Page 20 - ALG Issue 2 2017

Q&MAike Thurlow...
I have tried to select questions that may be topical and cover most aspects of the vegetable garden/ allotment. Allotment gardening covers a wide range of interests; if you want to include any other areas of gardening please send your questions in.
QI am interested in permaculture as a method of growing to reduce soil erosion and leach nutrients from the soil. I would be grateful for any advice or direction you may
have on this.
ADetails of the Permaculture Association: Permaculture Association, Hollybush Road, Broad Lane,
Kirkstall, Leeds West Yorkshire LS5 3BP. Telephone 0845 458 1805 or 0113 230 7461. Anyone wishing to join and living in Scotland or Wales* will be automatically joined to Permaculture Scotland or Permaculture Wales/Cymru (*who operate a bi-lingual service).
QOne of the mentors has asked me about soil testing kits for allotment soil – do you have one to recommend? He seemed to think they are not accurate enough, but just
how accurate do they need to be? I know the RHS have a soil testing service - is that worth using?
AYou could spend anything from £8 up to £2,000; it all depends on how accurate you want to be. The standard soil testing
kit used to be the Sudbury Soil Test Kit but sadly this is no longer available. Take a look at Hanna Instruments, or Tester.co.uk
or Testwest (they offer a ‘professional’ kit at £75). The crunch is how many tests are expected to be carried out to recover the cost of the kit. The chemicals will deteriorate once opened. You can get a fairly accurate assessment by looking at the weeds growing on an area.
Q
A
We have been clearing and tidying our site. This has included burning timber treated with wood preservative.
After a recent bon re I suffered from a sore throat and felt unwell afterwards. I wondered if it could be linked to the bon re. We have stopped burning the wood and welcome any advice.
The wood preservative called chromated copper arsenic (CCA) was used from the 1930s until it ceased in 2008. So you can appreciate that there could still be large quantities of tanalised or treated timber containing chromated copper arsenic (CCA) in use on allotment sites. The timber preservative CCA has been replaced with a safer product. The problem that remains is the dif culty of being able to positively identify the wood treated with CCA from the newer replacement preservative. Where this isn’t possible, the recommendation is to dispose of all wood off-site through the local authority’s recycling system.
When handling treated timber it should be dry with no sign of the preservative on the surface of the timber. If it is still wet, it should be stored under cover to dry whilst protected from rain and snow, with good air circulation all round before it is used.
Wear gloves, goggles and a face mask to protect against sawdust and loose particles of wood. Always wash hands after working with treated timber.
It is dif cult to con rm a direct link to the bon re but it does highlight a major issue with burning treated timber on
garden bon res. Treated timber, especially wood treated with chromated copper arsenic (CCA), must not be burnt as re wood, in wood burners or used on barbecues. The poisonous gases from the chemicals are released when burnt.
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2017