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I recently bought a new row home with what I thought was an adorable back yard. I started digging a shallow hole to plant a tree and noticed that about a half inch to about a foot down is where the previous owner buried some garbage (literal trash bags with styrofoam containers, soda cans, hair ties, etc.) and construction debris (so far it just looks like bricks, tile, glass, and plastic mini blinds).

The yard itself is 10' x 10'. I've started digging it all up myself, but I'm really not sure what my plan is. I found a brick patio on the bottom, so it seems as if they literally through the dirt on top of all of this junk. I keep finding empty bags of Miracle-Gro, so I'm assuming as much.

Has anyone ever dealt with anything like this before? I'm not sure what steps I should take - does it make sense to dig the whole thing up, rent a dumpster to throw the garbage and dirt away and start over? Do landscapers do this sort of work (and is it super expensive)?

Bence Kaulics
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Jen Pirrone
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2 Answers2

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You have several options, and they depend on your specific scenario, capabilities, free time, resources and budget.

While dealing with this situation on my property I choose to utilize my yard waste and recycle cans and load them up weekly with the debris and ruined soil. This was very time consuming and took a lot of physical labor, but it was relatively cheap.

You can hire someone to haul the trash away (and dig it up).

You can dig up the waste, separate from the soil, and dispose of it however you can.

You could burn it.

There is no real easy solution to your problem, if you have a large budget the ideal solution is to call someone to deal with it. The dirt that surrounds the trash could become stagnant and develop mold, so you may be better off getting rid of everything in that area and replacing it with top soil, which can be delivered to your home in bulk by the cubic yard.

I would expect to pay $300 to have the refuse hauled away and another $200 for 10 yd.³ of good soil.

NOCARRIER
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I feel your pain. My backyard is not very pleasant to walk on barefooted. I recently discovered there is some left over construction under my lawn from past renovation. It is a big enough area and I have no idea how deep, that I am at a loss on what to do. I was thinking just to cover it with inches of fresh soil and seed. Healthy grass could grow through too. Fortunately I don't have a weed problem. It's a bummer to be sure.

Juli Jones
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