Wood preserving

[Chuckles]

Been chatting to sweetleaf on the Mad Woman thread about my raised bed. Below is the conversation so far. Does anyone have any good advice on wood preserving of any kind, be it raised beds or fencing, pergolas etc etc. My raised beds are lined with black poly.

sweetleaf said:

Hey BB it has occurred to me after reading a catalogue (Marshalls) that if you paint the outside of your raised beds black it will absorb heat and warm your raised beds above the ambient soil temp... earlier crops would result. Not only that it would hide the writing, and look pretty smart. Genius, IMO!

greety said:

Sounds like a good idea SL, I was thinking maybe Creosote, cheaper alternative to these other wood paints, which would be a dark chesnut brown if I used several coats it would be darker. OH thinks that would cover most of the black print and wood.

What do you think

sweetleaf said:

Firstly, BB I dont think it would completely cover the writing and I have doubt about the safety of using creosote near food crops, anybody got any info about that?

I know if it splashes on leaves it burns but does it get into the soil and therefore into the food?


I now have similar doubts about the paint idea.....

[MamIDdau]

Don't know whether an outdoor gloss might be an idea? All sorts of colours then ;D You can get primers and sealers and stuff to go on first then paint over. My imagination would run riot if I was let loose with a paint brush and tin ;D

There are plenty of products around nowadays with a low or minimal VOC content which I would assume safe to use around food stuffs as they tend to be water based.

[Spruance]

How about Cuprinol Ducksback?

I use it on my wooden compost heap and on the sheds and fences. It's water based so not at all harmful.

B&Q sell it Aprilaydee. I'm surprised you didn't mention it! ;D

Of course B&Q and ****Base have their own cheaper variants which I am sure are really just as good.

[Chuckles]

Thanks for that Spruance.....Forest Oak looks a good one. What you think sweetleaf, couple of good coats wood cover that writing.

[Susie Snowdrop]

All of our surfaces in the glasshouse at work are black. They absorb the heat during the day and then release it at night!

S x

[Chuckles]

Been and got a 6L tub of Cuprinol Timbercare Rich Oak today for my raised beds, it looks a really dark colour. It's meant to be for rough sawn wood but I'm sure it will do the job on smooth wood to.

www.cuprinol.co.uk/products/timbercare_overview.html

I'll let you know what its like

[sweetleaf]

Thanks for bringing this thread back up.
I lost it.

That sounds pretty nice chuckles.
If you look like me when its done youll be covered in spatter, and look like youve got an interesting skin problem (one hint...cover your hi lights!) ;D

[Chuckles]

I had a job to find it SL, started to wonder if I'd started it it had gone way down the list, infact I htink it had gone to page two Just shows things a buzy on here ;D

Thanks for the tip I don't want Lo Lites ;D or Dark Oak Lites