what wood to use for raised beds

[simple life]

I have been to several different places the past couple of days trying to buy cedar for my raised beds. None of the stores carries it.I am going to have to check some specialty places since Home Depot and Lowes doesn't have it, but am wondering what else I can use.
I read here that someone said not to use pressure treated wood and I can find that anywhere but not the cedar.
Any help would be appreciated.Thank You, Natalie

 

[simple life]

Sorry, must have hit it twice, didn't realize.

 

[Baymen Moe]

Natalie, hit search and type in "pressure treated wood". I'm not to computer savy but there's a link in one of the forums on using PT. I've looked at many studies on it as well. Google it too, tons of info. To me, it's a toss up. In 2003 CCA was no longer made available for residential use. It's ones own desicion on whether to use it or not.

Bill

 

[SewingDiva]

We used Trex (the deck composite product) for our raised beds along with PT 4x4 posts for framing. My husband extensively reviewed the scientific research, and evidently PT has little negative impact on soil, the toxic impact comes from direct skin contact (hence it no longer being used for playground equipment and outdoor funiture)

My husband and I did a post on this a few weeks ago, with pictures of our beds, and he goes into some good detail about both Trex and PT for raised beds:

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=22928

Trex is also more cost effective than cedar, we found it to be about 30% less.

~Phyllis

 

[Baymen Moe]

Thank you Phyllis, I thought it was your post.

 

[simple life]

Thank you, I just looked into your beds. They came out beautiful by the way. I followed a link in one of the searches I put in and found that they also make something called ACQ which is pressure treated but without the chemicals they formally used in all pressure treated wood.You are right about the regular pressure treated as well as far as exposure and skin contact.
Thank you both for taking the time to respond.I didn't think it would be this hard to find the lumber I need.
By, the way, any thoughts on how thick this wood should be? We are finding some between 1/2 inch to 2 inches.

 

[SewingDiva]

any thoughts on how thick this wood should be? We are finding some between 1/2 inch to 2 inches.

Do you mean the AQC? The Trex boards we used are 3/4 of an inch think, but trex is not as rigid as wood. Not sure that's any help, but I suppose a wood board used for the sides shoudl be at least the same thickness.

~Phyllis

 

[simple life]

Yup, mixed my letters up.