How to disinfect my garden

Hi all
I have recently moved into a new house in which the garden is in pretty sorry state (Heavily over grown, grass and bushes). I have been told by the neighbour next door that the previous tenant had 3 dogs which were never walked and used the garden as a dog toilet. My problem is I have 2 young boys who love the outdoors and I was looking forward to getting the garden in shape so that wee could use it. I am worried now that it could actually be dangerous to let them use the garden now.

So my question is can gardens be disinfected in any way or will I have to dig the garden out and replace the top soil. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.... Thanks :cnfs:

 

Are there any plants you want to keep? If not, just dig the whole lot over. The natural microbes in the soil will quickly dispatch any nasties in the dog mess. There's no need to replace the top soil (which would be costly and laborious). If you are really worried about it, just get a tonne of sand from the builder's merchants (about £35 - £40 with delivery) and spread that over the top of the dug over garden. Then in spring you can start with a blank canvass.

 

Hi clueless thanks for the quick response, i was wondering if you could expand on the sand idea, do you then just sow new grass seeds and plant straight into the sand itself ?

 

Sand alone won't hold any nutrients, so it depends on the depth of the sand whether you could sow straight into it. The seeds store enough energy to put a few tiny roots out, but if they don't find compost quickly they'll die.

If you end up with a thin coating of sand, you'll be ok. Before sowing new grass seed if you dig the top few inches to mix your sand with the soil you should be ok.

Another thing to consider is that sand dries out very quickly, so when sowing seed you'll need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't dry out. Sand is good for lawns, but neat sand with no soil or compost is no good, hence needing to dig it a bit to mix it up.

EDIT: I should have asked what sort of area we're talking about. A very shallow dusting of sand is all you're after really, and obviously the amount of sand you'll need if you go with this plan will depend on what sort of area you need to cover.

 

Toxocara canis and Toxocara catis eggs can survive for over two years in the soil.
If your garden is likely to be heavily infected your best bet is to get hold of a flame gun and use it to sterilise the surface. Do it a few times and rake up the surface between flamings to bring up any buried eggs. You'll probably have to re-sow your lawn.

"Treatment of areas contaminated by canine faeces
In soil protected by vegetation, the eggs can survive both the winter and summer conditions found in continental USA and similar levels of survivability can be expected in the UK and most European countries. They are resistant to all common disinfectants at conventional (domestic) strengths but are killed by aqueous solutions containing 120 ppm of free iodine (which would be sufficient to scorch the ground!) When not protected by faeces, soil, vegetation or debris, the eggs are susceptible to desiccation, direct sunlight or temperatures above 37 oC. Clean eggs die in less than a day in dry gravel, soil or on concrete floors. Regular raking of the ground to a depth of 1 to 2 inches to loosen the soil and promote desiccation and sunlight penetration should kill the eggs rapidly. Flaming or burning the ground are effective but rather extreme measures"

See -
http://www.hpa.nhs.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1195733756784

 

Thanks to you both for ur info, much appreciated. the sq area is 81m so it is a decent sized garden. any idea where i would get a flame gun, sounds like sumthin you dont just get in ur local B&Q.....?

 

A flame gun is very useful, but fairly expensive. I was very lucky and got one at a car boot for just a few quid.

One on Ebay now - ends in 1 day, currently £56 -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SHEEN-X300-FL...ants_Weed_Pest_Control_CV?hash=item2a02b5ba2e

Or if you want to lash out £144 on a new one -
http://www.mowermagic.co.uk/acatalog/HandHeld_Flame_Guns.html

 

Thanks dave for them links, although found a local hire shop doing flame guns for £37 for the week.....:yho:

marley would jeyes fluid and the like not damage the grass and soil?