Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange
Gardening and Landscaping Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [safety]

For safety questions in gardens.

As anywhere, there are safety issues in the gardening and when gardening. Use this tag for all safety questions. Some examples of safety issues in gardening are:

  • Poisonous plants, and plants that can sting / have spines
  • Handling of chemical pesticides
  • Use of saws, especially chainsaws
58 questions
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Garden Hoses: how safe are they?

After noticing that some garden hoses carry a warning, "Not to be used for drinking water", I recently switched to one labelled "non-toxic". Does this only mean that the hose is lead-free, or also that it is free of the other chemicals in PVC that…
Mancuniensis
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Rats have transferred poison into my compost. Is the compost usable on vegetables?

Delighted to observe that the rat poison we put down was disappearing. Less delighted to find some weeks later that they had moved it all to a larder in the compost. The poison is Slaymore (as far as I understand it is a standard household rat…
Tea Drinker
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Is it safe to eat fruits and vegetables planted in a pet cemetery?

Are there any safety concerns in eating fruit and veggies from plants that have been growing where dead pets have been buried? Not a full blown pet cemetery, but a small and intimate location in the backyard where the beloved family dog or cat has…
Eight Days of Malaise
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Do chemicals leach from the sides of raised beds?

Around a year ago I went to a local hardware store to buy some treated pine logs to make a raised garden bed. The guy at the store asked if I was using it for a vegetable bed and he explained that chemicals from the treated pine would leach into the…
going
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What is in seed starting soil that justifies wearing gloves while handling?

I was adding miracle-gro seed starting soil to paper pots with my daughter a few months ago and was a little leery about letting her touch the stuff (let alone breathe it in). What's in it that is dangerous? Do you need rubber gloves or just…
Peter Turner
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How to safely remove poison ivy

What is the best way to remove poison ivy from a yard or trees without getting it all over yourself? I figured that even with an herbicide that the dead poison ivy would still need gathered up, and the oils would still cause problems
CodeMonkey1313
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How can I discourage venomous snakes from living in my property?

I noticed that a copperhead has made his home under my front porch. He has been spotted two days in a row, and, yesterday, I nearly stepped on him. I prefer not to mess with him as I have read that most incidence of snake bites come from…
N8sBug
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Is it safe to use vegetables which have experienced several frosts?

Most people are aware that once you've had foods out of the freezer and allowed them to thaw, you shouldn't put them back in your freezer. But what about frost hardy plants like leeks? I've just harvested some old onions, leeks and carrots and who…
Tea Drinker
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How to prepare urea for orchard composting?

I've been told to follow up an infestation of apple scab by composting any leaf litter on the orchard floor to destroy spores. I plan to haul away most of the leaves to my garden composter but a 5% urea solution is indicated for the orchard floor.…
Erik Olson
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Can you eat lettuce that your dog pees on

I planted some leafy greens on a space of dirt where my dog likes to pee and poo. She has almost certainly pee/pooed on the lettuce, or near the lettuce, a couple of times. The plant was perpetual spinach. Can I eat it, given that I wash it? Can I…
Joao Noch
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Is it safe to handle soil with our bare hands?

Is it 100% safe to handle the soil by bare hands? Would any toxic insect hide inside the soils?
lamwaiman1988
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What happens when a chainsaw chain meets a nail or piece of steel wire when cutting through wood?

Assuming any of the following: there's an unnoticed steel nail in a log used in some structure or there's an unnoticed steel nail in a tree body (often happens when people attach illegal ads to trees) And let's assume the nail is rather thick - 3…
sharptooth
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How close should a maple tree sapling be to marked utilities?

Last summer I planted a maple sapling in my yard. I foolishly did this without calling 811. This month I have other work to do and had my utilities marked. When the marking was done I discovered that my phone and cable lines were ~6 feet apart and…
Freiheit
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How can I safely keep snakes away from the compost in a community garden?

I managed a small community garden with a small orchard and farmland. Lately, there are snake sightings in one of my cold dead leaf compost (the snake is a juvenile Ptyas mucosus). Apparently, the damp, dark and earthly-smell compost environment…
y chung
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What are the uptake and decay rates for Spectracide® Weed Stop® for Lawns?

Once a lawn has been treated with Spectracide® Weed Stop® for Lawns how long are the active ingredients 'active'? Do some decay faster then others? Following the links from the Manufactures site it looks like the active ingredients are 2,4-d,…
James Jenkins
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