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Tako-Jerome t1_jd53f6b wrote

A significant amount of the topsoil in this area is contaminated with lead among other things which is why generally home gardeners are advised to use raised flowerbeds. I'm all for trees, but unfortunately I think this is a dream that we're not eligible for. I suppose we could bring in soil and test but it raises the bar to start.

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rippletroopers t1_jd5w2x2 wrote

Fruit trees are still good, leafy greens are what bioaccumulate heavy metals, very rarely do plants put heavy metals in the fruit. Apples, pears, paw paw, would all do well, as well as berries, cherries grapes etc.

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johnsonchicklet1993 t1_jd7tgx1 wrote

How fucked is it that the literal earth in our city is contaminated to the point that you might not be able to safely grow your own food in your backyard? We wonder why people think it’s okay to litter so much in our community - well, the literal soil is filled with the garbage that corporations have been spewing into the air for 100+ years. Who is going to pay for that?? (Rhetorical question, because WE are… not the corporations or the crooked politicians who allow the 1% to continue to do business despite showing that they have NO concern for our health and no intention of cleaning up after themselves- Norfolk southern great recent example of this).

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dfiler t1_jd9g195 wrote

I think the finger has to be pointed back at ourselves. We as individuals are the ones responsible for driving leaded-gas fueled personal automobiles and painting our houses with lead paint. It's clearly us, the individual citizens, who are to blame. If anything, many people argued against regulations when they were first enacted.

Put simply it isn't big business that put lead into our soil. We don't get to blame someone else for this one.

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johnsonchicklet1993 t1_jda7203 wrote

I genuinely can’t tell if this is sarcastic lol. I’m hoping it is.

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dfiler t1_jddhk1v wrote

That was genuine, not sarcastic. It is human nature to blame others when we're actually at fault ourselves. Big business didn't put the lead paint in the soil of my yard. If we're going to find someone to blame, it would have to be everyone from previous generations, not just rich/powerful people.

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fadedrosebud OP t1_jd54k1n wrote

I can imagine how polluted the soil is here, that’s sad.

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BackmarkerLife t1_jd5uxgq wrote

Don't sunflowers help extract heavy metals from the soil?

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Yomama-22 t1_jd6m4dd wrote

We just need to plant 900 gazillion sunflowers.

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TheSunflowerSeeds t1_jd6m57u wrote

We know sunflowers are inspirational plants, even to famous painters. Vincent Van Gogh loved sunflowers so much, he created a famous series of paintings, simply called ‘sunflowers’.

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RockySpineButt t1_jd5gq1l wrote

Agree. So many crops bioaccumulate the bad stuff. More people need to be cognizant of this. Do soil tests!!!!!

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