If there's one thing that should never be mixed with soil, it's salt. One homeowner learned this the hard way after making a reckless decision in the name of weed-killing.
They posted about their regretful choice on the subreddit r/landscaping, acknowledging that they "f***** up."
They explained: "I've been trying to tame an over grown garden for ages, constantly using round up and other [poisons]/tree killers to get rid of invasive plants. Two weeks ago I was looking for a solution and found salt will kill weeds. Long story short I've put about 10 kg of salt between two trees a vine and a large back yard."
This translates to over 22 pounds of salt — and considering its potency in soil, they explained, that is very bad news.
"I've found out this will most likely kill not just my yard but potentially my neighbours and I will have big issues ever growing again," they wrote.
Commenters, understandably, did not take it easy on them.
"There's a reason ancient warriors salted the soil of their foes. You've managed to kill the weeds, but rendered the soil unusable," one person wrote grimly. "Whether that was a fair trade, I'll leave up to you. A Pyrrhic victory at best."
While there are some actions that can be taken, trying to save the yard will require far more time and effort than managing the original weeds ever did — and there's no guarantee it will work.
One person advised: "You should remove as much of the topsoil as possible that has high salt concentration. For the area around the trees, you should start flooding the soil with a crazy amount of water to leach the salt away."
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Others agreed but warned that more soil may need to be removed than the OP might expect. "Root structures run deep and will eventually find the poisoned salt soil. OP needs to dig out as much of it as he can and full out replace it," one said. "Some soil testing would be beneficial as he digs down to ensure he's cutting the correct amount out."
And, one person warned, "For God's sake, think twice in the future."
While no gardener enjoys managing weeds, using known poisons — whether salt or Roundup — is never the right solution. Much of the time, they end up accidentally killing beneficial native plants or poisoning the soil, as in this case.
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