Railroad ties and raised beds
thedens
18 years ago
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lucky_p
18 years agoscotland1
18 years agoRelated Discussions
How to secure landscaping/railroad ties
Comments (14)I have personally use landscape timbers (1/2 trees as phil v has mentioned). I've used these as a small raised garden bed at my mothers house about 6 years ago. I have learned more as I go but found that the best way to build a 3 layer wall is to: 1 Vary the lengths of the boards so the seems don't match up. 2 over lap the corners so you can drill down through them and run a 4' length 1/2" rebar through all layers. 3 run a total of 3 or more lengths of rebar into each board. 4 On the inside wall of the structure, pound in some treated 2x4 posts. Then drill them to the wall to help maintain their shape to hold what you fill it with. 5 use 10" exterior spikes to connect your layers together if you plan on leaving them there as a longterm fixture in the landscape. I Then stained the wood to match the exterior of my mother's house and was all done. Now, looking back, I wish I knew to do this myself. But, you learn as you go. I just fixed up the wall this year on Mother's Day for her and it looks as good a new where I hadn't connected the corners with the rebar. Good luck...See More100 year old railroad ties - safe?
Comments (4)loveapplefarm: Just as a point of fact, NO chemically treated wood is allowed in the production of organic or certified organic products. When your property/farm is inspected for certification, believe me, it's one of the FIRST things they look for. Thankfully, when we buy certified organic produce, we KNOW it was not grown in a bed surrounded by railroad ties or other chemically-treated wood. What is your motivation for wanting to use such material--because it's free, or cheap? If you think it through, even free material which has been injected with a known carcinogen, could be hazardhous to your (and your family's) health, and really not worth the risk. Organics is based on working with natural products. I, personally, wouldn't want that stuff anywhere on my property, whether it involved food production, or not. I have a friend who grows Kiwi Fruit in Southern California, and (because he works for the power company and gets them free) uses pieces of telephone poles for the poles in his trellis system. As much as I like Kiwi Fruit, I have to pass on the bushel of them he tries to give me each year....See Moreneed recommendation of liner for railroad ties
Comments (10)Yes, I meant either/or. As you can see Bill, pcp is still allowed for treatment of rr ties, although most are treated with creosote - most, not all. I don't know if Allen knows what they had been treated with. "Allen's ties have already been in the ground a long time,..." I'm not sure how to interpret this. Do you mean all of the creosote or pcp has leached into the surrounding soil? That is why I would remove the soil too. I've heard creosote can remain in wood for up to 80 years. Here in my state and I believe most if not all others, our county has a household hazardous waste collection site and to further encourage people to dispose of hazardous materials properly, sets up a neighborhood pick-up collection at least once per year. From there the materials are disposed of according to more stringent regulations than ordinary waste. Maybe BC doesn't have a similar program. My city includes plastic in the recycling progam, so I don't need to come up with creative ways of burying waste plastic in the garden. "I think we get a little too focused on one little 'evil' around us and lose the big picture-" Bill, what do you know about these contaminants? "Technical grade PCP has historically contained dioxins (e.g. tetra-, hexa- and octochlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) and hexachlorobenzene as manufacturing by-products." (http://ace.orst.edu/cgi-bin/mfs/01/pips/pentachl.htm) "concerned about plastic but drive a car ..." I think it is far wiser to not add hazardous products to an already contaminated environment when there is no need, than to find excuses to continue the practice. A good way to help limit our contribution to the problems is to not continue to add to the enviromental burden, especially when we know certain item/s are problematic. Removing these problematic items and disposing of them properly lessens the burden....See MoreLazy composter, new beds
Comments (4)g'day nancy, we use no-till raised garden beds and also like the lazy composting method where we add our rottable material straight into the beds where it can do its job from the word go. you can do a clay test by putting a dessert spoon size ball of clay in enough water to well cover it for 24 hours if it starts to or dissolves then you have the clay nearly all of us have the other kind is less common. using raised beds i wouldn't bother, just throw down a good cover of gypsum then start building the bed on top sooner or later the earth worms will come and they will mix the organic matter into the original soil. anyhow got pic's and descriptions on our web site, might be some ideas there for you? len Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page...See Morepam_3
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