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| Homegrown strawberries. |
The culture of growing your own food is intoxicating, and
once you’re around it, it’s hard to put away the notion of jumping on the DIY
gardening bandwagon. And that’s certainly an attitude that I can’t disagree
with—I’ve been there. I’m there now. I love it, but I’m still learning a
lot—and there are a lot of important things to learn.
Urban gardening increased a whopping 29 percent between 2008
and 2013, with 9 million Americans now saying they grow food in urban areas.
The sentiment is fantastic, and one that I stand by absolutely. I think that
we’ve allowed ourselves to lose touch with food, where it comes from, and what
it takes to grow—and it would be to everyone’s benefit for more people to
reconnect.
However, growing food in an urban area has its fair share of
hazards, which aren’t always immediately apparent. See, soil has a legacy. One
of the reasons it’s great for growing plants is because it absorbs water, which
the plant’s roots can slowly absorb. Unfortunately, it also absorbs other
things, dangerous things: lead, asbestos, heavy metals, cadmium, arsenic,
petrochemicals, and more. Cities take their toll on nature in many ways, and
growing produce in contaminated soil means we’re bringing those chemicals right
into our bodies.
If you’re planning on doing some urban gardening, it needs
to be done the right way. If you’re planting straight into the ground, you’re
most at risk (but that doesn’t mean raised beds or pots are safe from hazard).
The first thing you should do is get your soil tested to see whether or not it
has been contaminated by lead, cadmium, or arsenic. Unfortunately, those tests
don’t check for petrochemicals and some other really hazardous chemicals that
may have seeped into the soil from car exhaust, cleaning solvents, old
Laundromats, or even demolished buildings.
The best solution is to research your plot of land and learn
its history—if any buildings were demolished nearby, whether it used to be a
parking lot or a gas station or something else, and if there is any other cause
for concern. Since you can never be completely sure whether the soil is 100%
free of contaminants, wearing gardening gloves and washing all produce
thoroughly is always a good idea.
If you’re using raised beds, be sure to think about what
they are made out of (or what you’re using to build them). Reclaimed wood can
be hazardous since you won’t know its history or whether it was ever treated
with chemicals. The point: better safe than sorry.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to safely
urban garden, check out this urban
soil safety guide from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Do you urban garden? I’d love to hear about your successful
and unsuccessful gardening endeavors!
Image from Shutterstock.
Image from Shutterstock.
