Step 5: Testing your soil

The most important step in creating an urban garden is to test the soil. In Maine, we send our soil to the Cooperative Extension and they tested it for lead content, other toxins, and nutrients. The test costs $8, and the results are very comprehensive, with detailed instructions as to how to amend the soil you have.

Our soil was only "slightly" contaminated (140 parts per million lead content), and so the Cooperative Extension advised that if we were growing vegetables in the area, that we simply wash the vegetables to protect ourselves from the lead. However, we were extra cautious and we used used burlap sacks (old coffee bags) donated from a local coffee shop, as an impermeable layer between our new soil and the contaminated soil below in the spaces that we were growing vegetables or medicinal herbs. For those with more contaminated soil, it would be important to use garden cloth, which provides more protection between the contaminated area and your vegetables that burlap sacks.