Railroad Ties Safe For Gardening

A new vegetable garden made of railroad ties and how i made the gate and put a fence around it.

Railroad ties safe for gardening. Railroad crossties safety concerns. While older railroad ties that no longer have a strong smell or ooze creosote should be safe it s still a risk especially if you re using the wood in garden areas or where people will come into contact with the wood. Find railroad ties at lowe s today.

Yes creosote does leach out of the ties and into the soil but worn out ties are generally not a problem because most of their creosote has already leached away. A new vegetable garden made of railroad ties and how i made the gate and put a fence around it. Railroad ties are not legal for home landscape use.

Now that we have possession of the home it looks like the border is old railroad ties. It s best to go the safe route and choose a wood that isn t treated with dangerous chemicals. I asked him if they were treated wood and he said he didn t know.

We just bought a house and i love to garden. Railroad ties are common in older landscapes but are old railroad ties safe for gardening. I recently bought a house just over the pennsylvania border in maryland.

However because creosote is toxic new ties can cause growth problems for plants that are sensitive to it. Floyd is a horticulturist with texas agrilife extension service. But as with many outmoded practices we learned from our grandparents or parents like spraying dandelions with herbicide we now understand that railroad ties are an environmental hazard.

Whether plants take up the creosote has not been settled. For decades railroad ties have commonly been used to edge garden beds or as part of retaining walls. I know it isn t safe to grow edibles in soil contaminated with creosote.