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I have a question:

I bought soil to fill up my garden. it was sold as garden soil but it was dead. I ruined everything and last year had almost nothing there. the previous year my okra was as tall as I am and last year it was pepper size and turned to seed straight away. I put loads of shavings with chicken manure and mixed it. in september I put more shavings/manure and transplanted some peppers and eggplants and they started to grow but in january we had 3 days of frost so they are gone. I have just put more shavings/manure, slightly tilled it, just to mix cemented soil with it without turning it and planted some tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. now I pray for them.

any suggestion what I can do with dead soil underneath? there are few greens here and my chickens eat all of them so nothing left for composting. only tomatoe leaves, etc.

do you know if lantana is toxic? can I chop pruned twigs with leaves and use it in my garden or just around lantana plants?
 
Not familiar with lantana. Did your failed garden last year have curled or puckered leaves? Yellowed leaves? If so, it's possible your purchased soil was contaminated with a herbicide. Some of which have a very long half life.
 
I have a question:

I bought soil to fill up my garden. it was sold as garden soil but it was dead. I ruined everything and last year had almost nothing there. the previous year my okra was as tall as I am and last year it was pepper size and turned to seed straight away. I put loads of shavings with chicken manure and mixed it. in september I put more shavings/manure and transplanted some peppers and eggplants and they started to grow but in january we had 3 days of frost so they are gone. I have just put more shavings/manure, slightly tilled it, just to mix cemented soil with it without turning it and planted some tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. now I pray for them. 

any suggestion what I can do with dead soil underneath? there are few greens here and my chickens eat all of them so nothing left for composting. only tomatoe leaves, etc.

do you know if lantana is toxic? can I chop pruned twigs with leaves and use it in my garden or just around lantana plants?


Lantana berries are toxic I don't think the leaves are.
 
I have a question:

I bought soil to fill up my garden. it was sold as garden soil but it was dead. I ruined everything and last year had almost nothing there. the previous year my okra was as tall as I am and last year it was pepper size and turned to seed straight away. I put loads of shavings with chicken manure and mixed it. in september I put more shavings/manure and transplanted some peppers and eggplants and they started to grow but in january we had 3 days of frost so they are gone. I have just put more shavings/manure, slightly tilled it, just to mix cemented soil with it without turning it and planted some tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. now I pray for them. 

any suggestion what I can do with dead soil underneath? there are few greens here and my chickens eat all of them so nothing left for composting. only tomatoe leaves, etc.

do you know if lantana is toxic? can I chop pruned twigs with leaves and use it in my garden or just around lantana plants?


Leaves and berries of lantana can be toxic.

If you like the appearance of lantana, verbena is a good substitute. Most varieties are safe...I think it's the purple top that can be toxic to animals but you'll have to double check that one.
 
Not familiar with lantana. Did your failed garden last year have curled or puckered leaves? Yellowed leaves? If so, it's possible your purchased soil was contaminated with a herbicide. Some of which have a very long half life.
no. it simply didn't grow and turned to seed in a short time. it was too hot but other people around with good soil didn't have problem. so I guess there were no nutrients for the plants.
 
Leaves and berries of lantana can be toxic.

If you like the appearance of lantana, verbena is a good substitute. Most varieties are safe...I think it's the purple top that can be toxic to animals but you'll have to double check that one.
I know it is toxic to animals. I have a few bushes of lantana in front of the house, next to the fence. I will chop the twigs and leaves and put it around lantana only.
 
Get some Bio-Char or make your own and mix in the contaminated soil and see if that will draw the contamination from the soil. I had a like you discribe problem several years ago, then I found out that using Bio-Char helped draw the herbicide from the soil. Took three (3) years to get soil back to normal. I do make my now Bio-Char not too hard to do. Go on line and search for Bio-Char to find out how to make. Good luck.
 

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