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Square Foot Gardening

Cinder Blocks and soil PH

18 years ago

I keep reading/hearing about soil PH, and something about the lime in builder's concrete affecting that. I could be hearing/reading it wrong as my learning style seems to be "by trial and error." Anyhoo...one of the other newbies (shout out to the Harley dude!) had this genius idea to use the channels in the long ends to string the irrigation through.

Anyhoo, my question is: would cinder blocks affect soil Ph (or any other chemical composition or organic status) and if so, does it matter? Because all those holes in the cinder blocks would be nifty to use. And they're a great height.

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Comment (1)

freshair2townsquare
18 years ago
bonus: cinder blocks can easily be found *free* on craigslist

a) if they're new, they will definitely leach - does someone else know about aged concrete or leaching over time?

b) some crops, such as tomatoes, truly need acidic soils - others might not be so picky

c) you might want to consider some kind of barrier, although that wouldn't be a 100% preventative - sheet metal, cardboard, cedar shakes, something you can drive into the ground - or maybe even wrap them in plastic & punch holes for the hoses to go through
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