toxic soil?
 

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

toxic soil?
 

On 27 Mar 2003 17:47:37 -0800, (mags) wrote:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

Call your county extension agent. They check for ph maybe they can
tell if the soil is contaminated.

zhan

toxic soil?
 

On 27 Mar 2003 17:47:37 -0800, (mags) wrote:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

This post is so outrageous as to seem a troll.

cest la vie!

Of course you're planting on polluted ground! Get your food as far
away as possible. Testing pH is scurrilous approcah to an
environmental disaster!

Build raised beds of healthy soil!




"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson

toxic soil?
 

mags wrote:
hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

Well, let's put it this way. In most jurisdictions, you can't even build
a garage on a former landfill, let alone the dump where they took the
incinerator ash. The idea of growing food there would be insanity.

If it's as bad as you're describing, you may need to clean it up before
any kind of occupation.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.

toxic soil?
 

In article ,
(mags) writes:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

If you like flowers, and you don't want to eat them too(!) you are in good
shape. You could have tests done to see the extent of heavy metal
contamination, but if it's been used to burn trash for years, you have a lot
more of that than the occasional battery.

Treatments are to ignore the condition and only use the area for flowers, and
interesting plants, or you could get in and do it the EPA way and dig out and
replace the contaminated soil. There are too many good produce stores around
to make this last treatment economical. But then again, you might want to be
sure that you have a good ground cover growing on the area to keep the dust out
of any wind that may blow towards the house.

I universally advise my neighbors in San Francisco to avoid eating *anything*
grown in a city backyard, because people have been painting the fences in the
yards with Lead since 1860. And then there are the improvers who dumped all
the ashes from burned Sunday papers to help improve things more.


David Giunti email: unity
What is the question? Gertrude Stein's last words
No one mouth is big enough to utter the whole thing. Alan Watts

On Display in the UK http://www.web-gallery.co.uk

toxic soil?
 

If by battery, you mean automobile battery, I would not use the area because
the soil may contain lead. If the area was used a dump, the soil may have
all kinds of toxic chemicals in it.

Have the soil tested at your local extension service. Tell them to test for
lead and other heavy metals.


mags wrote in message
om...
hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

toxic soil?
 

Could they be that naive or are they seriously damaged from lead poisoning
and ingesting toxic waste?


Tom Jaszewski wrote in message
...
On 27 Mar 2003 17:47:37 -0800, (mags) wrote:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

This post is so outrageous as to seem a troll.

cest la vie!

Of course you're planting on polluted ground! Get your food as far
away as possible. Testing pH is scurrilous approcah to an
environmental disaster!

Build raised beds of healthy soil!




"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been
hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson

toxic soil?
 

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 03:09:57 GMT, Tom Jaszewski
wrote:

On 27 Mar 2003 17:47:37 -0800, (mags) wrote:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

This post is so outrageous as to seem a troll.

cest la vie!

Of course you're planting on polluted ground! Get your food as far
away as possible. Testing pH is scurrilous approcah to an
environmental disaster!

Build raised beds of healthy soil!


Don't read so damn fast. I wasn't suggesting they get their soil
tested for ph. I was suggesting the agents office may also be able to
tell if the soil is contaminated.

toxic soil?
 

In article ,
(mags) wrote:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

It's perfectly safe, you can even eat the plastic.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

toxic soil?
 

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 04:24:44 GMT, zhanataya wrote:


Don't read so damn fast.

My apologies....



"As crude a weapon as a cave man's club the chemical barrage has been hurled at the fabric of life."
Rachel Carson

toxic soil?
 

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 13:20:12 GMT, Tom Jaszewski
wrote:

On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 04:24:44 GMT, zhanataya wrote:


Don't read so damn fast.

My apologies....

Sswaright

toxic soil?
 

I would definitely do some research on this and not rule out vegetable
gardening. There are lots of city gardens and community gardens that face
this problem. First get the soil tested, then when you know how bad a
problem you have, you will know what kind of remediation steps you need to
take. Sometimes just raised beds with fresh soil is the answer. You can
also line the bed with various types of barriers.

For info about lead in the soil read this:
http://www.greeninstitute.org/GSP/gartips/leadsoil.html

mm


"paghat" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(mags) wrote:

hello,
i've just begun a vegetable garden with my cousin on my aunt and
uncle's property. the spot we are planting is right next to a burn
pile. many of the ashes of burnt garbage have been dumped on the
area. while i was digging in the ground i found pieced of charred
plastic and even a battery at on point. i am concerned that this is
not health to be growing in? does any one have advice for me?

happy gardening,
margie

It's perfectly safe, you can even eat the plastic.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/