If you are thinking about building raised beds this year, we highly suggest using Juniper. While cedar and fir are often preferred building materials, PDX Urban Farms has had to remove and repair many of these decaying or rotten beds – an effort that becomes timely, costly, and ultimately unsustainable.
“And why Juniper?”, you ask
An Oregon-sourced wood, Juniper is durable, affordable, chemical-free, and the wood lasts up to 30+ years next to soil. Meanwhile, harvesting Juniper helps restore grasslands in Central and Eastern Oregon, where years of wildfire suppression have allowed Juniper to overtake what was formerly a high desert grassland ecosystem.
Though a native species throughout the high deserts of the West, Juniper’s out-of-control population growth and thirst for limited water supplies has contributed to erosion and the overall loss of biodiversity. As a result, many acres of Juniper are now being cut as part of an effort to restore the grassland ecosystem.
So we purchase Juniper from Sustainable Northwest Wood where they get the juniper from Easter Oregon. Juniper is beautiful, durable, and useful wood while supporting the sawmills in rural communities.
Needless to say, PDX Urban Farms builds all our raised beds out of Juniper, designing and building custom-raised beds that are suitable to the space requirements and your gardening desires.
And once, these raised beds are made manifest, we follow-up with soil and compost, sourcing White Lightening from Dean’s Innovation’s – our preferred soil company in Portland. White lightning contains some of the best ingredients – worm castings, mycorrhizal fungi, mineral dust, topsoil….fruit and veggie compost, dairy manure compost, mushroom compost….river sand and horticultural pumice…the many delights of decomposition.
So as you get ready to garden and play in your own dirt, think of longevity, this year’s garden, and give us a call to build a future for your edible bounty.
Tenderly yours,
pdx.farm
