Railroad ties OK for a raised bed garden?

[Dawn419]

Oh, yep, you know!!!

Hubby (doc_gonzo) is working 12 hour swing shifts so it's all up to me around here unless he has a few days off all in a row. I'm wishin' I was 26 instead of 46. :/

I'll be starting a thread about our big adventure out here sometime next week. I'm waiting to get my pix off his laptop and that will be fun in itself, I've taken pix of the entire process...from first buying the place, to do a clearing, to present day. Even though I've deleted a lot of bad pix there are still over 4,000 to move.

Dawn

 

[LostMindPleaseFind]

When my dad was a kid on the farm, he would tie a bandana around his head with DDT on it to keep the biting flies and mosquitoes away. He is still alive in his 70's and doing fine. DDT was considered safe.

DDT was pulled due to faulty scientific testing with eagles. The scientists involved later recanted the results, but the chemical was already banned at that point.:/

 

[ScottSD]

When my dad was a kid on the farm, he would tie a bandana around his head with DDT on it to keep the biting flies and mosquitoes away. He is still alive in his 70's and doing fine. DDT was considered safe.

DDT was pulled due to faulty scientific testing with eagles. The scientists involved later recanted the results, but the chemical was already banned at that point.:/

Proof that once the "green" people get something banned or negativity associated to that something, it is difficult for people to think rationally about it even when the real facts are presented later.

 

[leolady]

Hi! I'm new here!

I have railroad tie raised vegetable beds and I think they real old crumbling ties like I have work very well. I am in my third year of gardening with them and I love the way my soil has improved over the years.

I have heavy clay soil, and put in the raised beds because I am getting too old to till even if I wanted to. I am an advocate of Ruth Stout's thick hay mulch gardening. Each year I have noticed more and more earthworms are populating the beds and the soil is getting a little less clay and more dark and crumbly.

I am in the process of trying to raise the sides of my beds so I don't have to bend over so much, but that will have to wait til I can afford more ties.

 

[eggrookie2010]

This very topic is why I came to this forum the first time because I got so many different answers. I have a major gopher problem and dirt full of decomposed granite and so this was my solution. the beds are 2 rr ties high, 16 x 8 feet. I line the bottom with chicken wire to keep the gophers out, line the sides with the heaviest plastic I could buy to keep as many chemicals out as possible. I trucked in about 8000 pounds of dirt/compost and compost each. Yes it was a ridiculous amount of work. We had 2 beds last year and they worked beautifully after I put in the drip system. We just built a new one last week. You can see we hadnt put the dirt in it when I took the photo. Then I put in a photo of the last year garden. Mine are real RR ties and I had only 1 that had any visible creosote and we replaced it. (now if I can remember how to put the photos in here....

 

[leolady]

Last year's garden

When I started my raised beds 3 years ago, I did a lot less work. I started the garden in May and put the railroad ties down. Then I covered the inside of the bed with cardboard and paper and wet them with the hose. Then I put a foot of loose hay over the paper. To avoid tomato cages and temporary trellises I used steel fence posts down the middle of each bed and attached woven wire cattle panels to them.

I planted through this thick mulch and I had a really good garden that year. See how lush my tomatoes grew!