Kyla!'s comments

Kyla!'s comments from the Sustainable Foodies group.

Note: Kyla! is no longer a member of this group.

message 9: by Happyreader
I’m not discouraging gardening. Just raising the issue of soil quality. That was my one concern with the Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community recommendation about planting on a vacant lot. What the heck is in the soil of that vacant lot? I wonder if there are cheap tests for major soil pollutants.

I worked for awhile with an organization that built community gardens in vacant lots in Cleveland. As an industrial town, Cleveland probably has among the worst polluted soil possible. But they found that if they left the pavement intact, it provided a guard against the soil toxins below. Instead of wasting time hammering asphalt, they built beautiful raised beds on top. They filled the beds with compost from inside the city and nearby farms. Voila, no soil probelms at all.

There are also ways to mitigate soil toxins, through mushrooms and wetlands. I have bene meaning to check out Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World for ages now.