So we recently moved into a new house which means starting a brand new raised bed garden at the new house. Lots of work to be done to get the new garden started, the first being to get the materials to build the raised garden beds. Don’t like the idea of the chemicals used in treated lumber ( even though some say it’s safe). Maybe it’s just trust issues. Its hard to predict long term effects of anything until years down the road by which time it’s too late. I’d rather grow the natural organic way as much as possible, as that is one of the benefits of having our own garden anyway.

Cedar has always been my choice for my raised beds due to its natural resistance to rot and insects, but good quality cedar  lumber is really hard to find here in central Alabama. I did a little research and it turns out that about a 4 hour drive away in northern Tennessee, cedar lumber is abundant, and relatively cheap especially when compared to our area. A couple of weeks ago, we decided to take a road trip up  there because it would be worth it to get the lumber fairly cheap and have an all natural building material that will last for many, many years. So we jumped in the car on Saturday and headed north.

Grant Cedar Mill was our destination and we saw lots of beautiful scenery on the way there. You could smell the cedar in the air before we even arrived. Such a great scent that always reminds me of gardening! I got 2×6’s and 4×4’s that I will be using to make lots of raised garden beds. The cedar lumber comes in 8 foot lengths but the staff at Grant Mill was nice enough to cut them in half for me so they would fit in our car. It’s a good thing, since it would have been very difficult to fit 8 ft long lumber in a 2-door compact car! Four foot length will be perfect for my needs because the raised beds I will be making are going to be 4ftx4ftx12in. We piled in lumber until the car was at max capacity, I wanted to get as much as possible to make the trip worthwhile. Should have enough to make 4 or 5 raised beds which is great considering the size of the car.

We payed for everything and then made a stop in nearby Nashville,TN to spend the night. A great city with lots to do that we had never visited before. The next day we headed back home with our haul of beautiful cedar lumber.

It was a fun trip and we saw/experienced lots of new things. The moral of this story is, if you want the perfect building material but can’t find it in your area, it may be just a short drive away and come with a free adventure.  If you’re the not the DIY type, there are lots of options for pre-built easy to assemble raised garden bed kits that you can see here.  It’s a few weeks later and the car still smells like cedar, but I don’t mind at all. 🙂