Building raised garden beds to outlast me

[Xist]

As I recall, even proper animal manure is supposed to be left in the sun before use.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Dont know about today but in basic training we were warned asians were using "night soil" in rice paddies.

Because it is Nitrogen-rich. But anyway, when properly treated, it's most likely as safe to use as a soil amendment as any random animal manure, despite it being quite a taboo.

[Piotrsko]

There is a famous underground rumor that bio solids from the El Segundo sewer treatment plant in LA are processed, packaged and sold as soil amendments.

[ME_Andy]

Austin absolutely does that. It's called "Dillo Dirt"

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

It's not a widespread practice in Brazil AFAIK, but in Paraná state most if not all of that material is used as a soil amendment. Makes more sense than sending it to a landfill.

[Xist]

These people like their $30 raised gardens that assembled in seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oopAFEwzrAU

I saw something like this on Facebook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-f3gVwNkcw

He stacked two because they are 7" tall.

What do you think looks better, the craft-stick style garden box like in #1 and the first video here or the ones with corner posts like this?

I found another video from just 4 weeks ago with a lady who obviously has a thick accents, she doesn't say anything, she has subtitles.

You want me to read?! What is this, a comic book?!

She bought at least one Modular Garden Bed like this:
$454

Home Depot sells 7/8 in. x 6 in. x 8 ft. Kiln-Dried Cedar Boards for $22
If I use 4.5 on the long side and 2.25 on the short sides... I have half an extra board, but what can I do?!

Fourteen boards x $22 = $308.

They don't have cedar thicker than 1" and I cannot order anything thicker.

Neither does Lowe's.

Menard's does, but I don't know how many hundreds of miles away the nearest one is.

However, they will ship it.

$45 for the cedar 4x4 on sale!
$2.80 processing fee.
$20 handling fee.
$575.77 shipping a 4x4x96 package.
Having the only cedar 4x4 in town?

Priceless?!

Hancock Lumber will ship 10' boards for the low low price of $114.39, with free shipping!

What a bargain!

This potential idiot used, I don't know, idiocy for this raised garden? He used construction adhesive to sandwich two boards for rigidity, galvanized corner brackets, torque washers, and carriage bolts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6B33pAZHvA

I am not looking up the hardware, but Home Depot sells cement boards for $27 each, and you need 3.

Here the same potential idiot, who seems to have more confidence in this project, said that people who do custom milling of green lumber are selling it for cheaper than box stores, but they don't kiln-dry it, which is problematic.

He said that pressure-treated lumber will last a long time, but pine and fur last 10-15 years.

The FDA says that pressure-treated lumber is totally safe, but the government has a long history of telling us that things are safe and years later amending "My bad."
he said to be sure to drink a refreshing glass of radium water after building your pressure-treated garden box.

By the way, my neighbor is on full disability because the government sprayed Vietnam with totally-safe Agent Orange.

Home Depot sells 8' of galvanized corrugated steel for $29.

He used 4x4s for the corners, requiring two, a piece of scrap lumber connecting the long sides, and 3 pieces of drip-edge flashing for the top surface.

Home Depot sells those for $6 and 4x4s are $12 each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6gRBjlkKLY

I am coming up with $129, plus screws.

His first raised garden box used 6 $4 cedar fence boards, a $15 roll of hardware cloth, 2 normal $12 4x4s, and 4 $1.65 1x2s for reinforcement.

Two years later he said they held up great.

That totals $69.60.

[Piotrsko]

I use bent/ warped floor joists. 2x12 , purple ended for a 70% discount. 4x4 in the corner. 4 years including carpenter ant infestation

[freebeard]

Locally, there is a slow, steady stream of 10-12ft corrugated metal at about $10/ea. Random pinholes from it's life as roofing.

One can get Hollywood style bed frames at the same store, IIRC about $12. Those could be cut up for the corners. Driven into the ground.

Instead of expensive nuts and bolts and tedious hole drilling -- a homemade spot welder?

[Xist]

I like this design, but I am less interested in being modular, I would only want to route grooves on the sides I expect to use, leaving the outside edges plain:


I have been trying to figure out how to make elevated kits this way, but I cannot imagine routing a groove in 5/8" cedar and having that support the bottom.

I don't own a router, I have never used one, and I certainly haven't made dovetails, but I don't think that would work, either.

However, the fence stringers are holding up at least as well as the fence boards, so wood survives well enough outside as long as it doesn't stay wet?

I keep thinking that I can slide 2x4s underneath, but how would I secure those without tools, with dowels coming underneath to a crossmember just below?

Of course, Bob made one, from composite decking, with angle aluminum for the corners and stakes.

Is there a problem with these moving?

[redpoint5]

I want something I can fulcrum a wheelbarrow on without crushing it. That probably means 2x6 pressure treated wood.