As my conscientious comfort zone (CCZ) and my urban agricultural education expands, my backyard garden is taking shape.

After identifying the veggie garden plot. I learn (from gardening friends) that the soil in Toronto is not great for planting edibles in directly. Huh? Turns out the soil in urban areas can be contaminated from current or past industrial activities, use of products by the residents, and/or from vehicle emissions, especially if the garden is close to busy roads. Some of the contaminants found in urban soil include lead, metals, oils and diesel fuel. Well, this is not good! The City of Toronto website has excellent information about soil testing and such if you are planning an urban vegetable garden. You certainly do want want contaminants leaching into your tomatoes. Be sure to look into this if you are planting.

Rather than testing the soil, I opted to keep my my crop from coming into contact with the existing soil and laid down a layer of geotextile fabric. This is a woven fabric that acts as a barrier so your veggies never come in contact with the potentially contaminated soil (I say “potentially” because I did not test the soil, but all my avid gardening friends agreed that I shouldn’t plant directly into my backyard plot.)

The other happy impact is that weeds won’t be able to grow up through the geotextile either. Bonus.

Now you have to add the soil. This took way, way more bags of dirt than I had expected.

The fine people at Bill’s Garden Centre were immensely helpful in guiding me through what soil to buy. I opted for a pre-mix specifically for vegetable gardens that had the ideal mix of nutrients, the right ph and the ideal texture. For the more experienced gardener there are other options where by you mix your own compost into the soil. However, being the novice I am, I went for the pre-made soil.

It took 12 bags to fill the 10 by 2 foot garden. 12! I probably could have used 2 or 3 more even.

Next step – choosing and planting the vegetables. Gulp. Wish me luck.

Be beautiful. Feel good about it.