Garden full of deal animals and bins of dog poo!

dooking

Not sure what to do with this, anyone had any experience?
Have bought a house and discovered that the previous owners many dogs and cats from over the last 30 years are buried in the small back garden. Not only that, but she saved all the poo, put it in metal bins and buried them.

There is a raised mound in the garden that is probably from some of these bins.

If it could all just stay buried could be tempted to leave it, but I need to level off and tidy the garden which is an overgrown mess and really don't know how to proceed. I really don't want to dig this up and dispose myself, has anyone had any similar experience or got any advice?

moneyistooshorttomention

Yuk!

I'd get in a man with a mini-digger. Couple of hours and Job Done. Get him to arrange to take away the rubbish.

Hopefully access to your garden isnt a problem?

Davesnave

dooking wrote: »

I really don't want to dig this up and dispose myself, has anyone had any similar experience or got any advice?

If there's access, get a man with a digger and a skip or two.

If there isn't, find a chap with a shovel & barrow, as above.

Whenever we buy property, there exists the possibility of 'unknown unknowns' which just have to be dealt with.

In my case it was a good 18 months before someone from the council came to inspect the horse burials, and maybe another year before I met the man who performed them. Others just about choked on their beer recalling how he had carefully dug a 6' pit, only to find on filling it that there were still a couple of legs in the air......

Anyway, the burials passed the councils inspection, four or five years after they'd been notified. The inspector explained that his colleague, now retired, had left a few 'to dos' on his desk...:rotfl:

I won't go into what was in the heaps we also inherited, but I'd say treat such things with suspicion, unless they are long barrows or other scheduled monuments.

moneyistooshorttomention

Aw go on Dave....you've got us wondering now what it was...

fishpond

Come on Dave--you know you want to!

moneyistooshorttomention

Further thought on that - re the poo aspect - and I would be wondering about garden contamination from that (mind you - if it IS all safely in bins that may not be a problem).

When I read (okay...glanced through) a humanure handbook recently, ie in which the author was explaining about leaving the human poo for a while to "mature" was something that was necessary in order to ensure there were no harmful residues left, I believe it was about a year (from memory) that he left it to "brew" before using it.

So, personally I wouldn't be wanting to plant any food in any soil that has been contaminated by this poo for a year or so to give it time to "clear" so to say.

Davesnave

Oh, sorry, I wasn't doing a tease, honest. It's not that interesting.....

The main one, 50-80m3 looked like manure, but that was just a covering. It was actually the remains of a plant nursery, pushed down the hill by digger, piled-up and partially set on fire, then buried. So, lots of pots, netting, wood and assorted items, including trousers.... roughly 15 dumpy bags full, maybe more, can't remember.

The second one, just rubble. We made a parking area with it.

Third one was only soil - clearly an April Fool, or maybe a potential hedge bank, without the hedge.

Fourth one in field, more rubble and assorted building materials buried in soil.....another 50 tonnes or so.

They're all gone now. Fortunately, there were holes to be filled too.

fishpond

Thanks Dave.

stator

Could you just lay a new layer of top soil on top of the whole garden?

enginesuck

My house came with lots of animal (DOG) graves, i reallly didnt noticed until i bought it but there are a number of conrete slabs with names on laid down throughout the garden. As a dog lover myself its pretty sad as the house was in the samily for 40 years and these were obviously family pets. I will be lifting the slabs and lvelling them off this spring, a making a mental note not to use these areas for the inevitable demise of our family pets. :-(

Dog poo burial is just a bit weird though - plant roses !

martin1959

Although slightly off topic, this is the reason we have always had our dogs cremated, as we did not want to have to 'leave them behind' when we moved. Now after 28 years in the same property, we have just sold and Harry and George will be coming with us......


I appreciate, to non dog lovers, this will seem ridiculous...lol.