Along the downward sloping side of my end-unit townhome, I would like to put a 3 tiered raised bed.

I don't have a picture, and can't get my drawing to paste - but the idea is simple. Three maybe 8 foot long by 4 foot deep wooden beds (maybe a foot high with part in the ground) tiered up to the front of the house.

The raised bed would be made of wood, but I can't really find suitable wood for it. Though it will have flowers in it, I also probably want to put in some edibles and don't wast to use pressure treated wood; however, I'm having a hard time finding any of the hardy outdoor woods (cedar or redwood) around and what is around is not the right size or too expensive.

Thanks!

Cedar does not last near as long as popular belief has it. Redwood will be hard to find and very expensive. Probably a special order item.

To get your drawing to show up here (you can't paste it directly into the message) first, you must save it on your computer and then upload that saved picture to a photo-hosting site such as photo-bucket, picasa, flickr or the like. (It's free.) Once it's there, look for a link to "share" it. Sometimes there will be several choices of code for different size pictures or different uses. But under the "share" link find the picture's html code and paste it into your message here.

But another option is to get the kind of marble or granite slab that is used for countertops - even the manufactured materials of that sort are good.

There is a marble/stone shop near me that always puts its off-cuts into the alley and a lot of my raised beds are sided with long narrow pieces I got there for free. But for that price they don't match, and I work with the sizes I get, or the odd time pay to have it cut (we've also done some cuts with a diamond blade).

If you wanted to pay for it, you could order pieces to size and pick a material with an optimal thickness. The regular thickness can be a bit fragile in some applications - and long thin pieces are that application. Obviously it needs to be held upright in place somehow too.

Finally, isn't there something on the market like a plastic wood? Trex or something? Can that be used in soil?

Karin L