RE: A mini guide to my raised veg boxes - Gardeningchef
It is great you use larger wood pieces in the bottom of your raised beds as it will improve your soil mix or the several years it breaks down. Nice looking boxes. I imagine you just varnished the outside since the inside was lined and I really like the look of varnished wood but I found a great product years back when we were looking for something to protect the wood I built my rabbit cages out of. We found it at home depot and it is called lumber seal. It is a VOC free non toxic Lumber-Seal clear satin wood sealer. It really is not clear though it give the wood a nice lighter looking stain. I really like the look of it on my large driftwood blocks I use for my sharpening stones. Great article though it really makes me want to get to work on our new area of raised beds for next year. We cut down a large tree above the area we use to have our rabbit cages so now we have a large fertile are with full sun and partial sun, from shad cloths we are hanging, perfect for raised beds.
Hey there @liberyworms!
I didn't know the wood pieces would be beneficial to my soil mix so thank you for letting me know, I am glad I chose them! We get wood in for our living room stove but often times the pieces are too big to fit hence using them to bulk out the bottom. I will have to have a look around for some lumber seal like you have mentioned, it sounds good for lighter wood staining.
You have a brilliant spot for some new raised beds where you cut that tree down with all that great sun light. I hope you will make a post on it if you put some boxes there!! I'd love to see.
It is one of the best things you can do especially in the permaculture growing. Just big wood chips. Some people even dig a trench and fill with cardboard boxes and then plant the row in front but they break down way faster then large wood. Your essentially slow composting in the bed where you are growing.
I didn't know that, thank you for this useful information @liberyworms! I am going to have to do some more research into slow composting.