Any ideas to cover or design around ugly railroad ties?

Make a flower bed behind them and use trailing plants or put up a trellis or Bamboo Screen etc.........

I was thinking lattice might look nice, you can buy it in sheets that are 4x8 and cut it to size before just screwing it to the side of the railroad ties. They would be great for giving climbing vines a place to grow too.

You can anything in front of the ties. If they are that old, make sure they aren't rotting out or they may fail. If they are bad, you could replace it with brick, stones, whatever you think will look better.

I would use them for a back drop of flowers. For example a vining petunia plant set on top would hang down to cover part of the area. Several of these scattered along the edge with other hanging plants and even some attached to the wall with a brace between the ties, etc. The rustic/ rough logs in contrast to beautiful plants would really enhance that area of the yard! Hope this helps.

You can get other wood to put on top of them, if you wanted and you can stain and use a exterior finish sealers or paint them. You could also cover them with flat stepping stone like material. If you can see two sides of your railroad tie you can glue on the brick or whatever material you want to use? If there to talk you may be able to dig down more to where your briick will be flush with the top of your railroad tie and then put the othe brick on the top of your railroad tie to cover both sides! There’s also some recycled flat material their using for making decks these days too that come in a couple colors I believe? They could be easily cut and glued to the railroad tie as well! You could make your railroad ties look more like a retaining wall by doing this method. If money not a object, you could possibly use granite slabs as well and grout between the slabs! If your really wanting to get creative, you can also use wet cement and spread it on to your railroad ties to make it look like a long continuous rock and there different color stains you can put in your concrete to change the color too! But that one can be a messy time consuming job! Depends how much work your wanting to get yourself into?

Sit a few pretty flower pots with bright colors here and there on the railroad tie.