Railroad Soil Reclamation

Good Morning Permies!

I have a good one for you, I have been diligently working on trying to get anything to grow in a strip of land alongside a railroad track that has seen better days.

In my attached picture, you can see a swath of land alongside one side of a railroad track that is barren. I don't know what chemicals, oils, pesticides, or what else is in it but it is my intention to encourage plant growth to stabilize the soil as best as I can manage it.

As you can somewhat see, some of this soil is at the bottom of a hillside that was years ago weathering away its topsoil and exposing tree roots. I have managed to stop the weathering and now am working towards building a terrace system to create a garden. It is a WIP as I collect materials. My neighbor is an elderly couple that has passed recently but they had managed to establish grass on their side. I have not had the same luck. Part of the reason is the thin layer of topsoil, the other reason is random piles of rocks that I have uncovered the size of cantaloupes that seemed to be abandoned and covered with a thin layer of dirt from the past. I have made quick work of the bigger piles.

Any good pioneer species that do well in uninhabitable places? I'm in Zone 5B. I have had some success with Mullen but only in areas that have had some sort of weedy plant starting to grow.

I have not seen the tracks spray herbicides/fungicides in a few years, before they did a once a year application. It is not my intent to plant edibles in this zone but to just get some roots in the ground.

My thought is to start with grass. Utility corridors are a place where multi-year 'cides may well have been applied. I had a close call myself. But grass will grow and stabilize the soil.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:My thought is to start with grass. Utility corridors are a place where multi-year 'cides may well have been applied. I had a close call myself. But grass will grow and stabilize the soil.

My current system that has been working is cutting out sod when I plant fruit trees or other perennials and transplanting the pieces next to the established grass. It has been rooting well but not spreading. Piece by piece I'm making progress!

I also have been adding white dutch clover seed to try and give a little nitrogen fixation and to cover spots the grass is weak in with some success.

I think it will be a game of patience, the worst kind of game!

Yes, definitely a patience game. The challenge is in reclamation without creating a fire hazard. So wood chips are out. Because if they act as a fuse and those railroad ties catch fire, they're nearly impossible to put out, and you'll have an epic toxic plume next door.

I'm glad you're not going to try growing food in there (rail corridors tend to be polluted, including those coal tar creosote ties).

Consider also that a pollinator garden that looks impressive to you will be flagged as "excessive weedy vegetation" by the right-of-way owner and the spray truck will be back.

Sorry, I'm playing devil's advocate with my negative nelly comments. But I get why you want to do it.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Yes, definitely a patience game. The challenge is in reclamation without creating a fire hazard. So wood chips are out. Because if they act as a fuse and those railroad ties catch fire, they're nearly impossible to put out, and you'll have an epic toxic plume next door.

I'm glad you're not going to try growing food in there (rail corridors tend to be polluted, including those coal tar creosote ties).

Consider also that a pollinator garden that looks impressive to you will be flagged as "excessive weedy vegetation" by the right-of-way owner and the spray truck will be back.

Sorry, I'm playing devil's advocate with my negative nelly comments. But I get why you want to do it.

No you are 100% on the ball. I am planning on delineating where I'm going to put my native plants inside a raised wood terrace on the hillside with some distance from the tracks with hopes that it will be spared and the land will stop eroding. I just want some roots in the ground closer to the tracks to reduce washout that we are experiencing. There are a few fallen trees on the tracks that need cleanup. I'm balancing pushing some growth into the corridor with respect to them needing to use the track.

I am planning on getting some new photos posted, but there has been progress.

What did this strip of soil lack?

The correct seeds!

Last year had good progress with spreading a mixture of oats, black eyed susans, mullein, and a wide variety of native wildflowers.

This year, I have seen a BUNCH of seedlings and over-wintered plants so far this spring.

Slow and steady progress is a win in my book.