Re: [gardeners] Question about pressure treated wood
Wendy Arons (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 22 Feb 2001 11:34:04 -0500
perhaps "metastudy" isn't precisely the right word--I was referring
to a global study of other people's research; i.e. reading a bunch of
research reports & collating all the data and reporting on it. In
other words, they don't do the experiments/research themselves, but
look at all of the data from people who do. I was in a hurry and
grabbed the first word that came to mind...
I've seen pictures of straw bale gardens and they look cool. I can
see your point though--if you lay a bale on its flat side, it's
really wide and you can't reach beyond it easily; if you lay it on
edge, it's pretty high & you have to fill it with a ton of soil.
Hmmm... I think I'll still give it a try for a bed or two & see how
it pans out, worse comes to worse we can always use the straw for
mulch next year. Wendy
>I've considered that. Straw bales sound reasonable until you
>actually face one. The width of one straw bale is about as far as I
>can reach from a kneeling or sitting position. Leaves no room for
>garden soil. What are "metastudies"? Margaret L
>
>At 09:07 AM 2/22/01 -0500, you wrote:
>>Organic Gardening magazine has done a number of metastudies of the
>>literature on CCA wood and has recommended strongly that it NOT be
>>used for vegetable gardens or for children's play structures. They
>>say arsenic DOES leach out into the soil; they also have found that
>>your plants don't thrive as well.
>>
>>I've never used CCA wood for raised beds, so I don't know if plants
>>do more poorly; I personally wouldn't take the chance of having my
>>food plants so close to arsenic impregnated wood. If you read the
>>handout that lumber stores are supposed to give you with the wood
>>(my partner's a carpenter, we get these things all the time) they
>>tell you that you shouldn't bring the dust into the house, you need
>>to launder clothes separately after working with CCA lumber, you
>>need to wear gloves and a mask while working with it, you shouldn't
>>eat or drink while working with it...frankly, this doesn't sound
>>like something I want near my food.
>>
>>There are other cheap alternatives, like "plastic" wood for raised
>>beds. We're experimenting with using straw bales to build a couple
>>of raised beds this year: they may be too high, but we won't have
>>to kneel...
>>
>>
>>Wendy, Indiana zone 5