is it safe to plant a vegetable garden in suburbia?
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at
2:23 pm
I live in a huge suburban area. I am thinking of planting a veggie garden, but I am wondering it it is safe. Who knows what kind of chemicals people use on their lawns.. does it get into the ground water?? Anybody have any experience with this?
Filed under: Vegetable Gardening
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Quite simply i would say yes it is safe to grow your own. To begin with your home-grown vegetables would contain far less chemicals and pesticides that are commonly used in mass farming. I grow some vegetables (tomatoes, strawberry potatoes spring onions etc) in my garden, it is a very small garden here in england. However, it does take a lot of looking after, i have to water them before i go to work and when i come back. Furthermore, unless there was a huge use of chemicals in the area. i wouldn’t worry about it. Neighbors using chemical lawn feed can damage their own lawns, as it contains nitrogen and phosphates (I’m not too sure about the effects on the environment), but for that to effect your area they would have to use a very large amount. My biggest problem I found was keeping the slugs and birds away from my fruit and vegtables once they had grown.
it’s fine. If you want to worry about your health, there are a million things you can worry about before that.
The only problem I can think of is that bad air quality causes stunted growth of vegetables. I read an article several years ago about how tomatoes and other vegetables did not do well in the Los Angeles basin, because of the smog.
kid me not ,,, go for it ,, most lawn fertilizers are high in nitrogen not a problem,,, you have to watch out for garden thieves is all
You could check with your county extension office (or something similar) about a soil test, but I wouldn’t be too concerned. And even if that office advises you not to eat the produce you grow – in which case, I’d be looking to MOVE – you’re doing nature good by nurturing green – which helps clean the air – and helping feed the bugs, bunnies, birds, etc. You can double check, but I wouldn’t be too concerned; plants have excellent filters.
i live in the suburbs too, my mam and dad used to grow raspberries and apples, at the moment we grows tomatoes and lettice and are starting to grow potatoes.
we eat them all, if we grow it we eat it
and it is perfectly safe..i’ve been eating them for some years now, it’s fine
Unless you buy strictly organic, you don’t know what farmers put on their fields. I think suburbia is as safe as anywhere. The chemicals we use do end up in the ground water and the rivers and the bays. With your own garden you can control what goes directly onto your veggies at least.
Plant & do your own thing! Even in pots! You will have 100per cent results! Go for it!..but do lots of home work fist. Not hard, just hard work for a bit!!!!
it is safe..
here are 2 links wiht some suggestions of what you may want to grow
http://www.gomestic.com/Gardening/Five-Overlooked-Edible-Plants-for-Your-Garden.94765
http://www.gomestic.com/Gardening/Five-Must-Have-Culinary-Herbs-for-Your-Garden.94356
the ground water wont be that effected to hurt your veges…