veg and poisons question??

[4390evans]

Hi guys

I was wondering if anyone knows anything on poisons.

Next door has sprayed there back yard with poison, I've asked what type and she said she cant remember it was just a kill on contact type. I'm a bit gutted as I have all me veg and fruit on the border that leads onto her garden, and I'm thinking if she has put poison up to the border of her garden it will of went into all me onions blueberry bush etc etc. She said she sprayed it last year then done the centre of the garden not so long ago.
She said its a kill on impact but then she said its safe for animals as she has rabbits.

What do you guys think?

Thanks guys.
Hope to hear good news
Jen

[Nicos]

First of all don't panic!

I would go round and have another chat with her to find out what exactly it was she used...she may still have the packet, or recognise a piccie of the brand if you gave some to show her.

Time will tell if your bushes / produce is affected by it dying back.

Exactly the same thing happened to one of our potagers a couple of weeks back when the farmer sprayed the brambles growing along the barbed wire fencing.

3 ft from our crops and 2 ft from our tree nursery containing at least 40 saplings of various fruit and nut and ornamental trees given to us.

We were utterly furious as we are pretty much organic and were worried about our produce.

As it happens all was OK but I was ready to stomp off up to him and give him a mouthful of my best Queen's English!

By chatting nicely to your neighbour at least makes them aware of the knock on effects of their actions in future...and that's why I am going to wait till we bump into each other before explaining why I was so worried, espesh as he'd only ever trimmed them back before and never sprayed them.

[Bigmallly]

If they do insist on spraying, ask them kindly to put a piece of cardboard behind the plant so as to contain the spray to a certain degree.

[4390evans]

I asked what brand or type it was and she said she cant remember it as it was her mam who bought it buy it was something that doesn't contaminate the soil, but then I thought it must contaminate the soil if its killing grass and weeds on contact? and the only domestic weed killer I can think of is round up?

My veg and seedlings still look healthy nothing is dying there is still worms etc at the surface.

Tbh I'm quite furious, its taking what restraint I do have not to go round and throttle her as she knows I plant veg and I don't use anything besides tomato feed on my garden and after watching stuff grow from January (which seems like an eternity) I feel a bit deflated.

[Nicos]

...just how we feel re our neighbour too.

[Bigmallly]

All you can do is ask them to be a bit more respectful......................or you will start feeding their bladdy weeds............

[4390evans]

I've just started talking to them again and holding my tongue as much as possible with niggley things they do so a rift doesn't start up again. But when I thought about the food that has took ages to grow and all that hard work could of been destroyed due to their ignorance I was just a bit mad. haha

[Aberdeenplotter]

Sorry guys, I don't agree with what is being suggested here. Someone has sprayed their own ground with weedkiller. They don't need anyone's permission to do this and provided they take care when spraying there should be no problem at all. If care is taken, there is no need to erect barriers before spraying and getting up tight about something which could have happened but hasn't actually happened and even thinking of throttling someone to boot is more than a little extreme.

[Nicos]

If care is taken,

yeh..that's the problem...sometimes you don't know until it affects your plants!

Hopefully they were careful- and yes...it's their land and they can do what they want ( within the law)...but the potential of accidentally poisoning crops is very worrying.

Yup- they may have been very careful in Jen's case...but I can relate to people unintentionally causing distress-especially after the care she has put into producing healthy crops for her young family.

Fingers crossed all will be OK...but if the wind had been in another direction etc etc ...who knows.

Always best I think to have a friendly word no matter how frustrated you feel eh??

[greenishfing]

Maybe your neighbour is just a sneaky b**ch like me. I was sick of neighbours with unruly offspring and pets. My strategy was to be seen spraying my land and plants frequently.

if my sister came to visit with her dogs I made a point of telling her (loudly)not to let them go on the land in case they got poisoned.

If they ask what I have sprayed I tell them everything, weedkiller, bug killer, anti-fungal etc.

Generally there is only water in my sprayer and occasionally soapy water but at least my neighbours keep well clear with their 2 and 4 legged pests.

[mothhawk]

Hopefully your neighbour was careful, but if she cannot remember the name of the weedkiller used, that would worryingly suggest to me that she didn't look at the packet very closely, so may not have read any instructions or precautionary advice on it. It's a wait and see jobbie, lass. If it was a contact killer, anything of yours that caught spray drift will be shrivelling by now. If nothing is, you're in the clear. Have a look-see over the fence and see what in her garden is dying and how close it is to you.

[Snadger]

There are usually only two types of weedkiller available to the amateur gardener, Glyphosate or Sodium Chlorate based.The very fact it was deemed a contact weedkiller
Sounds like it was a weak solution of Glyphosate to me which when applied thoughtfully,shouldn't cause a problem to neighbouring gardens.

[Potstubsdustbins]

I use contact weed killer on my concrete patios, sometimes very close to my veg containers.

I always choose a calm day and am careful to ensure none goes on to my veg. To date I have not had a problem, lets hope they are not 'famous last words'.