On 5/26/2010 10:00 AM, Bert Hyman wrote:
My wife and I are absolutely not knowledgeable gardeners; our back yard is
planted with perennials and shrubs selected mainly for appearance,
hardiness and whim (I got three gas plants, based solely on their name),
and we manage to keep things alive and pruned to our satisfaction.

A few years ago, we set aside the one small sunny spot for growing
tomatoes and basil. Each year we've tilled the area by hand, worked in
some manure-based soil amendment, planted a few plants we picked up at
the garden center and were happy with the result.

This year, the tomatoes died, and the basil is stunted.

My suspicion, and the consensus at my wife's office, is that we
introduced some sort of blight, either from the purchased plants or the
soil amendment.

What can we do to this plot of death so that we might get something to
grow next year? Is there any quick fix for this year? Our growing season
is terribly short here.


Bert,

You might try covering the area with dark plastic sheets. The effect
of the sun's heating and the lack of light might kill whatever is
in your soil. The safest thing is to remove the top layer of soil
and replace it with something suitable. Is anything else, like weeds,
growing there now? Nothing growing is a more serious problem. Did
you spray any weed killing chemicals there? A neighbor of mine
accidentally sprayed what he thought was a weed killer, but it turned
out to be a total plant killer.

Sherwin