Spraying And Sprinkling With Compost Tea

[The Helpful Gardener]

Good to be careful, G5. I am. BUt you should check stuff out for yourself; I've gotten burned on the hearsay a bunch of times myself...

With the garbage in our rainwater from the Midwest coal plants, we Eastern types get a buch of c**p already. West coasters get a slew of Chinese contaminates that blow across the Pacific. Midwest has about the cleanest air (thanks to Cali and those other cleaner states and the Rockies).

What you gonna do? Until we get some serious law in place (with teeth) that holds world wide, you will always get somebody's garbage...

It's a small world after all...

HG

[firstimegardener]

I guess the level of "contamination" is really nominal and the plants may not even absorb those contaminates, anyway.

Hey, I know this is an older thread, but I have a question. Even if the plants do not absorb the contaminates, wouldn't the contaminates still be harmful to the soil? And then still run off into our drainage systems??

I love the idea of a rain barrel. I have a huge tier in my back yard so that rain just pours down. I'm trying to figure out a way to make a "gutter" for it to direct the water into a barrel and not into my neighbor's basement. I can't put in any true drainage systems because our neighborhood requires that you get a landscape architect to design it for you. I rent...I'm not paying to do that!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Or you could do a rain garden and direct the water there. No real "drainage'' per se, just some interesting soil prep, but you could have a small swale and use the soil that comes out to make your "gutter".

Just a thought...

HG

[firstimegardener]

I love the idea of a rain garden, but at the bottom of the tier is the lawn, which our lease says I can't tare up (for obvious reasons...) It's a good idea...wonder if you could do a rain garden in a raised bed??? But that would still mess up the grass (actually weeds, but hey, whatever)