Urban Farming
Over the past few months, I’ve read a few different articles about a man named Kipp Nash who runs an urban farming project here in Colorado that has turned into a CSA called Community Roots. He basically got several of his neighbors to allow him to turn their front lawns into garden beds for food production using intensive growing techniques – he calls them “mini organic farms.” He’s even added a program to harvest his neighbors’ untended fruit trees, too.
Nash provides all of the labor with the help of some volunteers in removing the grass, planting, weeding, irrigating, tending and harvesting the crops. He then divides up the weekly harvest between what each neighbor gets and what he sells. He calls it a modern day version of sharecropping. The word is out about his Community Roots project and he has more houses of people waiting for him to transform their front lawns into lush crops of organic food. He has also created real community between all of his neighbors by doing this. Someone is training with him now to establish this type of urban farming in another part of his town, too. Hopefully one day we will see no more front lawns and only lush, organic veggie gardens everywhere in suburbia.
I am so inspired by this. Front lawns are such a waste of water, effort, resources and space! If you own that land, why not put in productive plant life whether it be flowers, herbs or veggies there instead of grass? That is the way it used to be a long time ago for the working class. Growing your own medicinal herbs and some food for your family was the norm. Lawns are great for play areas in the backyard, but they don’t have to take over everything.
I wish I could get something started like that where I live but living on a somewhat busy street in a school zone, it’s not likely that it would go over well in my area. I just keep adding flower beds and removing more lawn from in front of my house instead. We have expanded our backyard garden space by adding two new beds in different areas and added more large planters for more herbs and for my son’s special garden plants area. We gave him two large planters so he could water them and tend to them as he likes and watch his special plants grow and so that he doesn’t accidentally destroy part of our main garden.
There is another urban farming site called Path To Freedom in Pasadena, CA who call themselves “urban homesteaders” and they have many garden beds in all of the available space including the entire front lawn and even the driveway! They have several fruit trees and shrubs and even some chickens, goats and bees. They produce so much food on their small one-fifth of an acre property that they sell to restaurants and other people and feed themselves almost exclusively from it. Dateline NBC is featuring them very soon on their show. You know if that is happening, people are curious to know more about living this way.
With food and gas prices rising so much, we are going to have to rely more on ourselves and our local community more than ever and that is a good thing. There is just no reason why we humans can’t grow some of our own food even if it’s just tomatoes and basil plants in large planters on your balcony or back porch. It’s so empowering eating something that you yourself cared for and grew. Plus the produce just tastes so much better having been picked just before you eat it in your meal. And even just doing this small act connects you to the natural world even if you live in a high rise apartment building. Think about how much this will teach your children, too in so many different ways and on different levels.
Take back your power, people! Grow something edible this summer and feel empowered!
May 14 2008 09:34 am | Health and Home and food and gardening and green living and nature and news and nutrition and organics and parenting and raw foods and society
