It’s about 12 days and counting down to when our community garden will officially be undergoing renovations with the removal of all 30-plus year old pressure-treated wooden railroad ties.

As you may have heard, there is a concern about the leaching of the chemical creosote, most likely used to weather-proof these wooden ties. The chemical leaches into the soil. The veggies you plant within a certain vicinity (6 inches? A foot?) possibly take in the chemical. You then roast the beet and well, you see what I mean. How much of the chemicals are still in the top tier of soil after so many years, no one really knows. Or rather, we havent conducted any tests to determine that.

Time to replace the wooden ties

Regardless of chemicals leaching into the soil or not, it’s about time these wooden ties are replaced. At about 6 inches in thickness, they’ve been working steady for more than 30 years, dividing plot from plot. They’ve been treated to protect the elements, but as we all know, nature will eventually win. Thanks to rain and irrigation, blistering sun, and their use as walking paths, the ties have started to decay.

There’s good and bad news here. The good news: one of my divider ties, decaying as it has, is home to a very pernicious columbine and not the pretty columbine, either. This thing keeps spreading itself and somehow holding on despite my repeated attempts to remove it. Remove the tie and its home base, and hopefully the columbine will go with it.

The bad news: I’ve never had to plant thyme because, like the columbine, an old and reliable thyme plant has made its home in another hollowed-out railroad tie. Remove the tie and my adopted thyme goes with it.

Affected plants

Along with the wooden ties themselves, the renovation crew also will remove soil from a 6-inch vicinity surrounding each tie. So, not only will the thyme IN the tie be leaving, any thyme that is within that 6-inch vicinity also will be destroyed, too. Along with a gorgeous lavender plant, a euphorbia that the entire garden is jealous of, a stand of chives, and yes, even the rhubarb is at risk. The monstrous rhubarb. My money is on the rhubarb winning that battle, though.

This weekend I will attempt to move the lavender and euphorbia to a safe location deeper in the garden. I’ll see if I can extract the thyme from the tie, as well. The columbine? Good riddance.