Part 4: Growing Fresh Organic Food
This is my final episode of the four part series about growing fresh organic food in the cities as well as in rural establishments.
With less and less land available in cities today, people are trying to make the most of the open space that are available. In Britain they have developed “seed bombs” and other simple ways to plant seeds covertly. “Please water me” signs have been placed some sites to encourage people to take ownership of these spaces.
Back in Durban, there has been a call for all citizens to start growing their own food to increase their own food security, to become healthier and to combat climate change by reducing the distances food is transported. Meanwhile, Martin Clement of the Durban Botanic Gardens regularly takes children out at night to garden a specific site in the city, getting them interested in gardening and beautifying the city. These initiatives show how we can all make an effort to beautify our open spaces in the city, to make unproductive space productive, and “take back forgotten gardens”. Municipalities have limited resources and cannot maintain our public open spaces; they are for the public after all!
Fresh Organic Food
1. Identify a piece of unused land in your community
2. Consult your local Parks Department to get access to the land
3. Do some research on permaculture techniques and planting sustainably. Paula Osborne at +27 (0) 84 444 4657 or earthfirst@absamail.co.za and Martin Clement at the Durban Botanic Garden, clementm@durban.gov.za, are specialist in planting sustainibily. Books to read include “Food Forests the Permaculture Way” by Geoff Lawton and “Guerrilla Gardening” by Richard Reynolds. An insightful documentary entitled “The Power of Community” on Cuba’s example how they Survived Peak Oil.
4. Plan an outline of the garden and consult th eParks Department to find out what kind of plants grow well together. Contact Manisha Arbuckle at arbucklem@durban.gov.za for advice.
5. Invlove businesses in your area to help fund seeds and garden tools for the initiative.
6. Involve your community (agricultural rural cooperatives). Have gardening fun days and get children involved.
7. Instead of food, you can plant flowers to beautify verges and open spaces. Make sure the plants are indigenous to the area so that indigeneous birds will be attracted and an outbreak of exotic plants does not occur.
8. Most of all have fun!
For more information see: www.guerrillagardening.org
Love what you are doing with the blog man!