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Re: "gardens alive" and mothball contamination

Hi Cherie,

> 1. Anybody have any experience with the stuff in the gardens alive catalog?
> Is it really organic?  Are the food items [ie vegetables alive!] just a
> mixture of the stuff I'm already using - ie kelp, manure, fertilizers and
> when it arrives, fish emulsion? What about the neem products - are they
> truly organic or something I don't want to eat [or the dogs, who
> occassionally munch on a plant - darn it!]

Got a troybuilt rototiller and with it came a catalog for a little
company called Gardens Alive! about three seasons ago with acoupon
for fiffty bucks. Everything does what it says it will do. I've used
it fortomatoes, vegies and even have their grass. Can't anwer if it's the same
 stuff you're already using, I would encourage you to look at the
cost savings and convience factors everything you need in one package
for specific plants.
I've had enough good results  over the years to warrant spending
more this year and expanding my Gardens Alive! repetoire to include
bug eating critters and pet products. My experience is if it says
if't good try it,  if it's great share it with other people. They
seem to be very ligitamate, organic minded and environmently
concerned.
Wish I had an answer for the moth balls, someone here will though.

> 2. I am currently gardening in part of my well turned border bed [10x70 -
> pretty large for crowded long island where it seems I'm going to be
> spending the next couple of gardening decades, but I'm sure small for many
> of you lucky folks!]  but I'd like to pull up the areas the bulbs came up
> in this spring [I hardly got to see them!] and turn those areas into raised
> square foot veg beds this fall for spring planting.  PROBLEM:  before I
> really knew anything, last fall, I added a ton of mothballs to those bulb
> spots [well defined patches about 2x3'] and now I'm wondering if all the
> chemicals have leached into that soil - if I dig up the entire patch and
> get rid of mothballs and the first 5-6" of soil - will that be sufficient -
> assuming I make an 8-12" raised bed over it and fill the whole thing with
> new compost and stuff [making 14-18" of new stuff]?  Or is it a bad idea to
> place the veggies there at all?  Or should I make raised beds a little
> higher and have a closed bottom with openings only for drainage?  I
> definitely don't want my family sucking on mothballs!
> I love this list - you are all so helpful and its nice to have someone to
> share my new passion with [my husband will happily rake and dig and weed -
> but he doesn't really care about actually growing things - he just likes
> digging!]  So thanks in advance for any help you can offer - Cherie in Long
> Island NY - Zone 7ish or Sunset Zone 34.
>
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---
Melissa Wise
mwise@simreal.com

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