Diving into the posts, its pointed out that Kale and other leafy greens are BAD to plant in contaminated soil because it pulls up contaminates into the leafs.
Kale planted in contaminated soil should not be eaten.
But...
Flip it around.
Kale planted in contaminated soil acts to clean that contamination. Kale itself is a hardy leafy green. So by planting it you're in effect cleaning the soil.
Now, other things that aren't covered here is how effective that cleaning is versus say using grasses. How does planting something in sidewalk cracks affect accessibility - for instance would a person with a wheelchair be encumbered by the guerrilla gardening, etc.
But I like that its thinking of unique ways to clean soil, grow various foods, utilize the spaces we have, etc.
It's a really interesting idea. The issue with phytoremediation through guerrilla gardening is that there's no control over the disposal of the contaminated plant matter. The kale might pull the lead out of the soil, but then the lead is in the kale. What should happen to the kale?
Most likely, it will end up composted and back into a different patch of soil. The alternative would be petitioning councils to send green waste from urban areas to landfill, but that seems to raise its own problems — you’d be filling landfill with otherwise valuable organic material, just to capture relatively small concentrations of lead that plants have taken up.
Oh yes it’s definitely creative. I don’t knock that aspect. My big thing is planting native so I just don’t understand planting something for food that won’t actually be eaten since it won’t really support wildlife very well either. It’s definitely an interesting idea though and the contaminant cleaning is something I’m not very familiar with.
May I offer another suggestion? If you plant native flower plant seeds it can really help pollinators. I host the podcast Secret Pollinators if you’d like to learn more about the tiny little heroes who are responsible for most pollination.
This stuff has replaced some despair with purpose. Punk gardening is the way to go
Why plant kale though? Nobody is going to eat that coming from the sidewalk with people and dogs stepping all over it…I hope.
Diving into the posts, its pointed out that Kale and other leafy greens are BAD to plant in contaminated soil because it pulls up contaminates into the leafs.
Kale planted in contaminated soil should not be eaten.
But...
Flip it around.
Kale planted in contaminated soil acts to clean that contamination. Kale itself is a hardy leafy green. So by planting it you're in effect cleaning the soil.
Now, other things that aren't covered here is how effective that cleaning is versus say using grasses. How does planting something in sidewalk cracks affect accessibility - for instance would a person with a wheelchair be encumbered by the guerrilla gardening, etc.
But I like that its thinking of unique ways to clean soil, grow various foods, utilize the spaces we have, etc.
It's a really interesting idea. The issue with phytoremediation through guerrilla gardening is that there's no control over the disposal of the contaminated plant matter. The kale might pull the lead out of the soil, but then the lead is in the kale. What should happen to the kale?
Most likely, it will end up composted and back into a different patch of soil. The alternative would be petitioning councils to send green waste from urban areas to landfill, but that seems to raise its own problems — you’d be filling landfill with otherwise valuable organic material, just to capture relatively small concentrations of lead that plants have taken up.
That's a really good point.
Oh yes it’s definitely creative. I don’t knock that aspect. My big thing is planting native so I just don’t understand planting something for food that won’t actually be eaten since it won’t really support wildlife very well either. It’s definitely an interesting idea though and the contaminant cleaning is something I’m not very familiar with.
Yeah, fully and completely agree with you.
Solar punk! Yes we need more solar punks, rise up!
May I offer another suggestion? If you plant native flower plant seeds it can really help pollinators. I host the podcast Secret Pollinators if you’d like to learn more about the tiny little heroes who are responsible for most pollination.