Gardening, Garden State style
I took the girls to the garden store today to get some potting soil. Edith got a bunch of vegetable seeds for her birthday, and I thought it would make the most sense to grow them in containers--(1) easier and (2) prudent, since we don't know who did what with the existing plots in our backyard before we moved in. But I did need help figuring out which soil to buy and how much.
I explained my idea to one of the clerks at the nursery, a highly recommended local store with plenty of friendly gardening experts on staff, I'd been told. But this particular employee just stood staring at me as I explained my plan to pass over the terraced garden plots in our backyard to do vegetables in containers.
Finally, she spoke. What kind of vegetables?
Well, I said, feeling a bit uncomfortable, Edith loves beets and had gotten beet seeds, and we'd been told [by their own staff earlier in the season] that root vegetables grow quickly and easily, making them a good option for our extremely short growing season here.
Root vegetables in containers? she asked in clear disbelief.
I fumbled, feeling foolish. Well, they're deep containers...no?...Not possible...? Okay, well, then I guess tell me about what it takes to make sure the soil is okay in the backyard.
What did I mean, she asked, looking blank. They could do a pH test on a sample for us, to see if our plants were likely to grow there. What else was I worried about?
Well, you know, I said vaguely and confusedly, bad stuff in the soil. I continued--embarrassed and talking fast and too loud--that I guess I sounded like a New Yorker, because somehow I had the impression that you couldn't go around growing vegetables you planned to eat just anywhere.
She shook her head and said she really didn't know what the problem would be. At that point I was so ruffled and uncomfortable that I thanked her for her help and said we'd figure out our plan from there, departing quickly for the section of the store housing bags of soil and compost.
There another clerk stopped and asked if he could help. He was a young man that seemed a bit readier to be pleasant and encouraging than the first clerk. So I explained again what I was thinking, prefacing it this time by saying I was sorry, it was probably a silly idea here in Colorado, but coming from the New York area, I had the idea that you needed to be sure your soil was safe before putting stuff in it, and...
He shook his head, smiling, and said I was being unnecessarily cautious for Colorado and probably unnecessarily cautious for New York, too. Go ahead and put them in the ground. How did I need to prepare the soil for planting, I asked? I knew that was an important step. He shrugged. No need to do anything at all. Just be sure the dirt was nice and loose. No need to add anything to it. (This did not sound like the advice on "You Bet Your Garden," the organic gardening show on NPR out of Philadelphia, which always made soil preparation sound like a critical, if complex alchemy.) Then he excused himself for minute to get some stock from the basement.
By the time he came back, I had gathered my wits and recollected some hard facts. In the apartments we'd lived in in New Jersey, I said, management had prohibited planting vegetables, because of lead contamination in the soil from exterior house paints. His eyes got big. Oh, he said, well, that was different. Then he looked skeptical. He didn't think lead-based paints were used anymore.
"Well sure, but they were used when the apartments were built in 1947," I reminded him, "and for who knows how many decades after that as the management repainted."
Oh, he nodded again.
"Nineteen-forties," he said. "Wow, that's an old building."
At least the historian was on solid ground here--as any Northeasterner would have been in this case. You may infer here my unexpressed eye roll at the Westerner's inability to imagine a 65-year-old building.
But really, is it me, or is it them? After all, there's a new housing development here in town, being built on an old gold mining tailings pile, where planting is prohibited ("Low maintenance living!" boast the advertisements) because stirring up the ground is such bad news for human health. What about all the pesticides my neighbors use growing grass where grass don't belong?
Is New Jersey that much more polluted than Colorado? Or are Coloradans that much more blase about environmental contamination (concern smacking of all that regulatory, freedom-infringing stuff)?
Or am I just a complete dolt of a novice gardener? Other than proposing to grow beets in containers, of course...
7 comments:
From what I glean from my wife's gardening books, raised beds are the only sane way that any sane gardener would ever garden.
I agree with Hobokener. If you aren't sure then do raised beds. I have a family I know who only go that way - and grow lots and lots of root veggies. I lived on farm grown and wouldn't plant in it - too many pesticides - although a very good friend of mine said the pesticides are not in the soil about two years after use - not sure I buy that. Raised beds and organic top soil - go for it!
