How do you know if your garden's fit for veg growing?

Good for growing pineapples, John. Early growers in the UK used rotting manure for heat. I love that. More power to nature.

I'm going to try pines - apparently you just lop off the top, stick it in a pot in sun, and away you go. Fruit in a few years if you're lucky.

Anyway, I mustn't digress. Any thoughts on housing regs re: garden condition welcome!

 

Hey Andrew,

Check this out,

http://www.toxiclandcheck.co.uk/index.html?gclid=CJznp4LEhqQCFYb92Aod-w8SHQ

I have read of heavy metal poisoning from using seaweed as a fertiliser, but can't remember where I read it.

 

I moved into a new buils 15 years ago and shortly after there was an article in the local paper about possible HM contamination. Actually the scare was about As, the houses having been built on an old steel works. I was teaching in HE at the time, about contaminated land remediation. So I took a group of student on a field trip to collect some soil samples.... yes, my back garden! I took the samples at verious sites in the garden and at varying depths. Had them analised using atomic absorption spectrometry for As, Cd, Hg etc and everything fell within acceptable limits. Been growing fruit and veg here for 15 years now no probs.
As is not really a heavy metal but it is usually grouped with them because of it's toxicity.
John

 

Well I've found some info from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Apparently your survey includes a Land Contamination record check, but in practice it's no use because it's not got enough detail.

And the proportion of properties affected is 5%. Which sounds small, but that's still a heck of a lot of houses!

PS John Binks. I found myself splurting coffee at your typo of "analysed".... this is a family site, man!!!

 

LOveryL!! Sorry about that.