Planting a garden in your backyard and growing your own fruits and veggies sounds like a great idea, right? It's cost-efficient, it's convenient (just run outside and pick a bunch of green beans or lettuce), and it's fun. Plus, what with all the food recalls lately, it's nice to know where your produce is coming from and that it's perfectly safe to eat... right?

Well, according to a recent article in the New York Times, your homegrown produce might not be as safe to eat as you think. There could be harmful levels of lead in your soil, left over from nearby homes that once sported lead-based paint, pesticides containing lead, lead plumbing and leaded gasoline. "Dust from lead-tainted soil is toxic to inhale, and food grown in it is hazardous to eat," the article says.

So before you chow down on your backyard berries or serve a fresh salad with your homegrown lettuces and tomatoes, get your soil tested -- it's the only way to find out if it contains harmful levels of lead. Your local public health department might test your soil for free, or can give you a list of schools and companies that will do it for a fee.

And if you discover your backyard soil *is* harboring dangerous levels of lead? Don't fret -- you can replace the contaminated soil or simply add lime or compost to it to neutralize the effects of lead. The safest way to raise produce, however, is to grow them in containers or raised beds filled with uncontaminated soil. And it's a good idea to place them away from buildings, since houses with lead paint can still emit lead dust or contaminate rain water that splashes on them. 

So before you decide to plant a replica of Michelle Obama's White House garden, get your soil tested. And hey -- even the White House soil has elevated levels of lead, so if you discover lead in your own backyard, you're in good company.

photo: m. poole/getty images