Meet the Joneses

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Hey! This is our first post after procrastinating over where to start for literally months. Lockdown and a couple of days away from the day job has given me the opportunity to finally sit down and think of something to say!

I built this blog a good six months ago and have been thinking about what to write for a long time….I’ve got lists of things I’ve learnt and post ideas but got trapped in the cycle of everything had to be perfect to start, I needed a schedule of content to post, my pinterest and instagram had to be on point….I could go on. I realised I was looking at this blog as I used to look at running my business and this isn’t about that. This is our diary, our journey to a happy, free, lifestyle….so stick with me as I start my imperfect post about our imperfect journey!

We’re the Joneses…..It seems like a good place to start. We’re a 2.4 family that apparently everyone tries to keep up with (please note, you don’t need to and please don’t keep up with us). We work full time, and a bit, and both looking for that elusive better balance.

We have got to a point in life where we feel we should have our sh*t together and imagine our surprise when we got here with no more of a clue than in our 20’s, just as much (if not more) debt, working to the point of burnout and dragging two small people along for the miserable ride. We were tired (still are), frustrated and knew something had to change!

When we (ok….I) saw an allotment that had some small plots available at the start of 2019, I saw an opportunity to try something new and after much nagging at Mr J and convincing him (not too well) that this wasn’t something I’d give up after a week, when things got hard, he agreed. Having grown up with a mum who is a keen gardener, I already knew more than I’d realised but when it came to managing an allotment, it was a whole different ball game! But last year, taking on those three little plots has been the catalyst for some big changes in our mindset and our lives. Here’s just a few….

After six years as a freelance business support consultant working 60+ hours a week, I closed my business. I don’t think it’s too strong to say, I’d grown to hate and resent it and was only continuing to keep up with the income goals we thought we wanted at a serious cost to my health, my relationship with Mr J and my relationship with my kids! I now have a job that I love, working for a previous client and I’m off to start my masters in something I love, not for any other reason than I want to do it! Mr J has also had a shift in his career mindset in a way I think has surprised both of us and we’re both working hard on our relationship with our kids.

We’ve started to value experiences over stuff and are much more aware of the effect of our purchases leading to less clutter at home (although we aren’t perfect by any measure and still fall foul to the odd impulse purchase….new tent when the furthest we camp is the back garden – anyone relate?) which has helped us also reduce our debt as well as spending less time with our stuff and more time together.

Our dreams for the future have also shifted in the last year and a half from a big house with new cars and the latest gadgets to a place that sustains us and gives us more freedom. This blog is our journey, our lessons and hopefully the building blocks of our next adventure, we’re looking forward to sharing it all with you.

For years, soil testing was the preserve of “science geeks” who relied on £10 pH meters that, curiously enough, tended to give a different reading each time they were used, and devised planting strategies with often mixed results.

Meanwhile, the majority of us just got on with it because we knew our gardens and what would – and would not – do well in them. Alas, that is changing and there’s more than just knowing the pH of our soil at stake as the number of people starting to grow their own and focusing on eating local goes through the roof.

However, while growing and eating local, even homegrown, should ideally be what we do as often as possible, it definitely shouldn’t be dangerous but the fact is that the UK’s industrial and farming heritage has left behind much that can have a negative impact on our health.

And this is why we founded Safe Soil UK. Our aim is to make the testing and analysis of soil easy. And understandable. Whether it’s to check that soil has all the nutrients it needs to grow great veg, fruit and ornamentals or to investigate for potential serious contamination, we offer a straightforward approach to soil testing. 

Safe Soil Testing Safe Soil Uk

We have seen a steady stream of findings indicating dangerously toxic levels of the likes of lead, arsenic, cadmium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including benzo(a)pyrene in the samples we have processed and think it’s prudent to urge grow your own fans to: Test it before you eat it!

Britain’s proud industrial and farming history left behind a legacy of contamination, with countless substances and waste products that have the potential to harm human health being discharged into the ground. Our testing packages can give you peace of mind that your growing space is safe – so why chance it?

We’re big fans of gardening in general and growing vegetables in particular. Have been for as long as we can remember. One of my earliest childhood memories is annoying his mum by “planting” exotic fruit in various plant pots around the family home. This involved making a little hole in the soil using a toothpick and dropping orange, grapefruit and lemon seeds into the holes. Not a great deal came of these early efforts – I blame the climate – but I got better with time. And lots of practice.

Since then my interest in gardening has remained with me and flourished as it expanded to include growing my own fruit and veg. 

And that interest played a part in launching Safe Soil UK. That and curiosity. 

A few years ago I came across a local rumour that a site near our urban house was once a battery factory. At this point, my interest started to extend beyond soil basics like pH and texture and on to toxic elements that may have been lurking beneath our feet. So I started to root around (pardon the pun) for a way to check the soil.

What if our little annual harvests of veg and flowers were actually serving up a cocktail of lead, arsenic, chromium and other unsavoury (to say the least) elements while our time tending the fledgling crops was exposing us to airborne samples of dioxins, hydrocarbons and even asbestos? Posing that question marked the germination (again, sorry!) of Safe Soil UK, which aims to make the testing of urban soils easy, affordable (the scientific analysis involved in the testing is never going to be cheap but we’re doing our best) and also help interpret the results using UK government standards where they’re available and relying on international guidelines to fill in any blanks.

Box of Soil Testing Supplies for Safe Soil Uk

There’s no disputing that the UK’s industrial heritage has left behind a nasty legacy of contamination. We are descendants of a people who were at the sharp end of the industrial revolution and while this played an important part in establishing the living standards we now enjoy, there was a darker downside as the very industrial processes and activities that made Britain one of the wealthiest nations on earth also released substances and waste products into the environment that have the potential to have a detrimental impact on our health.

When we started our journey in search of peace of mind that our little patch of land was not slowly killing us, we hit a roadblock. There is no shortage of laboratories capable of testing soil but many of these charged a fortune. Then there was the problem of what we actually wanted to test for. The list of harmful chemicals and elements that a lab could test for is a long one. Which ones should we be testing for? And finally, how much of something is too much? 

The answers to these questions required extensive research but we got there in the end. And while no health authority can make a definitive call on the precise level at which something becomes harmful or even lethal, most agree on ranges. We use these to interpret results and where conflicts exist, we point them out to allow our customers to make informed decisions and, hopefully, provide peace of mind. When that’s not possible, we are happy to share recommendations on potential remediation approaches.

I’m happy to report that we’re now in position to make everyone’s journey of discovery markedly easier than the one we had to take. 

Soil Testing Made Easy

This is a guest post written for This Green Thumb. We have not received any payment or commission for hosting this article

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