Join us at the Highland Garden Party to celebrate our recent research into community gardening!
The Social Science Environment Research Institute at Northeastern University, with Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN), is working to determine the concentration of certain metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, and chromium) and selective beneficial minerals (selenium, potassium, calcium and magnesium) in vegetables that are commonly grown in the Boston area. With input from the community and BNAN, we grew kale, green beans, lettuce, carrots, parsley, purslane, radishes, sweet peppers, tomatoes, hibiscus, gherkin, turnips, cabbage and collards. We also made low cost aerial maps of the garden and experimented with camera hacks to look at photosynthesis to analyze plant health.