Shou Sugi Ban boards for raised garden beds--how well would they work?

Dec 10, 2025 11:41:22

I am establishing new garden beds and I need some type raised edging that will be positively rot proof. At the moment my plan is to use cement block. But I am not 100% sold. The certainly will not rot, but they are very thick and a touch unsightly. I am considering Shou Sugi Ban for some boards. I think it will be cheaper, definitely thinner, and probably look better. I have never done this, but it certainly looks easy enough.

So does anyone have any pointers on how to do this? Is this even a good idea? Keep in mind that the bed will contain wood chips being broken down by Wine Cap mushrooms and therefore this had better work 100% or it will fail pretty catastrophically.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

Dec 10, 2025 12:49:16

Even if you go with blocks, you should do one small bed that way and report back on performance over the years. :)

Dec 10, 2025 14:38:46

Are you going to use the Shou Sugi Ban technique on all sides of the boards?

That might work to keep the soil from degrading the boards.

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Dec 10, 2025 18:58:29

Cool stuff. I hope you do experiment with it. My guess is that mycelium eventually wins with direct soil contact. Eventually even with concrete blocks.

Probably the blocks last longer than the charred woods. You can plant cool sprawling ground-covery things in the block holes that could eventually be quite attractive when they cover the blocks. Strawberries and purslane maybe?

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