This is the place to discuss not just allotments but all general gardening problems and queries which don't fit into the specific categories below.
(formerly allotments and tips, hints and problems)
Ive been offered 4 railway sleepers (for free!!) which im going to collect this weekend. They're about 20 years old so some of the ends are a little rotten, but this can be removed with the help of my husband's trusty saw.
They were treated many moons ago with creosote or bitumen (or something of that ilk). I was planning to make a raised bed out of them at home on my patio but am concerned the treatment will seep into the soil and kill my veg. If I line them, dyou think they'd be okay and if so, can anyone recommend what im best using to line them with.
Hi Mew, I made one of those old fashioned, wooden wheelbarrows and my wife has planted flowers in it. It is made of treated pine. I have lined it with black polythene sheet, made a few holes in the bottom to let out the excess water. Any plastic sheet will do as long as the plastic is thick enough, so that it is not torn, and it is not exposed to sunlight. Plastic will not break down in the soil. So the soil needs to be right up to the top of the plastic.
Robin
'You know you are a hard-core gardener if you deadhead flowers in other people's gardens.
To err is human. To blame someone else, is management potential.
I'd probably line them with horticultural plastic if you're worried they might not be inert. I say "horticultural plastic" because ordinary plastic sheeting leaks all sorts of toxic shit into the surroundings; Europe is a long way behind the USA in the labelling of plastic products.
Plastic only leaks chemicals as a result of exposure to sunlight so burying it will have no effect.
That said, I'd rather risk the negligible chemical leaching (from the aged creosote/bitumen which has probably dissipated already) from the wood than putting more plastic in the ground. I wouldn't line them at all. I think the HDRA organic gardening encyclopedia's with me on this one too. It's over on the other side of the room and I have a broken foot, so I'm open to challenge there.
The sleepers are probably pretty solid wood so are gonna last many more years before they collapse.
I have a lot of sleepers here, and they are often used for edging beds round these parts... I have never noticed anyone line them though, and have not noticed any ill effects from using them as is.
Are they treated with something different over there? As far as I am aware our sleepers are just hardwood slabs, and I am not aware of any treatment.
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schultz
Re. Hedgie's and Contadino's comments about plastic sheet - plastic breaks down much faster when exposed to ultra-violet, but it can leach chemicals when in contact with water even if it's underground.
Depends what you want to eat, I guess...
When my pursuit of freedom causes harm to another living being, it becomes a dictatorship.
I have used sleepers in a few consturctions in floral gardens but none yet in veg plots, the main reason people got weary of them was that when they are cut some chemicals are released but as said above most of those will be depleted by the time any gardeners get them, think of the time they spent on railway tracks before hand!
Be wary of nails/metal inside the wood when your cutting them up, nasty sparks if chainsawing and achey arms if you have the energy to get your teeth into them with a hand saw!
