Well, I realize this wasn’t actually a question so much as a statement, but I can give you some insight into why I bought it.
I’ve got 3 handmade raised beds. All are beautiful and work perfectly. Trouble is, making them knocked my back out for nearly 3 weeks. My wife was asking me to make 2 more beds this year and frankly I don’t feel like being on vacation again this summer with my back out. Soooo, I am supplementing the existing setup and bought a cheesy metal one that is probably 1/10th as good as my hand made ones. Sadly it will probably outlast them in all it’s ugly glory.
But at least I can still walk around and do other stuff, ya know?
I used the “premium” douglas fir which was quite significant compared to the standard 2x8’s. Easily 2x the weight. They didn’t weather the crazy NE winter very well though. What I would have done differently is treat them with some sort of non toxic treatment like linseed oil (I think thats non-toxic?) to keep the moisture at bay. Something hydrophobic. There were lots of pops in the wood, presumably from water getting in the cracks and expanding.
Anyway, it’s an extra 20 minutes of work but you’ll thank yourself next year and the next…
If you’re not concerned with the aesthetics, a MUCH cheaper route is to use an old pallet. Basically place it on the ground, fill the inside with soil, and plant your rows in between the top slats. Works great to keep moisture in and the weeds out! As far as I know, they are not made of treated lumber, and often you can get them for free. Wife showed me this idea from Pinterest, so I cannot take credit…
We haven’t tried this, because just last year we built four 4’x8’ raised beds using landscape timbers (basically a 4x4 with two rounded edges). Looks nice and was very inexpensive.
And YES, depending on the moisture content, soil CAN weigh upwards of 120 lbs/cubic foot. Completely dry closer to 50-60 pcf; saturated upwards of 125 pcf. So, the 75 pcf mentioned above is a very good estimate. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have any problems putting this raised bed on a deck (based on weight alone). If your deck can’t support a 1200 lb dead load (even 2000 lbs fully saturated) over 16 square feet, you have MUCH bigger problems.
I had my local fence company router out some white hollow plastic fence posts to accept plastic planks with 12 " extra length or so that I buried…then I fitted plastic planking in the rectangular cutouts. Cost about $ 50 each.including fence post caps.
