The airways were full of a news story that reported, “potting mix caused the death of a Christchurch gardener”. It got a huge number of comments on Facebook gardening groups and clearly everyone believed the story and was surprised that they could get Legionnaires’ disease, also known as legionellosis from soil and potting mix.
How true was the story? Did this person die from Legionnaires’ disease as a result of exposure to potting mix? What kind of potting mix was it? What is the risk of this happening to another gardener, especially to you? Should you do something different in the garden to protect yourself? All good questions that will be answered in this blog post.
