Planting the garden is just the beginning

Last week, I had dinner with a woman who works for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden doing outreach to the borough’s growing number of home gardeners and community gardens (plots of land managed by a dedicated cadre of neighbors). She said that a lot of the education she does is about the potential dangers of Brooklyn soil. In many areas, there are high levels of certain toxins that can seep into produce. A lot of it is from the dust of the World Trade Center that settled over the city after 9/11.

The NYT reports that the Obamas’ kitchen garden was tested for lead and was found to have 93 parts per million.

The level is well below the 400 p.p.m. considered hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency, though not below the more stringent goals recommended by some countries like the Netherlands, at 40 p.p.m.

Sam Kass, who has the totally awesome job of both White House assistant chef and garden overseer, has remediated the soil organically, adding “lime, green sand and crab meal as well as organic matter in the form of compost made by the National Park Service.”

If you have a garden, even a small backyard one, you should take advantage of a program offered by the EPA’s Cooperative Extension office in your area.  Call (800) 424-5323 for more info.