Loading…
23
My neighbor took one look at my new raised beds and asked why I built them out of cedar when I'll just have to tear them out in 5 years
I spent about $280 on cedar boards last month and built four raised beds along the back fence, and I was pretty proud of them until my neighbor Carl walked over. He's been gardening in his yard for 30 years and he just looked at them for a second and said "cedar was a waste of money, those will rot out on you in 5 years and you'll be rebuilding the whole thing." I was annoyed at first but then he explained he used plain pine and just lined the inside with cheap plastic sheeting, and his beds from 2011 are still holding up fine. What really got me was when he said "the dirt doesn't care what the box looks like." So I ended up taking two of my cedar beds back to the store, got $140 back, and rebuilt them with pine and a roll of 6 mil plastic I already had in the garage. Now I'm second guessing the other two beds. Has anyone else gone cheap on the wood and regretted it, or was Carl right that I'm just paying for looks?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
jana_jones5d ago
Building raised beds is basically my cardio for wasting money, so at least you got some back. Carl sounds like the guy who tells you your grill is wrong, but the plastic liner trick is solid and it keeps the wood from sucking up wet dirt all season. Keeping the cedar for the two beds you see from the kitchen is not crazy either, since a wood box is half garden and half yard decoration.
10