Living SoilGardening feels like the safest hobby there is. It mostly is. But the shed holds a few things that deserve a moment's respect, and the risks are easy to overlook.
None of this is complicated. It is a short list of habits that keep you, your family and your pets safe while you mix soil and feed plants.
Dust: wear a mask
Some of the most common potting ingredients are dusty. The research is direct about perlite: wear a mask when handling it, because of the dust. It is sound practice to treat any fine, dusty ingredient the same way, and to mix outdoors or somewhere well ventilated when you can.
Never mix bleach with ammonia
This is the one rule worth memorizing. When bleach is mixed with ammonia, toxic gases called chloramines are produced. Health guidance lists coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, and pneumonia and fluid in the lungs among the effects.
In the garden, that means keeping chlorine products, such as bleach and pool chlorine, away from fertilizers, and never mixing them.
Storage
Pesticide safety guidance, applied here to garden products in general, gives a clear list:
- Store products locked away, out of reach of children.
- Keep them separate from paints, solvents and fuels, especially gasoline.
- Stand containers on plastic trays that catch spills.
- Keep everything in its original container with its original label, and follow the label.
For fertilizer bags, add one practical point: keep them dry and closed. Most fertilizer salts draw in moisture from the air and set solid.
When you measure, use plastic or metal tools kept for the garden, never kitchen utensils.
Children and pets
Keep people, especially children and pets, away from areas you have just treated, and keep products locked away. Some houseplants matter here too: all parts of philodendron are toxic if eaten, because they contain crystals that irritate the mouth and gut of pets and children.
Food crops: manure and compost
- Use composted manure on plants grown for food, to avoid burning plants and contaminating edible parts with pathogens. The National Organic Program standard for manure is no later than 120 days before harvest.
- Keep liquid that drains out of a compost pile away from food crops, houseplants and sensitive plants, because it can carry pathogens and substances that harm plants.
- Know where green material comes from before it goes in your garden. Grass clippings and manure from somewhere else can carry weed killer residues.
The label always wins
Living Soil is a reference, not a substitute for the label on the bag. If the label on a product says something different from any guide, including ours, follow the label.