What to plant on a poisoned garden?

[AndyAmine.]

there is a large ex-garden on the egde of my balcony owned by the body corp of my building and I have access to about 1/2 of it for my own use. or perhaps all of it if it looked nice.

the problem is that there was big problems with roaches in the soil eating all the plant roots so nothing would grow there until I soaked the shitter out of it with pestacide.

Now, after the pestacide dousing, the possible need for future dousings also and not knowing what has been done to the soil previous to my arival, Im not so keen on putting plants in that I would like to harvest in future due to possible up take of said posions.

What kind of plants could I put in that wouldnt take up harmful posions in the foliage etc or perhaps something that could process the posions out of the soil for future crops?

[occidentalis]

What pesticides did you use to kill the roaches?

And roaches? Never heard of them being a problem in the garden.

Your state Agriculture Department should be able to do soil testing or advise on where to do soil testing for pesticide residues.

[DocAzz]

there is a large ex-garden on the egde of my balcony owned by the body corp of my building and I have access to about 1/2 of it for my own use. or perhaps all of it if it looked nice.

the problem is that there was big problems with roaches in the soil eating all the plant roots so nothing would grow there until I soaked the shitter out of it with pestacide.

Now, after the pestacide dousing, the possible need for future dousings also and not knowing what has been done to the soil previous to my arival, Im not so keen on putting plants in that I would like to harvest in future due to possible up take of said posions.

What kind of plants could I put in that wouldnt take up harmful posions in the foliage etc or perhaps something that could process the posions out of the soil for future crops?

I haven't seen the garden, but I'll assume its a planter box on a balcony.

It sounds like it needs to be epmtied, sealed, and waterproofed properly before you do anything else. This will stop the roaches getting in, and it will also stop any other structural problems later on. You may also find some structural problems when its empty!

This way you can start with fresh soil, you won't need to worry about poisons, or future roach attacks.

[AndyAmine.]

Thanks guys

Not sure of the posion, Ill go check.. it was really nasty though, made me sick for a day jst from the fumes and not wearing a mask.

Yes, roaches, strange I know but we have big problems wiht them here in Surfers', you could litteraly dig up a handful of soil and have several 2-3cm+ roaches scrurry out.. so there were thousands upon thousands of them in there. you should have seen it when I poured on the posion, they all came rushing up to the surface in thier hundreds pissing and shitting everywhere.. never seen anything like it and hope not to again..

The garden is surrounding a porta-co, carport thingo, so its quite large, each side is about 1mtr but 15mtrs. The soil haddnt been touched for about 10yrs before I got to it.

I would love to replce it all and plant in some cacti but its not possible because the cost would be massive and it still wouldnt be my own property.

[transDiMenTional]

LOL the cockroachs on surfers are fullon hey! I used to live there and it was a constant problem.

[Torsten]

You can plant anything that you intend to do a 2 phase extraction on. Such an extraction would eliminate residues. Obviously crude extracts would not and would probably actually concentrate them.

So, cacti and Aizoaceae are a good option as you can extract them.

Roaches love organic material and in an apartment block they don't get a lot of that other than rubbish and garden beds. The fact that everyone uses bark mulch isn't helping this as it provides a literal breeding paradise for them.

Both of these problem are actually in your favour. if you explain to the BC that the mulch and soil attract roaches then they will love the idea of a pebble 'mulch'. It means less roaches in the building and everyone saves money and ick-moments. Pebble mulch is kinda pointless with most plants, but is perfect with xeriscaping. Use small pebbles for best anti roach effect and best weed supprossion. Also make sure to use plastic woven weedmatting between the soil and the mulch (btw, to plant through weedmatting simply get a butane torch or even torch lighter, scrape away the pebbles and melt a hole into the plastic weedmat. That way you don't get the messy stringy bits working their way out of the pebbles.)

Pebbles are not cheap, but if you can pick them up by the trailer load rather than in bags you will save about 70-80% of the cost. 5-7mm pebbles are best. 50mm deep is minimum, but more is better.

For instant landscape effect get a couple of cheap yuccas.

[DocAzz]

Thanks guys

Not sure of the posion, Ill go check.. it was really nasty though, made me sick for a day jst from the fumes and not wearing a mask.

Yes, roaches, strange I know but we have big problems wiht them here in Surfers', you could litteraly dig up a handful of soil and have several 2-3cm+ roaches scrurry out.. so there were thousands upon thousands of them in there. you should have seen it when I poured on the posion, they all came rushing up to the surface in thier hundreds pissing and shitting everywhere.. never seen anything like it and hope not to again..

The garden is surrounding a porta-co, carport thingo, so its quite large, each side is about 1mtr but 15mtrs. The soil haddnt been touched for about 10yrs before I got to it.

I would love to replce it all and plant in some cacti but its not possible because the cost would be massive and it still wouldnt be my own property.

Surfers? Thats no good. I was about to offer to do the work for ya!

I was a waterproofer for a while. The lab I worked in made construction chemicals - membranes, epoxies, grouts, additives for concrete, sealants, all sorts of cool stuff - but like most labs it didn't pay much at all. So I got a job out on the tools. Application, instead of Testing. I never had one job interview, as I would tell people my previous employer (BASF) and they would offer me a job on the phone. They figured it was good to have a nerd that doesn't mind a bit of hard work

If anyone else has waterproofing problems, let me know

[mescalito]

Azz301: I hope you use a filter mask dude those chems may set you up for a BIG fall later on in life.

I know

[mescalito]

Andy what about Pleurotis spp. fungi to clean it up?

[DocAzz]

Azz301: I hope you use a filter mask dude those chems may set you up for a BIG fall later on in life.

I know

It depends which membranes you use. Roll-on acrylics, latexes and polyurethanes don't need it (and they're non-toxic), its really only the spray-on polyurethanes that need the mask. And yes, I always do.... full face mask and respirator.

Don't use torch-on membranes, they're no good. Its old technology.

I did one job specified in torch-on bitumen... it took 5 weeks. Had I been allowed to use a spray-on polyurethane it would have been completed in two days, as there was ALOT of detail work. Even though the product costs twice the amount, is it really worth the extra in wages? What if I said I wanted a labourer with me?

People in the construction industry make some really silly mistakes based purely on here-say.

[Bok2]

Find out what chemical you used as most chems we use as pesticides are somewhat biodegradable (Thats suposing you didn't douse the garden with some DDT from the back of Grandpas shed) and most are the same thing farmer Joe sprays on his Apples to keep them blemish free for the supermatket shelf.

Once you find out what chemical it is you can then establish what the withholding time is, hence its degradability.

Queensland Health and the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority dont let the public get hold of any of the hardcore stuff licenced pest controlers can, thats why Im 2 assignments away from my license.

For interest purposes only please seek the advice of a fully licenced pest management technician.

[mescalito]

Another alternative you could use would be to plant shitloads of silverbeat and interplant some Pleurotis shrooms via newspaper tek to clean up the residue.

N.B. I wouldn't advise consuming any of the plants or fungi on the clean-up run.