Outdoor cleanup question.

[soil margin]

Okay so I have a new spot here in socal where I'm gonna be growing outdoors. It's basically behind a garage/couple of old sheds where there is a long thin strip of open space between my friends property and his neighbors fence. Very well concealed/low visibility.

Here's the problem, my friend had a couple of cheap blue tarps covering his garage for a couple years and they have completely broken down into small little plastic strips and some has even degraded into a heavy plastic dust that seems to stick to everything it touches.

So where I'm gonna be growing there is a bunch of this plastic waste on the ground mixed in with some plant matter/etc. I'm worried that when the plants start producing serious resin that some of this blue plastic dust could get blown into the air and land/stick on my girls.

I've already started cleaning the area up this past week by hand, picking up larger pieces/etc. I'm worried that any of the fine plastic powder/dust left over might pose a problem though. I've considered trying to use a leaf blower/vacuum to blow the stuff away. I thought about trying to cover the ground in a couple inches of dirt mulch? I'm just really lost as to what might be the best option here.

Any suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bottomland]

frist, ihope your long thin strip of open space is running east n west, 2nd I hope your putting in large plants so they have a chance to grow because.the garage n sheds will be blocking your light. If u got those 2 things going for ya, u should have no trouble with plastic dust sticking to your buds, unless u kick it up.

 

[SunGrown]

Rent a yard vac with a bag collector. Or just till it all in...I know not ideal but would help. And put some tin up on the garage and no more tarps! After you put your plants in the ground pin down landscape fabric covering all the soil.

Hope this helps, and good luck in your adventure!

 

[soil margin]

Rent a yard vac with a bag collector. Or just till it all in...I know not ideal but would help. And put some tin up on the garage and no more tarps! After you put your plants in the ground pin down landscape fabric covering all the soil.

Hope this helps, and good luck in your adventure!

I actually have a electric leaf blower/vacuum that I'm gonna try out. My only concern was that it's not gonna get the plastic dust that has stuck to larger stuff I can't vacuum up, the plastic seems to have a kind of sticky texture when it gets really fine.

Tilling it in to the soil would be a good option except I don't have enough soil readily available to cover all the plastic waste. So buying an assload of soil and then hauling it to till it in would be a huge investment of time/money.

 

[soil margin]

frist, ihope your long thin strip of open space is running east n west, 2nd I hope your putting in large plants so they have a chance to grow because.the garage n sheds will be blocking your light. If u got those 2 things going for ya, u should have no trouble with plastic dust sticking to your buds, unless u kick it up.

There are actually two strips of open space, one runs east/west and the other runs north/south. Luckily the space facing south isn't blocked so there is still plenty of sun that makes it back there.

 

[Jhhnn]

Clear out the junk, use a leaf rake, then the leaf sucker, till what's there already, then bring in the growing soil. Don't sweat it too much. The plastic is basically inert, non-toxic.

Have you tried hosing down the area to knock the stuff to the ground? In LA, the reason it sticks to everything is probably static electricity.

 

[soil margin]

Clear out the junk, use a leaf rake, then the leaf sucker, till what's there already, then bring in the growing soil. Don't sweat it too much. The plastic is basically inert, non-toxic.

Have you tried hosing down the area to knock the stuff to the ground? In LA, the reason it sticks to everything is probably static electricity.

I've tried hosing down the area but my water pressure isn't really high enough to move the semi-thick layer of organic material that has mixed in with the plastic waste. I'm not too worried about the soil back there as I'm growing in pots anyways.

Good to know that the plastic is non-toxic. Still, I just couldn't imagine the disappointment of hauling in my harvest and seeing tiny blue plastic stuck on it.

 

[Jhhnn]

This gizmo works great as an alternative to a power washer-

http://www.leevalley.com/us/Garden/page.aspx?p=10418&cat=2,2300,44822&ap=1

The actual volume of water coming out is small, so the pressure stays up for a powerful stream. It's also great for weeds & even saplings with monster tap roots.

After you knock the plastic stuff down onto the ground, let it all dry out, rake/ shovel what you can into large HD 3mil black plastic trash bags for disposal. Might be several bags, but that's the price of glory.