Digging For Victory: Sky Farmers and Guerrilla Gardeners
Old News: Gardening is In
Once again in the UK it has been suggested that we are behind the eco-friendly times, now caught red-faced and red-handed with basket-full of imported vegetables.
The production and transportation of food is responsible for 23% of our carbon footprint; above home energy, personal travel, and running shared services like hospitals and schools. [source]
China, Japan and Cuba are way ahead of us in their responsible actions, but being a tiny, densely populated island with horrible weather is no excuse, according to the more heroic amongst gardeners.
No, gardening, especially growing vegetables, is not just for your granddad, a left-over habit from the War. It’s possibly the coolest pastime of now. To be caught with compost under your fingernails and a faint whiff of Brussels sprouts, rather than an air-freighted fistful of Zimbabwean mangetout, may be your ticket to unimaginable kudos.
The Urban Farmer
Take Fritz Haeg for example. The architect and design academic, with exhibitions at the Tate Modern in London and Whitney Museum of American Art under his belt, chooses to spend his time on an inner-city council estate in south London with a trowel.
Last year Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted “We need to make great changes in the way we organise food production in the next few years.” In his book Edible Estates, Haeg paves the way, urging you to dig up your front lawn for an “edible landscape”. Last year the Tate challenged him to make a permanent “edible estate” in the concrete metropolis known as Elephant and Castle.
The grass plot, previously used as a playground for drunks and dogs, was transformed into a paradise of fruit trees, tomato plants, aubergines, squashes, green vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. With a design based on ornate flower beds at Buckingham Palace, it not only looks beautiful, but no doubt smells a lot better than it used to.
Amazingly, although the plot is accessible to the public, no theft or vandalism has been witnessed. It’s not just venerable pensioners who are turning out to help; most of the volunteers are children and teens. Carole Wright, who manages the garden designed by Haeg, notes the project’s social benefits:
“People who have not spoken for five years are suddenly chatting again, discussing what they’ve grown. And it brings together people from different cultures too – they lean over the fence and reminisce about the vegetables they grew in their countries as children – okra, bananas, yams, sweet potatoes.”
[source]
The Guerrilla Gardener
The British government is not always so supportive of gardening. The intrepid Richard Reynolds (a resident of… Elephant & Castle) just grows ever stealthier in his undercover missions to bring blossoming beauty to public areas neglected by the council.
The council says it’s against the rules, the police say it’s committing criminal damage, and warrants arrest, but the Guerrilla Gardener is undeterred. Relying on donations of overgrown house-plants, seeds in the post, and whatever he can appropriate from his mum’s garden, Reynolds is on a crusade: not to feed the world so much as make it more beautiful.
And that’s a crime?
“I’d rather the council did things I can’t do, like fix the lifts. I’d rather do the gardening myself. I’m not an eco-warrior, I just like nice gardens and want to be left alone to garden peacefully. There’s no sadder sight than a paved-over front garden.
“Why spend so much effort cultivating your back garden when no one but you can see it? So many people live in big cities and don’t have land of their own, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to garden.
[source]
Pigs May Fly
For Toronto Scientist Gordon Graff, urban gardening is not just pie in the sky. His 58-floor SkyFarm concept is designed to provide food for 35,000 people per day.
The trouble with growing crops on the roof (well, the main one at least) is the weight of the soil used in traditional methods. The plan here is to use a “hydroponic” irrigation system, where nutrient-rich water is recycled through the building. One added bonus is that a lot of diseases thrive on soil, so without it chemical pesticides are no longer needed.
There are rumours that a similar building in Las Vegas would also house not only crops, but pigs. I’m sure much stranger things have happened in Vegas, so I’m ready to believe it. [source]
Further Reading
- The Guerrilla Gardening offical website: see how you can fight the filth in your area… if you dare.
- For all the latest gen on gardening check out Gardenerstips.co.uk
(“What a great logo!” I hear you cry, “They surely must have got it from Pure Web Designs!”
)
Tags: ecology, gardening, vegetables
Subscribe to posts
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:48 am
Great story: “fighting the filth”—surely an illicit habit best cultivated!
And what a great logo at Gardeners’ Tips! Did they get that from Pure Web Designs?!
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 am
Yes, the design was from Pure Web Designs. Thanks!
Guerrila gardening also caught my eye. I’ve always wanted to start with the immaculate lawns on the Oxford quads. I really think they should be growing potatoes there.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 am
People often forget the origin of their food and what it takes to get it to wherever you buy it. When you have fresh fruit and veggies in all seasons, this prompts you to consider how far food travels.
A professor in the US who lives in the mountains in New Hampshire publicized a food-related experiment. He still chooses to eat only foods produced locally within their given season. Now, I don’t recall how he defines “local” (within state or a specific range / distance). However, the staples of his diet shifted to exclude foods that did not grow near him. In this regard, his health didn’t disintegrate and he didn’t mention anything about consumption of vitamins. I don’t recall whether he was a vegetarian but he did specify he wasn’t vegan. Some of his students took his philosophy on-board as well.
June 7th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Thanks for plugging my plug, John
Tejvan, methinks you will have the odd strand of red tape to get through, but good luck with planting spuds in those manicured lawns. You may need to get a balaclava and do it yourself in the dead of night.
Liara, what an interesting case study. I guess that’s how people lived in the old days, and I guess as God intended (?). It seems so-called sophistication can be an obstacle in some areas of science and agriculture. Somehow I feel we need to be moving though, if not always in the right direction; scientific progress is itself a part of humanity’s aspiration. It’s good to try new methods at least, even if we then find the oldest ones work the best.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Canadian here, I live just north of Toronto.I recently retired and now have the time for gardening. I am able to produce enough food for my wife and myself for the year in a garden plot measuring 25 feet by 25 feet in my back yard. i use a freezer and pressure canning as well as drying for preservation. If every American planted his southern lawn to potatoes they could make enough vodka to run their SUVs, or stay plastered enough not to care about rising price of oil - their call!
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Wow, that’s fantastic, Uncle B! Really amazing. Good on you. I bet you could write a fascinating blog about those 25 square feet, and its progress throughout the year, with all kinds of tips… but then I guess you don’t have much time for writing
Best of luck, and go easy on the vodka 