Retaining wall materiel for a vegetable garden - Ask Extension
I need to build a retaining wall in my vegetable garden about 40ft long by 2 feet high. I'm in a quandary about the appropriate materiel to use. I kno...
Knowledgebase
Retaining wall materiel for a vegetable garden #891833
Asked January 23, 2025, 9:20 AM EST
I need to build a retaining wall in my vegetable garden about 40ft long by 2 feet high. I'm in a quandary about the appropriate materiel to use. I know that pressure treated lumber is not an option. Would composite lumber like the type used for decking be safe to use?
Harford County Maryland
Expert Response
Pressure-treated wood (using the modern chemicals, not repurposed much older wood that used different chemicals) should be fine to use. Information on the linked page as well as our The Safety of Materials Used for Building Raised Beds page go into more detail. Virginia Tech has some information about using composite lumber in raised beds, noting that ground-contact use is not recommended by the manufacturers, there is a need for more support due to reduced material strength (it would be more likely to bow out from soil pressure), and there would be eventual decay of the wood component of the material, which is treated with a chemical different from standard pressure-treated wood. We also don't know what risk of microplastics/nanoplastics exposure that material would pose as it weathers or as it's abraded by digging and any equipment like string trimmers removing weeds or mowing turf up against the boards.
Miri
Miri