I use PT as I live in rainy Seattle. You are right about the new treatment, but it is still not perfect. Blocks are safer, but I wouldn't do mine any other way. The choice is yours. Good luck!

I used landscape timbers. Ckeck out my pictures below

Here is a link that might be useful: cajunkorner

I used PT as well. My first boxes were not PT and they're starting to go south. They've changed the compounds with which they make PT lumber, but some still prefer not to use it. There's no right answer; it's a matter of choice.

I'm a new SF gardener, just getting my first 2 beds started for a (late) fall planting and so they are ready to go in the spring. My beds are 4'x4'x1' made with pressure treated wood. Because my brother in law made them, then could not use them, and gave them to me free. He did a lot of research about PT lumber too, and felt comfortable using it, so I feel like it's fine by me too. When it comes time for me to add more beds (porbably sooner than later) I'm not sure what I'll go with, just because of the cost. It cost him about $100 to make these 2 boxes.

C_penton, I love the way your landscape timbers look. How did you connect them all together? Did you just run long screws down from the top into the lower one? I see the pieces you used in the corners, but what's holding the top pieces to the bottom pieces?

Also, what did you use to delineate your squares? For my fall garden, I'm thinking of trying out this whole SFG thing, and need all the help I can get!

I just took some scrap pieces of board in the corners and put a screw in each timber going down. and by alternating the stacks at the corners it holds pretty good. I'm thinking of adding a 3rd square for the spring and i might try a diff approach to connecting them by using a long drill bit and going trough all 3 timbers at onece, then driving a piece of rebar through into the ground. You can get the rebar precut at lowes or home depot in 12",18" and 24". The dividers were just trim pieces of vinyl siding i purchased at Lowe's. I think they were less than a $1 for a 8' piece, and i just snipped it in half and tacked it down.

AH, brilliant, thank you!

I was reading someone's blog (engineeredgarden's maybe?), when I first saw the landscape timber beds and thought they were so nice looking. I think they're much cuter than the ugly redwood thing I pieced together at the beginning of summer, and that's perfect because I need some kind of decent looking setup since I'm considering expanding my vegetable gardening to the front yard (scary!). I think the rebar idea is great because it allows for some portability or expandability, since none of the timbers are actually screwed together. I had previously been thinking of drilling a hole through all the ends, running a lag bolt through, and then securing the end with a nut of some sort so that I could pull the bed apart for whatever reason, but rebar might be even better.

There's a guy around here building and selling raised beds that he calls 'removeable.' He joins the ends with a hinge of sorts and they can make a box or a flat pile. Problem with his 'removeable' system is that once the bed and soil have sat in a place for a season, the grass underneath has died back anyway so it's not nice and pretty anymore.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Corner Yard

Ribbit, I haven't seen the guy's beds, but I have a feeling I know what you're talking about. To give myself a little instant gratification, I bought a couple beds from a company based out of New Zealand that sells pre-made raised beds (they call them collars). They have these special hinges on them so that you just connect two pieces together, drop a pin in, and your bed is built. I wish I knew what the hinges were called or where to buy some because it'd make raised bed building a cinch. Anyway, the beds are made out of lumber that's kind of crappy and probably won't last too many seasons, but they were only (heh only) around $35 each, so I thought it was a decent deal.

If they're the same type of beds, they are most definitely not as nice and pretty as the ones made from the landscaping timbers, which I find to be really, really attractive. I'd thought about building a bed out of stacked pavers, but my front yard is teeny tiny, like maaaaybe 6' or 7' wide, so losing out on a couple feet of space just for the walls of the bed would be a bad idea.

As far as pressure treated lumber, I'm currently growing some veggies in a couple terraced areas in the backyard that are made with PT lumber, and I haven't worried much about it.

I think that when reviewed objectively, PT lumber is probably an acceptable choice. If one was overly concerned about leaching, then they could possibly line the inside of the bed with plastic but it probably is not necessary.