Railway sleepers for raised beds?

[country-girl]

This may be a daft question but im excusing myself as the newbie again,sorry! Are railway sleepers suitable for raised beds? I plan to make the most of the available space in my garden by adding some raised beds but yet again im unsure of the best materials for the job!

[grahama]

Hi,

I would check what they have been treated with first, and I think that they would take up alot of space too being very thick. I made, (am making), mine out of scaffold planks, thinner and therefore more growing room. Pics on profile. Also alot cheaper than sleepers too !!

Graham

[Prince of Durham]

I agree with Grahama, most old sleepers where soaked in tar/ oil/ kreosote for years and this will leach into your soil and kill, well, everything. New untreated ones wil be pricey, but if you find some tell me where and I'll out bid you.... good luck

M

[Snadger]

Railway sleepers would be ideal for raised beds apart from them being so thick.
It effectively means that you would cut down the width of growing area by one foot. i.e. A four foot wide bed, which is about as wide as you can get and still be able to reach the centre from the edge, would only have three foot of growing space. Whereas a bed surrounded with scaffold boards would have roughly 3 foot 9 inches of growing width!

If you can get them for nowt though it's still worth going for it!

[Glutton4...]

There's a small garage/service station near me who sells sleepers. Old ones, new ones, and in different sizes, the works! They work out about £12 each. I am using sleepers for my beds but only because my Dad had a stash of old ones sitting around. So I nicked 'em!

I just made sure I didn't plant anything too close to the edges. Time will tell if anything leaches into the soil, I guess.

[grahama]

If going down the scaffold board route then ring up your local scaffold companies to see if they have any old unserviceable boards. Mine cost £2 each for 8ft x 9" boards so alot cheaper than sleepers, (if not free that is!!)

[Flobalob]

Railway sleepers would be ideal for raised beds apart from them being so thick.
It effectively means that you would cut down the width of growing area by one foot. i.e. A four foot wide bed, which is about as wide as you can get and still be able to reach the centre from the edge, would only have three foot of growing space. Whereas a bed surrounded with scaffold boards would have roughly 3 foot 9 inches of growing width!

If you can get them for nowt though it's still worth going for it!

If they were laid upend as appose to flat that would reduce the width down to (5-6 inches) You would also use less for the height.
I made my raised beds http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LQ48oi3xb0...M/s320/garden+ from scaffold planks with the addition of decking boards nailed to them.

[Snadger]

If they were laid upend as appose to flat that would reduce the width down to (5-6 inches) You would also use less for the height..................

Thats exactly what I mean, 5-6 inches on each side gives a loss of about one foot of the growable width of a 4 foot bed!

[Flobalob]

If they were laid upend as appose to flat that would reduce the width down to (5-6 inches) You would also use less for the height..................

Thats exactly what I mean, 5-6 inches on each side gives a loss of about one foot of the growable width of a 4 foot bed!

Yes of course snadge exuse me 'the penny has dropped.

[chris]

As graham says old scaffolding boards are great, unfortunately I couldn't find any around me.. so I went to my local timber merchant (small, single man run place) and bought a load of wood. I got some 6" wide, by about 1.5" thick, and 12' long boards.

I went for tanalised wood, after much research and posting here... if you search threads from me, you'll find a load about me and raised beds.

I built I think 12' by 2.6' wide, then 7 x 2.6, and 5 x 2.6 I *think* Mainly due to some books I was reading about not straining to reach over. Really though, I think 3' - even up to 4' would be fine, as long as you can reach from both sides, you're not really going to strain to reach 2' are you?

I'll see how they go this year, and if needed I'll resize them next year.

[Pumpkin Becki]

So, to summarise, it depends whether you want...

1) something decorative in itself - in which case, go for sleepers. We bought brand new ones for our first garden and painted them with Cuprinol 'Garden Shades'.
or
2) If you want as much useable bed space as possible, where looks is less of an issue - then gravel or scaffolding boards are perfect. We bought our tanilised ones for the lottie from a DIY store.
or
3) You could go for brick, which would be both decorative and slimline (see my album for our brick raised beds in the new garden)

[country-girl]

Thanks everyone. The sleepers are free from a friend so i thought id make good use of them. I like to be thrifty! Prince of Durham's post quite concerned me though. Could i use them and line the sides? Would this cause more problems?

[country-girl]

Ok,i shouldve asked my hubby for more details before i posted rather than just presuming the sleepers our friend offered us were old ones. Turns out they are untreated! Problem solved i think!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Excellent news! They'll be really sturdy beds.

[Snadger]

Ok,i shouldve asked my hubby for more details before i posted rather than just presuming the sleepers our friend offered us were old ones. Turns out they are untreated! Problem solved i think!

I am soooooooo jealous!