Five Practical Uses of Railway Sleepers in Your Garden

When travelling by train, the chances are you don’t give railway sleepers a second thought. But they provide the backbone for thousands of miles of track across the UK – and have plenty of other uses too.

Garden railway sleepers are just one of a wide range of products Madingley Mulch supply from our base on the edge of Cambridge. Here are our top five suggestions for improving your garden with these versatile cuts of wood.

Marking Out a Path

If you want to create a rustic look in your garden, sleepers are an attractive alternative to paving slabs. They will age naturally over time and are particularly effective if you want to create a cottage garden. It will be worthwhile treating the sleepers with a preservative, as the wood can get slippery in wet weather.

Fantastic Furniture

You can fashion some stylish garden furniture out of sleepers – and you don’t even need to be an expert DIYer! You can create a simple, Japanese-style table simply by lining up a few pieces of the wood together. If you want something slightly more ambitious, then simply cut off a section to create the table legs.

Wooden chairs and benches can be created in a similar way – and you don’t have to worry about them blowing away in winter, unlike plastic furniture.

Creating a Raised Bed

Raised beds are a convenient and efficient way of growing a wide range of plants, particularly fruit and vegetables. You can tailor the soil types and drainage to whatever you want to grow, without worrying about the effect this will have on other plants. And because of their durability and strength, wooden sleepers make the ideal framework for this type of feature.

At Madingley Mulch, we can offer an exclusive soil conditioner, Denise’s Delight, which is ideal for all raised beds. Its mix of Black Fen soil, horse manure and other plant nutrients will give your plants every chance of flourishing, whether you live in Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk or Cambridgeshire.  

Adding Some Decking or Terracing

Decking or terracing is an excellent way of adding to your living space by extending outwards into the garden. It can also cover up any uneven ground.

You can either use railway sleepers as the support structure, or for the whole project – although they will need more work to put together and could prove more expensive than purpose-built decking and terracing.

Creating a Boundary

If you want to separate out different parts of the garden from each other, then using these versatile wooden planks is one way to do it. For instance, you can use them to clearly define where your lawn ends and your flower beds begin.

Alternatively, you can use them to create different ‘zones’ in your garden, with different styles. Children’s play areas, dining spaces and wildlife gardens can all be accommodated in the same garden, simply by laying a few sleepers on top of each other.

Garden Railway Sleepers from Madingley Mulch

Madingley Mulch supply new sawn oak garden railway sleepers from our base on the edge of Cambridge. These are ideal for all types of landscaping projects, including walls, steps, decking and terracing. If you need advice on your landscaping project, then our friendly, knowledgeable staff will be happy to talk to you. You can also follow this link and leave a message via email.

If you have a big order, we can deliver them to your home. We offer a weekly service to Royston, Saffron Walden, Newmarket, St Neots and Ely, and other towns and villages in the area. Delivery is free to all addresses within 15 miles, and there is a standard £20 charge if you live between 15 and 24.5 miles away. We can also deliver to addresses further afield as well.

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