Soil Toxicity

rayofash

I live in San Diego, and although it normally never rains, this past year or two has had a lot of it. We have around 10 cats. We keep their litter pans outside in a cattery (a large cage that connects to our house through a window). Every time it rains the litter pans flood, once we put 2 tarps over the cage completely covering it and they still flooded. Every time this happens I have to go into the cage (it's of a size that we can walk in it), drag out the litter pans, and dump the water out.

The liquid in these pans is nothing short of radio-active. By the time we can get to them the rain water has already been sitting in the pans for about a day or two, absorbing all the urine, fecies, and kitty litter. I fear that if I ever accidentally swallow this stuff i'll get cancer and die. Naturally, since this stuff goes into the ground, i'm worried about soil toxicity. The cats we keep outside (because they don't obey the inside rules) also like to poo in the ground, along with the dogs we let out occasionally.

The ground was never healthy to begin with, even when we first moved in 10 years ago. My younger siblings have been digging holes out there in random places since we first moved in, and have been digging up toys, clothes, and other random objects long since forgotten in the ground.

We also have a major weed problem. When we first moved in the yard was nothing but dirt, then there was grass for a while, then the weeds invaded. We've been fighting the weeds for about 3 or 4 years now. We go out there and pull them up by the roots and dig up the soil around them, and it's been getting better. It's nothing like it was last year (I went out with a hoe and a machete, the weeds I were killing were taller than I was), but it's still not as good as I want it to be.

I want a garden, for plants, vegetables, and fruits. How can I make my yard healthy, and check to see if it's safe to plant edible food?

crake

The way you're describing your yard, I'd be inclined to dig the whole thing up a few inches, dispose of the soil and put down new stuff and some turf on top. Sure, you could spend a few years slowly creating a healthy yard again through other means, but this would be infinitely easier and give you dramatic results within the year. (and by easier, I mean hire someone)

I've got a 20x6 foot area of dirt by the side of the house. I spent a few years trying to revive it the cheap way. It was horribly time consuming. I finally gave up and just dug the whole thing up and started over. I wish I had done that in the beginning.

As for those kitty pans, hopefully you've been dumping them in the same spot each time? At minimum, just dig up that area and put down new soil. Find ways of encouraging them to only use the pans for their business, so you don't have to worry about it in the garden (which isn't a big deal either, just keep on top of picking it up regularly). Lastly, either get some covered pans, or create some kind of "house" to protect them properly.

... hey! how about building one big covered wooden litter box for them? That'd be neat.

rayofash

We actually planned on building a wooden cattery, and all the pans have covers. And yea, we put them in the same spot. Our ride side of the yard actuall has grass on it, but everything past that is nothing but dirt.

I was thinking of digging it up and putting down new soil, but how much would that cost?

crake

Hard to predict - you'd just have to check local prices. Home Depot?

The Cat

Raised beds are probably the go, I'd say. Easier on the back when you're gardening too, although building them will involve a little expense and effort. Better yet, largish pots or containers of some sort. You really don't want to be growing directly in a soil affected much by cats, and urban soils in general are often fairly degraded. You'd need a better land-use history to really tell what's going on there - is your yard full of old builders' fill, was it converted to residential use from being scrub, or a pasture/field, or whatever, stuff like that. But if its too much to bother, yeah, pots/beds are good. Maybe even hydroponics.


Shipping in soil might help, but I doubt just taking the first few inches will change much - things percolate down through soil pretty fast. Plus, you run the risk of shipping in soil pathogens.