What have you done today in the Garden?

Dug up 2 old currant bushes, they were a bit difficult but i did it.

 

You are a top gardener, Loggie. Watch out for that back though.

 

I feel for you on this Daniel. I could start a thread about accidental herbicide poisoning. It took a lot of research, reading, trial and error, and Bio Assays to figure it out.I had five years and five mistakes to fix my greenhouse after accidentally contaminated well composted steer manure ended up in there. All from different sources.

Some plants are super sensitive, others are not. The articles I'm attaching have lists of the most sensitive. They discuss sources of possible contamination, and how to do a Bio Assay on your soil. I have some areas now that I can only grow certain plants and not others.

I'll attach two articles that may help you sort out the problem. Bio Assays on the soil you are worried about is the best and almost only way to source if it is herbicide from compost or manure. (Beans work best for me as they germinate fast and show signs of contamination after first leaves).I've had contamination ( after replacing all of my soil) even with a well known brand of composted steer manure, and compost. My friend lost her garden to a community compost in her city ( they think from lawn clippings from a golf course). Some cities in the States are really screening sources now after many gardens were lost.

It's a really big thing. I now will only ever do my own compost, no hay, no straw, no manure from an ungulate ( unless it was my own and I knew it was only grass fed at the time...my grass). Even straw used for bedding can contaminate.

Anyhow...I could go on and on. Maybe one day it will be worthy of a thread.

I have more informaton and sources if needed. Universities in the USA and their agriculture programs have great resources if you search contamination of compost with herbicide.
Maryland and Washington come to mind.

https://theprepared.com/blog/aminopyralid-contamination-is-a-growing-gardening-problem/

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/herbicide-carryover

 

Thank you Sjoerd and yes i'll be careful.

 

Melody thank you for your in-depth experience and information regarding compost contamination.
|’m very sorry to hear about your greenhouse contamination incident. Unfortunate and unpredictable when we have no idea that contamination can affect so many lives in so many ways.
Isn’t it amazing how many things gardening teaches us. Even when unexpected learning from unfortunate circumstances, we carry on with new knowledge and share important information.

 

Oh @Melody Mc., excuse me for a minute while I cuss up a blue streak (I cant cuss like a sailor because I was a soldier, but believe me, soldiers can make sailors blush).

@#£!¡*%"¿%%&,!!!

OK, that helped a little. Thank you SO much for that info! I was very suspicious that the Miracle Grow pitting soil that I bought was contaminated. As I described above. Also, when I told someone else, he said that is ridiculous, insisted on taking the potting soil (why waste good potting soil $$$ Stubborn!) and guess what, the same thing happened. There were some silent "I told you so" not said but thought by me. I wanted to throw the (manure but other stuff mixed in) into the trash.

Thanks for the info in bioassays. I can do those indoors, I think (insects might get in?) or try to grow something cold tolerant. I will definitely get started on those. That damage is EXACTLY what I saw in the purchased raised bed soil. @#£!¡*%"¿%%&,!!! (Sorry, it slipped out). I guess I'll empty those out and fill with something different. I don't know what yet. There are not enough molehills, plus I need something better draining. If I have to buy some, this time I will bioassay it with some beans.

It's so frustrating!

The place where I used to haul yard waste, mixes it all together and composts it, then sells the compost. I won't be buying theirs any more, either!

 

Too wet to do anything in the garden, fortunately there's not a lot that needs any attention at the moment.
Our new mimosa is arriving on Friday, so I need to get some compost for it. I can get that on Thursday at Asda when I do the shopping.

These two wooden troughs have been in the Garage since the end of October. The six hebes which were in them are out of sight on the small patio in front of the shed.

I bought these troughs on eBay for £50 each in 2021, the price seems a bargain at the time and even more so, at the moment.





But they are only soft wood. Such things are made from, "renewable resources," fast growing timber with "the density of forced rhubarb" as I unkindly say about such things. "They can rot away while you look at them."

They were only put together with a nail gun, so I made them more durable with about three dozen screws.

They got a coat of Dulux Woodsheen inside and out.





I also added six feet to each keep the bases off the patio. The back feet are on the first step up to the new patio, to save space on the main patio front of them.




But I'm going to give them a bit of a sand down and re-paint them, but they won't be going back out for a couple of months.

 

Those are nice. I have a supply of cedar fencing that might work to make similar garden troughs. Or pallet wood might work.

I made one using left over trex decking. Unfortunately it's too heavy to move.

 

Yesterday I started emptying the pickup truck of it's final supply of tree leaves. Those became more important to me, reading about herbicides in purchased compost. However, I realize the leaves will need a season to decompose.

The leaves were heavy and wet, and my back protested. I'm putting them into large plastic bags to convert to leaf mould.

