Tue Apr 22 08:32:59 PDT 2003

So Laurie and I have been looking at putting some raised garden/flower beds into the back yard. Initially, my dad had found some nice stuff made of recycled materials at www.rrpm.com, but at close to $130 per bed (and we want three), that’s a bit high. Laurie’s dad used treated wood to prevent rot, but after reading the prominantly placed "Consumer Safety Information Sheet" on the treated lumber and learning that it contains chromated copper arsenate and the extensive handling instructions neither one of us felt comfortable with that solution either.

So we then started looking into composite wood/plastic decking materials. Home Depot has two kinds, a ultra-expensive kind and a cheep kind made by LP, and available in 2x6x(8/12/16) and Lowe’s has a similar product made by Weyerhaeuser. Both appear to be fully water/rot resistant but do bow a bit since they are a composite material, so we’ll have to stake them in a bit more securely than we might otherwise. The cost per linear foot is a bit high, but it’s significantly below the cost of purchasing the prefab beds from rrpm, around $45-60 per bed. Assembly appears fairly straightforward, I was thinking of using the "square baluster" parts (1x1x4) as spikes to keep the frame from bowing or moving. I’m thinking that may be overkill inretrospect. The deflection over a 4 foot range isn’t too bad for the LP material, and after dirt is added, I think it’s unlikely that they will be able to shift horizontally at all.