Octavius VanZant

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I'm still cautiously skeptical. I can't really just pick up and move at the moment, and I have the urge to break out the green thumb again this year.

Maybe I'll see if I can have my soil tested from time to time. Just found an organization in our county that will do that.

And thanks for the link to the urban homestead. That is inspirational.

Octavius

Thanks. Sounds like adding lots of organic material would be a good idea no matter where my garden is.

I am though, interested in hearing others thoughts about growing food close to, and down wind, of a major freeway. I can see the particulate washout on the roofs in my neighborhood.

What is happening to all of that lead, benzine, and PM10 particulate that collects on the soil and on the foliage of the fruit trees, bushes, and leafy parts of the garden plants?

Regards,

Octavius

Thanks for both suggestions. Of the two, the second sounds like it might take over more quickly, and I like the sound of that for a traffic circle that sits out in the middle of a street intersection. I don't know a lot about that particular plant... when I googled it to find the latin name, I discovered that there isn't full agreement around which plant is officially known as Wandering Jew and what the official latin name is. Tradescantia pallida, looks like one contender.

The Yarrow looks interesting too, might be something to consider as part of my yard, in the spots where I'd like to replace lawn with more of a wild flower meadow look.

Thanks!

Octavius

I'm looking for a low maintenance, fast growing/spreading, plant to go in our block's traffic circle. The catch is that it needs to be able to withstand some occasional driving over, and on average not grow more than 15" tall. The height limit is city ordinance (Seattle), the driving is because the occasional lost delivery truck is forced to drive over the circle as it attempts to navigate our streets. Once in a while a kind neighbor will water the circle, but ideally it should be able to thrive without watering.

Suggestions?

I have a large urban lot in Seattle, and at one point I had a very nice vegetable garden going, and I still have 10 nice blueberry shrubs going, and an apple tree.

I'm considering starting up the veggie garden again, and expanding it, but have one concern and wanted some input.

My lot is about 5 blocks east of our city's main Freeway, and I hadn't noticed this until a roofer pointed it out... we seem to get a lot of soot fallout from the Freeway. This fallout is profound enough that roofs darken with time, etc. My ex wife used this as her reason for why she didn't like to grow food at our house.

So my question is, from a toxin perspective, how nasty is this auto-fume-soot fallout? If I were to collect rain water for watering, should I find a way to filter it before using it in the garden?

First time post (just found this site and forum).

Thanks for your feedback.

Octavius