It really depends on what they treated their pool water with. Most pool chemicals are primarily some form or chlorine. There may be some other ingredients but they tend not to be too toxic (otherwise it wouldn't be safe for people to swim in). If the pool has sat all winter without being treated there may not be much if any chlorine left in the water they drained as it does evaporate. It can kill plants if it's concentrated enough. It can also kill soil microbes and soil critters like worms. However, the good news is that chlorine is acutely toxic but it does not persist. It quickly evaporates or breaks down into other components. Which means it will kill on contact but after a day or two will no longer effect your plants. So basically at this point the damage is done but whatever survives the next few days should be fine. If you replant in a few days the chlorine will not harm the new plants. The bad news is that some of the chemicals the chlorine breaks down into, like dioxins, are harmful. They will not kill plants but do accumulate in the plants and thus potentially be eaten by you. However, the tiny amounts that may result from this exposure are probably irrelevant in the large picture. If you water your garden from tap water you're adding small amounts of chlorine with each watering and over time that probably adds up more than anything in your neighbors pool. Bromide is also a common pool chemical, it's quite toxic to algae and fungus, but it won't harm the multi-cell plants in your garden. In fact bromide is a commonly used agricultural fungicide that is injected into the soil to kill fungus, nematodes, and some insects. So maybe you just had a free pesticide application. The other thing I can think of that could cause problems is that most people add some chemicals to keep the pH of their pool water low (makes chlorine more effective). I'm not sure what effect this might have on the soil or if it could lower soil pH. If there was enough applied I expect it could. Maybe test the pH of the soil in the areas that absorbed most of the water to be on the safe side. If it's low it shouldn't be too hard to add some soil amendments to bring it back up. Overall, I wouldn't worry too much. I expect that your plants will be fine. If any die, replace them and don't worry about reusing the bed.

Hi christyinco You have had answers that probably work in Florida and England, but not in dry, windy Colorado. Water daily, twice a day for small-seeded plants like lettuce and carrots. For the very small seeds, I like to put down a row cover, flat on the soil, and water over that. It keeps the seeds from washing out of the soil, and then it holds the moisture a bit longer. Using a sprinkler is fine, hand watering is a pain, and getting enough moisture into dry clay or limestone soil is hard with a bucket and cup. Many references say to put 1 inch of water on your garden a week. That works in the eastern third of the country, where there is water already in the soil. Don't bet on it in Colorado. Put at least 15 minutes of sprinkler water on your garden every day until the plants get up and established. Then you can switch to drip irrigation, if you want, and water every other day. Mulch, mulch, mulch! I use pine straw because I live at the edge of a forest. Nice stuff, it grabs and doesn't blow very much. But if I lived in an urban area without access to pine straw, I would use grass clippings, alfalfa hay, alfalfa pellets (like rabbit food), wheat straw, or purchased compost for mulch. You can find the hay, alfalfa pellets, and wheat straw at feed stores, and there should be one fairly near you even in big cities like Denver and Colorado Springs. When the summer rains start in July and August, keep watering your garden every other day unless you have standing water after a storm. Yes, natural rain is nice, but we really don't get enough of it even in the rainy season. My advice. Water more. It is really hard to overwater in the arid mountain west! Catherine (chronic under-waterer)

I'm looking for a book that covers all kinds of garden problems from plant nutrition to pests and their solutions. I like the visual flow chart style I have seen in some books. I'm a very visual person. What can you recomend? Thank you, Ben

Hi everyone I'm new here but I thought I'd ask for help with my vegetable garden set up problem. I live in an apartment with a detached garage, where I have chosen to locate my garden. The garage has no windows, just the roll up door, and I've been using an attractive water damage hole for my heat exhaust. I'm using a 600w cool tube digital ballast set up in a 4x4x6.5 tent, with a 400 cfm Can Fan pulling air through the cool tube. The problem I have is with airflow. That's where you guys would hopefully chime in, as many brains are better than one. I'm trying to avoid getting an AC unit, but the heat exhaust performs so-so currently, as it's being blown basically In to the ceiling. On top of that, I can't leave the door open to let cooler air in because even a nice neighborhood in LA can be shady. ;) So, is there any workaround that I'm not seeing? Please feel free to chime in, ask for any further details, pictures, etc. Thank you ! Andrew