Woul you plant a garden if cigarette smoke was often in your yard?

leafygreen

The house next to ours has 4 smokers. They smoke outside and it ends up in our yard. On a warm day with no breeze it really just sits there. I was thinking of starting a garden but had some concern if this would contaminate the vegetables. Any thoughts on whether it would be too toxic to grow food in that environment?

have_mersey

It is better than eating conventional produce from the store. Not to mention cheaper. And better for the environment than having things shipped. You'll also feel relaxed and rewarded and in tune with life. I don't see it as that big of a deal (think of the jet fuel that dissipates and falls on otherwise organic crops). Just do the best thing possible. :)

Maybe you can arrange some plants known for cleansing the air of toxins as a border. I don't have my list of those plant anymore, I lost the link, but I will look for it or another if I get the time and remember. :)

Good luck!!

lauraj

If you're living close enough to your neighbors to have their cigarette smoke sitting in your yard, then you're living in the city. And don't you think you are getting plenty more smog and pollutants that you cannot sense or see? Do you honestly think produce that is handled and shipped and grown, even if organic, whether it be from Mexico or Guatemala or Ecuador or elsewhere is sterile in any sense? And seriously, have you ever eaten a commercial fruit or vegetable? My point is, plant your garden, wash your produce well before eating, and try to see things in perspective. We live in a polluted world. There are things we can do, such as planting our own gardens and buying organic or living in the country. But really, you cannot evetr truly escape all pollutants and live in a sterile environment unless you build a bubble around yourself, and even then, your food and water still have to come from somewhere else, an outside source. Our bodies are capable of detoxifying harmful agents to a certain degree, otherwise you would be dead because you would not have an immune system or functioning organs. It is far more harmful for you to breathe in secondhand cigarette smoke than to eat plants from a garden you plant next to neighbors that smoke.

leafygreen

I'm considering it. I don't live in the city. It's just that they smoke standing next to the fence and it becomes cloud-like. I do think it must be worse than regular pollution because I began to have asthmatic symptoms for the first time in my life until we switched to keeping all the windows on that side closed. I do think I'll try it though and perhaps plant some cleansing plants like have_mersey suggested. Thanks!