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I’ve been putting the registration for GardenSafe off for years even after posting about it… tbh I’m still struggling majorly with my health and this creeping grass is like kudzu, so action isn’t guaranteed. But why not contribute to citizen science.
But it’s asking really inflexible questions so I don’t know how to answer. Like for main food growing area do I answer in ground or pots? I may answer in ground because I want to know if it’s safe to do so.
Renos within 5 years? No, but around 10.
And I’m not seeing any peeling external paint - but the builders buried discarded rubble in the soil which is a concern.
I don’t use pesticides but I don’t know what’s in the runoff from another yard.
I just want to find out if the soil here is theoretically safe to grow edible stuff in, lead levels and pesticides etc.
Edit: For peeling paint I just said yes because I didn’t know if there was any that got buried with the rubble. But now wondering if that was bad data and would label the soil as higher risk than it is. Should I try to tell them the situation?
Idk. I just don’t want to grow anything that’s dangerous to eat.
You're overthinking it. Just answer the questions as best you can and don't worry about the rest of the details - they are not doing a detailed analysis of your site, they will just be doing a rough classification to identify rough links in the aggregate data.
Alright, hopefully what I put is okay
don’t want to grow anything that’s dangerous to eat
I used these guys a while back: https://www.swep.com.au/ and was impressed by their analysis. Prof. in Ag. put me on to them.
Thanks! I kinda just went with the EPA because it was free 😆
Rule of Thumb: if the edible bit is actually in contact with soil, then you have cause for concern. If the edible bit is waving in the air, not to worry too much. Lettuce is debatable, but usually the faster it grows the less problem it is. The real problem is long lead time crops actually in the ground, like potatoes.
That’s good - if things like zucchini and squash were trellised they would be fine?
And root veg would need grow bags or pots
If you have room for 50cm pots, you can grow pumpkins and watermelons in them with one of those tripod trellises. MUCH smaller yield and fruit, but perfect for 1-2 people
I’ll have to measure the pots I found. They’re a good size but might not be that big
Zucchini and curcurbits in general are usually no problem if the fruit is off the ground, so trellising sounds like a good idea. Heavy fruit like pumpkins can't be trellised and take up a shittonne of room, so might not be the best use of space. If you do have a try at pumpkins you might need to put a tile or plank put under each fruit to keep it off the ground.
Root veg would be better in pots or similar. As I didn't have room or good soil for spuds in East Brunswick, I grew spuds in car tyres stacked up on a concrete base. Made harvesting easy too as all I had to do was pull each tyre off in turn and fumble out the spuds. Very very productive way to grow spuds. Round carrots & beetroot went in milk crates lined with shademesh - these worked very well and also worked for leeks and silverbeet. I am too cheap to buy large pots from the green store. I found 1 bag of potting mix fitted nicely in 1 milkcrate too which made planning easier. Milk crate gardens did need extra watering in summer as they did dry out a lot if I didn't watch them. One benefit was they were easy to move about in accordance with the weather/sunlight. I've tried using growbags, but I find them a bit heavy to move about. They do hold a lot of soil so could be good for big carrots etc that need a deep soil bed without lumps in it.
I was considering the tiny sugar pumpkins that wouldn’t be very heavy, or snow peas but chose some zucchini seeds. I’m thinking to stake them up or maybe improvise a lattice.
The milk crate pots are ingenious. I’d probably forget to water or have to bring them inside though so maybe not… I wouldn’t be able to lift the grow bags or the tyres but these are some good ideas
For me watering was a once a week sport. In very dry hot weather I'd kick the milk crates together to reduce evaporation but not much more than that. Peas/beans are reliable, productive and would be safe but would need a lattice of something to grow up. Lengths of string tied to the fence would do and be removable if you left the place.
Fun fact: beetroot leaves are delicious in salad when small and young. Can be cooked like spinach too. I sow beetroot pretty thickly and harvest most of them for leaves, only leaving a few well spaced out to make roots.
you can put straw around your plants to keep the fruits off the dirt
root vegies should be fine in raised beds
most gardening is done in the top most soil in raised beds and that usually has added soil and compost too. Any contaminants would be deeper.
Your soil is fine. The problem with building rubble is the bits of concrete and stones. Concrete changes the acidity of your soil. Just pick out bits of concrete and stones and any other rubbish you find and it should be fine.
Quite a number of years ago I tried to dig it up but was unable to get a really big piece out.
just get as much as you can out bit by bit, concentrate on the small bits first as they have greatest surface area to interact with water and your soil
I’d have to get the grass torn up first and don’t think I’ll be able to alone. When I first came here I put weed mat down and then creeping grass came in from under a neighbours fence and took over, grew right through it