I once bought a bale of pine shavings from the pet department and covered my garden with them. I didn't have any plants die.

Okay, that makes a lot more sense. He's not the best-informed guy out there, but it seemed a lot more prudent for me to check rather than just go ahead and maybe get burned.

Hi Gamebird -

While I can't answer your question about turpentine, I can offer you some advise about grandparents. My grandma (93) has always had a garden and canned until this past year. When I started composting she told me not to use oak leaves as they will never decompose. After doing some research, I decided to use them. She was a bit disappointed when she found out (I think because I didn't take her advise) but after that I just didn't tell her. I love her but it's hard for her to accept "new-fangled" ideas.

I had to search for other ways to can when I started because I realized her way wasn't the safest way. When I told her about what I'd learned about canning, her response was "haven't killed anyone yet". God love her!

So my advise is if you decide to use the pine shavings, don't tell your grandpa *smile*

Val

"haven't killed anyone yet".

OMG---my mom would put the uneaten bacon from breakfast on the stove and we would scarf it up when we would come home that night from whatever activity we had after school...

Can't believe what we used to do back in the day and still lived to tell about it.....

God Bless your grandma......and my mom

R

My grandmother insisted that tomatoes were poison. She would grown them and feed them to us but she would turn to my father, she only spoke to my father when the family was assembled, and say "Willy, those damn tomatoes are poison. Thy'l be the death of you yet."

With hair on the greyer side of it's original brown, I remember going into my grandparent's garage after my grandfather died. He was a dyed in the wool gardener, his parents were orchardists. On the shelves in the garage were all of the pesticides of the time (early 70's) and earlier like arsenic. He was a total health nut long before it was popular and the first I ever knew. For a long time I wondered why he was using those pesticides as it clashed with his healthy lifestyle and beliefs. Then it dawned on me, he had no idea what he was handling, the pesticide containers had no warnings as we know them today.

He died of cancer at the age of 63.

, , . , no.

I'd suggest you find another boarding facility that doesn't use wood chips for bedding. If you find the oldest bedding in a pile it will likely be well composted, you can use it immediately. With wood chips you will need to compost your chips for a couple years before you dig them in.

The best bedding is straw, or alternatively no bedding. With the later there's a dirt floor so no bedding is used. It's just manure. If you want manure for a hot frame the bedding, manure, with straw in it will keep your seedlings the warmest thru early spring.

I will say the fact they will load them is appealing.

I didn't notice this thread is 10 years old. Those chips have composted!

Great thread though. "Tomatoes are poison!" is a myth from the 1500s or so. Tomatoes being a New World vegetable, the European colonists somehow got the idea they were the Devil's fruit. Where would we be today if the Italians hadn't changed their minds? :-D

BTW there is a condition known as 'sour mulch' that can occur with wood chips that get wet and are without air (like in a plastic bag for example). They can start to form some organic acids (similar to vinegar) under those conditions. This can create some leachate that is toxic to plants. I knew a guy who grew tomatoes one year in big pots, mulched with pine chips, and they looked awful after heavy rains in April-May. He removed the mulch and they perked up. He was convinced it was the mulch. It should not do that if put on dry, but I think it was loaded with trouble when he used it. Also the plants were in containers which is a very limited environment with nowhere for stuff to dissipate and nowhere for the plant to go.