I live in a fairly urban bit of London and I'd like to know if it's safe to
eat things that have grown in my garden. It's not directly near any roads
or anything, but I always wonder abuot the general level of pollution in
cities and whether it renders veg inedible? Specifically right now I want
to make some elderflower cordial from the elderflowers in the garden.


TIA

John

"JK" wrote in message
I live in a fairly urban bit of London and I'd like to know if it's safe
to
eat things that have grown in my garden. It's not directly near any roads
or anything, but I always wonder abuot the general level of pollution in
cities and whether it renders veg inedible? Specifically right now I want
to make some elderflower cordial from the elderflowers in the garden.


If it's not near any very busy roads you would have to look at previous uses
for the land to find pollution, lead working, arsenic, asbestos etc. Perhaps
your Council would do a check on your soil if you have suspicions?
Even if it's near a road you will find that pollution stops rapidly and does
not travel too far from the carriageway, and any that does can be washed off
easily.

--
Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.

I doubt it would be any worse than what you inhale every day!

Charlie.

"JK" wrote in message
...
I live in a fairly urban bit of London and I'd like to know if it's safe
to
eat things that have grown in my garden. It's not directly near any roads
or anything, but I always wonder abuot the general level of pollution in
cities and whether it renders veg inedible? Specifically right now I want
to make some elderflower cordial from the elderflowers in the garden.


TIA

John

Sue & Bob Hobden wrote:
"JK" wrote in message
I live in a fairly urban bit of London and I'd like to know if it's
safe to eat things that have grown in my garden. It's not directly
near any roads or anything, but I always wonder abuot the general
level of pollution in cities and whether it renders veg inedible?
Specifically right now I want to make some elderflower cordial from
the elderflowers in the garden.


If it's not near any very busy roads you would have to look at
previous uses for the land to find pollution, lead working, arsenic,
asbestos etc. Perhaps your Council would do a check on your soil if
you have suspicions?
Even if it's near a road you will find that pollution stops rapidly
and does not travel too far from the carriageway, and any that does
can be washed off easily.

It's victorian housing, so anything that might have been there would have
been over 100 years ago. Thanks for the advice, I think I'll go ahead.

"Sue & Bob Hobden" wrote in message ...
look at previous uses for the land to find pollution, lead working, arsenic, asbestos etc.

Dunno about the other things but my experience with soil contaminated with lead mine waste is that plants simply look
very sick or fail to grow on heavily contaminated soil - so bad you certainly wouldn't be tempted to eat them.

Rod