Hi all, The Montreal Community Gardens which were shut down a couple of years ago quickly had infill housing put on. If funding hadn't been there for the housing, my money says that the gardens would still be there. They were never tested for heavy metals until the housing funds became available. Having said that, it is possible to garden in land which has high amounts of heavy metals if you know how your crop accumulates heavy metals. However, having a heavy metal load certainly makes your garden look good as a housing site. So start today..... get your gardens tested, it is not that expensive, have someone help you to interpret the results and plant accordingly, avoiding root and leaft crops. It helps to know your plants, potatoes for example are safe when washed and peeled. They are stem tissue... Remember, heavy metals bio-accumulate... no amount is a safe amount. Karen
Hi Mike, Thanks for your kind words. Honestly, I was afraid I was being too weaselly and overly officious in my comments. I also made a mistake I would like to correct. This is one of the problems with emails, you don't often let them sit long enough so you can read them and perhaps fact check as you should before sending. Correction: The Montreal gardens were shut down due to heavy metal contamination not asbestos, as I had alleged. It looks like this was due to the sites having a history as former waste dumps. This would suggest that perhaps had competent phase one environmental studies been carried out, the potential for contamination might have been detected before the gardens were established. _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
