What Lurks Under The Surface?

I recently expanded a vegetable bed in my previously-neglected suburban back yard. I have some difficult clay-ish soil, so I was digging down, and going to dump in some half-finished compost, leaves, grass clippings, etc, in the newly-claimed area.

I had a bit of a shock :(

About 20 centimetres or so down, I hit a glass mason jar.

And then, digging and digging, I discovered, to my horror, that this corner of the yard had been used as some kind of rubbish dump by builders. It has been probably at least ten years since there was work done on this place. Under about three square metres surface space, and in one digging session, I found...

10+ Glass jars and bottles. Two bottles were capped, with a venegar-smelling liquid and flower-petals(?) inside. Some broken glass pieces.

A few plastic items - a spray bottle (cleaner?) A chemical- looking jug. A Tupperware type divided lunch plate (with lid.) Unidentified bits.

A significant about of plastic of the supermarket-bag type.

A few items of cloth, and degraded clothing.

Two(!) intact items that seemed to be lamp fixtures.

A hand-held cassette tape recorder, in zipped case, with cassette (non-working)

A crescent wrench (rusted in position.)

A length of nylon rope (in surprisingly good condition.)

Some kind of sports glove.

A torque wrench (with bend-able indicator, but rusted socket end.)

A piece of vinyl sheet with a design, about 1 x 2.5 metres (maybe a tarp?)

A power supply of some general type.

Various lengths of electrical wire, including two with toggle switches attached.

A power supply with a label stating that it was for a printer (maybe 1980s vintage?)

Several paint cans, and unidentified metal containers (some partly rusted out.)

A couple of tubes of chemicals, one of which said it was vinyl adhesive.

A pair of gumboots.

I pulled out about three rubbish bag loads. There was still more down there, but I was digging kind of sideways (like a coal mine.) So I didn't get everything, and I don't know how extensive it is. I dumped in some good compost, etc.

I am rather creeped-out by the fact that I could smell a sort of paint-solvent type fumes when I unearthed some of this stuff :(

Arrrrrgh... Just venting...

Reply to
Coffee's For Closers
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I hope you're not planning to eat anything you grow in that patch!

Reply to
Special Agent Melvin Purvis

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