Crystal
No, it's not you. It's them. I have heard a number of different things about soil contamination--lead in particular--and vegetables. I have heard that root crops really shouldn't be grown in contaminated soil, but that crops that fruit will have very little (if any) contamination. I think raised beds are the way to go, too, for any number of reasons.
As you know, lead paint is a risk, and that paint was used into the 1960s or 1970s (I'm not really sure...it's a moot point for us, since our house was built in 1921.). But there are other sources of lead contamination in soil, too, including leaded gasoline. So, even if the house or housing development was constructed at a time when lead paint was no longer in use, there could still be contamination from fuel sources, depending on the location.
If you're concerned about your soil's composition, you should bring in a sample to your local Cooperative Extension. Here's the general address for the state of Colorado. I don't know what county you're in, but there should be an office relatively close by. In New York State, we can actually send soil samples by mail--this might be possible for you, too. The testing service is very inexpensive, possibly free.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/
Personally, I don't see why you couldn't grow beets in a large pot. Sure, it's maybe a little strange--I have never heard of anyone doing it. But really, as long as the roots have space to grow, I don't imagine they care whether they are growing in the ground or in a pot or window box or what-have-you.
In the future, you might consider trying Russian heirloom tomatoes--maybe this year, if you can find seedlings locally. Not surprisingly, they are supposed to be quite good for those with cooler summers and short growing seasons. I have a friend in Vermont who is trying some out this summer. I'd like to do so next year, depending on what I think about the tomatoes I chose for this year.
And one more thing: if you are interested in raised beds, you might check out Square Foot Gardening, if you haven't already heard about it. I tend to plant intensively, but not as intensively as this system describes. Still, you really *can* grow a lot in one square foot, and that's a way to put raised beds in the back yard, grow a lot of veggies, and still have room for kids who want to play there!
Good luck! I'll be interested to hear more about your gardening adventures in the future!
One more thing: according to the EPA's website, lead paint is a risk in anything built before 1978. And keep in mind, too, that it is possible for paints to have been kicking around after then...
Square foot gardening is exactly the book I read. Yes you can grow root veggies in containers -- I got a five-gallon bucket from my local deli for free that's supposed to be perfect for carrots or sweet potatoes once you drill holes in the bottom (as long as you don't mind the faint aroma of pickles, which might be more of a New York problem). I'd ignore the people at the store -- sounds like you know a lot more than they do.
eek. Guess i'm a bad mom, but i'm thinking stick it in the ground and see what happens. i hate to say it, but you might be lucky if the beets get going in the ground OR containers because beet greens might be mighty tasty to those neighborhood deer, eh? ;) we wanted to do raised beds here b/c of the gopher problem, but it definitely adds up: $: soil, compost, lumber, etc. if you're worried about food, then why not flowers? i;m sure the girls would enjoy seeing anything come up that they contributed to growing. or you can always do strawberries in those awesome pots with all the holes!
I say you're probably okay throwing stuff in the ground. Or throwing stuff into pots if that feels better. I think it's easy to get hung up on what is "best," but plants are designed to grow and they do their best to do so, no matter the circumstances -- i.e. there are tons of ways to do this, and experimenting (with beets in a pot, or whatever it is, even if they fail) can be kind of fun. So, my gut reaction is try not to get pressured either way -- by the garden store folks or by the more cautious...
That said, if you decide on planting in the ground rather than pots and if there's any worry of lead (even if it's just geographically displaced worry), you should definitely just get your soil tested... usually means digging up a little from a few areas of the yard and sending/taking it in in a ziploc.
On the east coast, my experience is that lead is of most concern in urban areas -- lead paint, etc. I don't know the west as a whole, but in WA, lead doesn't seem to be much of a concern in urban areas, but it is a bigger concern in rural areas, mostly just in orcharding areas, as lead-arsenate used to be used as a pesticide way back when, and is persistent in the soil. So if you're trying to plant on what used to be orchard land, you have to be pretty careful (or only plant crops that don't absorb lead, or take away some topsoil and add amendments... which could make square foot gardening more appealing than the work involved might make it otherwise). Around here, at least, if it wasn't previously old orchard, it's generally (and legitimately) not considered much of a concern.
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