I am the activity director at a nursing home that specializes in
psychiatric patients and we want to start a garden. The trouble is,
alot of them urinate whenever and wherever the want, including the
garden. I plan to keep most of the plant up high, but is there anything
I could plant in the ground or planters that might resist the high
concentrations of ammonia? Also, given my black thumb what are good,
tenacious outdoor plants. We are located in San Antonio. Any help would
be appreciated.


--
sleavenson3

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In article ,
sleavenson3 wrote:

I am the activity director at a nursing home that specializes in
psychiatric patients and we want to start a garden. The trouble is,
alot of them urinate whenever and wherever the want, including the
garden. I plan to keep most of the plant up high, but is there anything
I could plant in the ground or planters that might resist the high
concentrations of ammonia? Also, given my black thumb what are good,
tenacious outdoor plants. We are located in San Antonio. Any help would
be appreciated.

Hmmm... The question is, what plants would tolerate a high nitrogen soil?
Urine is going to be initially acidic, then turn alkaline as it breaks
down into ammonia, so I'm not sure that pH tolerance would be an issue.

Seriously, you may want to consider putting in an edible mushroom patch.
If you use a lot of good quality compost with a deep bed to absorb the
urine, some species thrive on more Nitrogen. Oyster mushrooms are one
and WILL grow up from a flat bed of wood compost They don't need a
verticle wall. Another good one would be King Stropharia.

Check this website for information, books, and spawn:

http://fungi.com/

HTH? :-)

--
K.

Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

There is no need to change the world. All we have to do is toilet train the world and we'll never have to change it again. -- Swami Beyondanada

,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,,

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra

Busted!



escape wrote in message
...
You may find some of the dwarf bamboo useful for this situation. I
understand
this is a psychiatric situation, but the health issues far surpass your
verve to
find plants to sustain this most unhealthy habit.

You can also use tremendous amounts of carbonated charcoal in the soil to
absorb
the potential urea saturation. This is really not a problem for gardening
newsgroups.

Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in
Texas.


On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 09:45:23 +0000, sleavenson3
opined:


I am the activity director at a nursing home that specializes in
psychiatric patients and we want to start a garden. The trouble is,
alot of them urinate whenever and wherever the want, including the
garden. I plan to keep most of the plant up high, but is there anything
I could plant in the ground or planters that might resist the high
concentrations of ammonia? Also, given my black thumb what are good,
tenacious outdoor plants. We are located in San Antonio. Any help would
be appreciated.






Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

"escape" wrote in message
...
You may find some of the dwarf bamboo useful for this situation. I
understand
this is a psychiatric situation, but the health issues far surpass your
verve to
find plants to sustain this most unhealthy habit.

You can also use tremendous amounts of carbonated charcoal in the soil to
absorb
the potential urea saturation. This is really not a problem for gardening
newsgroups.

Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in
Texas.

V., Gardenbanter is a UK "web interface to the popular gardening series
of newsgroups" with access to austin.gardening.

http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/


On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 09:45:23 +0000, sleavenson3
opined:


I am the activity director at a nursing home that specializes in
psychiatric patients and we want to start a garden. The trouble is,
alot of them urinate whenever and wherever the want, including the
garden. I plan to keep most of the plant up high, but is there anything
I could plant in the ground or planters that might resist the high
concentrations of ammonia? Also, given my black thumb what are good,
tenacious outdoor plants. We are located in San Antonio. Any help would
be appreciated.

escape" wrote in message
...
You may find some of the dwarf bamboo useful for this situation. I
understand
this is a psychiatric situation, but the health issues far surpass your
verve to
find plants to sustain this most unhealthy habit.

You can also use tremendous amounts of carbonated charcoal in the soil to
absorb
the potential urea saturation. This is really not a problem for gardening
newsgroups.

Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in
Texas.


On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 09:45:23 +0000, sleavenson3
opined:


I am the activity director at a nursing home that specializes in
psychiatric patients and we want to start a garden. The trouble is,
alot of them urinate whenever and wherever the want, including the
garden. I plan to keep most of the plant up high, but is there anything
I could plant in the ground or planters that might resist the high
concentrations of ammonia? Also, given my black thumb what are good,
tenacious outdoor plants. We are located in San Antonio. Any help would
be appreciated.






Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html



San Antonio is not in the UK, and anyway We still let top-posting New
Yorkers use the NG. The OP is an 'activity director' tasked with improving
the quality of life for the patients, and putting a garden in is certainly
appropriate and on-topic. Perhaps you would prefer that the patients be
strapped down and given shock treatment until they not only use the toilet
consistently, but flush and leave the seat in the proper position.

As to the original question, beyond plant selection, planting in raised beds
using soil with very good drainage would allow you to regularly spray down
the affected plants and 'flush' excess urea out of the soil. With
supplemental fertilization, you could grow most plants that aren't too
sensitive. Many perennial herbs - rosemary, mint, oregano - would be good
choices.

On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 07:50:16 -0600, "cat daddy"
wrote:

"escape" wrote
Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in
Texas.

V., Gardenbanter is a UK "web interface to the popular gardening series
of newsgroups" with access to austin.gardening.
http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/

Yes, many people are scrambling now to find reliable news feeds. The
OP identified himself as being in San Antonio. Posting through free
news feeds anywhere is becoming common. I have a friend who posted
through a university in Germany because it was a reliable and free
news feed. That recently changed, though, so he is scrambling again.
I ended up subscribing to one for three dollars a month just to solve
the issue.

Rusty Mase

"Rusty Mase" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 07:50:16 -0600, "cat daddy"
wrote:

"escape" wrote
Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in
Texas.

V., Gardenbanter is a UK "web interface to the popular gardening
series
of newsgroups" with access to austin.gardening.
http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/

Yes, many people are scrambling now to find reliable news feeds. The
OP identified himself as being in San Antonio. Posting through free
news feeds anywhere is becoming common. I have a friend who posted
through a university in Germany because it was a reliable and free
news feed. That recently changed, though, so he is scrambling again.
I ended up subscribing to one for three dollars a month just to solve
the issue.

I suppose that $13.25 a year might be a deal breaker for some, but my
experience in the past is that their server is as fast and reliable as
Giganews or Supernews (and spam-free), and most free servers now aren't.

http://news.individual.net/
The fee for an account for News.Individual.NET is 10 EUR per year (annual
payment)

10.00 EUR = 13.2445 USD

newsguy.com runs our rec.arts.bonsai group and I can say their spam
filtering is excellent -- maybe one a week gets through. They have consumer
accounts for like $3 too.

John

"cat daddy" wrote in message
...

"Rusty Mase" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 07:50:16 -0600, "cat daddy"
wrote:

"escape" wrote
Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in
Texas.

V., Gardenbanter is a UK "web interface to the popular gardening
series
of newsgroups" with access to austin.gardening.
http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/

Yes, many people are scrambling now to find reliable news feeds. The
OP identified himself as being in San Antonio. Posting through free
news feeds anywhere is becoming common. I have a friend who posted
through a university in Germany because it was a reliable and free
news feed. That recently changed, though, so he is scrambling again.
I ended up subscribing to one for three dollars a month just to solve
the issue.

I suppose that $13.25 a year might be a deal breaker for some, but my
experience in the past is that their server is as fast and reliable as
Giganews or Supernews (and spam-free), and most free servers now aren't.

http://news.individual.net/
The fee for an account for News.Individual.NET is 10 EUR per year (annual
payment)

10.00 EUR = 13.2445 USD

escape wrote:
You may find some of the dwarf bamboo useful for this situation. I understand
this is a psychiatric situation, but the health issues far surpass your verve to
find plants to sustain this most unhealthy habit.

You can also use tremendous amounts of carbonated charcoal in the soil to absorb
the potential urea saturation. This is really not a problem for gardening
newsgroups.

Au contraire, mon ami de jardinier!
The neighborhood dogs have successfully burnt holes in my shrubs in the
front yard with their early morning marking activities. It would provide
this gardener some welcome information to find the more resistant
plants. Like the original poster, it is not in my ability to convert the
urinators to more acceptable methods of relieving themselves.


Also, you are sending email from the UK. I didn't know the UK was in Texas.

Are you feeling ok? Neither of your negative comments fit your usual
modus operandi.



On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 09:45:23 +0000, sleavenson3
opined:


I am the activity director at a nursing home that specializes in
psychiatric patients and we want to start a garden. The trouble is,
alot of them urinate whenever and wherever the want, including the
garden. I plan to keep most of the plant up high, but is there anything
I could plant in the ground or planters that might resist the high
concentrations of ammonia? Also, given my black thumb what are good,
tenacious outdoor plants. We are located in San Antonio. Any help would
be appreciated.







Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 14:52:47 GMT, "Grubber"
wrote: (snipped artfully)

.. We still let top-posting New Yorkers use the NG.

Going off topic, I have often wondered why people bottom post and
especially bottom post while copying all previous posts to the
thread. It forces me to scroll down through all this text to find the
thoughtful insights contained in the response.

There is a legal oriented group I participate in and there are two or
three other participants out of several dozen and they do this even if
the thread goes 10 or more levels deep. Thus you get:

Joe said.
Bill responds to Joe.
Joe cusses back at Bill

and on and on for a dozen screen views of more. Is this some kind of
etiquette thing? Seems rude to me not to compose your response to be
as to the point as possible.

As to the original question, beyond plant selection, planting in raised beds
using soil with very good drainage would allow you to regularly spray down
the affected plants and 'flush' excess urea out of the soil.

I agree with that conclusion. The beds would almost have to be high
enough to qualify as planter boxes - if there is some reason to
distinguish here. And staying with herbs could expose these folks to
a little aromatherapy.

Rusty Mase

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 21:26:46 GMT, escape
wrote: (again artfully snipped)

I always usually top post, unless like in this post I'm responding to separate
paragraphs.

Exactly, and I never figured out why someone would find this rude.

Which is when I'm gone and while I may miss good stuff, I don't have the desire
to scroll that far.

Or even bother to download the post due to size as I am on a regular
modem. It does leave you with a sense of possibly missing something.

I think some of this bottom post after repeating the entire thread
dates back to the early days of Usenet when posts were unreliably
distributed to news servers and there was a chance that someone might
not have access to all the previous posts. Maybe those days have not
passed and I am missing something.

Rusty Mase

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 17:44:33 GMT, jOhN
wrote:

The neighborhood dogs have successfully burnt holes in my shrubs in the
front yard with their early morning marking activities.

When I was young, a neighborhood father took offense at all the dogs
urinating on his trash cans (metal back then). He set up an
electrical circuit between the can and some wire mesh around and at a
short distance from the cans. He ran the wires back into the house
and put a 5 watt light bulb in the circuit. When he noticed a dog
sniffing around his trash can he would plug this into a wall
receptacle and wait to see if the light bulb flickered. This was on
the weekend when trash was not scheduled for pick-up.

He trained all the dogs in the neighborhood to leave his trash cans
alone that way.

Rusty Mase

I agree. I have a chihuahua I rescued from a puppymill. She has a tiny
brain, but a Texas-sized heart. She learned to pee in the proper place. My
mother was a psych nurse and her patients peed in the proper place. Takes
diligence and patience. BTW, my bad on my "busted" comment. Too hasty.
Sorry.



escape wrote in message
...
On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 15:18:09 -0600, Rusty Mase opined:

Going off topic, I have often wondered why people bottom post and
especially bottom post while copying all previous posts to the
thread. It forces me to scroll down through all this text to find the
thoughtful insights contained in the response.

I always usually top post, unless like in this post I'm responding to
separate
paragraphs.

There is a legal oriented group I participate in and there are two or
three other participants out of several dozen and they do this even if
the thread goes 10 or more levels deep. Thus you get:

and on and on for a dozen screen views of more. Is this some kind of
etiquette thing? Seems rude to me not to compose your response to be
as to the point as possible.

Which is when I'm gone and while I may miss good stuff, I don't have the
desire
to scroll that far. Many times passive aggressive people do this even if
they
only add one word to the entire ten pages of posts.

I agree with that conclusion. The beds would almost have to be high
enough to qualify as planter boxes - if there is some reason to
distinguish here. And staying with herbs could expose these folks to
a little aromatherapy.

Rusty Mase

I'm still in favor of telling this set of human beings who are perfectly
capable
of being house trained to **** in toilets. Many times these rest home
type
institutions don't care about the clients. My mom is a psychiatric social
worker and while every single client who lives in the housing where she
assists,
not one of the **** anyplace other than the toilet.





Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

The food trucked in from our neighbor to the south has been fertilized with
a lot worse than urine. Yuck.


But I wouldn't eat any of them.





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On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 21:26:46 GMT, escape
wrote:

I'm still in favor of telling this set of human beings who are perfectly capable
of being house trained to **** in toilets.

I had another thought about this. What contaminants are being
eliminated that are derived from the pharmaceuticals these people are
likely taking. That could be a more serious issue than just the
normal contents of urine.

Rusty Mase