"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
June Hughes wrote:
In message , roy
king writes
Has anyone made raised beds out of railway sleepers.Any advice or
details of what you did wellcome.

Yes. Don't use the ones treated with creosote or similar substance.
Tannilised (sp?) are best. Our own dear Cormaic gave me some
excellent advice when I put mine in a few years ago.

I'm not scared of creosote. And if you can still get railway sleepers (I
believe what there are mostly come from eastern Europe), I'm sure that's
what they'll have been treated with. Fresh timber will be tanalised, but
you'll pay the new price.

I have used macrocapa and gum sleepers (not railway sleepers, smaller than
that) for raised gardens. The wood is untreated but is thick enough to last
20 years most likely. I built the gardens along existing fence lines and
nailed a backing to the fence to contain the soil and stop the soil rotting
out the fence. Something like hardiplank/fibrolite is best although you
could use clearlite roof sheets or probably even good thick polystyrene. If
the wood is heavy enough the sleepers should keep themselves in place. If
worried about movement you can drill down through them and ram some steel
rods into the earth or nail the sleepers together using nail plates. Once
made turf organic matter into them and you are away. They look good, are
easy on the back and a nice way of dealing with difficult parts of the
garden.

rob