Random and miscellaneous garden photos

[Seven Bends]

Last year, I grew in raised beds, but this year I tested my soil and found that all my garden has high lead and the raised bed has even higher than the rest. It's container gardening for me this year. I bought dwarf tomato seeds last minute and sowed direct and I'm just hoping I get a melon.

Pretty yard/patio! Do you know the source of the lead in the soil? What made you decide to test?

[JRinPA]

What form of lead is in your raised bed soil? The soil came from where?

Did you get your water tested?

[Puffychicken]

@Seven Bends
@JRinPA
I decided to test because I have a baby that wants to explore everything so I became anxious about lead as a result. We live in a house built in 1902, in an old part of our town so the lead is probably from paint, leaded gas and general leadiness of old industrialization. The water utility guys came out to check our water but didn't end up taking a sample because we have a water softener. They said it looked like the old owners changed everything to copper and it was pretty new so probably no lead on our side. Which was a relief. Our original theory was that the higher lead in the raised bed was from water with lead but now I think that the old owners took the dirt that was taken out near the house when doing the landscaping and put it in the boxes. Soil near an old house is usually more leady because of the rain running off the house for years and years. We did add miracle grow to the beds last year to top them up. I'm not sure what form of lead, the RXsoil test just says lead.

For our pots this year, I looked up the amount of lead in potting mixes that are available to us and bought the one with the lowest lead. Miracle grow had 20ppm!
I used the California, Oregon and Washington databases if anyone else needs to look up their commercial soil products.
https://agr.wa.gov/departments/pesticid ... r-database
https://mylicense.oda.state.or.us/plsap ... PROGRAM:91
http://apps1.cdfa.ca.gov/fertilizerproducts

I'm thinking about moving so she can play in the yard.

[Seven Bends]

Background lead levels in soil in the US are 10-50ppm, and those levels are considered fully safe for vegetable gardening, so 20ppm in Miracle Gro wouldn't be an issue. That said, the best amount of lead is no lead at all, so I understand trying to pick a product with lower levels. I checked all the Miracle Gro soil-type products on the Washington State Dept of Agriculture link you posted, and I only found a few with levels above 10ppm:

MG Performance Organics All-Purpose In-Ground Soil 25.1 ppm
MG Performance Organics Raised Bed Mix 16.8 ppm
MG Moisture Control Potting Mix 21.0 ppm
MG Organic Choice Raised Bed and In-Ground Soil w/Compost 17.5 ppm
MG Organic Choice Moisture Control Potting Mix w/Compost 12.0 ppm
Fundamentals Garden Soil Roses 18.3 ppm

Most Miracle Gro products had concentrations below 5 ppm. It's interesting to me that most of their higher readings came from their various "organic" lines of products. I wonder if that has something to do with their compost inputs?

As for your child's safety in your yard, I certainly don't want to interfere with your decisions about that, but be sure you read up on scientific consensus health and environmental data before making any decisions such as moving. Soil lead levels have to be pretty high to be of concern (greater than 400 ppm in a child's direct play area or 1200ppm averaged over the whole yard), and even those high levels are only a concern if the soil in your yard is bare/exposed. Also, there are lots of easy ways to reduce risk from lead in soil.

US EPA's Region III office has a good fact sheet on lead in soil if you haven't already seen it: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... llbwjWhO4M

Sorry for taking the photo thread off-topic, but I worked in toxic chemical regulation for years, so it's an area of interest for me.

[Puffychicken]

@Seven Bends Yeah I noticed that organic seemed to have higher levels when I was looking too.

The test said "100 ppm - Maximum
level the EPA generally
regards as safe for food
crops and gardening
with children" and ours is much more than that but less than 400, so thanks for that info! We've covered the bare raised beds with some tarps to be safe anyway.

[karstopography]

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[JRinPA]

There were there on Sunday....but gone today. All four egg shells gone. I don't know if the parents move the evidence to hide the chicks, or if a comm gardener took them.

The two parents an at least 3 chicks are skittering around the garden plots. Fast little buggers.

Last pic I have is on May 1. They hatched between May 5 noon and May 7 noon.

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I took some pics of them running around at 15 yards today but this cell phone camera is useless for that.

[bower]

The Bundido is back. Survived the pandemic, in spite of the badly positioned mask. Still masking!

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[SpookyShoe]

The crinum are blooming now around the Live Oak tree.

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[eyegrotom]

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[maxjohnson]

Maybe this year I will finally get to eat a few peaches before they all drop due to diseases and the squirrels eats all them before they ripen.

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[maxjohnson]

I didn't know this. The swamp milkweed I planted last year. I thought they didn't made it through the winter and that was it, but new stem are coming out from the root base. I didn't even paid attention and thought it was weeds until I looked closer. I still need to do a better job protecting the caterpillars this year.

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[JRinPA]

Big bugger...

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Under my black woven mulch that was not picked up or worked for two years since there was tomato trellis for two season. Had a big ant hill in there, and then I saw these slugs. Never saw that kind with spots before. I was going to rototill it because of the ant hill but decide to just compost and broadfork it before putting the cover and planting peppers.

[bower]

That is a leopard slug @JRinPA . Mostly carnivorous, eats other slugs and such.

[MissS]

That's one huge slug. Time to go Musky fishing!

[JRinPA]

Yeah pretty easy to ID that one! I never saw or heard of one, and I saw it and said...that is going to be a leopard slug. Put the pic on SEEK app, came right back, leopard slug, world wide distribution. It did not mention that they are carnivorous.

Even balled up, he was about 2" solid. I figured escargot time. We have a comm garden workday tomorrow...maybe I'll fry it up for everyone to try? I should make some scrapple and tell them it is slugmeat...

[SpookyShoe]

Hummingbird Plant:

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Bee balm "Blue stocking":
This plant will grow much larger.

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Honey Bells cuphea in foreground, Cherry Bells cuphea in background:

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Summer Jewel salvia (white):

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Spicebush butterfly on Mystic Spires blue salvia:

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[MissS]

@SpookyShoe Your first photo looks like dicliptera suberecta. It's a lovely plant. How do your hummers like it?

[Mark_Thompson]

I’m not autistic, you’re autistic!

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[SpookyShoe]

@SpookyShoe Your first photo looks like dicliptera suberecta. It's a lovely plant. How do your hummers like it?

I'll have to let you know in the fall when they migrate from the north. I unfortunately don't have hummingbirds all year long like some people. I bought the plant at a nursery in March. It was in pretty bad shape with lots of broken branches, but it bounced back and has been growing quite nicely.