coating for bare wood raised beds?

[Karen]

Patti, I love watching your videos and envy those great raised beds! I have three 4x4 ft beds I've put in over the last 2 summers and plan to add more this summer (I have to move slowly b/c dh is one of those "big grassy lawn" kinda guys). Anyway, I avoid anything pressure-treated but can't afford composite wood or cedar, etc. that is naturally rot resistant. What, if anything, have you coated your wood with to protect them from the elements? I had some back in my old garden, in Georgia, and after 18 months they were half-eaten by termites! Luckily we don't have much of that problem here in Maryland, but I'd still like my beds to last through the rain and snow (currently several feet on the ground).

Karen

editing to bump this up and see if anyone else has an answer?

[Karen]

Replying to my own question here...

Yesterday I started clearing out last year's beds and found to my dismay that after only 2 seasons the boards are rotting at least 2 inches up from the ground. I had used 1 x 10's. So, since I was planning to combine/move some of the beds anyway, I"m going to go ahead and replace all the lumber now with 2 x10's. I also scouted around online last night and at the RealMilkPaint site found tung oil which I think would be a good product. I know it won't protect them forever but if it would give me 5+ years for a bed I'd be happy. They also have an outdoor additive to put into milk paint to give it UV protection, etc and you can mix the tung oil into the paint also if you want to paint the boxes for aesthetics. It seems pretty safe but i"m just going with the tung oil.

[gardengirl72]

Thicker wood will last longer. I use 2x10x8 dimentional lumber for mine and I still have plenty of life left in them. I use milk paint on mine it is non toxic, but I only put it on the outside. The beds are fine. Tung oil will help as well.

[Karen]

Thanks - I saw you'd used milk paint on some of the outsides when you added a bench etc. and it did look nice. I think I'm just going to go for the tung oil at the moment, esp since i have the expense of replacing all that lumber now, and then I might go back later and paint the outsides of the boxes if they need it. I've found places for at least 4 more 4x8 boxes in my yard so I'm getting excited about all the extra space! Just need to scrounge the wood and get them built, and then of course fill them - a lot of dirt to get!

Karen