Gardeners warned about contaminated manure (From Cotswold Journal)

Gardeners warned about contaminated manure

8:47am Tuesday 5th August 2008

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GARDENERS in the Cotswolds and throughout Gloucestershire should make their own compost to reduce the risk of unwittingly harming their gardens with herbicide-contaminated manure.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s team of seven compost officers issued this advice following national reports about vegetables and flowers dying because manure, added to soil as fertiliser, contained weed killer.

The damage is thought to have been caused by aminopyralid, a chemical sprayed on pasture to kill docks and thistles, which persists in silage or hay eaten by animals through whom it passes to remain active in their manure.

At the request of its manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, the sale and use of this herbicide was banned at the end of July but much contaminated hay, silage and manure remains in the system.

The officers advise gardeners to make their own compost or, if purchasing manure for composting, to ensure the manure is well rotted before use, to avoid using weed killers on lawns and to ask the supplier if they use herbicide spray on grass or other crops grown for feed.

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