Finish For Vegtable Planter
I built a cedar deck a couple seasons ago and I've had a stack of the off-cuts sitting in my shop waiting for it to be used. In my part of Canada it's still a littler cold at this time of year but I'd like to get some of my vegetables started so I decided to build a "hot house". Essentially it's just a planter that sits directly in my garden with a piece of glass on top to form a mini-greenhouse. Once the weather is nice enough, I just remove the box and in the ground are some nicely started vegetables.
The planter is shaping up quite nicely but my biggest dilemma is how to finish it. I absolutely love the look of nice clean cedar but it's been really tough trying to find a good sealer for the wood that doesn't leech any harmful chemicals into the soil. I looked at Linseed Oil but unless it's the raw type it's not very food-safe and doesn't do a good job stopping the UV rays from discoloring the wood either. I looked at Spar Urethane but I can't really get a straight answer if it's going to be harmful sitting in the soil as well.
Does anyone else have a product or method they use to keep the nice look of the cedar? I don't mind doing work to keep up the appearance of the wood.
I built a cedar deck a couple seasons ago and I've had a stack of the off-cuts sitting in my shop waiting for it to be used. In my part of Canada it's still a littler cold at this time of year but I'd like to get some of my vegetables started so I decided to build a "hot house". Essentially it's just a planter that sits directly in my garden with a piece of glass on top to form a mini-greenhouse. Once the weather is nice enough, I just remove the box and in the ground are some nicely started vegetables.
The planter is shaping up quite nicely but my biggest dilemma is how to finish it. I absolutely love the look of nice clean cedar but it's been really tough trying to find a good sealer for the wood that doesn't leech any harmful chemicals into the soil. I looked at Linseed Oil but unless it's the raw type it's not very food-safe and doesn't do a good job stopping the UV rays from discoloring the wood either. I looked at Spar Urethane but I can't really get a straight answer if it's going to be harmful sitting in the soil as well.
Does anyone else have a product or method they use to keep the nice look of the cedar? I don't mind doing work to keep up the appearance of the wood.