Allotments 4 All

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A friend of mine had her niece come to stay with her.  She opted to help with the watering and my friend told her not to use the red watering can as it had weedkiller (Sodium Chlorate) in it.  You can guess what happened.....   My friends tomato plants and cucumbers which she grew in the soil in her greenhouse, have all died. 

Does anyone know how long it would be before my friend can grow things in the soil that has been contaminated please?  If she sprayed the area with a hose for several weeks, would this make the ground safe for her plants next Spring? 

My friend is so upset as her tomato plants were over 6ft tall and had lots of large tomatoes on them.   I only have a few weedy ones left as I have planted up the best of them.  I can give her some fruit for her own use when mine ripen but she wanted to put her surplus on the table in our village where donations left go to Cancer Research.   

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For those of us that still struggle on getting compost right, there was a good answer on GQT this week.  First of all, they said sowing compost should be low in fertility (too much sucks the nutrition out of the seed).  Essentially, sowing compost can be “sand with something to hold the moisture – e.g leaf mould”.  I had to listen to that twice to make sure I heard it right.  Potting compost is where the seedling needs nutrition and the recommendation was one big bucket of compost mixed with no more than a teacup of fish bone meal and some wood ash.   My mistake has been in thinking that seed compost was the most nutritious – to get seeds off to a good start – and to use this for potting on.  Always learning…but I’m starting from a very low base.  Good to hear any useful tips on seed/potting compost from growers especially the ratios of the components.  Thanks for all the comments.

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Hi ya, I noticed watching a gardening programme the people, on a working veg box supply, using weed control fabric. That looks ok I thought so invested in some. It is a plastic weave so laid on the width of my plot I cut it easily to length with a gas blow torch. I then made a template and burnt hole every 1ft to plant though. I made 4" holes but with hindsight should of made them smaller. It seems to be successful so far and I am considering investing in some more as due to health problems I find weeding a pain. This year they seem to of gone mad. I am going for the minimum dig option and wondered does anyone else follow this and do they use fabric? What about no dig? I can see the idea behind it and it makes sense but you still have to dig to lift spuds. I will look forward to any thoughts, advice, ideas on this. I have researched utube etc but would like to hear from gardeners who actually do use this method. Thanks to all in advance and happy gardening