Its not a good idea... but its not that bad either.

Assuming that your coworker uses good personal hygiene, as in she washes her hands, her food, and she doesn't eat dirt... that area should be fine for a garden.

The soil might be compacted from dog pacing... which could be corrected, over time.

A little compost, a little organic fertilizer, and as much mulch as you can afford. Give that 3 months and you should be good to go.

What I would do as a precaution is to first lime the area with hydrated lime. I always used that in the lambing pens when we had sheep and it is well known as a disinfectant in livestock areas. Possibly then do a lasagna bed on top using layers of cardboard, then the usual compostables. I doubt the soil is very good there anyhow, depending on how long it was used as a dog pen and what the soil was initially.

I think you need to recognize that there could be parasites in that soil just as there could be in manure that has not been hot composted.

There was a thread a week or two back
''Why I love the internet...really it's ON TOPIC''. There are several links in there one that tells how to make home made Lacto Bacilli

.doc about making and collecting BIM

Their are several other good links in there, about using the home made LB to treat the bedding of chicken coops, horse stalls, barn floors etc. The animal dung hits the floor and begins composting w/ the bedding all being helped to break down by the LB.

This might be a very good soil soak for the rehabilitated dog run.

What I would do as a precaution is to first lime the area with hydrated lime.

While this might be a good idea in PA, in other parts of the country it might not. Be sure you know what your soil is like before you add lime.

I find the info on LB very interesting. I have great faith in LB as always gave it to our baby calves and lambs which greatly reduced the possibility of scours. I might have to start making my own yogurt to feed my garden.

I think baliset's coworker needs to realize the possibility of parasites in the soil and do something to sterilize this soil if she plans to plant this year. We all hear on this forum how dangerous raw manures are in growing food crops. Dog manure cannot be safer.

Hydrated lime is not the lime that you use for gardening. See "Quick Lime"

I second the recommendation of doing a lasagna type garden over the whole dog pen area!!!!!! There are several reasons that this would help.

1-by covering over the entire area with the cardboard/newspaper and a deep deep layer of compost, the first harvest of plants isn't even likely to touch the possibly contaminated soil.

2-that compacted and probably very poor soil will improve by being covered in mulch and kept moist for a few season.

3-you can avoid trying to till or dig that compacted soil by using lasagna techniques.

If you wish, liming could be done under the cardboard if the soil warrants it.

My "lasagna" beds are usually simply cardboard held down by some free wood chip mulch and then covered with a foot deep layer of mushroom compost (spent compost from the mushroom farm that was made of horse manure composted with straw and some other additives, steam pasturised, used to grow a crop of mushrooms, steam pasturised again and sold by the 3 yard scoop load for $5. Perhaps not perfect but it has been working very well for me and after a couple crops grown on that "raised bed" I usually have to fork out weeds and the mix of the old compost and sand is not a bad soil for growing another season or two of crops before I need to do another heavy re-do of the beds. Each season or crop I usually sprinkle a mix of seed meals, garden lime, bone and blood meal, potassium supplement etc.

what kind of soil does that area have?

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

People are saying this would be poor soil. I think it would be pretty good because of the dog urine. Most likely it is very compacted from all the dog traffic and would need to be tilled, but that's easily taken care of.

If she bought the house last year and there hasn't been a dog in there since, the soil should be as safe as anywhere else. Remember, unless all your plants are grown indoors, wild animals have and are eliminating in your garden.

While this is generally true, I think the problem here is dog = carniovore = questionable meat parasites, etc.

I have suggested to my friend to look into lasagna-type gardening and offered her some of your suggestions.

I have an area that will likely become a dog area. However it gets some of my best sun exposure NE to SE and I would like to use the space. Assuming that I am able to fence off the plants, would high-bush blueberries and/or grapes be an option for this area. I was thinking the dogs might even help with keeping birds and critters off the berries etc.