Happy seventh week slow farmers!
To lead discussion this week, I’d love to talk more about urban
farming. Let me start by talking about my own connection to this topic and why
it interests me:
I grew up in a densely populated suburb in the South Hills of
Pittsburgh. In order to see farms, I had to drive about 30 minutes away from
the city, so I did not have the same Midwest experience that I’ve noticed here
in Michigan, where city and farm seem to exist right next to each other. Despite
rarely seeing farms, I was surrounded by agriculture and the joys of growing
your own food. While most of my neighbors planted flowers in their front lawn
gardens and built fire pits and patios in their backyards, my parents kept a
terraced garden in our back yard where we grew summer vegetables and herbs, as
well as planting pepper plants among the flowers in our front yard. While we did
not grow enough to sustain our needs throughout the entire year, some of the
most exciting meals came in the summertime from our harvested veggies, and we were
always giving away fresh tomatoes and rhubarb stalks to friends and neighbors because
we had too many to eat ourselves. While I hated doing chores like composting
and tending to the garden, I’m very appreciative of the values it taught me,
and I’m excited to (hopefully) own my own house and vegetable garden someday
and grow my own crops.
This got me thinking: what if I turn my entire yard into vegetable beds
so that I could grow more varieties of vegetables and have them throughout the
year instead of just the summer? In addition to growing more food, turning my lawn
into a garden would have the potential added benefit of diversifying the
physical suburban space for the habitation of wild species. In this Ted Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF3fWdwhEhw),
Sam Droege discusses how the main threat to wild native bee populations is the
destruction of their habitat. I think of all the rows of perfectly green lawns
that surround my neighborhood, and I try to imagine what one yard planted with vegetables
and wildflowers would look like to a bee flying through this grassy desert.
However, I also know that my township has strict codes for homeowners to follow,
so I looked at some of these regulations to see if my plan would break any of
them:
mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/View/3873/VII?bidId=
In section 201, I found this: “No person owning or occupying any
property containing a structure within the Municipality shall permit any grass
or weeds or any vegetation whatsoever, not edible or planted for some useful or
ornamental purpose, to grow or remain upon such premises so as to exceed a
height of six (6) inches, or to throw off any unpleasant or noxious order, or
to conceal any filthy deposit, or to create or produce pollen.” This was the
most specific information I could find about lawn and garden maintenance, and
it seems the only thing not allowed are plants that are untended to and/or serve no "purpose." This obviously can be scrutinized for its wording, especially knowing the plants that are considered unwanted are the plants that provide habitat and food for the wild insects and animals native to Pennsylvania. However, the regulation has no problem with plants planted and tended for strategically, so I could plant native wildflowers alongside my vegetables. Since I am
apparently not limited to the amount of space allocated to gardening, I could
go through with my plan on turning my entire backyard into a garden, as long as I take
measures to keep soil from running into my neighbors’ yards as explained in
section 402.2.
In addition to talking about urban farming possibilities in my hometown,
I would also like to share a documentary made by Kalamazoo College student
Justin Wesley-Johnson and starring our very own classmate Cam! It talks about
the Vine Neighborhood Community Garden, and I had the opportunity to see it at a
showing this weekend at the KIA. I have permission from Justin to share
it with yinz, but I am still in the process of getting accesses from his
professor to share it. I’m hoping to do that soon and send it out in an email,
but for the time being you can have a look at their website to learn a bit
about their mission and the work they do: https://communitygarden.org/find-a-garden/gardens/vine-neighborhood-community-garden/
On my way home from the KIA, I passed on my street a condemned building sitting
right next to an empty lot and this thought came to me: what if we took the many
condemned buildings and empty lots around this city and transformed them into
community gardens and shelter spaces designated specifically for individuals living
with food and housing insecurity? What would that look like? I’m not sure I
know the answer, I just thought it would be something to consider when thinking
about the possibilities urban farming offers us.
For this week, I would like you all to reflect on these questions and do
some of your own research on aspects of urban farming that interest you:
- What kind of environment did you first learn about farming/gardening/urban farming/etc. in, and how did this shape your engagement with the practice?
- What are your reactions to Sam Droege’s ted talk? Things that you found especially interesting/concerning/surprising/problematic/etc.?
- (assuming I get access to Justin’s documentary and share it via email with you all in time for class) What did you think about the documentary? What are the kinds of opportunities and/or limitations of a community garden?
