Extra Extra, Read All About It....Here


Well to my surprise the Times article came out on line this evening. It'll be out in print tomorrow.

Just a few points before you rush to read it.

  • I rent an apartment, not a house in Brooklyn.
  • My vegetable patch is barely bountiful, produces vegetable snacks -with exception of the green beans and herbs.
  • My soil lead in the side yard is at least 50 times N.Y.S. background levels according to the numbers I received from The Environmental Sciences Analytical Center or 90 times the U.S. agricultural soil levels average according to the University of Minnesota Extension.
  • My vegetables are all in wooden planter boxes or plastic nursery pots. The soil in them is a mix of bagged potting soil and bagged compost, not "nursery dirt."
That covers my corrections. I spoke to Dr. Cheng at Brooklyn College today and he has agreed to put together a short bit about dealing with heavy metal contamination in NYC soils. He told me he is getting plenty of new samples since listing his service on nycgarden. I will also post soon about the simple things you can do to help if your soil has high levels of lead. Start with this one thing -keep your kids from eating the dirt!

Now read it and weep lead!

Then compare to nycgarden post My Farm (where all this started) and Mutterings on the Mutter. Its a shame thy blog did not get a mention. But the Times photographer, Patrick, did a good job despite the toxically bright sun that day.

I'd like to post about how the garden is doing before I split for Weir Farm. So moving on.

**UPDATE**

The online addition corrected the "9 times" to read " 90 times" based on the facts presented later in the story. Alas, the Late Edition print can not say the same.