Railway sleepers

diane.offord59

Hi
Hopefully, someone can help me out on this one.  A few years we had to implement a soil retention solution on our garden during our home extension work.  My partner agreed to using railway sleepers (much to my reluctance).  However, the sleepers we have are ex- railway use and have been treated with tar and leach tar every time it gets warm.  The result is that we now have large black tar stains across the sleepers. 

From what I have read we can't paint over this to hide it and we are looking to maybe try and do a tongue and groove fencing over the sleepers.   This is going to be a lot of work as we will need to work right around the back of the garden.......

However, before we go down this route, does anyone have any ideas that will allow us to cover up the black tar.   We did try planting some trailers but we have a horrible clay soil and the back of the garden is quite shady.  I would need something that would be manageable and not take over.  I don't want much do I?

The garden is quite nice but this just brings the tone down!  

Thank you.  

Fire

I have square terracotta tiles on the surface of mine, just laid out, not fixed, though I daresay you could. It's more to help me walk on them with bare feet in the summer without getting stained. You could use wooden coping - maybe turn them more into a seat. This type of thing below.

brian_mk

Variegated Ivy grows well in shade. It may need trimming back once it's established.

Obelixx

We used old, recycled railway sleepers for retaining wall in our last garden and, apart from lining the inside walls with black plastic to protect the wood from moisture in the soil and also stop chemicals leaching into what became our fruit and veg plots, we never had any leaking tars.

What I did do tho was sluice them all down with a pressure washer after they were installed as their colour tone was uneven and they were a bit grubby looking.  Maybe this dislodged any surface tar?   They were on the north side of the house and shaded from direct sun all year except between late April and mid October when they git it when the sun was high.  They ended up growing moss and algae.

Try a pressure wash and if that doesn't work then cladding with some outdoor grade decking may be the answer.

Chris-P-Bacon

Try pressure wash . This may work on oil or diesel but bear in mind it will leach into the soil.
Removing the tar isn't "fixable" in terms of ridding from the wood. I'm afraid it will ooze for evermore.
The reason I won't use ex railway sleepers in a garden though is the potential for stray asbestos which comes from old railway wagon brake shoes. Cover or get rid if possible.

Fire

I personally think it's fine if you are not growing fruit and veg.

diane.offord59

Chris-P-Bacon said:

Try pressure wash . This may work on oil or diesel but bear in mind it will leach into the soil.
Removing the tar isn't "fixable" in terms of ridding from the wood. I'm afraid it will ooze for evermore.
The reason I won't use ex railway sleepers in a garden though is the potential for stray asbestos which comes from old railway wagon brake shoes. Cover or get rid if possible.

Hi Chris

Guess you live and learn.....  :':smile:

Fire

If there any serious evidence that railway sleepers pose a problem? I could imagine that if you cut them or burn it might cause problems. But for everyday flower beds, surely they are fine. I'm not seeing much around that is flagging asbestos brake dust as a potential threat when growing snowdrops.

KeenOnGreen

We have two lots of sleepers in our steeply terraced garden.  The first were installed 30 or so years ago, and are almost certainly ex-railway and containing tar.  The previous owner planted some Cotoneaster along the top of the sleepers (only about 3 plants), and they have completely covered the sleepers, so that they are no longer visible. You can see it above the brick wall in the photo below.  It's about 3 feet high.

This also acts to support the terrace, as I suspect the sleepers have almost completely rotted away by now.  I hated the Cotoneaster when we first moved here, but really like it now, as it acts as a nice foil for the planting in the bed below the sleepers, and the birds and insects love the blossom and berries.  


Our second lot of sleepers are more modern, with no tar, and pressure-treated with some sort of preservative.  In just 8 years, they have rotten considerably, aided by us letting plants grow over the top of them in some places.  They will probably last a lot less than the old ex-railway ones.

Could you perhaps plant something creeping like a Cotoneaster horizontalis, to completely cover your sleepers?  There may be other evergreens that could do the same trick?  For our new sleepers we resorted to covering the tops of them with planks of wood, which is screwed into the top of the sleepers, however this is warping.  We plant to cap the top 10 inches or so of our sleepers with zinc, which we will fold into a U shape, to cover the back, top and front of the sleepers, to prevent further water getting into them and rotting them more.  You might be able to try something like that to hide some of the tar staining.

Fire

Really useful info @KeenOnGreen - thanks.

diane.offord59

@KeenOnGreen - that's a beautiful garden and a good idea you have put forward.  I will look into that.

Thanks all for your responses.  :-)