I'm going to bite the bullet this year and re do my raised beds. They were built from scaffolding boards about 6 years ago but the wood is rotting in places and they are starting to fall apart... I've wavered between what material to use but I've decided on railway sleepers. I'm currently taking all of my plants out and potting them up. Does anyone else have a raised bed made from wood? This is what it looked like when I did my patio (it was already a few years old by this point).
The bed on the right a few years ago. Alot of these plants proved far too big. When I re do the beds I will aim for one narrower rectangular bed.
My garden with a view of the beds in the forground.
We have 3 raised beds, made with landscape ties (essentially the same as railway sleepers). One was here when we bought the house, so it may be ~30 years old (assuming it was built when the deck was, probably shortly after the house was built). The others, "we" (DH) built as acid beds about 10 years ago. All have been extremely durable, particularly in this dry climate (40 cm annual precipitation).
NIce garden - it certainly does look "English" - so lush!
We moved here in 1997 and there were raised bed gardens in the side year
built with railroad ties. They probably date to the early/mid 1980's. I have to
rebuilt them soon - they are at the end of their life. We have 42" rain here so its
not a dry climate. So ~20yr life in wet climate. (here's picture of them in 2005 -
you can see them starting to split)
And yes - your garden is lovely & lush!
Tam
RR ties here in the U.S. are treated with creosote for preservation. It looks like Tammy's garden does use these. At least here in Minnesota, you can't buy new creosoted treated ties. So I am assuming Tammy's were salvaged from an old unused RR bed somewhere, and are older than what she says. Would that be right, Tammy?
Creosote treated ties should have a longer life span, say, 40 years. Aren't telephone poles creosote treated?
Landscape ties are pressure treated with other chemicals. The treatment usually does not penetrate to the core of the timbers, so if you cut through them, and want them to last the longest, one should paint the cut end with a wood preservative. People seldom do this though, and still have good results.
Well even if I get 20 years from them I'll be happy. I've found a supplier on the web that provides sleepers new and old from all over the world. Some are treated and others not so I'll go with the untreated ones which are a nicer colour and less harmful especially if you want to sit on them! My garden is certainly lush and crowded and small...!
softwoods will rot faster than hardwoods, and swamp trees have natural resistance to breakdown. If you can get ones made of arborvitae, larch or cypress, that would be best.
Yes - I imagine the RR ties here are old and had nasty stuff to preserve them. If you are
getting them w/o preservatives, you'll want to find a wood that is naturally rot resistant.
