We Poisoned Our Garden. Then Fixed It. Here's How

[@robhaan6245]

You should use leaves, pine needles and wood chips from your land to make sure there is no chemicals in the mulch,

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey there Rob, those are great tips! We only end up with downed cottonwood on our property. We use the leaves where we can, but even the smallest bit of woods sprouts!

[@ladyryan902]

Well I'm glad I found you. And I had the herbicide hay few years ago and yes I did more than half of what you did!! Thank God I've had yields..no science background but I like that you include the science

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey Lady Ryan! We are so sorry to hear you have had to deal with this too, but good news that you are getting yields. Thank you for the feedback on the science part:)

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

If you read the label of Grazon or Milestone, you'll see that it is not to be used on crops. It's actually a violation of Federal law to sell hay that's treated with these herbicides. Still it happens because no one has been arrested or had their pants sued off. Horsemen love the stuff, because of all the weeds that poison horses. It's a lot cheaper to apply Grazon every couple of years than it is to have the vet out to the farm. I use a lot of horse manure from show arenas. If I'm worried about poisoning anything I'll assay the manure by planting peas or peppers in it. If the plant produces three healthy leaves, it's good to go. I don't generally worry about it because it's actually pretty rare to get contaminated manure and I grow a lot of corn and sugar cane which is not affected. If I wanted to get rid of aminopyralid contamination fast, I'd plow the ground weekly in the dry season and let UV radiation break it down.

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey there neighbor. That’s a great idea to do a bioassay test immediately on the materials you are bringing in.

[@hitreset0291]

Why not try biochar to absorb these toxins? I've made 100s of kgs of char over the years and when incorporated into my compost pile at roughly 20% by volume has transformed my veggie garden.

[@janebishop5885]

Plant cover crops in winter and even in late summer you could plant field peas which are super easy to grow, eat some and then turn the rest into the ground. During the winter, pour some swamp tea you have been aging in a barrel from all the garden debris, twigs, leaves, grass clippings, sticks, etc maybe some rabbit manure that you have been "cooking" for months. Use some of that tea on your beds and refill.barrel with water and let the process continue. I am very dubious about garden soil in bags from big stores and use what is made locally from cow manure, cotton and fish by-products. At the moment I have one tomato plant growing in a 25 gallon pot, which has the bottom half filled with sticks and pinecones and the top with this compost and it has 13 huge tomatoes without a blemish on them. So much fun to use what you have to retain the nutrients from all that grows and recognize the life sustaining properties in every living thing. Good luck and enjoy the beauty and utility if the harvest.

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey there Jane! Thank you for taking the time to share some extra tips. Those are great! We grow year-round in this garden so cover crops don’t work well. But I have heard some people add that in for remediation. If this season hadn’t turned out so well, we might have tried it.

[@TheBlindBaker722]

I think the new bed i put in had some contamination. Thankfully it's only one bed at this point

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey there Lydia. So sorry to hear that! Hopefully the things we shared in this video will work for you. But at least it doesn’t sound like the problem spread as far as ours!

[@nicholehillabush7211]

Yeah, this happened to me this year. 😭 We made a big investment in putting in a big, new garden this year in our front yard. Some stuff is still growing, but a lot has been affected. Looking at the stunted, twisted growth, it looks like Grazon... it's been such a bummer... Question: do you think it would survive an animal system twice? Like, if I feed the contaminated food to my chickens, will it go through their system and contaminate our compost for next year? If I planted perennials in it (herbs, strawberries, asparagus, etc.) Should I start them over, will the contaminate persist in the plants forever, or will they be free of it after a few years? Are there links to some of the products you used to remediate the problem?

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey there Nichole! So sorry to hear you are also dealing with this issue. You asked some really good questions and so far we haven’t found any good answers. I believe it would pass through an animal a second time, but since these chemicals are relatively new, I don’t think anyone knows yet what the long term effects might be. We opted to leave our perennials in and are using some of the things we mentioned to remediate the soil around them. We are wishing you a healing harvest in the near future!

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Oh, and there are links and product names in the article on our website that goes with this video (link in the video details)!

[@nicholehillabush7211]

@@WildHomesteadLiving thank you :)

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

One of the advantages to aminopyralid is that digestion has no effect on it. Animals can't metabolize it, so it has no effect on them. It also has no effect on the aminopyralid.

[@autumnafreeland4196]

I found you lol thanks again

[@WildHomesteadLiving]

Hey there Autumn! I’m so glad you found us over here💚