The turning of the New Year inspires me to take stock of what I’m grateful for. Giving thanks for what’s working and what inspires me often lends some guidance for the year ahead.

I’ll take this opportunity to sing praises of the beloved plants at the heart of A Nourishing Harvest. Specifically, I’ll explore the workings of a rather heroic plant part when it comes to dealing with environmental contamination: the Casparian strip.

This year, I'll be digging deep into lawn care. The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) offers a detailed resource for applying organic standards to landscaping and land care. If you rent your home, feel empowered to share this guide with the person you rent from. (If I were your landlady, I'd be delighted to have such a conscientious tenant!)

 If you own land, check out this document to learn how you might better serve the ecosystem your property is a part of--and how to keep your family safer, too.  

Yes, this article title was chosen with tongue in cheek. (How fun can lead really be?) However, given my haziness around managing an invisible, scentless soil contaminant like lead, finding concrete information about its behavior under different soil conditions has been pretty exciting. Even, well, fun. Let's jump in!

I was impressed by Lana Nitti's excellent talk at Tedx Utica, which addressed lead contamination in her neighborhood. I'm glad to share this resource from an upstate NY neighbor.

I also wanted to learn how the city of Buffalo is doing in addressing lead contamination. I found this investigative report from May 2019 entitled "Buffalo Lags on Addressing Lead Poisoning." 

When Americans think of lead contamination, Flint, Michigan is the town that probably comes to mind. It's important that this story of community-wide lead contamination due to corrupt, racist water supply decisions by the state government made national news. Our media and government should be focusing attention on environmental justice issues like this. However, this story may have misled other communities into assuming that, since their town hasn't made the news, they must not be at high risk. Unfortunately, lead poisoning is a common problem across the US, particularly in cities and older communities like western NY.

 Phytoremediation is the use of plants to remove and/or transform contaminants in the soil. In general, it's appropriate when there are low to medium levels of contamination present.

The relationship between a plant and a contaminant will vary based on the characteristics of the plant, as well as the chemical or heavy metal.

Youarethecity is an urban research, design and planning practice located in Brooklyn. This guide is free and downloadable!

“This field guide is designed for individual property owners and community groups to initiate a conversation about how to convert this enormous land potential into a productive urban landscape utilizing phytoremediation technologies as a slow but cost-effective clean-up process."   -youarethecity

Microbial remediation utilizes the ability of some bacteria to bind heavy metals in less bioavailable forms, or to break down organic contaminants into more benign substances. (In chemistry, organic means that the substance is carbon-based. This includes many industrial contaminants and agricultural chemicals). Because healthy soil rich in bacteria, fungi, and other organisms is imperative for healthy plant growth, we can't talk about using plants for remediation without starting with bacteria.

This is the second of several articles exploring the use of biosolids in agriculture and residential composting products. We begin with general info about contaminants in biosolids—which wastewater treatment can and cannot remove—and how well plants may absorb those contaminants. 

This is the first of several articles exploring the use of biosolids in agriculture and residential composting products. We will start with general info about contaminants in biosolids, which contaminants wastewater treatment can and cannot remove, and begin to explore how well plants absorb those contaminants.