Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange
Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [chemicals]

For general questions about the usage and effects of different chemicals. For example chemicals used for wood treatment, etc. For questions about pesticides and herbicides use the [pesticide] or [herbicide] tags.

22 questions
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Paint dumped into our garden, how bad is it?

We recently had some work done on our house and it included painting a room. After the contractors left we discovered, through our security cams, that they had been using our backyard to clean their painting equipment, over a 3 day period. They were…
gardendale
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1 answer

Can I add commercial roses to my compost pile?

I'd like to add commercial roses to my compost pile, but don't know if I can. I'm not sure what kind of chemicals store bought roses are usually treated with. Bonus question: Can I dump the water in the vase on the pile as well (with the little…
Philip
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7
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2 answers

Is it safe to use bleach around the yard?

I would like to prepare an old deck for staining. Scrubbing with a bleach solution seems a popular technique. Will the bleach solution harm nearby plants? What about if I use soap instead?
Hbar
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7
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6 answers

Are my tomato plants damaged by a chemical or a disease?

Most of my tomato plants have started showing signs of what I think is Cucumber Mosaic Virus. I have shoestring, fernleaf, and curling leaves. They also have a leathery appearance. At first I thought this was the plants reacting to being moved into…
Brian Surowiec
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5
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2 answers

How to eradicate Berberis growing in a Thuja hedge?

I have some Berberis shrubs growing inside a hedge of Thujas. They are very difficult to access. Is there any efficient chemical method of eradicating just those Berberis shrubs?
elhombre
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5
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2 answers

Is Imidan and/or Captan on fruit trees resilient to rain?

I have fruit trees that I spray with Imidan and Captan. I try to do this during dry spells, but often the weather will change or my only opportunity to spray is right before rain is expected. Will these chemicals last through a soft rain, hard…
Airn5475
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5
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1 answer

How to revive a low nitrogen and rocky soiled lawn?

The situation is explained below in terms of my lawn with the question at the end I recently moved into a new home two years ago and by the looks of the lawn it was low in nitrogen. A little more back story is that I don't think it was ever treated…
Gandalfous
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5
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3 answers

Is there an enzyme/compound I can use to quickly rot fallen fruit?

I have two crabapple trees that drop crabapples down every year. They get awfully gooey and sticky and make walking through my yard barefoot a terrible ordeal. Is there some sort of enzyme or chemical compound that I can put on them to speed up the…
xǝlɐ
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4
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1 answer

I am confused about miracle grow

I have use Miracle Grow for years. I am hearing nowadays that Miracle Grow might be is harmful. I plant in ground. I have a garden 60 feet by 90 feet. I have grown lovely tomatoes and other items. I have sand for soil. Grass does not grow well.…
Rebecca D Fox
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4
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1 answer

How can I enhance the flavour of peppermint plants?

I love using pieces of my peppermint plants in juices and creams and so forth, to give that cooling sensation and typical mint flavour. I started growing my own peppermints in a medium pot with mulch (just as it came, without adding anything to it).…
Pedro V. G.
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4
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What are my options for plant choices near a pressure treated retaining wall at base of backyard fence?

My backyard has a fence built on a retaining wall of pressure treated wood which was built some 15 yrs ago to address height/level difference between my yard and backyard neighbor's yard. When I couldn't get a Bower vine to succeed there I dug in…
JeanBean
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4
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1 answer

How to verify that my organic landscaper isn't using synthetic fertilizers?

A lot of companies offer "organic" programs for lawn and landscape care. I have listened to a lot of cynics say that all of them sneak prohibited chemicals onto the landscape to deliver results (because, according to them, organic can't work.) Is it…
That Idiot
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3
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1 answer

How to sanitize used paint buckets before gardening?

A neighbour told me not to use empty plastic buckets that earlier contained paint (for painting the house) for gardening because the chemicals still stuck to the sides would leach into the soil and be absorbed by the plants. While it seemed…
Nav
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What are the long term effects of adding iron oxide pigments to soil?

Iron oxide (Pigment Black 11) is a intense black non toxic and very cheap pigment. I think I have read somewhere that soil from shops is sometimes pigmented with iron oxide because it sells better. But I could not find a reference any more. Some…
Jonas Stein
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3
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Should we use glyphosate (or other non-ecological chemicals) in our gardens?

European Union wanders if its going to allow glyphosate to be used inside its frontiers... from the Guardian: If no new arrangement is found then the licence for glyphosate, a core ingredient in Monsanto’s $5bn-a-year Roundup brand, will expire at…
J. Chomel
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