Salting the earth

(This post is an extension of the previous post.)

I should have known--if I have a question about most anything (especially historical, theological, and often scientific), I should ask my dad. I mentioned the salting the dirt thing to him, and he said, "Oh sure! That's what Rome did to Carthage in the Punic Wars!" Obviously. So, with that new information and detail, I was able to find the relevant wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth

It is interesting, though, that historians are unsure whether this particular incident really happened or not.

Also, my master gardener mother notes that if you put enough salt on your ground to kill weeds, you won't be able to grow anything else for a very long time, either. Dad noted that there must be some way to desalinate dirt because the Netherlands does it when they reclaim land from the sea, but we think this process may be beyond the reach of the average home gardener.