27.4.09 update

Tasks completed today include:

The removal of the soil from 1 of 4 contaminated raised beds,

this was then refilled with some left over soil conditioner.

The infected soil ended up here (hopefully it won’t affect the apple trees):

…there’s so much more to come!

Second early potatoes, ‘charlotte’ went in this evening into a new bed.

Plans for the next couple of days include carrying out the finishing touches to the revitalised raised bed! A second attempt at sowing peas and carrots will be made.

(I am conscious this blog may be turning into more of a diary)

The work begins…

I am about to begin the task of replacing the soil in the contaminated raised beds. I estimate around 3 tonnes needs to be shifted further down the garden. It is my goal to have second early potatoes out of the ground on time for mid July!

Introduction

Hi all!

I decided to set up this blog to document the happenings within my back garden. I am keen on growing my own veg. I intend to record what I get up to.

This blog is started at a rather turbulent time in my vegetable gardening career! The soil that my produce in at the moment is suspected of being contaminated.

The issue was raised a couple of days ago when I noticed the leaves on my broad beans were curled up. I posted a topic on a popular forum asking for advice on what to do. The bed that I am growing these broad beans in is a new one and I thought, as the soil used to make it was from a different part of the garden, it might be too acidic or something. If you have a look at the post you will notice that a few Q+A’s later, I was informed that it was likely that the manure I had used to fertilise the soil in the winter was contaminated with something called ‘Aminopyralid Herbicide’.

After reading this, naturally, I carried out some research on the matter and have since become somewhat something of an expert on the topic.

It appears that since 2006, the newly introduced herbicide has caused a fair few problems for allotment holders and gardeners. Infected manure is being taken off farmers and used on veg plots and rose beds up and down the country. It affects the development of several varieties of vegetable/salad crops such as:

• Carrots
• Lettuce
• Potatoes
• Beans
• Peas

(See here and here for more info.)

And all my plots are covered with it!

As you can tell, I am somewhat annoyed. Unless I want to wait 4 years to grow stuff again, I need to replace the soil. That is what I intend to do!

In the meantime – here are some photos of how it has affected the broad beans and the potatoes: