> I remember seeing an article a while ago, where some local councils here specifically recommended building raised garden beds for veggie gardens. They apparen

> I remember seeing an article a while ago, where some local councils here specifically recommended building raised garden beds for veggie gardens. They apparently found, that in cities/towns older than about a hundred years, the risk of soil contamination can be pretty high, the main suspects being lead and arsenic. Raised garden beds is an easy way of eliminating that risk. I'd recommend raised beds to anyone who lives in a suburb or city that's even a few decades old. The particulates and oils washing off the street and down roof shingles alone introduces plenty of contamination. Very rainy regions like the Pacific Northwest have to build rain gardens [1] everywhere to filter out baseline levels of suburban pollution, otherwise their water gets really bad. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_garden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_garden