Raised bed liners (natural or nontoxic?)

I rescued the pictures raised garden bed from a family members trash pile. It was from a kit to build your own and it’s cedar wood. I know it was spray painted on the outside, which is a bummer but I’m hoping to still grow food in it.

It is a little rickety and had fallen after heavy rains saturated the existing soil inside.

The black plasticky liner was thrown away. I was thinking of lining it with something natural as it has a gap on the bottom and holes drilled and I don’t want to lose soil onto the cement.

I looked online at options like burlap, canvas, and coconut coir. I thought about using an old organic cotton sheet that I have that is degrading but I’m still enjoying it as a sheet… yesterday, I bought a canvas drop cloth at Lowe’s, made in Pakistan. (I’m assuming it is 100% cotton?) It seemed like a better option than the made in China burlap and the black landscape cloth.

Should I have any major concerns with lining my garden bed with canvas if I want to grow organic edibles in it?

(I also bought some galvanized hardware to install on the bottom to hold the pieces together better.)

Nice find!
I've used whatever fabric I had laying around for this kind of thing. Definitely share your concerns about landscape cloth (always a bad call, in my experience!!).
Burlap or sacking is what I usually have, but I would consider sheets, curtains, etc. (anything old gets repurposed in the garden).
Canvas may hold water a bit longer than other fabrics, so if you're in a place where the plants need water longer (hot, sunny) that might be a good thing.

We have a few that are a little deeper than that and now just use hay to line them.
We just roll off a thin layer and pack around the sides and bottom and throw in the soil; then change it out every season with new stuff.
Natural fabrics will work fine for you but everything (safe) eventually rots.
you could also possibly sand off that paint down to the cedar if you wanted.

We have a few that are a little deeper than that and now just use hay to line them.
We just roll off a thin layer and pack around the sides and bottom and throw in the soil; then change it out every season with new stuff.
Natural fabrics will work fine for you but everything (safe) eventually rots.
you could also possibly sand off that paint down to the cedar if you wanted.

Well, I went for it with the canvas, so we’ll see how it turns out.

I wouldn’t need to hold the moisture so much right now but come spring and summer, I’ve heard it gets in the 90s and 100s, so that quality of the canvas should be helpful.

Looks great. I love amazing finds like this.  One time my niece had an old wooden twin bed frame in there dump pile. It made a great raised garden bed for about 5 or 6 years.  I love free, and when it saves it from the landfill even better. Great job.

I’m happy that I got some leafy greens and calendula planted. I think I want some cucumbers to go up a trellis on the window side… or peas.

Life has been more stressful than I like. I haven’t harvested as much as I anticipated and many of the spinach plants went to seed too quickly. I did get some new tomato & pepper plants planted, so that will be nice. I am a little bit concerned about the water that comes out the bottom seems to discolor the concrete… so I May need to come up with a solution for that soon.

Some animals have eaten all the pansies I’ve planted! My garden seems mostly untouched so far but I have some precut tulle that I can cover the garden with at night, if need be.

Happy Gardening!

…sadly it didn’t hold up too well during transport, so I’ll be adding some more hardware before I replant it.

A little wood glue and some screws and you will be good.