Building Materials

Bruce pointed out a couple of days ago that the ground here doesn’t drain well, and I can remember the soil being very wet after even very short rain showers.  This means that we’ll have to build a lot of raised beds for our vegetables, and considering the economic crunch, and just good old frugality, we should try to use as many recylced materials as we can, and this is where we all need to pitch in.

We can’t use treated lumber because the chemicals in it will leach out into the soil.  We CAN use: cedar, cypress, redwood, corrugated metal, stone, cinder block, and brick.  Keeping that in mind, there are a few places we can keep watching for used materials:

• Construction sites, who will often let you take their scrap materials
• Home Depot or Lowe’s – especially for the pallets they throw away, which can be taken apart.
• Free stuff on Craigslist (houston.craigslist.org/zip)
• Freecycle (Houston and Tomball – you’ll have to click “Join This Group” on the Houston page)
• The Habitat ReStore (at 13572 Hwy 249).  Not free, but the prices are good, and the money goes to a good cause.

And of course, if any of you find out about friends or neighbors who have materials they’d be willing to donate, please let us know.  You can either post a response here on the site or email me.

Thanks!