I wouldn't expect the bleach to be a problem if you don't repeat it since the chlorine in the bleach will be long gone into the air and/or washed away by rain. The mosquito larvae and algae won't be a problem at all, quite the opposite. They will add a bit of organic matter to the soil which is good for the soil. The soil bacteria will break down organic matter to help feed the plants and so the water from the fountain will help rather than hurt.

I would be more likely to worry more about the soil in your containers (do you know its history any better than what is in the ground?) though I expect potting soil is perfectly safe. The only time I worry about the soil safety for food is right around my very old house (150+ years) since it had lead paint and I am sure that the soil has a lot of lead in it. I know some (not all) plants take up heavy metals, and would rather be safe than sorry. So I only plant ornamentals right around the house since I have lots of other space to grow veggies. Unless you know that your neighborhood is in a former industrial site with toxic status, I wouldn't worry at all about your soil safety.

Farmers have planted for years in the ground, and algae is a natural material as are insects. There is a whole web of microscopic life in the soil that may not be present in potting soil, and these microscopic organisms break down organic matter and make nutrients available to your plants. Also, the Florida temperatures will be much more even in the ground than in containers, so the plants will be less stressed by extreme temperature swings. Much as I regret having to say it, in this case your DH is absolutely right to be planting in the soil, and you are perfectly safe eating the produce that comes from it.

Thank you, nhbabs! Now I feel more comfortable eating the vegetables, I hate to offend hubby by not eating it, as he's the one who does the majority of the garden work.

Nothing to fret over at all. No such thing as "sterile" soil, it's not possible.

Definitely I would be eating the vegetables out of that soil, no problem! Unless, like Nhbabs said, your living on a former toxic waste site and your salad has to be inspected with a Geiger counter.

Does the history of the soil determine its safety- do I really need to test my soil before starting my garden? This whole issue has made me so wary, that I have resolved to planting in containers. My husband is still planting in the ground though and I told him I won't eat any vegetables and fruits growing in the ground.

So many, new to vegetable gardening, mistakenly assume that IF there is something "bad" in their soil it will automatically also be in the food grown in that soil. It is an understandable but irrational fear that comes from a lack of understanding how things grow, how soil works.

Plants just don't work that way. With the possible exception of radiation they don't absorb toxins or chemicals or bugs, they don't suck them up. Rather they filter them out IF something bad is even there to begin with. Wash your vegetables well before eating is all that is required.

Since the vegetables you buy at the store to eat are grown in soil why would the vegetables grown in your own back yard where you control what is added be unsafe to eat? Why would food grown in some potting soil be safer?

Do you need to test your soil before starting? Yes it is recommended but not for any reasons you list. It needs to be tested to see if it has adequate nutrients for plants to grow and if not, what needs to be added.

Dave

I have an environmental science degree and the only things I really worry about are heavy metals (big problem around here) and herbicides/ pesticides. They so Infact recommend testing for heavy metals in omaha, lead specifically because plants do uptake lead. But if it's not a prob in your area than I wouldn't bother testing for it.

When exposed to organic matter, bleach quickly converts to sodium chloride - table salt.

Mindy -- Below is what I thought I'd learned from reading about lead in soil. Since you've got the degree, please let me know if the info below is true. Thanks!

1. That plants do uptake lead but not very much -- that's why soil can't be remediated by growing plants.
2. That the issue with soil that is in the mid ranges is more about the soil that is left clinging to root crops (so that people could end up eating it) and less about the uptake. That's why the emphasis is on fruiting crops for these levels, and the recommendation to peel all root crops and discard the outer leaves of leaf crops (which have more soil on them).
3. Soil in the high levels for lead would be more of a problem for the person working in it and inhaling the dust from it than the lead uptake from the plants.

That is actually what I had read in a lot of literature too elisa, but then one of the community gardens here on the superfund site had their produce tested and they had tomatoes coming back at 30 ppm. So we did a lab experiment with controls and the numbers were all over the place. There are so many factors it seems. The NPK and use of fertilizers containing phosphorous make a huge difference because it changes what molecules bind to what. Also organic matter content makes a big difference fro the same reason. Sunflowers and mustard CAN be used for remediation so there is no question they uptake heavy metals. That's why eating too many sunflower seeds can be bad for you (mainly because of copper though). So basically, the conclusion we came to was that it is a risk regardless if its fruit, shoot, or root, but the level of risk is soooo variable. But living in a place like Omaha where half the city is a superfund site, its better to be safe and have it tested and take precautions. You can find a couple of reports by Jodi Sangster and Laura Knapp easily on google. Those are the engineer and engineering student I did this particular study with. I also wanted to note that we picked up a bucket of soil FROM THE EPA that they had tested as 750-900 ppm in the field but when it was reran in the lab it came back at 1800 ppm!! Nice wide error bars there EPA....

Mindy, thanks so much for the explanation. I do remember that you'd had tomatoes tested and it came back too high for kids to be eating it. And that definitely goes against what is out there to read about gardening and lead. That's crazy about the EPA testing discrepancy!

It seems as though more testing needs to be done on produce in order to give people guidelines based more on what the range of uptake actually is, rather than just assuming that plants don't uptake "much."

Do you remember the level of lead in the soil that grew the 30 ppm tomatoes?

I'll definitely take a look at the studies, as this is a topic of interest for me (family in jersey city and in Chicago)

It was under 400 ppm. Which is the abatement level for the city of omaha. But I'd have to look through the write up to see exactly. It was somewhere between 100 and 400 though.

