I am unsure if it is safe to plant in the ground of my back yard because the previous owner of the house had a dog that used it as the only bathroom for over ten years.

My yard is approximately 20' X 20' so I figure that if a large dog went twice a day for ten years (thats more then 7000 times) It would probably have a negative or dangerous effect on vegetables grown from the land. I assume that all the feces were left in the yard and biodegraded into the soil. The grass itself does not look very healthy and is very weedy.

Im mainly concerned about the possibility of Ecoli, worms, or other parasites. Ive done a fair bit of research on this matter and I could not find a definitive answer. Does anybody have any thoughts?

How long have you lived there?

I doubt any of the nutrients from the poo are even still in your soil. That was a very long time ago, and fido's gifts make distinctly green, healthy patches in a lawn, temporarily. I'm sure you were going by last year, but it's the wrong time of year to know if those extra-green patches are still there, isn't your yard more white about now?

Are you planning to trade some areas of sad lawn for great flower/veggie beds?

tj

I, however, am so impressed by the lush foliage in my dog's go-zone that I'm considering expanding the garden into there. Last year I picked up some of the demon bricks from the bowels of hell and put them in my worm bin because... oh crap

The rich history of excrement in my garden then continues with hundreds direct hits from overhead birds, thousands of slugs in mulch, unpolitely adding insult to the injury of having ragged lettuce (would it kill them to get off the plant for a minute?), several vole invasions (I am talking real colonies), and earthworms processing several tons of undigested matter (including garbage cans of rotting and extremely smelly kitchen scraps, before I figured that mixing with leaves was they way to go) on a scale the Great Dane could only dream of. That garden is now, and has been for a long time, a pile of invertebrate excrement with a bit of original soil. When rabbits found a hole in the fence I discovered that coyote urine is for people who have money to burn, and I found my in-house, organic, free solution for predator scented urine. I then discovered that all that scenting was making gigantic collards, so I kept scenting long after the rabbits were gone. You should jump right in with all these critters, join the party, and thank them for their positive contribution to your garden, as well as their subtle contribution to the training and strengthening of your immune system.

From my observations, alkaline materials such as garden lime or water with ashes soaking in it are effective at reversing the odors of anaerobic activity in worm bins. In my opinion, this is a likely reason for the term "sweetening" being associated with raising PH with lime as it certainly seems to take away the sour sulfurous smell.

I've heard from many sources that lime was used in military body bags and on dead bodies in order to speed decay. I was in the army and in combat, but the army was careful not to talk about or let us even see body bags. I suspect that it is one of many nonsensical rumors, but I've seen photographs of the bags with a white powder. If this is not absorbent material to catch the juices that come from decaying bodies, then it could be lime for reducing the stench. It could also just be to keep the bags from sticking together, like surgical gloves and balloons have.

I have seen in multiple old gardening videos sprinkling of powdered lime around a new plant with the intention of repelling slugs.

I have read that the presence of calcium stimulates worms to reproduce. I don't disagree with this, but I can't confirm it either.

I have read that a brief rain will wash huge quantities of calcium in the soil to below the reach of plants.

I have found that if I put a lot of garden lime in my worm bin or directly add it to my worm bin runoff juice, the dissolved solids will rapidly flocculate and the water will turn clear while all the "good" stuff irreversibly settles to the bottom. Lime is used in sewage treatment facilities for this same purpose. Do note though that my worm bin generally has around 20" depth of material in it and that the lime will go right through and end up in the runoff juice. This seems to confirm what I read about calcium washing from soil.

Supposedly tomatoes will be less likely to suffer blossom end rot if you feed them some lime, but I think it's supposed to be dolomite lime since that has magnesium.

I was talking about lime and its recommended usage against slugs with a friend of mine who is in the field of biotechnology and he started talking about calcium ions being critical for ion exchange in muscles and other cells, and that slugs are very sensitive to ionic charge and osmotic pressure because their skin is both their lungs and main sensory organ... or something like that, but it explains why salt kills them rapidly.

I've also gathered from two sources so far that if there is a problem with excessive nitrogen in an area, that adding sugar water will essentially tie up the nitrogen by triggering a bacterial bloom. The first I heard about it was in correcting nitrogen levels for bringing native grasses back into dominance on old pasture land. The second was advice on what to do for grass that dies from dog urine. That has nothing to do with lime.

I didn't take pictures or written notes last year when I bought some lime and started trying it, but I do recall that it seemed to make my young trees and plants more robust to the extent that I started putting it on everything.

There is nasty stuff in every living beeings digetive system.. Worms included. your counter top in your house is probably as contaminated, The meat you prepare at at home is full of samonella...dogs and cats have been around since before the pyramids and cities are full of them, they Crap and pee all over (most dont pick up) Its your choice to be hyper sensitive and regergitate the non gardening people who write blogs that majored in sky diving and photography to get thier blog count up or use common sence like your folks and grand folks did.Wash your hands.

Stating that you grow melons in the lot that is coated with manure was pleasant to read because watermelons evolved in Africa to grow in the wake of the animals that leave them. Watermelons evolved to grow in piles of poop after their seeds traveled through the digestive system of elephants... And it's a pretty common adaptation throughout the plant kingdom.

The only down sides to dog poop that I have found are that I have to cut the grass more often, and when I gathered some up to put in the worm bin my dog mistook that action for "don't go there" and now spreads it all over. So now I need to put on shoes when I go outside. On the bright side, pooping dog is now a source of entertainment as I hope for her to go close to the fruit trees so I don't have to buy poop to put on them. Buy poop... Imagine that.

Next people are going to start insisting that forest fires are bad for the forests when they are really only bad for the morons that put their houses in forests that depend on wildfires to stay healthy.

I have decided to plant above ground veggies this upcoming year , and then underground veggies next year. Just to make sure that if theres anything bad in there that its decomposed and wont be in direct contact with the veggies.

If you want to be extra safe, though, give priority to fruiting plants whose leaves you don't eat. Although that's probably fine too, and you should be washing the leaves anyway.

This thread lies closer to that satirical representation of cleanliness than any realistic one.