soil quality in urban gardens
i'm trying to figure out whether or not the raised garden bed in my back yard is safe for growing vegetables in, and i thought someone around here might have some advice.
i live in on a heavily trafficked two lane street, and the freeway is kind of close. the whole house has that black pollution dust all over it. the backyard is huge and the houses on all three sides have large yards with tall trees (which i'd like to think are cleaning the air for me).
probably about 4 or 5 years ago, a girl who lived in my house built a planter bed and filled it with soil. for the past three years, it has just had weeds growing it in, but i decided to fix it up this winter. i found this lovely dark soil created by composting piles of leaves, and i mixed some of this in with the soil in the beds. now it's time to plant, but i am concerned about the soil quality.
i have done research about contaminated soil in city gardens, and most articles say to plant in raised beds because soil that you find in your back yard is usually contaminated, but none of them mention the possibility of pollution settling on the beds and causing contamination. i am especially worried since i used the mulch from the leaves, which were probably quite dirty leaves. i probably shouldn't have done that, but it was so happy and filled with worms!
does anyone have any advice for me?
i live in on a heavily trafficked two lane street, and the freeway is kind of close. the whole house has that black pollution dust all over it. the backyard is huge and the houses on all three sides have large yards with tall trees (which i'd like to think are cleaning the air for me).
probably about 4 or 5 years ago, a girl who lived in my house built a planter bed and filled it with soil. for the past three years, it has just had weeds growing it in, but i decided to fix it up this winter. i found this lovely dark soil created by composting piles of leaves, and i mixed some of this in with the soil in the beds. now it's time to plant, but i am concerned about the soil quality.
i have done research about contaminated soil in city gardens, and most articles say to plant in raised beds because soil that you find in your back yard is usually contaminated, but none of them mention the possibility of pollution settling on the beds and causing contamination. i am especially worried since i used the mulch from the leaves, which were probably quite dirty leaves. i probably shouldn't have done that, but it was so happy and filled with worms!
does anyone have any advice for me?