Free Soil Testing

Bring your own soil sam­ples to Gov­er­nors Island to be test­ed for heavy met­als con­tent using Urban Soil Insti­tute’s pXRF instru­ment. Gath­er a plas­tic bag with about a cup of soil from your yard or gar­den and bring the sam­ple to Swale’s drop-off table on the porch of Nolan Park Build­ing 11 to get test­ed. Results will be ready with­in 10 min­utes, and Swale will pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions for soil reme­di­a­tion best practices. 

Soil Sam­ple Tips

• Decide why you’re test­ing. If you’re con­cerned about con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, you want to take soil from the first 2 inch­es. If you’re con­cerned about the root zone, take soil from at least 8 inch­es deep.
• Put 1 cup of soil into a seal­able bag and clear­ly label the bag so you know it’s yours. 
• Max­i­mum 3 sam­ples per person.

Swale is one of the 2024 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Residence