Raised Beds

After a year of fighting battles of mythological proportions that made gardening something other than the fun relaxing enterprise I envisioned, I decided to try raised beds.  Once you have gone raised you will never go back.  It solves a multitude of problems and gives a level of control you cannot get otherwise. Nematodes (those vicious underground plant decimators) are not a problem in raised beds.  Weeds are easily manageable, and the gardener can grow more per square foot than traditional gardening.  For small or back yard gardeners like myself I can think of no better way to go.  Here are a few of my details and why I did what I did:

Size - I went 4' by 8' - 4' wide is as wide as I can take and still not have to get into the bed to plant or harvest.  I can reach to the center from either side.  8' long just suited my space needs.  It has proved to be big enough to get nice harvests of peas, green beens, 30 pounds of sweet potatoes, enough eggplant for us and the neighborhood, and so much lettuce and carrots I started saying, "What's up Doc?".  I like the size.
I used 8' 2x12' pieces.  I really believe 2x10s would be fine, but the extra height has allowed me more flexibility when adding poles and frost cloth and other mechanical things that seem to sometimes be needed. 10 to 11 inches of dirt is great.  1x anything might be okay.  I just wanted the extra strength.  Sometimes I stand on the edges to tie things.  I think that if the gardener used 1x boards the 8' sides would need extra support.  The 2x boards do not.

Material - Controversial - Some people despise pressure treated wood.  I do not.  The arsenic is gone.  The Chemicals used now are safer.  I do not know what "safe" means anyway.  I do not see much that is safe about this world anyway.  People have been afraid of PT wood leaching it's chemicals into the soil.  Well yes, from what I could find, they do leach....copper leached about 2 inches out from the board in 10 years.  That was the worst I could find.  The deal on copper of course is that if it ever gets to leaching (that depends on a bunch of factors) it will kill the plant before anything else.  You won't have anything to eat from that plant, thus copper poisoning does not seem to be a problem.  With all of that said, I feel relatively comfortable with PT wood, but I also lined the inside of the bed with a construction grade black plastic.  It made some of my friends feel better....and me too.  It was easy to do.  I cut it and stapled it around the sides.  Once the dirt is in the bed the dirt holds the plastic and the staples can rust away.