Railroad ties OK for a raised bed garden?

[Wannabefree]

I'd use them. Everything is toxic now a days anyway the way I see it. Ya gotta live Yeah...burning them makes the goo bubble out, but uh...I never burn my raised beds myself

 

[SKR8PN]

To show you how skeered I am, I used treated lumber to build my raised bed! I looked at it this way........any leeching that may occur from a treated board standing on edge, will be downwards, not sideways, and will end up below the top 4-6 inches of soil, and THAT is where the roots will be anyway. I do leave the boards lay out and weather for 6 months before I use them.

 

[Marianne]

I kinda sorta agree with Baymule. The ties we have were here when we bought the place and I know they're old. BUT, there is one that has a bit of goop that bubbles up when the sun is hot. Luckily that one isn't around the garden, but I still think about it. In my neck of the woods, it's illegal to burn those ties, too.

Our place used to be a working dairy farm years ago, so there's a boatload of rock drive all over the place. We tried to dig down, but it's over a foot deep, so we went raised for gardens.

Sometimes you have to use what you have in front of you. I think we need to use some common sense, like not planting root veggies next to them. My standard rule of thumb is to not plant anything within two feet of them. In the whole scheme of things, that's probably not far enough away, but... I only have them one timber high and have fencing stapled to them, so I don't see tearing them out anytime soon.

People that use cinder blocks don't realize how long the cement leeches out, either.
And Pat, you have a good point.

 

[k15n1]

I vote no.

Creosote is a hydrocarbon soup that I wouldn't want near my garden.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote

You can purchase treated wood that is rated for ground contact... They're sold as landscaping timbers and do not cost much.

I made a raised bed out of treated wood that was not rated for ground contact. Although it is lined with plastic, I would not do it over again.

 

[FarmerJamie]

MIL built her raised beds out of free ties and lined the inside of the "box' with heavy duty plastic. Worked for her okay....

 

[Veggie PAK]

You know you don't generally need the kind of magazine-photo-style raised beds that have ANY kind of fancy retaining walls... if you need raised beds at all (and far, far more people use them than OUGHT to, in my opinion, and end up wasting a lot of water that way) it is quite frequently satisfactory to just pile the dirt up and 'dress' the sides with your hoe or whatever, every so often as they start to subside.

Raised beds are poorly understood and highly overrated IMO, except for those who physically cannot get down to deal with ground-level beds or want to start things very early in a cold climate.

Anyhow getting back to your question -- if they are REAL railroad ties ie. the giant creosoted things from an actual railroad, it's a personal judgement call. Me, I'd avoid it if I could (creosote is not good stuff to be ingesting even small residues of) but I would also not sweat much about it if I *had* to use it. If they are pressure-treated things merely *labelled* railroad ties or landscape ties, I would worry even less but still suggest it's up to your personal tastes. Everyone has different ideas about risks.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

I agree with you wholeheartedly on the raised bed issue. It would be great for wet areas so the seed wouldn't rot, otherwise it does take a lot of water to keep it up. There are so many gimmick methods of doing things that we are lured into using. I think most of them are flashy just to sell a magazine or book, and they don't apply to all situations. Nothing does.

I would skip the railroad ties. Contaminants do leach sideways as well as down.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

As you can see, it's seriously a matter of opinion and how willing you are to deal with risks.

If I already had them on my property, I probably wouldn't stress too much about it, but I wouldn't plant food crops near them either.

Since I don't have them, I probably wouldn't even accept them for free.

IMO, the effects of toxins may be cumulative, and the body may reach a point where the "load" causes problems. That point probably varies by individual, by environment, by contaminant, and by a number of other factors. There is quite a bit of cancer in my family even to three generations up from me (including childhood cancers in the early 1900's) and both my mother and grandmother died from cancer, so I personally prefer to take as little risk as possible.

It's seriously a matter of opinion though.

I just mound the soil a bit in my garden, and use the hoe to drag it back, as suggested. For the areas with very thin topsoil, I dig down and amend it as much as possible, then build low frames from used cedar pickets. It's my first year doing that (the pickets in poor soil areas) so I can't be sure how well it will work, but so far so good. And it's just as much a way to keep the creeping grass out as keeping soil in.

Eta: by low I mean LOW ... it's just one picket high, so maybe a 3-4 inch frame. I don't think that qualifies as "raised". Next year I could say better, but under about a 1" layer of soil and grass I found a HARD layer of clay that I can't dig through ... No wonder the yard looks so awful. But it's almost an acre of poor lawn, and I'm determined to put it to better use than that.

 

[freemotion]

When my dad was a kid on the farm, he would tie a bandana around his head with DDT on it to keep the biting flies and mosquitoes away. He is still alive in his 70's and doing fine. DDT was considered safe.

Doesn't mean I'd use it for ANYTHING.

I would be very cautious about using the ties. There are other options, right?

 

[KevsFarm]

On sale, dirt cheap or free....i'd never use them. I've made raised beds from felled oak trees and from field stones, both work well. No chance of toxins getting into veggies, stones last forever and i've gotten 8 yrs out of 10 in oak lengths.Of course it does help to have free access to these natural raised bed builders.

 

[HappyHomestead]

Stay far far away from the rail road ties! They leach chemicals into the soil. I've heard time and again that people who took them out of their gardens had to have all their soil replaced. Sure you can do all sorts of stuff and it probably won't kill you, but I'd rather my health risks involve fried food and milkshakes!