I forgot to mention that last year there was a huge spider on my house directly above where the garden is and my husband sprayed a bunch of insecticide on the spider. Is this something I need to worry about? We also used foggers in the house when we first moved in.

I also have a lot of neighbors, and I was wondering if there's any way they can poison my vegetable garden, or is it pretty much safe? I ask because some neighbors don't like us for one reason or another.

Get the soil test done and you can stop worrying.

Very much doubt that insecticide spray from last year and before have much of an effect right now.

I suppose neighbors or random people can poison your garden or yourself directly if they really want to. Most people don't go around poisoning but I don't know your neighbors.

What sometimes does happen is when a neighbor's use of herbicide on their own yard/lawn get blown over to your yard by wind and it may damage certain plants.

There are dangers out there, some more likely than others. Take reasonable precautions but choosing to live in fear of everything doesn't seem terribly productive.

This post was edited by DHLCAL on Wed, May 28, 14 at 1:16

Dhlcal: I agree. My neighbors spray like crazy, but honestly, if you saw what they do to conventional produce you buy in the grocery store... You'd never eat again!

Dhlcal: I agree. My neighbors spray like crazy, but honestly, if you saw what they do to conventional produce you buy in the grocery store... You'd never eat again!

Bleach is GONE quickly. For one thing, the soil gets well rinsed by irrigation and rain. You wear clothes that got bleached and rinsed, and you don't worry about that bleach getting on you. So why worry about bleach that got dumped on your soil?

But that's a fair concern about lead. When the old house paint is scraped off, it'll get scraped onto the soil, unless lead remediation was the reason. A soil test is probably in order. But I agree that it's probably not much of an issue for plant uptake.

I know this is a totally different topic, but is creek or river water safe to water my garden with? I can't afford to buy bottled water to water my garden, that's why I'm asking about the river water. I've been using sink water that I don't even drink due to the gross chlorine smell and taste, and it seems to be wilting my plants. Whenever it rains everything sprouts back up again. I've been collecting rain water, but it's not enough to water the garden with on a regular basis.

I am pretty sure the creek water will give you skin cancer just for living near the creek. You really should move away if you can. Using it to water your plants can only make it worse.

If you can't afford to use bottled water for watering your garden, you really should not be gardening at all.

Link to your other post since all the concerns seem to be related.

Here is a link that might be useful: Your other post

LOL LOL DHLCal but that's also kinda mean. I'm torn between laughing and tut-tutting.

I have to be honest, your questions are coming across very odd. Sink water wilting your plants, misting vegetables, chlorine dumped on the ground, hauling water from a creek?

My first thought is maybe the home garden isn't for you. I mean, I don't grow leafy vegetables because the idea of an aphid in my salad creeps me out. I know it's just as likely that an aphid could be on my store-bought lettuce, but it's an odd phobia of mine that keeps me from growing it. Illogical, yes, but real nonetheless. Worrying so much about water sources and soil, you may find that the stress involved in growing your own vegetables isn't worth whatever benefit you're getting.

That said, I think if the plain old water from your hose is wilting your vegetables, it's because you aren't watering enough, not because of anything that's in it. But if it makes you feel better siphoning it from a nearby creek, I can't believe it would be harmful....unless you've got an unscrupulous chemical plant upstream....

The cleanest and safest water you are going to find, at almost no cost, is the stuff coming out of your faucet. If you are worried about the chlorine, which you shouldn't be, then all you've got to do is fill up a barrel or tub or something similar and let the water sit uncovered for a while. The chlorine in the water will dissipate on it's own. If you want to dissipate it quicker, buy an air pump that's sold at pet stores for aquariums and have it aerate/agitate the water. Or if you don't want to wait to use the water, they sell stuff at pet stores that's used to treat tap water to remove chlorine and heavy metals before refilling a fish tank. (Examples in the link below.) The chemicals are safe for fish so draw your own conclusions.

I'm with loribee2. If you are going to stress over all these miniscule things (and I'm not saying this to be mean or anything) then maybe you shouldn't be gardening. There are times when gardening IS stressful. Pests, disease, fungus, critters, weather, nutrient deficiencies, etc. But the things you are talking about... they just aren't worth stressing over.

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: Chlorine & Heavy Metal Removers

I apologize for the sarcastic response. But like others said the worries are getting extreme. Honestly If you suspect everything to the degree that you seem to here, I don't know how you would garden, or even live life in the modern world.

It's true that gardening is a tricky hobby if you are a very anxious person as there are so many things you can't control or know and it puts you in touch with your environment and food in a way we aren't accustomed to anymore.

However, (speaking as someone who can also be a very anxious person), gardening could be a way to face some of these things and work on accepting (some) of the chaos in the world and (some) of the things we cannot change or control. For me, as much as I can worry about my soil (found some old paint chips in it from taking out a fence...oy...trying not to fixate and be reasonable about the actual danger) the payoff can really help you get past all the little trials you have to go through to get there.

Perhaps as you get more informed about all these issues, that knowledge will help quell your anxieties and you can embrace the very positive experience of gardening and being "present", which is one of my main reasons for doing it as it gets me out of my head and reconnected to my hands, the dirt, and the miracle of things growing.

I say don't give up yet! but maybe look at it as a learning opportunity, in more ways than one.

slowjane, that was wonderfully wise. I was wondering what could be said to the OP to help ease some of the fears -- thanks for doing it much better than I could.