- I want you to do your own research on urban farming opportunities in a community of your choosing. It can be a place you grew up in, a place you want to live one day, a place that interests you, etc. See if you can find possibilities for urban farming in this community, as I did for my hometown suburban neighborhood, whether it’s already established organizations (like the Vine Community Garden) or individual techniques for growing food with limited resources (like Amy’s potato-in-a-bucket method for those with little space). You can talk about something you have experience doing, or something that you’d like to try sometime in the future, whatever interests you the most, so you can be as creative as you want! I’d like to start class talking about the things we found and sharing this knowledge with each other so we can all continue to be growers no matter where life may take us :)
What kind of environment did you first learn about farming/gardening/urban farming/etc. in, and how did this shape your engagement with the practice?
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, we had a garden, but our soil isn't exactly the best, and we didn't know how to improve it (when we took out our garden, it was the place with the least amount of grass/moss on it). I learned about urban gardens through my school garden, community gardens, and more formally through an Urban Planning class I took. However, because our soil is "poor" (I'm relearning this concept in this class!!), we do not grow a nice thick lawn. In fact, it's primarily mossy with just enough sparse grass to make it look bad if it hasn't been mowed in a while. I don't live in a city, so learning that cities have just as much potential for gardens beyond just a few potted plants on a balcony reminds me that nature and plants can grow anywhere.
What are your reactions to Sam Droege’s ted talk? Things that you found especially interesting/concerning/surprising/problematic/etc.?
I liked the idea of planning spaces that include more diversity than a sprawling lawn. Especially in front of large business/buildings, green lawn is pretty, but it doesn't seem particularly useful except to provide a space for the massive lawn mowers to cut perfect stripes (which I actually like...but also know it's kind of a waste of space). After watching the video I went out and told my parents that by not forcing our lawn to become green (which would be ridiculous and expensive), we were (somewhat) helping propagate diversity which is good for bees. I also love wildflowers, so I think the more, the better. :) Yet, it surprised me that the speaker worked for the government, but it also made sense because preserving diversity and bees is important! Additionally, I hadn't realized the vast differences between honey bees and wild bees...I'd always assumed that they all worked the same way with queens and worker bees. Also that wild bees can be so specialized is such a cool reflection of diversity and life!
What did you think about the documentary? What are the kinds of opportunities and/or limitations of a community garden?
I thought it left out a lot of information I was curious about, like who else helps in the garden besides students? Are there other people in the community? When it seemed like the workers were primarily K students, that kinda made me wonder how community centered and continuous it really was (students are here for about four years maximum and move on). I also liked the point the main lady made about kids taking fruits and vegetables from the garden, which was something along the lines of "it's okay, I just hope they eat it". I would feel more possessive of food I grew, but then I realized that's really not the point of growing a community garden if it is only for individuals. (So thanks for highlighting the selfishness I often feel about food! It's good to be reminded of slightly messed up viewpoints.)
I want you to do your own research on urban farming opportunities in a community of your choosing. It can be a place you grew up in, a place you want to live one day, a place that interests you, etc. See if you can find possibilities for urban farming in this community, as I did for my hometown suburban neighborhood, whether it’s already established organizations (like the Vine Community Garden) or individual techniques for growing food with limited resources (like Amy’s potato-in-a-bucket method for those with little space). You can talk about something you have experience doing, or something that you’d like to try sometime in the future, whatever interests you the most, so you can be as creative as you want! I’d like to start class talking about the things we found and sharing this knowledge with each other so we can all continue to be growers no matter where life may take us :)
I would like to look into more methods like the potato in a bucket and composting in more urban settings!
This is Amy:
ReplyDelete1. Kind of obvious, but I learned about gardening by being forced to work in my parents’ garden when I was a kid. I also had to help with freezing and canning things to eat over winter—we always froze a lot of sweet corn and canned tomatoes and peaches. I think I first learned about urban gardening when I was living in town after finishing my undergrad degree and growing things in pots outside my backdoor. I didn’t really think of it as “urban gardening” because I didn’t know that was a thing; I just wanted to grow some fresh tomatoes and so I did. I think my upbringing in a family where growing food and putting it up for the winter was just taken for granted as one of the things that everybody participated in made me want to grow food even when I was living in small apartments or duplexes. It just seemed weird not to.
2. THANK YOU for bringing native bees into the conversation. I think that they often get overlooked because people fall in love with honeybees and forget that there are all these amazing species of native bees that also need our care. And most people don’t know that honeybees aren’t even native to North America—and that native bees were doing a fine job of pollinating things before the honeybees showed up! I think it’s a symptom of the weirdness of our culture that manicured green grass lawns are considered beautiful status symbols. I would love to see a re-envisioning of what towns, cities, and countrysides could look like if we valued the types of landscapes that support biodiversity. Also, bugs are cool.
