with a new sheep. With the sheep, she comes right up and gives them a good going over with her nose to get to know them. That totally freaks the deer out, and they quickly leave the way they came. After an entire grazing season of that, the deer simply don't view the pasture as part of their territory, and stay away even during the winter.

[John K Jordan]

You've got some exceptionally trainable, or not very persistent deer. ...What has finally brought them under control though, is a llama and two dogs.

Llamas will definitely guard things, especially large llamas with guard tendencies. I have a couple like that, 10 llamas and alpacas, well 11 counting the new baby. We have no llamas anywhere near the garden side of the property, though.

llamas_IMG_20140913_154543_.jpg

The deer here may well be trained. We usually host their young every year so perhaps they learn to avoid the garden from their mamas .

Also, there is an abundance of things to eat outside the garden since we are adjacent to hundreds of acres of woods and fields, creeks, and river. I don't worry too much when they are in the orchard but I don't want them in the garden (or my blueberry patches!) No coyotes here - I suspect the llamas, donkeys, horses, and dogs keep them away since just a few miles away there are plenty.

One issue with llamas and whitetail deer, in this area at least, is the threat of meningeal worm which can disable and kill them. It is passed from whitetail deer through a tiny snail to llamas. I lost one probably to that parasite and one of my females got it but mostly recovered with treatment. Horrible parasite, affects them neurologically, coordination, balance, and if they live they are often permanently changed.

JKJ