I recently reclaimed a rental property from a tenant, who had been
using it as a dump for his handyman's trash.

He had a burn pile in which I found remnants of aerosal spray cans,
regular tin cans, plastics, aluminum foil, etc.
anything he could burn.

he also moved stuff to the back of the about half acre lot, which
consisted of larger things, like scraps of the plastic they use for
fencing, glass, used tarps and such, (about a pick up load).

I am in the process of removing as much of the above ground stuff as
possible. I have scraped off some of the ash on the top layer of the
burn pile, and have noticed thistles beginning to grow rather
vigorously there.

At the back of the lot which still have much of the larger chunks, I
have noticed the wild blackberries look a bit sick, tho the trees
seem to be doing ok.


Of course here in Oregon it rains a lot, but the soil is a very heavy
clay.

Any ideas as to what contaminants might be present in the soil, and
what plants I could use to remove them?

I would like one day to have a mini orchard on this property. Is it
likely that the fruit would be unsafe, for a season or two?

Thanks for any info.

Rose

(by the way, an aspiring author might find a market for a book geared
to the general public, on all of this)