Re: anyone ever filled in a pool before
- Subject: Re: anyone ever filled in a pool before
- From: maria guzman m*@3rivers.net
- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 09:16:25 -0600
'Fill dirt'.....haha. When I was making a raised bed garden from scratch
in northern CA (Red Bluff) a contractor told me he had topsoil he needed to
get rid from a construction site and would I like to have it? Sure.
Next thing I know he drives in and dumps 10 tons of heavy clay subsoil,
immediately goes back and returns with 10 tons more. I looked at the
mountain and thought, what do I do now?
My husband had made some raised bed wooden forms for me so I started
shoveling... and shoveling.... and shoveling... A friend came for a couple
of days and helped but in the end I must have shoveled 19 tons myself. It
took much of the summer. I had 3 large compost heaps going (fortunately -
or not - we also raised horses which provided endless manure & alfalfa) and
I shoveled that onto the surface of the filled forms, mixing it into the
first 8" or so one bed at a time, and figured worms would do the rest
eventually. Then I planted.
It worked. Backbreaking labor for which my joints now pay the price, but
within a year I had a beautiful garden. Of course some fill dirt is toxic
or perhaps in your area pure caliche which does not drain. Someone else
can better advise you on this.
Maria G.
>I have just heard the lovely news that my parents will be getting rid
>of their old swimming pool and spa--it leaks and they don't use it much
>anyway.
>Hooray, no more ugly black iron safety fence. Hooray, more area for
>gardening! Maybe a raised pond with lotuses and water-lilies instead.
>While Ganna Walska literally filled her swimming pool with lotus
>plants, we will need to demo the concrete and fill.
>Anybody out there ever done such a thing?
>
>I am most worried about knowing where the fill dirt comes from--that
>seems the biggest potential disaster.
>Laura (Los Angeles)