I'm about 1/3 finished clearing out the pickup bed.

Anxious to get the chili pepper seeds. The started seedlings look good so far. The only ones not to germinate were the banana and Arapaho (hybrid cayenne). And those seeds were only one year old. I have other cayennes that did germinate, and there is time to add more. Plus, the overwintering one might still survive.

Most of today will be my volunteer job and Spanish class.

 

I feel deeply for you friend. It is very frustrating.

A note of caution....the raised bed that is contaminated.....you may need to line the interior with plastic. or seal it somehow.

Tomato's are very very sensitive - 1 part per billion. One of my recontamination events was from not sealing the old timbers around my raised bed. They are degrading, so I just lined with plastic now.

Another was from reusing the soil heating cable, even though I washed it with soap and water. I had signs of contmination on some of my Tom's last year where the roots touched the cable.

You could always use the contaminated soil for a corn patch. Corn is immune to it as it is a grass.

My first contamination was from overspray onto my manure pile. A neighbour gave me a herbicide to deal with the huge amount of thistles in the old pasture. I assumed it was like roundup and supposedly became inert once it hit the soil. Nope. It was Toradon and has a 25 year half like in the soil for anything broadleaf. That was what wiped my greenhouse out the first time...

Second time was horse manure from a rancher's pasture that was offered. They were grazing, but he also winter fed hay in the same pasture. I mixed it into the new dirt in the greenhouse. Kill off two happened.

Another ranching neighbour took pity on my and showed up with a dump truck of top soil ( that he sells). He assured me his garden did wonderful with it. A full soil change happened with it. Kill off number three happened. His top soil was removed from where his cattle are winter fed with contaminated hay. His "garden" was squash and brassica. For some reason he couldn't grow carrots.......hmmmmm

I caught this in time to salvage part of the summer. Spent $$$$ ( way too much) on bales of sunshine mix growing medium. I dug down deep under the rabbit hutches for manure that I have used for tea for year. When I made tea however, I only took a little from the top - which would been when they were only fed alfalfa pellets and fresh grass and greens. The manure I removed had been there for a couple of decades...so I assumed it was fine. However, it had hay mixed in it. Also, it was from when they were fed hay and had hay for winter bedding. It was covered, so zero leaching with rain or snow removed anything. Kill off number four happened.

A full soil replacement AGAIN. The rancher's soil is in certain parts of my garden. I can still grow brassica there, but not beans or peas. I took the advice of the Feed Store and only used bagged compost and steer manure from CIL. This time I only put the manure in part of the greenhouse to be sure. Kill off number five happened. ...sigh..... The heat used to kill weeds in the manure, isn't hot enough to break down the herbicide.

So now...I only have the bales of soilless mixture for the greenhouse. It's not great..but it's getting better. I only use commercial fertilizer and last year Sjoerd introduced me to comfry tea - which will be my main one this year for the greenhouse. This is why I was so eager to learn about compost and leaf mold this last year.

Everywhere I had the old soil cable has to be carefully removed still. I'm almost done. I'm at the point that if it doesn't fix the problem, we will be building a new greenhouse next year and putting this one to rest.

Excellent that you still had some wet leaves left to bag.

 

Sowed some snapdragon, bell flower and polyanthus seeds. Was going to do something outside but the winds are too cold.

 

Thanks Mel for describing your challenges with herbicide contamination. So discouraging. I'm glad you continue to power through.

My affected areas are mostly confined to very large containers - a few are fabric grow-bags, and some are plastic half-barrels. They are about 25 gallon each. Most are contained in a large planter box. I could remove those containers, buy new ones, and fill with a different growing medium. I could also do an experiment, sort of like the video. Dig soil out of a garden bed, to use in my raised beds or containers. Fill the void with soil from the affected containers. Then grow something there - corn or flowers, half in the suspect soil and half in the original soil, and compare. My challenge there is, I'm not used to using actual garden soil in containers, and I don't know how the water and aeration properties will work. Still, it's a thought and I might do it.

I could mix the known-ok garden dirt with peat moss and perlite, or non-decomposed leaves and let the leaves decompose, mixed with the soil, to raise the humus content. That might work. I might try that.

 

I rearranged the seedling stand to accommodate the two peppers I want to re-awaken now.



Those seedlings under purple looking lights are peppers and eggplants. Those lights work fine for any seedlings I have grown under them.

I gave some dilute fertilizer to the seedlings.



The basil needs transplanting. I had planted the seeds too thickly, not knowing if they were viable. Of the others, the tigridia seeds send out a little root, then seem to stall. They might not grow.

I'm happy with these onions and echinaceas.



This gives me hope for the garden season, and something to obsess over.

 

Luving all your seedlings. Looking so healthy..

 

I like your obsessions… and look forward to your reports.