Thread: Raised beds for growing vegetables
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Old 22-08-2009, 12:36 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
phorbin phorbin is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2008
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Default Raised beds for growing vegetables
In article , says...


Often sleepers have been treated with toxic chemicals and so they would not
be suitable for vegetables, find out from the source what they have been
treated with and then research the risks of that treatment. Some are timber
that is durable in contact with the soil without treatment (and may have
never actually been used on a railway) so they would OK.

Real railway sleepers usu. called ties around here, are always treated
with toxic chemicals and are toxic to the core. --Even 20 years later,
if there is any solid wood left in one, cutting into it produces a
strong, fresh creosote smell.

Several times a year I argue myself out of going to the railway
embankment near here to pick up free ties for soil erosion efforts
because of this. The RR crews just leave the ones that fall over the
side of the embankment as a kind of ...litter.

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