doug wrote:
"doug" wrote in message
...

"Sla#s" wrote in message
...

"Bodge" wrote in message
...
www.crocus.co.uk/alanshowto/nodigbed/
All the information you need as recommended by Alan.

"Sla#s" wrote in message
...
Should the boards used to separate path from cultivated area in
a
modern
"raised bed" system be treated with anything or just left
natural?


Alan says 'pressure treated'
The RHS books fail to mention it and it didn't Google

Thanks
Slatts

********
"Pressure treated"?.
You've come to the right lad.
Way back, I climbed, plotted, mapped and tested for over a year,
many hundreds of telephone poles.
Records had been lost during the war.
The following is for information only and cannot be applied to
gardening. Telewag poles, (my affectionate name for them), are of
Scots Fir wood. I have worked on all sizes, even up to sixty
footers. Some of the trunk routes (City to City communications
and
some redundant) had been installed at the turn of the century and
very few were condemned due to rot. Further, - the least rot was
always in the bottom end below ground level. That was because some
of the preservative (creosote) had leached down, through the long
years, and soaked the full length and width of the stub of the
pole.
The process of preservation was called the "Reaping Process".

********
Bang goes my C &G pass mark on "Line Plant Practice!."
On final line in above, - (The process of.....)
Delete "Reaping".
Add "Reuping".
Sorry, Mike!.
Doug.
********
The bark was stripped off and the poles put into big cylindrical
iron
tubes and the tubes were then sealed.
Creosote was poured in and the tubes subjected to high pressurise
for some time. They were then taken out and stacked, horizontally
with separating battens between to facilitate the drying.
According to the size and diameter of the poles penetration of the
creosote was roughly about from one inch to three or four inches.
the
inside "core" thus left was untouched and was just the plain wood
as
it was before the tree was felled.
Just after the period of testing I have described a new process
was
introduced. The poles came with a coating of a thin yellowy
preservative, and I've racked my brain but cannot for the life of
me
remember what its name was.
Remind, Eh! - I'm retired now!. And no creosote is going to be
allowed in *my* garden!.
Doug.

(Very much OT.) Fascinating -- and it's a long time since I heard or
saw the word "telewag"! A bee in my bonnet coming up: people's
history. In my time I've read several short books, very informal and
"natural", simply recounting the story of their working lives and
recording their trade language and slang by railwaymen, seamen,
poachers (!), and others, and they've always been rivetting.

People usually think history is all about kings and generals, but of
course that's only part of it: it's a tragedy when we lose the
memories of those in the engine room. I can see you two both know how
to tell a tale, so why not put some of it down for posterity? Help
may be available from the WEA, local history societies, maybe a Union
Education Officer (if they still exist), or Ruskin College Oxford
among others. A chat with somebody from the local paper (she'll buy
the beer if she knows what's good for her!) should start you off with
a short article, and it might grow from there.

Telecommunications, all the way to the Internet: a great story to
have been part of!

--
Mike.