It sounds like the culprit is slag, which is one product used for roads, esp. Country roads. Slag is the metal "dregs" on the smelting process and depending on what metal(s) was melted in the first place, it could be toxic, but there is no hard data on this.

I can see DH sweet intentions on doing something for y'all's safety (avoiding tripping and falling) and I can see your being upset that the safety of your food has been compromised. Maybe you guys should try a little harder at taking every possible spec that is at least visible and carry on as usual. Aldo rinsing AWAY from the crops if it is possible. Then maybe for the next couple of years, do a soil test and monitor for toxicity.

I feel bad for both of you, talking about good intentions with possible bad outcome.

It sounds like this just happened so the possibility that your soil is contaminated is very remote. Plus you guys immediately shoveled off most of it. You have to think about the process of your edible's roots absorbing toxic stuff and there simply hasn't been any time whatsoever for this to happen. I don't think you are in danger but clean up some more and monitor, just in case.

Thanks, bossyvossy, for your thoughtful replies. I will go out there today and shoot water on the area away from the slope, and see if the force of the spray will take the leftover dust in a different direction.

Actually, it was I who removed as much of the black stuff as I could. Finally, as I huffed past him down the driveway and headed down our road to the slag pile on the 4th trip, he (standing in front of his workshop) said, "What are you doing?" and I snapped at him about exactly what did it look like. He then went and got the tractor - I cringe every time he fires it up - and scooped up most of what I had not had the strength to scrape up at that stage.

At least now, he has broached the subject with me, and I have been able to talk about why I reacted the way I did - "damn fool" I believed flew out of my mouth, and I cried, and I made several trips with a full wheelbarrow down to the curve in the road where the pile of leftover black stuff sits being driven by adrenaline alone before he was able to ask me about it yesterday (this happened 4 days ago).

How will I monitor? We have had the soil test kit for pH, but what do I get for toxic chemicals?

I don't know if there is a kit for toxicity available to residentials but my guess is the extension office that covers your county should be qualified to answer. You might even want to try the EPA office that covers your area but only if you're ready to be transferred 1000 times before you get the right person/dept. For practical purposes, those tests usually show an acceptable range, so if a certain element is outside of the boundaries, that could be a clue.

this doesn't exactly address your concerns but may expand your perspective on the matter.

Years ago, I was hot to trot for azaleas. Being that my natural soil is clay and neutral, I learned I had to amend for successful growth. I spent $$$ on acidifiers, drove to east TX to buy bales and bales and bales of pine needle mulch--IOW, I gave it my all. 3 years into my efforts, we decided to test the soil to confirm our efforts had paid off. Guess what: the soil was perfectly neutral and all the effort had made zero diff. This is to say that it takes a lot and a long time for soil to absorb stuff. Except, I guess, if somebody is pouring radioactive stuff.

I don't think you are in danger.

PS: azaleas were a bust in that particular bed, but were planted in neutral clay soil elsewhere, where they got the water they needed, and they are simply beautiful.

Thanks for chatting with me about this. I needed someone to talk me down. I will call the county office, it's right here in town and they have been good to answer other questions in the past.

Caroline
Greenville Texas

Your husband went out of his way to do something nice for you. It wasn't a good idea, but I believe his intentions were good.
I understand your concerns for your garden, and they are valid.
I suggest you work on repairing the relationship, THEN the garden. I hope both do not suffer as a result of this incident.

Lucille,

Before you decide that I need to work on repairing my relationship, can I just tell you of another, similar in some sort of intent, that happened some time ago.........

We remodeled our kitchen, including the countertops. I used 6" ceramic tiles on the countertops. They looked great. One of the countertops was between two tall cabinets, and across two base cabinets, in another part of the kitchen. Because the cabinets were a white/glaze (before our time, but we decided to keep them) and the floor was a white ceramic, and we used a lighter tile, then decided to use red on the soft items in the kitchen (towels, curtains, etc.), when it came time to get the new tilework grouted, for this small area I chose the 'cayenne red' grout. What a pop of color this would make, I thought.

Well, as I completed my first row of tile (I've done this many times before, incidentally), I decided that it would not do. I work slowly, but the finished product is always perfect. I decided not to go on, that the color was not what I thought I wanted. I was standing, looking critically at it, making a final decision, when DH came into the kitchen. He wanted to know how I was doing, and I said that I was not happy with the way it looked. I was gently picking at the red grout, trying to ascertain how much of a mess it was going to make as I removed it.

Well, Lucille, he then proceeded to take the ENTIRE bucket of grout and turn it upside-down onto the counter, grabbed the trowel and roared "Well, here's the way you're supposed to do it" as he began to quickly smear the grout from one side to another. I almost fainted, that he would come in there and as I was beginning to remove what I had already put between the tiles, he piled an entire bucket on to the surface.

It took me a couple of hours to repair that damage. I later chose another bucket of the basic, neutral color we used on the other countertops, but not before several hours of cleaning, scraping and wiping up cayenne red grout, incredulous that he could have done this, the entire time.

it has taken me more than that to try to repair the thoughtless damage he caused by piling ground-up road, chunks of tar and rocks, dust of unknown composition onto my previously pristine, organic garden.

So, before you criticize my relationship, perhaps you should have thought that you did not know all the facts! :)

What you got was probably old "ground up blacktop" left over from a road resurfacing project. A long line of huge machines slice off and grind up the old top layer, mix it with some fresh material and re-apply.

At the end of a project, they may have leftover old stuff - new blacktop is too expensive to abandon!

If it's the old top layer of road, it's well-aged and most of the solubles are already leached out of it. Remove what you can, going a couple of inches deep into the previous soil, and bring in fresh dirt from a source you trust or just apply mulch.

Before you can test for "toxins" you would need to specify exactly what you are looking for.

Yes, lazygardens, that was what we were told it was. One of the other residents on this road 'knew somebody on the road crew' and that is how we came to be the lucky recepients of this largesse. :) It helped our road, though.

I do feel better after y'all have talked me down off the ledge. Mulch is an idea I had not thought of!

Thanks much.

if broken groundtop and not slag, then def not in danger. I hadn't thought about broken gt. both are used in my area.

And that last encouragement has made me feel I can relax, and that my efforts at cleanup have been sufficient.

Happy 2015 gardening, all - I do hope it's more successful than 2014 has been.

you are in more danger from stuff carried in by the wind and rain. Take a deep breath and go plant some cabbage.

Look at it this way, there are very few farms that are not near some type of road, including organic farms. If the run off from the roads was that toxic we'd all be dead by now.

Tally HO!
ps, not just talking out of the side of my face either, I worked 8 years in poison control.

Are there other problemsome cracks in your life/self that you'd like to just ignore, fill in and paper over...instead of meticulously addressing them properly...and whose quick slapdash fixes then turn out to create bigger messes?

Here is a link that might be useful: Freudian projection

This post was edited by blakrab on Mon, Sep 29, 14 at 13:09

psst, this is the garden forum not the self-help forum
blakrab.

Tally HO!