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Ct

Hello Folks, I have a need for my soil to be tested which does have a little to with the pumpkins.

I live next door to a landscaper. He's a good guy, but sometimes he does the most stupid things and I have to wonder what goes through his mind. I've already had several run ins with him doing things to my yard.

Well recently, in a patch of wooded area I have that butts his yard, everything up and died. And I mean everything. The trees all died, the weeds all died, the underbrush is all dead, the ivy that covered the ground is completely dead and the space is now nothing but bare dirt and dead trees.

The funny thing is, the death stops perfectly with his property line.

My question is where can I get a soil test kit. I need one that will test for chemicals he might have dumped there instead of just things like pH and stuff. Are there any available? What can I expect this to cost me?

Thanks

8/28/2004 10:06:20 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Are you frindly with this neighbor or is there cause for the issue? You need a good survey & a better fence.

For free you can have your soil tested by the CT Agriculture Experiment Station Soil Lab headed by Greg Bugbee, 123 Huntington Street, New Haven, CT 06504.
Toll Free Tel outside NH area 1-877-855-2237 ask for soils.

But soil test labs such as this really only check for nutrients. If you suspected a residual herbicide, you'd have to contact a lab that does this type of work. I can get you the info for the lab I use for this but hear me out first.

You would need to tell this lab specifically WHAT you want to test for. Then for $175.00 the lab says either YES or NO. That's it. If it comes back NO, then another $175.00 test is required for the next suspected element. This gets expensive really fast.

Knowing landscapers (and I do), I'd suspect your neighbor either has children & saw Poison Ivy in the area. Or he thinks the area in question is his. Or for some reason he feels there is another advantage to knocking off that vegetation. He might have meant well.

If you know it is your property, it would be wise to remind him of this. How confrontational or politically tactful you want to be is your business. But it needs to be done.

If ever a person knowingly or not applies any pesticide to your property without a signed contract, license, & insurance, then that party has violated State laws & could (depending on intent & clarity of the situation) be fined or imprisoned or both.

He probably used Roundup & since there is no soil residue from it, you can safely replant anything you wish.

The cheapest & easiest way to make sure is to grab a few handfuls of the suspect soil right now before it degrades. Put it in a small flower pot or cup with drainage holes. Plant a couple beans seeds & try to germinate them. If they grow normally for a few days, then your soil is fine.

8/28/2004 11:11:05 AM

Ct

Hmmm there was no poison ivy and there's definitely no question of who's property it is because our property is divided by a line of shrubs. He has no children and is not even married to the girl he's been with for like the last 12 years. He is a nice person, but I'm afraid he's not very bright.

One on going thing with him that I finally got him to stop is this. Every day, 6 days a week he comes home and washes every last piece of landscape equipment he has. This makes a HUGE mess of mud and grass. What he then does (cause we all believe him and his girlfriend have OCD, they wash every vehicle they have several times a day by hand on the weekends) is take a high pressure hose and push everything over to the front of my house. This leaves mud and grass stuck to my wifes car and the stuff collects at the bottom of my driveway leaving a two to three inch deep mud puddle which smells like crap every morning. I fill a wheelbarrow full of his garbage every two weeks. Several neighbors have complained to the city about this though I get the brunt of it and I finally got him to stop doing it maybe a few weeks ago. Of course he's been doing this every summer for the last 5 years we've been here.

He killed probably a good 200 square feet of my woods, trees and all, with what I am sure is something he needed to get rid of and wouldn't dare drop a single drip on his property for fear of ruining his lawn.

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be ale to afford to test the soil as I don't have the money nor do I even know what to test for.

I confronted him about it, but as he always said with the mud and grass stuck to the side of our cars, he doesn't know how it happened.

Oh well, thanks for the help.

8/28/2004 11:39:44 AM

Vancouver, White Rock, Canada

This happened up here in Vancouver once, and the city actually came out and did their own test. Might want to look into that? In Canada it is a criminal offence to destroy someone else's property like that (and no doubt is in the US as well), so not sure if you would want to involve your local police. Hard thing would be to prove that he did it. Living next door to an idiot is tough...

8/28/2004 1:26:40 PM

Ohio

Just, Take some round up and go to the middle of his lawn and draw ur initials. and when he asks tell em,,, Hmmmmm I dont know how that happened,lol

8/28/2004 1:37:32 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Um......OK.......now we have some options. LOL

You are dealing with an imbecile. A very large & sturdy fence is in order. And you might want to consider a call to the DEP. If there is suspicion enough to warrant an investigation, the testing will cost you nothing.

Private email if you want the contact people & phone numbers in Hartford. I don't mind seeing this one swing. People like this give my industry a bad name.

8/28/2004 5:54:00 PM

he might of used tordon or crossbow . both tree herbicides

8/28/2004 10:35:18 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

I hope not. Thus the bean growing in a cup of soil from the area.

8/28/2004 10:40:37 PM