3. The documentary is lovely (and Cam is pretty great in it). It made me sad, though, because the Trybal Revival community garden is no more. Here’s a link to Tomme and Dale’s page where they describe some of the reasons they had to let the garden go: http://trybalrevivalgarden.com/. The “dwindling interest” is a story I’ve heard about many community gardens, including the one that John helped to start at our local high school. Lots of people would show up each week for the free produce, but only a few folks came to work in the garden, mostly older, retired folks and the work just got to be too much for a few people. So when the garden got displaced during school renovations, the gardeners decided it was just too much work to try to start it up again. Which is too bad, because it was a cool project and the produce distribution did really bring people together. So I think the opportunity of community gardens is that they can build community as people work together with a shared purpose. The limitations are that people aren’t always great at working together, getting along, and committing to shared enterprises. And when the relationships aren’t strong, community enterprises can fall apart.
4. Last fall, I went with the Just Food Collective to volunteer at Keep Growing Detroit and I think their garden resource program is super cool. Last year they supported 1,603 gardens in Detroit through education, seeds, tools, etc. I think an organization like this could really make a difference for the success of urban gardens, whether they are individual or community gardens. Wondering if we could ever do something like this in Kalamazoo . . . http://detroitagriculture.net/
So I did grow up in the mid-west. While I did not live on a farm you could find a farm within any direction of me if you drove for about 30 minutes. My family always had gardens but similar to Ben it was more of a fun hobby and we did not/ could not rely on the food we grew for all of our needs. My senior year of high school my mom and I moved to Kalamazoo. This was the most 'urban' place I have lived and it shaped some of my thoughts on community gardening. I would like to attribute the vast majority of this to my next door neighbor Paul. Paul is a retired master gardener, and he transforms any green space he can get his hands on. He runs his own gardens on his property, multiple community gardens, and lovingly takes over the neighbors yards when given permission (mine included). I think that Paul has given me an excellent example of what gardening in urban communities could look like... but he is also a very special person with a wealth of knowledge. ALSO a couple streets over there is a Western Professor who has an english garden in her yard. Which means that she doesn't have any grass... rather an abundance of other plants. During the summer walking past her home is a little bit like walking past a jungle. Personally I love it. I think it is beautiful and the variety is refreshing. HOWEVER, she has had a lot of push back from the neighborhood. People think it looks un-kept and have tried to force the city to intervene. Luckily they have been unsuccessful so far and the jungle/ english garden lives on. From the resources you shared I really resonated with the importance placed on Bees. They are so so so important and dwindling quickly. So thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I had become aware of farming/gardening--in a way that seemed accessible to me, was done with purpose, and got me interested-- was when I was a senior in High School. We had a cool class opportunity which allowed us to spend much of the day outside and learning about various activities and using our bodies. I even got certified to use a hunting rifle--which blows my mind when I think back about it. But also, for one of the segments the teacher brought us to his own small farm where he raised a variety of pigs, goats, chickens, fruits, and vegetables. He talked about a connection to food and the value of the work. I thought it seemed pretty great.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the documentary... Wow, I had never seen this before! Always weird to watch yourself from an earlier time-- I am pretty sure this was Freshman spring. But yeah Trybal Revyval was really a cool place. I remember Justin was filming for our class and it seems like he put together a really cool little documentary.
When we were working there I remember overhearing that they were running low on help from the community. It seemed like a lot of work for them to take on by themselves, even though they loved it, so I can understand how lack of community involvement could be the demise of such an operation.. which is really too bad. I think people are often so busy and tired from working jobs/ being in school/ raising kids/ and attending to other responsibilities that they don't have the amount energy they were expecting to spend on gardening. So if gardening falls to the back of a lot of peoples priorities, then community participation might dwindle.
For the final question, I had the opportunity to visit a pretty cool urban farm in Grand Rapids a couple weeks ago. The trip was mostly focused on composting, which they had a super cool system for, but we also learned about some gardening techniques and the various ways in which the space is used.
It seemed to me like their main goal was community involvement, not only on the production side, but for the consumption, education and celebratory aspects which are also possible through the space that had been created. As a non-profit they have a lot of flexibility to do these things and they can feed the community without worrying too much about getting produce to the market. This seems like a good strategy to me because it brings food and education into the city without the competitive need to support livelihood through produce sales. The director had mentioned they initially tried to sell to the farmers market, but there were already so many good farms selling from the surrounding area that there was not really a need for it. And growing food to sell had the potential to complicate their mission as well.. Interesting to think about.
