I am new to gardening. In fact we haven't even planted anything yet. We built our home in Nov. 02 back in the woods of my families property. I grew up here and know nothing has ever been put on the ground. At least in the last 30 years. Last spring, (2003) because our "new" yard looked so bad and was overtaken by weeds" we put a commercial turf builder/weed killer/bug killer on our yard. 1 bag recomended application. I don't remember the exact product just the brand. Never even thought about ever having a garden. But now I want one and kicking myself everytime I think about what we did. Is it safe to put a garden on our property now? Everytime I look at where we have dug up the yard for our garden I cringe. I have went through all the past posts and could find nothing on when it would be safe to garden after such products. The only thing I know about herbicides/pesticides is that they scare me. I am now a responsible land owner and will never use harmful chemicals again.

Thanks

Weed and Feed's will inhibit garden veggies, or flowers. As far as causing other or residual harm when applications stop. I don't beleive it does.

However a google search of your brand should take you to links that might differ with my lay opinion.

I personally don't like the looks of a monoculture lawn. I prefer to see interlopers. I've been known to plant clovers in lawns.

My lay opinion is that you. A. Stop using that glop. B. Get used to odd plants creeping into your lawn. C. Settle for close mowing and manuring as your preventative cure for lawn care. If you think your soil may be deficient get it tested at your local county extension.

Lastly if the only "poison" applied to your soil was weed and feed in 2003, it may be time for you to start building your first garden.

Enjoy! and eat well.

Thanks for your reply. Yes we only used the product once. As far as monoculture yard. If you mean those "perfect" looking lawns. We don't have it. I think the weed/feed product fried our yard and it's the worst looking yard I have ever seen. Most of the bagged grass died and most of the grass we do have is crabgrass and the rest is splotches of bare red clay and hard as a rock. Horrible looking. I mean really bad. There's nothing to mow but tall weeds that sprout up. It actually looks better this year. I'm not looking for a perfect lawn but I would like some regular grass. I have noticed that clover is everywhere around here this year but not in my yard. Nothing but crabgrass. We are going to aerate the yard and I will spray manure tea and dump compost on it once I make some. But only after my garden is taken care of. Garden 1st.

Long, infrequent waterings, keeping the mower deck at the HIGHEST setting are the proven solutions to having a nicer lawn.
You burnt the lawn by applying the chemical when the lawn was wet (first thing in the morning, on a hot day likely)- the salts stuck to the blades. You have crabgrass, which is a monocot and the product is designed not to control monocots, clover is not a monocot which is why you killed it off & the crabgrass has a strong enough root system to regenerate itself with new growth in the spring, the other turf grasses do not (sans zoisia grass that is.)
Chances are you used a product with 2-4-D... the other half of agent orange (dioxin being what caused the health problems). It is completely excreted in the urine of humas (no faty deposits- but , FYI, untrue for dogs)
It has a half life of 7 days, meaning that half the product has broken down in 7 days, 1/2 of that in another 7 and so on.
I would say it is safe to plant anywhere you would like at this point.
If you till the ground in the FALL and seed with a high quality turf seed, low in inert seed, you should have a great lawn for spring. Water 3X a day for 10 min each for germination, then cut back the watering to twice a day until established. Springtime- pre-emergants organic or not are fine to use and then hand weed for the rest of the year. Inorganic pre-emergants are simply salts that prevent germination of weed seeds, and are low impact.
If you feel the need to spray anything in the future, I would call a licenced professional who knows the proper application techniques and timing.
And, remember- arsenic was used at one time as a broad leaf weed killer in lawns & is organic.....

Livvieann 6B, NY

I agree.
Mow the grass as high as possible! It crowds out bad stuff, and has deeper root systems.
And use raised beds.
Here in Anoka County MN, we have sugar sand soil, with little top soil.
Anything green is welcome!
Including crab/quack grass.
But I too plant clover. It's greener, and has nitrogen fixing nodules.
The important thing is to build the soil with anything organic. Manure, leaves, grass clippings, [without chemicals] kitchen waste. [no meat]