HelpfulGardener.com

Unfortunately, it turns out that my yard service had been spraying RoundUp on a vacant bed in my backyard. Silly me had not been paying much attention to what they were doing and was mostly ignorant of the issues of RU until now.

Here is the problem......I would like to use the bed to grow some vegetables this summer, primarily, Squash, Melons, Pumpkins, ie. things that spread and need a lot of space. This is a primo location in my yard and gets a lot of sunshine. Is there anything I can do to salvage this bed from its 'RU contaminated' state? How bad is the risk of growing anything edible in this bed?

Needless to say, the lawn service has been instructed to spray nothing on my property. Unf. I am sure my neighbors have stuff that they use.

Thanks in advance.
Minoti

Roundup is not good stuff and is destructive in the environment and not safe for people. However it is not very persistent in the soil. If it has been 6 weeks since the bed was sprayed, you should be fine to plant in it (and that is being conservative, some people would tell you less). One of the things that Round up does is kill earthworms, so it would be good to add some compost and earthworms back in the soil, to start re-building the soil life.

I have not research, but I'm wondering if rototilling would help it break down and or offgas Till let it sit and then till again. There again tilling is not good for soil structure either.