A gardener encountered a devastating scene after their neighbors' pool was drained.
They took to Reddit to ask for advice, posting in r/vegetablegardening two years ago with the hope that they could save their beloved plants.
"The man/company to who drains their pool appears to have the pipe sticking through the fence to an 'alley' behind our homes," they wrote. "The water appears to have splashed into our yard because everything by the fence is starting to die. Everything in the path of the water draining has died virtually overnight and I've lost some zinnia and scarlet runner Beans that were climbing the fence. They yellowed and dropped leaves at first but look like they're dying. I have hundreds of tomatoes growing in this bed and a few of the plants are getting brown lesions on the leaves but not yellowing."
The loss of the toms was especially difficult, as the poster said they had "no less than 10 varieties and they were all fruiting very well."
A handful of commenters recommended flushing the plants with water to try to dilute the chlorine, and others noted they could ask an expert with an advice column, a master gardener, or the local agriculture extension office.
They received condolences and best wishes, as the stress of losing a large garden can be overwhelming.
Many homeowners grow their own food, and gardening increased in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, creating 18.3 million new greenthumbs, according to Garden Pals. More than one in three American households tend fruits, vegetables, and other foods, yielding $600 worth of produce each year.
This saves money at the store, reduces carbon pollution created by commercial farming operations and shipping, and makes you healthier — community gardeners consume more fiber and are more active than non-gardeners.
The best benefit of home gardening may be that you can keep harmful pesticides — including banned chemicals — away from your food. So, it was extra disappointing to read about this Redditor's conundrum.
"It's illegal in almost all places to drain pool water just outside into nature as the allowed limit of chlorine in water used in the garden etc. is really low," one commenter wrote.
"I would definitely confront them, are they aware what the pool service person did?"
Another said: "I had this happen with strawberries... i was able to save most of the plants but not the crop.
"Almost definitely chlorine if it killed like that overnight, that's awful. My plants were brown in a week. All you can really do is flood the hell out of the affected area with non treated water then refertliize. That's not a splash by the way, you got flooded by them and that's property damage on top of being illegal (at least where I am). Report this crap if you get any grief from them."
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