HelpfulGardener.com

Hi all,

Hope every one is doing well:). I have some questions and concerns. With all the different. Food borne illnesses coming and going I was wondering if there is any way to make my vegetable garden safe. I did some research online and found that using manure may contain things like e coli. I use black kow Should I continue to use it for my vegetable garden I don't pile it on top of my veggies, I just put it in my native soil when I plant the seeds or put in the plant. I side dress later in the growing season with triple ten is that ok?

Also I have a compost pile I read also that it could contain pathogens if not cooked properly, is that true? Iam so freaked out right now I just want to scrap the while garden . I don't want to get my family sick . Please help thank you so much in advanced.

whoa!! Relax! All us family gardeners have been gardening for generations and no one has been getting sick. Since you are putting this in organic gardening, you've gone a long way towards safety. People are much more likely to get sick from poisons they spray in their yard than from compost.

Presuming you don't put meat, manure or feces in your compost pile it is perfectly safe, whether or not it ever heats up. My compost pile usually doesn't heat up very much, because I don't have a lot of high nitrogen stuff to put in it, but it all breaks down to compost. By the time that happens any possible problems are taken care of, but if you aren't putting animal products in your compost pile, there's really not any problems to worry about in the first place.

If you are composting manure AND you are this worried about safety, you might want to have a separate pile for that.

The black kow is well aged composted manure and should also not cause any problems.

The problems in commercial food crops arise because agribusiness farms do things like spraying the leaves of food crops like lettuce directly with things like sewage sludge and uncomposted cattle feces made into a water slurry.

If you buy produce from the grocery store be sure you wash it thoroughly. A good washing takes care of most problems. If you buy things like melons, be sure you wash the skins before you cut in to them.

Backyard gardening is way safer than buying stuff from the grocery. Unless you buy certified organic, you have no way of knowing what has been put on that stuff!

Incidentally e coli is everywhere including your own intestines. It is rarely a problem.

Your triple ten is fine and is in no way a safety issue. Since you are in the organic gardening forum, you might want to know that it is a synthetic product, not organic.