I've made a huge mistake. How do I get Diesel fuel out of my soil?
Last year I tried to burn a stump. I watched some YouTube videos and read a bit about it and went for it. I'd burnt several other stumps in the past and it was pretty straight forward. This time, instead of lighter fluid, I used Diesel fluid because a lot of people on YouTube recommended it as cheaper and safer that lighter fluid or gasoline. I sawed a grid into the stump and drilled 3/4 inch holes deep into it. I put about 2 gallons of fuel over a day or two. Then I covered it in firewood and set it on fire. The stump wouldn't burn. As soon as the fire on top went out, the stump went out. I used charcoal, a put a metal tube around it with a lid half on to keep heat in. I blew air into the bottom fire with a leaf blower, but I just couldn't get the stump to burn. perhaps I hadn't dug up the root well enough to get air under it. But I think it's because the stump was too fresh - I had just cut the tree down. Other stumps I'd burned in the past had been dead for years, but I also used lighter fluid with those. Also this stump was saw very low, lower than ground level, while the other had all been sticking up with a stump a few inches or few feet. Anyway, so I put a stump rotting powder on it, all in the grid I'd sawn and the holes I'd drilled. I hurried it with garden soil and planted annual rye on it. The rye died pretty quickly and no weeds or Bermuda have been able to grow in that spot. So now it's like a year or a year and a half later and I decided to get to work on getting rid of the stump and roots. I started digging it up and I'm chopping at it with an axe (actually a Pulaski.) It's hard work but it's coming out and I think it'll be done in another one or two sessions...chopping at it for no more than an hour each session. Anyway, as I'm chopping it out I'm noticing the wood chips and the soil still smell strongly of diesel. I pointed a blow torch at the chips, the wouldn't burn. So how can I get this fuel out of the soil so that eventually the lawn will grow in that area? Do I just need to dig it all out until I can't smell it anymore and replace it all? Or is there an enzyme that will eat it, or some type of plant that will clean it over time? Or something I can spray on or sprinkle on that will do something ...I don't know what?