Oh yeah, the place is called urban roots if you are interested (urbanrootsgr.org)
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ReplyDelete1. The first person I learned from was my dad- I wish I had gotten more involved at a young age but I was more interested in running around and playing like most children. We too had a giant garden that would produce more than we needed at the height of the season. Unfortunately, I think this may have shaped my engagement for the worse- while I carry a deep appreciation for growing our own food and treating the land with respect, I grew up seeing it as an abundant and very normal activity, rather than a privileged one. Additionally none of my chores involved the outdoors, I guess he must not have trusted me with his large garden. Some days, however, I do remember my dad would take me out for weeding but I never pulled the entire root out so he would get frustrated about that.
ReplyDelete2. I wasn’t aware that many bees are highly specialized in where exactly they can pollinate, meaning that as our ecological diversity goes down so does our bee population. He made a good point that because we, the people, are the landowners it is ultimately up to us what we allow in our yards/ how we influence municipal organizations to allow in our yards. That means that we also are the problem more so than large companies and organizations. I’m really glad he brought up that point since we've had so many conversations in our class that lead to “well there’s nothing we can do about this issue and systemic change has advanced too far for us to rationally back track.”
4. I found this site on Urban Community Farms one can apply to in the city of Madrid, Spain, where I’m moving next year (https://rgnn.org/2015/07/23/the-best-urban-farms-in-madrid/). Weirdly, the website is in English but I guess there must be a large number of American tourists there. They also have a monthly meeting where like-minded people can meet and share tips.
Then I found this Ted Talk on a growing movement in Madrid that does exactly what you mentioned: takes old abandoned spaces and turns them into great community gardens. This one is in Spanish but I suggest that if anyone understands they take a few minutes to watch this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwpJAgkVo7w&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1TSDrUbbhx7UOaHjT6QQUsmfhbCjsSd-5l9ujHvzlZvfcnYOLN5eXZ7Iw
1. My mom had a few flower beds while I was growing up so I would help her with the landscaping, weeding, watering, and planting. A remember having tomato plants for a few summers but I was not very involved in the growth or eating of those plants. As for farming, my dad was a Food Science major in college so I remember him sharing pieces of information with me. I also developed an interest in food and food production toward the end of high school and now during college. I have watched several documentaries and looked into articles on food, however, that means my knowledge is fragmented and likely biased. I think that information has shaped my diet being primarily vegetarian, to be conscious of not throwing out food because of the “expiration date,” and had made me want to become more self-sufficient as well as support local farmers.
ReplyDelete2. I love bees!! I took entomology during my junior year here at K as well as taken several ecology/ environmental science classes so some of this information wasn’t new. I think he brought up an important point: speciesism (although he didn’t use this work specifically). We are focused on the honeybee and bees dying of pesticides, but we also need to be knowledgeable and create policy and practices the protect these naive, wild bee species.
3. I think the documentary was super cute and uplifting (Cam you are a star). I think it reminded me how intimate and empowering gardening and growing food (or raising bees) can be. I think limitations to community gardens would be access, transportation or buying a plot and getting the word out to the community. Further, we need to be conscious that growing food and allocating that time and effort to gardening may not align with everyone's life and priorities at the time.
4. While on K to the Windy city last June, we visited the Sweetwater foundation (Yasi is much more knowledgeable than myself). It was incredible to see something like that in the city and working to serve members of that community who are typically overlooked in those spaces. I lived in Chicago and there is a very clear separation between those areas and access to fresh food is not in every community.
1. I would say the first time I really learned about farming/gardening was through my internship at Aacorn Farms. It put into perspective the difficulty of farming practices and the importance of knowing how to care for the soil, seeds, and plants. We only had a small garden with about ten beds, but the time and work we had to put into maintaining and caring for those beds was strenuous.
ReplyDelete2. I found his talk to be very fascinating. I also thought that his emphasis on creating or increasing the diversity in our communities is vital to the protection of bees. I know in Kalamazoo we have community gardens as well as preserves that contain diverse species of plants while I am unaware as to whether any of these green spaces contain plants beneficial to bees in particular.
3. In my opinion there are a lot of limitations to building community gardens, but I think the the main limitations are funding and space. I know in Kalamazoo in particular most spaces are controlled/owned by companies whose main goal is to find a way to profit off their space. We are very fortunate to have a community garden in the Vine neighborhood, while I think it is almost impossible to either find the funding or space to build another community garden in the Vine or another neighborhood since Kalamazoo is currently having a affordable housing crisis and funds for community events is very limited.
