In

Billy wrote:

I'm guessing that your plot is screwed for 3 to 5 years. In any event,
the only thing you can do with confidence is to lay down a sheet of
fairly thick vinyl and put a raised garden on the site with fresh
soil.

That's a good idea, even after things might have healed; that would give
us a more controlled environment.

Do you have any pictures of the tomatoes and basil, or can you
describe how they looked? Did your tomatoes look like
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/TomatoProblems.htm
or
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm1266.pdf

They look almost exactly like Fig 1. of the Iowa State publication,
illustrating "Septoria leaf spot."

Are your stunted basil forming black lesions on their stems?

No. The basil doesn't actually look diseased; it's simply not
developing. So far as I can tell, the plants look exactly like they did
when we bought them a few weeks ago.

Well, it's still early enough in the year that we might be able to get
something going in containers or elsewhere in the yard. A summer without
tomatoes & basil is not something I want to look forward to.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN