I recently expanded a vegetable bed in my previously-neglected
suburban back yard. I have some difficult clay-ish soil, so I
was digging down, and going to dump in some half-finished
compost, leaves, grass clippings, etc, in the newly-claimed area.

I had a bit of a shock

About 20 centimetres or so down, I hit a glass mason jar.

And then, digging and digging, I discovered, to my horror, that
this corner of the yard had been used as some kind of rubbish
dump by builders. It has been probably at least ten years since
there was work done on this place. Under about three square
metres surface space, and in one digging session, I found...

10+ Glass jars and bottles. Two bottles were capped, with a
venegar-smelling liquid and flower-petals(?) inside. Some broken
glass pieces.

A few plastic items - a spray bottle (cleaner?) A chemical-
looking jug. A Tupperware type divided lunch plate (with lid.)
Unidentified bits.

A significant about of plastic of the supermarket-bag type.

A few items of cloth, and degraded clothing.

Two(!) intact items that seemed to be lamp fixtures.

A hand-held cassette tape recorder, in zipped case, with cassette
(non-working)

A crescent wrench (rusted in position.)

A length of nylon rope (in surprisingly good condition.)

Some kind of sports glove.

A torque wrench (with bend-able indicator, but rusted socket
end.)

A piece of vinyl sheet with a design, about 1 x 2.5 metres (maybe
a tarp?)

A power supply of some general type.

Various lengths of electrical wire, including two with toggle
switches attached.

A power supply with a label stating that it was for a printer
(maybe 1980s vintage?)

Several paint cans, and unidentified metal containers (some
partly rusted out.)

A couple of tubes of chemicals, one of which said it was vinyl
adhesive.

A pair of gumboots.


I pulled out about three rubbish bag loads. There was still more
down there, but I was digging kind of sideways (like a coal
mine.) So I didn't get everything, and I don't know how
extensive it is. I dumped in some good compost, etc.


I am rather creeped-out by the fact that I could smell a sort of
paint-solvent type fumes when I unearthed some of this stuff


Arrrrrgh... Just venting...


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On May 21, 1:13�am, Coffee's For Closers USENET2...@THE-DOMAIN-
IN.SIG wrote:
I recently expanded a vegetable bed in my previously-neglected
suburban back yard. �I have some difficult clay-ish soil, so I
was digging down, and going to dump in some half-finished
compost, leaves, grass clippings, etc, in the newly-claimed area.

I had a bit of a shock

About 20 centimetres or so down, I hit a glass mason jar.

And then, digging and digging, I discovered, to my horror, that
this corner of the yard had been used as some kind of rubbish
dump by builders. �It has been probably at least ten years since
there was work done on this place. �Under about three square
metres surface space, and in one digging session, I found...

10+ Glass jars and bottles. �Two bottles were capped, with a
venegar-smelling liquid and flower-petals(?) inside. �Some broken
glass pieces.

A few plastic items - a spray bottle (cleaner?) �A chemical-
looking jug. �A Tupperware type divided lunch plate (with lid.) �
Unidentified bits.

A significant about of plastic of the supermarket-bag type.

A few items of cloth, and degraded clothing.

Two(!) intact items that seemed to be lamp fixtures.

A hand-held cassette tape recorder, in zipped case, with cassette
(non-working)

A crescent wrench (rusted in position.)

A length of nylon rope (in surprisingly good condition.)

Some kind of sports glove.

A torque wrench (with bend-able indicator, but rusted socket
end.)

A piece of vinyl sheet with a design, about 1 x 2.5 metres (maybe
a tarp?)

A power supply of some general type.

Various lengths of electrical wire, including two with toggle
switches attached.

A power supply with a label stating that it was for a printer
(maybe 1980s vintage?)

Several paint cans, and unidentified metal containers (some
partly rusted out.)

A couple of tubes of chemicals, one of which said it was vinyl
adhesive.

A pair of gumboots.

I pulled out about three rubbish bag loads. �There was still more
down there, but I was digging kind of sideways (like a coal
mine.) �So I didn't get everything, and I don't know how
extensive it is. �I dumped in some good compost, etc.

I am rather creeped-out by the fact that I could smell a sort of
paint-solvent type fumes when I unearthed some of this stuff

Arrrrrgh... Just venting...

--
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I hope you're not planning to eat anything you grow in that patch!