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Growing vegetables in the driveway with cars
Ruth Holdstock
Posts: 2
in Talkback
Please could I have some advice or direction on where to find the evidence? I have a nice sized, derelict front garden which I am redesigning. It has to be able to keep 2 cars on it. As it is the only bit of garden that's South facing, it seems a real shame not to grow vegetables and fruit in raised borders but I'm worried about the exhaust fumes from the cars. Is it ok to grow things in close proximity to a car's back end?
Many thanks,
Ruth.
0
Posts
Unless you leave the car on the drive with the engine running for hours on end, I'd think the effects are not worth worrying about.
Do you live in a very busy road with lots of traffic? or on a quiet road, or out in the country?
Pollution doesn't just stay in the front garden, it's in every breath you breathe. You'd need to be happy that the downsides of growing near traffic is outweighed by the knowledge that you've grown your own and know how it has been grown. ( herbicide / pesticides, or the lack of !! )
My lovely neighbour in London was worried about this as we were only a mile or two from Hogarth Roundabout, which is supposed to be one of the busiest in Europe. He was a member of the RHS and had a soil test done, presumably testing for levels of lead etc., and found that the soil was safe.
I suggest a barrier between cars and veg; a 1.5 metre trellis with something dense like winter flowering jasmine growing up it.
Thank you ever so much for your helpful responses
It's a fairly quiet road except for school runs (we live on the same road as a school). There's a 4ft hedge of holly and various others between the garden and the road. I was planning on building a raised bed, keyhole style, to grow the vegetables in, so I'm not too worried about the ground soil. It's really the exhaust fumes from the diesel and petrol cars that park on our drive I'm most concerned about. It just seems such a waste of sunny space to not grow vegetables in.
I think that there is growing realisation that diesel cars are causing a major health hazard to us all, not least because of government policy of encouraging us to change over from petrol cars. Minute particulates from more and more diesel cars, all of which are getting older by the day, and many of which will be less and less well maintained as time goes by are stoking up a major health and environmental issue.