The 104th Street Community Garden participated in a soil study performed by The Brooklyn College Environmental Sciences Analytic Center. The following is a preliminary release regarding soil samples throughout the city. The overall results do not necessarily reflect the health of our own garden, but do indicate alarming levels of heavy metals, including lead, in New York City soils. We eagerly await the results of the follow up study and will report any results specific to our garden, when the report becomes available.
Brooklyn College results:
“The Brooklyn College Soil Analysis lab received many soil samples from residents throughout New York City. The lab analyzed heavy metal content in the soil with some surprising results. Lead content in some soils were sometimes as high as 2000ppm. As a follow-up pilot study we would like to measure the air quality in and around some of these gardens. Looking at the air quality may show us whether particulates from the soil are getting into the air, and we would like to see if this is happening and to what degree people are breathing in heavy metals as they work/play around the soil. By performing this pilot study we would like to determine if we need to expand our research not into just soil analysis but into air quality surrounding community and private gardens throughout NYC.”
For more information about lead in NYC gardens, read the New York Times article:
For Urban Gardeners, Lead Is a Concern, May 13, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14lead.html
Lead Remediation tips recommended in this article include:
- The best approach to avoiding lead contamination in gardens is what we do at the West 104th Street Garden: Build raised or contained beds lined with landscape fabric and filled with uncontaminated soil. Plants that are grown in containers with soils from a garden center are unlikely to contain high amounts of lead.
- Replace the contaminated soil or alkalinize it by adding lime or organic matter such as compost. Higher alkalinity (pH level above 7) allows soil particles to bind with lead, making it less likely to be absorbed by plants and the human body if the dirt is inadvertently inhaled or ingested.
- Plant kitchen gardens with fruiting crops like tomatoes, squash, eggplant, corn and beans, which do not readily accumulate lead.
- Avoid lead-leaching crops, such as herbs, leafy greens and root vegetables such as potatoes, radishes and carrots.
- Planting greens, specifically Indian mustard and spinach, for a couple of seasons before growing crops intended for food. This phytoremediation, or plant-based mitigation, allows lead to be removed from the soil. These plants must not be eaten or composted, but disposed of as toxic waste.
- To avoid contamination from lead dust blowing in the wind or rain splashing off lead-painted structures, situate gardens away from buildings.
- Wash edible produce thoroughly with water containing 1 percent vinegar or 0.5 percent soap.
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- Cover soil with sod in areas where you are not planning a garden.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Reminders from National Gardening Association:
What to do in October:
Build a Cold Frame
Dispose of Used Flame Weeder Canisters Properly
Don’t Fret As Conifers Shed
Notice and Record WOW Color and Plant Combos
Leave Root Veggies Underground
More Regional Gardening News at:
http://www.garden.org/regional/report/arch/3250
Hi Gardeners,
Matt Brown, head of the Central Park Conservancy’s soil and water ecology will be talking about soil, plants, Central Park, our garden — and answering our questions in a walk through the garden.
Please come this Wednesday, June 24, at 6:15 — in our garden. (Matt and his crew has kindly delivered compost and wood chips to the garden this year and in years past.)
As a preview, here’s a video of Matt on Central Park’s ponds: http://www.centralparknyc.org/site/PageNavigator/DidYouKnow_WaterBodies
If you have questions, please contact Suzanne Charle’ at suzcharle@gmail.com.
This National Gardening Association page link is for Over-Winter Maintenance.
http://www.garden.org/regional/report/arch/reminders/2986
Lucille found a good article with information about preventing plant theft from the November 2005 edition of House & Garden Magazine. Download at:
http://west104garden.org/articles/Stop-Garden-Theft.pdf
Some Tips:
Tips from Sergeant Martin Peirson, Metropolitan Police Service, London
- Install low-voltage lights with a photocell switch that automatically illuminates all avenues of access from roads to landscape during hours of darkness.
- Enclose the garden perimeter with a barrier of thorny plant (such as “New Scotland Yard” rose).
- Locate valuable plants out of sight of roads.
- Inhibit digging of valuable trees and shrubs by surrounding them with collars of heavy welded wire fencing.
- Collars (hidden under mulch) should extend out over roots for several feet from plant; for extra security, fasten down collars at edges with hooks or concrete reinforcing bars anchored in concrete.
- South African park police are embedding wild cycads with microchips much like those used for identification of dogs and cats. Such a system could also be effective for the identification and recovery of stolen garden plants.
Also, the Home Depot Garden Center offers a garden club with expert advice and special offers at:
http://homedepotgardenclub.com/
Happy New Year! LM
FYI — when thinking about your spring planting plans. LM
The Floyd Bennett Gardens, the largest community garden in nyc, continues to post interesting garden info it their newsletter. From time to time I will repost info here:
In this issue–Time to Think About Getting Your Hands Dirty ‹‹Attracting Butterflies and Other Pollinators
There are gardeners who plant only crops of vegetables and then there are those who know the importance of balancing both worlds. This year, think about planting your usual and then expand and create an environment that helps you, the birds and the rest of the wonderful world of pollinators. Remember, without them we are nothing!
Happy Gardening-JW
Read the Full Article
October Q & A
Question: Recently, I was wandering through a large garden center and discovered rubber mulch. Can it be used like regular mulch? Is it any good? more >>
October Gardening Tips
- As a family activity, paint some of your pumpkins instead of carving them all. Use nontoxic paints to create colorful, scary faces, or whatever you can imagine. After Halloween, use the pumpkins to make bread, muffins, or pies with the kids.
- Pot up amaryllis, gloxinias, freesias, and other winter-blooming bulbs now for blooms by Christmas.
- Spend some time outside under the Hunter’s Moon. The full moon in mid-October is one of the brightest of the year. Enjoy brisk evening walks before the cold months arrive.
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/thirty-five-pest-disease-remedies.aspx?nterms=74882
Suzanne sent in this link from Taunton Fine Gardening on how to prune tomato plants:
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/pruning-tomatoes.aspx
