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Re: building raised beds

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Susan S. writes:
> We just had this discussion on another list a few months ago. I have
> been buying the pressure treated lumber for my gardens. I wasn't aware
> that the wood was pressure treated and all my gardens were made of this
> wood.

Most wood you can buy these days is pressure-treated.

> I definitely would not use railroad ties, although when I first got
> into organic gardening, that is what people used.  They have been known
> to have chemicals leach in the soil.

Definitely.  Have you ever seen a wooden telephone pole planted in the
middle of a grassy area?  There's always a little dead circle around
the base of the telephone pole where no grass will grow because of the
creosote levels.

> If I have to use the p.t. wood,
> I will make sure it stays in another part of the yard for awhile so
> that it can get rained on, or sprinkled on, and that may help remove
> the arsen before I put the wood in the garden.

While some of the studies I read this morning seem to suggest that
arsenic and other toxic chemicals in the wood do not leach to dangerous
levels in this situation, while others think they are do, they all
suggest that any leaching is very slow --- requiring decades.  They
also suggest that the sawdust from cutting the wood is much more
effective at getting arsenic into your soil or body.  (So don't cut it
in the garden, don't inhale the sawdust, and for goodness' sake, don't
compost it!)

How much did the arsenic testing cost you?  Perhaps I should do the
same thing around my new house --- the previous owner was a framer.

-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
The Internet stock bubble didn't burst on 1999-11-08.  Hurrah!
<URL:http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/bubble.html>
The power didn't go out on 2000-01-01 either.  :)


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