Growing your own safely

It was a pleasure to read your story “Educating kids on landcare and conversation” (April 26) encouraging kids to get involved in landcare and sustainable gardening.

Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) has a free service for everyone who grows their own vegetables at home — GardenSafe.

GardenSafe is a soil screening service that evaluates garden soil and provides a report on soil condition and whether there are any contaminants present.

Send in three soil samples – the only cost to you is the postage – and EPA scientists will assess them for trace elements, and soil quality indicators including composition, nutrients and organic carbon.

The GardenSafe team will send out a personalised report with the screening results from your garden, and advice as to what to do next.  

The findings will give you a guide to the quality of your soil and how to get the best out of your garden, and the scientific data will help EPA to build an understanding of the state of soil in residential gardens across Victoria.

You can find details on GardenSafe on the EPA website. The program is open to any residential gardener in Victoria.

Professor Mark Patrick Taylor, EPA Chief Environmental Scientist