"Chookie" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Arno and Triny" wrote:

can anyone help me....I am after some raillway sleepers to make some bed
plant.

I would only use *used* railway sleepers in beds for ornamental plants.
Our
railways are sprayed with arsenic to kill weeds, so some would be absorbed
by
the sleepers.

I have look around but cannot find any anyone got any idea where around
sydney they can be found?

Have you rung any large nurseries or landscape suppliers?

A lot of wooden railway sleepers (in QLD anyway) have been treated with
creosote, or something similarly carcinogenic. I remember seeing railway
workers in the late 1980's that had pretty nasty skin irritations from the
chemical on the new sleepers. Of course, they should have been wearing the
heavy gauntlets they were supplied with, but apparently they get a bit hot
to wear all the time....

I dont know if they still treat all sleepers with this stuff (or if it is
only a QLD thing to deal with termites), but I have been somewhat sceptical
about using railway sleepers for garden work ever since. Especially where
they might be sat on or leant against regularly, or where the sleepers might
leach contaminants into garden bed soil.

Maybe gardening stores have access to untreated sleepers; I would hope so,
when looking at how nasty creosote is...I would be very insistent to hear
how they guarantee their sleepers dont have anything that might leach into
the soil.

Sleepers most likely arent still treated with Creosote, but I would be
interested to find out if they are treated with anything, as it may have an
effect on a garden, or young children(or both).

My $0.02.

Cheers,

Rod........Out Back

Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

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