Free Lead Screening of Garden Soils May 13

SOUTH BURLINGTON – Vermont gardeners will be able to get their soils screened for lead at no cost at Garden Soil Health Day.

The event will be held on May 13 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the University of Vermont (UVM) Horticulture Research and Education Center (“Hort Farm”), located at 65 Green Mountain Drive in South Burlington.

As part of the national Soil Screening, Health, Outreach, and Partnership (soilSHOP) initiative, the event will provide free lead screening of vegetable garden soils to ensure safe and healthy home and community gardening. Interested gardeners should bring their soil sample in a plastic zip-locked storage bag for screening.

Soil instructions and additional event details can be found at go.uvm.edu/soilhealthday. There is a limit of three soil sample bags per family.

In addition to the screening, attendees will learn how to build and maintain healthy garden soils through informational exhibits, self-guided tours of innovative cover crop research and exchanges with UVM Extension Master Gardener volunteers and soil science and health professionals. The latter will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service in Vermont, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Composting Association of Vermont, Lawn to Lake and the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District and its Rethink Runoff Stream Team.

The event is made possible through a collaboration of the Vermont USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the UVM Extension Master Gardener Program.

Questions can be sent to debra.heleba@uvm.edu.