apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Take off those bad idea jeans. One does not want to eat produce that has brushed the undercarriage of his car twice a day for months.

ah! so many terrible things in the run off of that driveway going into that soil!

and the "run off" from the neighborhood dogs

What about the exhaust from the car? I don't want carbon monoxide in my salad.

True. Succulents and ornamentals - good idea
Foodstuffs - bad idea

I completely agree . . . all the chemicals that can drip from the underside of a car. Eeeks! Grow a strip of moss or hens and chicks . . . something hardy that can survive that stuff . . . but that you don't eat!

Eeeewwww! Have they considered the tar, dirt, or other things that collect on the car? Not to mention if you have an oil leak that you don't know about. Or when you have the AC on (because you are in LA) and the water mixes with everything in the undercarriage. What about starting a fire because of the fuel injection being so hot? So many things wrong with this.

Yeah, on the Eastsider they mention that squash is growing in that strip and as I'm sure anyone who has grown winter of summer squash knows, it is not a low profile plant. It'll grow insanely large.

Yikes.

Our entire neighborhood used to plant veggies/herbs in the parking strip between the street & the sidewalk, so I wouldn't be so concerned about Fido... you just wash your produce! However, running my car over it a few times a day? I don't know...

Gross with a capital 'g'. I love the idea of going green, but not the thought of gasoline-vinaigrette. I'd rather see some succulents...

I'm all for growy things in the space of the driveway...
...but not things to eat.

Motor oil, tar, rubber, antifreeze, transmission and windshield-washer fluids and carwash runoff aren't the greatest soil amendments for growing food.

Its expensive being a Hipster in Echo park, they've gotta eat somethin

Not only is it unsavory to think of the undercarraige of the car brushing over those veggies every day; the soil near roads and driveways is often highly contaminated with lead, oil, gas, heavy metals and pet waste. It is not adviseable to grow veggies in the terrace near a road for the above mentioned reasons, but particularly due to lead contamination of the soil. Until the 1980s lead was used as fuel additive, cars would atomize lead and eject it into the air through their exhaust; the lead tended to settle into the soil near roads and driveways. That old lead will still be there and concentrate in the plants.
This veggie garden is just a very bad idea people.

Most of those plants are going to get a lot bigger than that little strip. They'll be running over the squash vines with the car. And yeah, the contaminants are something to think about. I wouldn't grow veggies even next to the street let alone where a car would drive over them.

Jts--

Good point about the lead-contaminated soil - These folks might as well chip off the old paint from their windowsills and toss in in with their mescaline.

ew

I think bepsf means mesclun...not mescaline! Although old paint would probably bump up the psychadelic powers of the mescaline!

bepsf- Do you mean "mesclun?" :)

Ugh. The smug people who drive a Prius think that their poop doesn't smell bad and that their car doesn't drip oil and other contaminates.

Well, except for the hazards already noted, the idea is not all that bad -- but only for decorative plants. Still, it could be quite attractive with coleus or other relatively short colorful plants.

I worry even more if there are children being fed these vegetables. If an adult wants to put poisen in their food that is one thing but feeding children lead contaminated plants is another storry that I don't even want to think about.

I love that every inch is used for planting, but aren't you worried about car exhaust going over your edibles every day?

Mescaline - Mesclun...
Haha

I'm always confusing them...
...same with triptophan, triconosis and trichomoniasis.

kind of like their driving a prius, they're trying to make a statement. 'who cares if my veggies are inedible, i'm more responsible than you'.

SO TRUE, lab director. SO OBNOXIOUSLY TRUE.

Uh...WTF?

If you're THAT desperate for a home-grown salad, I'm sure there are window boxes or box containers that could accommodate organic edibles.

Honestly...what a damn horrible idea.

I don't think that we need to make judgments about people because of the car they drive.

Maybe they are just excited about growing vegetables, and aren't fully informed about the possibility of contaminants.

This is a great idea for plants that won't be consumed. But edibles? Not so much.

I think this is a pretty interesting idea...or at least it raises an interesting line of thought for me.

Is this worse to eat than an e.coli contaminated packet of cookie dough? How about tea from china contaminated with lead from the exhaust of trucks being driven over it to dry?
It reminds me of a whole debate in the food movement over organic versus local (aka is it better to buy a local food which was farmed using petrolum heavy techniques or with pesticides, or to get an organic blueberry from Chile?).

What is the relative harm from a driveway beet versus the soil in your backyard- presumably still close to your driveway, if not directly next to the car. Would nutrients gained by eating a food which is fresh, instead of aged over days of transit be enough to offset potential contaminants? How much leakage does the Prius create on the dive? It appears to be at some slight distance....

I think its sociologically fascinating that the consensus perception of health risk here is so very high, and that everyone agrees these folks are probably jerks with their prius, beets and echo park address. What if the beet grower isn't a smoker and justifies the corresponding potential contaminent ingestion as balanced by the lack of smoking? Would it be more socially irresponsible to give a baby melamine formula or a driveway beet?

That said, if I were over at this house, I might skip the beet salad. I'm not a big fan of beets in the best of circumstances. Diveway sweet potato fries though...hmmm....

Reminds me of the Smug Alert episode of South Park.

"everyone agrees these folks are probably jerks with their prius, beets and echo park address"

No, only a few people brought that up.

Wow, well said, e6.

I also thought while reading the (increasingly hostile) comments: do we actually know for sure how much contaminants are actually getting onto the veggies, and how much of that is washed off? I'm glad everyone here is a chemist and knows for sure...

So much hate for Prius too! Well, I suppose a Hummer would leave more room to clear the plants...

For crying out loud. If anyone wants to be horrified about food see "Food Inc."

As the gardener of above driveway garden I can tell you that I'd rather eat food from this plot (which I don't park over and drive over in electric mode) than the stuff shipped from megafarms which use pesticides that are judged safe based on the AVERAGE per person intake (which in this country, ain't big) and who knows what else kinda crap. Also, point of clarification: no squash or beets in this plot. It's cukes, chard, radishes, onions and some salad greens and a bunch of flowers. So enjoy your "clean" and tasteless grocery store food. I'll be busy chowing on my driveway food. Yum!

And why all the Prius hate?

@ e6 and criv227 - agreed. I'm not a chemist either, but I don't see how much more dangerous car exhaust could be than the pesticides and herbicides and whatever else is put on commercial fruits and veggies.