Help my husband flooded my garden with chlorine pool water

[strabary]

Hi,

I am new to this gardener forum and I am new to gardening. I made my garden in the highest corner of my yard (I thought) and I am growing some vegetables and herbs. It is 16' x 8' and I did rows and hills. My kids decided it would be fun to lay in the dirt and then jump in the pool & do it over and over again. My husband tried to clean it but ended up having to drain it. For some reason the water went around my house to the front yard and flooded my garden. All of my rows were completely covered and the water went up the tops of my hills, covering the roots of all of my plants. The water was highly chlorinated. The green bean plants leaves fried the 1st day and now 2 days later all the leaves of all my plants are fried looking. The stems coming from the ground still look full of life but I am worried abt if they will recover and if they do is it safe for my children to eat chlorinated vegetables and herbs. Also, is there anything I can do to help my garden recover. This is my 1st garden ever and I planted everything from seeds. The vegetable plants were just starting to flower.

Please help!

[garden5]

Wait and see if the plants put out new growth. If some of them are clearly dead, pull them and start over.

However, in the mean time, I would say that the best things you could do would be to replace as much topsoil you could and flush it with water.

[SPierce]

I don't really have any advice, more expert gardeners will be along for that, I just wanted to say, oh goodness I'm so sorry about you and your poor garden! Must be so traumatic.

[johnny123]

Call your local Cooperative Extension for advice.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I agree with marlingardener. If the plants are indeed dead, I would pull and compost. Give the the ground a quick tilling and replant.


Eric

[jal_ut]

Yes, the chlorine will evaporate out of the water quite quickly. Just give it some time to see if the plants will recover. I would not replace the soil. That is too bad your garden got damaged, but there is really no health risk to your family from any veggies to come out of it. Any of us on a municipal water system is constantly exposed to chlorine in the water. It tastes awful and smells weird, but I don't see anyone kicking over from drinking it.

[Rogue11]

Sorry about your garden.
I know this doesn't really answer your question, but I was wondering how often do you have to drain the pool? If this is a problem that could reoccur, maybe it would be better to relocate your planting area into a different part of your garden.

[strabary]

thank you for your advise! I will just continue to water for a few days and see what happens.

as far as it happening again - last year it didnt drain there so I'm not sure why it did this year but next time were gonna do a slow drain with the hose into the other side of the yard!

if anyone has anymore ideas, they are greatly appreciated!!

[GardenRN]

I agree with marlin as well...but I would be very interested in an update as things progress. It would be interesting to hear which plants survive and which ones don't. As well as what their reactions were.

Every gardener experiences some sort of catastrophe in their garden at some point, and probably more than once. We all learn from it....one way or another. I hope yours recovers as well as it can. Be careful not to get so intent on getting rid of the chlorine (that is probably already gone) that you do some other sort of damage. It's easy to do. Like over watering with good intent to flush the garden and then killing plants with too much water. Best of luck!

[johnny123]

I would never had told anyone.
The DEC might fine you for a hazardous material spill.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I would never had told anyone.
The DEC might fine you for a hazardous material spill.

I can't tell if you said this tongue in cheek? I can't see how this is any worse than millions of people using chlorine bleach in their laundry daily.


Eric

[hit or miss]

I would definately go in with a heavy top dress of good quality compost. It will help get your soil biology back on track. The only concern I would have, other than possibly dead plants, is the damage to the soil. If you are interested, read the sticky in the compost forum about Aerated Compost Tea, it really explains soil biology well.

[johnny123]

I wrote that laughing but sometimes the DEC can't take a joke.
A couple in NYC or Long Island were fined 10,000.00 because their septc tank got a leak and was letting raw sewage into the ground.
But is that any worse than the sewer water that goes into the ground from the drywell they had?

[gixxerific]

Of it's dry try flushing it out with water. Pool water is way more concentrated with chlorine than tap water.

[strabary]

I have some life this morning! My watermelons and yellow squash are blooming flower again. My herbs are fine. My greenbeans did not make it though.

Thank you all for your wonderful and helpful advise!

[SPierce]

I have some life this morning! My watermelons and yellow squash are blooming flower again. My herbs are fine. My greenbeans did not make it though.

Thank you all for your wonderful and helpful advise!

So glad to hear that at least some of them survived!

[Canoe]

While I totally agree with what everyone I will add this. If you are worried about the clorine in your soil, have it tested. It may not be any issue at all, but it will give you piece of mind.

Canoe