7 replies to this topic

[Green Thumb]

Food security is something not popularly discussed at times when abundance of agricultural harvest is true everywhere. But right now, experts are in one voice that food insecurity is just around the corner and it can affect all of us on a global scale once this beast will start to unravel its biting force.

As individuals, we all can contribute a lot to finding a future food security. In this video, the idea that a backyard gardener can be the forefront hero in the struggle to save the planet is worth seriously looking at.

Presented here is a concept that is hoped to germinate more response all over the world and that simple and practical concept can be one of the most important solutions to climate change and local food security.

In mitigating the impact of our overreliance on cheap oil – which is getting expensive everyday anyway -- in our industrial food system, you will discover why growing your own edible garden can be an important key to unlock real sustainable and Earth-friendly world.

People who have the space in their backyard should join the great green revolution. Let us support the goal of a million gardens by 2012.

Go green team!


(source: http://patienttalk.c...Gardens-In-2012 )

[Shortpoet-GTD]

More urban areas are getting involved too. We've all heard the phrase "food desert."
In poor and lower income areas, residents cannot find good quality produce. So many cities are taking
the initiative to plant gardens in empty lots. Volunteers in the neighborhood, plant, weed, water and harvest
the gardens.
http://www.nytimes.c...?pagewanted=all
http://www.oasisnyc..../resources.aspx

This site also speaks to urban gardens, but I disagree with the photo-veggies planted within tires.
Too many toxins in that rubber material may leach into the food planted within it.
http://earthfirst.co...where-you-live/

Thanks for the post.

[jasserEnv]

We should also really be looking at roof top gardens for promotion of food security, curbing the energy demands for cooling and curbing food transportation costs along with fuel usage. Were more roof tops made available for agriculture, we could seriously reduce the land footprint while increasing our food security. The problem of relying on empty lots is that these lots can disappear quite quickly and trying to maintain them conflicts with efforts to increase urban density. Numerous green roof top initiatives are under way and these should be supported too.

[zararina]

If I just have space for a backyard garden I would not doubt or have second thought of putting a vegetable garden.
Nice to be able to grow own fods since wecan assure it was fresh, safer to consume and can save money aside from it can save the environment. Also freshly picked fruits and vegetables are more delicious and healthier.
Right now I just have few pots with some plants, tomato and ginger.

[E3 wise]

You guys are people after my own heart, I love my garden, back in the 1977 just after the second oil embargo a PBS television show came on titled Crockett’s Victory Garden, it would go on to be very successful as the victory garden. The original host was named James Underwood Crockett and he wrote several gardening books for people with very limited space. One of my favorites is The Square Foot Garden in which he shows how to use 1 square foot wooden framed boxes about 10 inches deep to grow many different vegetables and herbs.

At the time I lived in the city with just a small balcony, but I was able to build 2 – 12 inch square boxes and grow green beans, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and a lot of different herbs.  Today here in South Florida it is often too hot to grow a garden in the summer so we grow in the spring, fall and winter.  We have rain barrels and water the entire garden with rain water.  We also have a large compost tumbler to produce our own compost (nature’s organic fertilizer) and we use no pesticides.

  To get rid of insects we mix seeds from a hot pepper, garlic, an old cigar and dish soap together overnight and then use a hose end sprayer on the plants, it makes the insects want to go somewhere else and has no effects on our food.  During the summer we shop at the local farmers market.

    The reason for this is that our organically grown food is healthier and tastes better, during the summer we buy local, cutting down on fossil fuels used for transporting food and help keep money in our local economy.

    Another space saving item is the hanging planters made by Topsy Turvy it produces great tomatoes, peepers and more and eliminates weeding while saving water.  I have four and grow all kinds of things in them including okra, believe it or not.  All these allow urban dwellers and people with very limited space to grow their own vegetables and herbs and that make for fresher, healthier and more nutritious food while saving money. Think of it like whole foods for the average person.

E3Wise

[Green Thumb]

Planting on vacant lots is a remarkable solution. Kudos to those who make the most of the free space!

Why, it’s really different in the populous city than in the province. Where I’m boarding you have no chance to grow plants except on containers. I remember my mom (who is living in the province) would always tell us there she has no problem with food because she grows plants and fruits and raise poultry and livestock animals. Every day she would find an egg in her hen’s nest. She could handpick bananas all she want, dig for tuberous plant or root crops and harvest green leafy vegetables anytime. My aunt, her companion, could always catch fish in the pond when he and my other uncle would go fishing. They could kill a chicken or duck for sumptuous meal. They could pick fruits in its season and get extra income by selling some of their crops. An animal or vegetable farm or backyard garden is a big wonderful package that presents you with its gift – not worrying on what you will eat today or tomorrow.

(In the Bible there’s a saying

“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” (Proverbs 10:4)

And in our country there’s a saying, “With God is blessing, with man is action.”

So one really have to work for what he needs.)

For those who live in a crowded city like me, you could benefit from growing vegetables in containers, pails or pots (and on square boxes like E3 wise did. And also thanks for the great tips, sir). You can find many instructions online and there are also cut-rate gardening magazines you can buy in second hand bookstores.

For beginners:
http://gardening.abo...ainerVeggie.htm

This one are lists of easy to grow plants on pots.
http://www.bbc.co.uk...try_easy1.shtml

[mariaandrea]

Here in Seattle we have a community garden program called P-Patch. Community gardens are located all over the city in every neighborhood and it's possible to start new ones. There's a fee and usually a waiting list, but there are subsidies for low-income people and just about anyone who wants to can garden. The people who garden in them (I did one year) produce so much food they donate thousands of pounds of fresh produce to food banks every year.

I have a 3rd floor balcony that faces east and north and it's amazing what I can grow on it, not to mention the herbs I grow inside. I already have this year's garden planned out: tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, zucchini, thumbelina carrots, beets, radishes, scallions, lettuce, chard, spinach and strawberries.

This book is my container gardening bible - McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers

[jasserEnv]

That is good to see and it it good to see people getting out of their homes. Seattle is a progressive city from what I understand.

Unfortunately, from people I know and articles I have read, in a number of cities, the community gardens are being lost to land developers and the city is far more interested in the tax revenue than in promoting food security or having farmland in town. I am sure that in many cities that fell victim to the housing meltdown, this must not be such a problem but in some it is. That is why I would really like to see the rooftops made available in more cities.