I have just bought a house and the previous owner ran a motorbike repair shop from the back yard. The soil around the shed is contaminated with old engine oil. Do I remove the soil and refill or will some form of mulch eventually neutralise it. I have access to good quantities of horse stable compost. Any ideas? :roll:
Repairing the soil u have sounds good to me. How about adding said compost to soil then making raised beds or no dig beds on top, planting out with some nice tough plants while the organic matter does its work locking up the nasties? In time u could later use the spot for produce. It would prob b fine to plant fruit trees & vines there from the get go but just to b on safe side...I would wait a few years. Perhaps plant useful plants for other than food (for stakes or building materials or fauna attracting) or use that space for things needed other than planting ( water tanks, free standing worm farm, storage area, solar power control area other utilities, make a green house over it?)
Junglerikki's ideas all sound good. Getting a soil test would probably be scary but good. Then you would know exactly what contaminants are a problem and would have a starting point and something to compare the results of your efforts in the future to. I think the boffins are learning new stuff about bioremediation everyday. Maybe you could attract a research group from a local University to do some experiments on your soil!