4. As I have stated above, as a community we have the Vine neighborhood garden. I think it is very important that homeowners as well as renters have space to grow their own foods, while as a community it is difficult with the local laws forbidding anything over six feet and must be neat, healthy, and orderly in appearance. There is a house off of Oakland after Howard that removed their grass and replaced it with garden beds. When I own my own property, I would love to remove all of the grass and replace it with consumable plants as well as plants that will benefit the environment and other species in my space. I have a huge issue with so much green space being used for finely trimmed grass rather than containing a diverse plant system.
I first conceived of farming in terms of rural areas, and so, of course, farming makes me think of big, wide spaces. Perhaps in this way, my mind separates 'farming' from 'vegetable gardening' a little bit, differentiating based on scale.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I first conceived of gardening in relation to my own home, which is about half an acre. I remember reading about British gardening styles, which let plants 'do their own thing' a little bit, and about Dutch garden styles, which maximize garden within a small space (because of Holland's very small size). I personally have given little thought to vertical gardening, but I've had a friend or two bring it up before this class.
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ReplyDeleteWe often talk about the relationship of church and the state, but why not talk about the relationship of NATURE AND THE STATE. Seriously… because your neighborhood has strict guidelines/ ordinances (as many neighborhoods, cities, townships, villages, ect. have) and those all exist within THE STATE. Maybe this was a bad analogy, my apologies, I am having a hard time grappling with the fact that it is already 7th week. Anyway, I really appreciate this sentence you wrote: “I think of all the rows of perfectly green lawns that surround my neighborhood, and I try to imagine what one yard planted with vegetables and wildflowers would look like to a bee flying through this grassy desert.” because I think about what bee’s see, and what other wild beings with eye like structures see A TON.
ReplyDelete1)
This is a loaded question, so I will do my best to answer it pointedly. I first learned about farming when I went to a private catholic school (kindergarten-2nd grade) and my best friend Tess and I would have sleepovers… she lived on a farm and when I would spend the night at her house (I forget where her house is and I have not been in touch with this girl for over a decade) we would have to wake up really early, 5am, do barn chores, then go back to bed and wake up to then help with breakfast around 9. At least this is what we did every time I spent the night at her house. I guess I loved going there because she had so many animal friends and plant friends and I loved both. Besides that, the midwest is full of cities and farm sides kissing each other land to land and crop to concrete. At least, this was my experience. I could write aimlessly about this forever, as I have many thoughts about this but I will save this energy for the next couple questions to see if I can further flesh out my ideas.
2)
I am very cautious when I watch Ted talks because there is not much filtration that goes into being accepted as a speaker for such things. However, I really appreciated his contributions in the focusing of bee populations.
3)
Wow! This was a very well made documentary. It is cool to see some familiar faces in it, (Hi Cam Lund!)
I really appreciated the sounds of the documentary… it really showed how it was a urban space sound of cars whooshing by, trains blowing their horns and other bustling city sounds like sirens. Anyway, I guess I had a couple problems with this video for really obvious reasons. I hate to always be the person to point this out, but this is a non-Native couple participating in indigenous culture especially in their use of drum circles? Also as far representations go, this documentary reifies the common misrepresentation that urban gardens are predominantly white spaces… which just is not true based on the explorations of other community garden spaces I am familiar with.
Regardless, one thing that is foreshadowed in this video is that this couple does not run a community garden anymore. At point 1:08 when Dale Abbott is introduced the clip shows her explaining that people used to garden with them and moved to their own yards. This is nice and all… but it then shows that people moved on and decided to interact with the land on a more individual and basis ignoring the benefits of a shared enterprise. :( CLASSIC… this happens and it is difficult to sustain intrest as there are just more hedonistic and instantly gratifying methods of fulfilling the thirst to interact with the land.
The limitations to community gardens not shown in this documentary is that people aren’t always great at working together, getting along, and committing to shared enterprises. And when the relationships aren’t strong, community enterprises quickly and often fall apart.
4)
One of my favorite Black-Queer-Naturalist poets named Precious Okoyomon showed me New York Cities ENY Farms which has been sustained and operated since 1998! That is over 20 years of SUSTAINED neighborhood interest in the urban community garden.
Here is a link to the farm: https://ucceny.org/enyf/
1. I have not done a lot of farming or gardening but I do sometimes help my mom in the garden, especially now that I'm older and more interested in that. My main interaction with farming has been through our local farm where we get most of our produce, and which we use at my job to cook meals.
ReplyDelete2. This was fascinating!!! I had no idea there were so many different kinds of bees (or that there were wild bees at all...) I just wish he had had more time to talk about all his research.
3. I thought the documentary was really cool. I live in the Vine neighborhood and have always wondered if the small community garden on Oak Street is still maintained. I do wish it had included a bit more about who was involved with the garden and how it functioned.
4. In thinking about urban farming, my mind immediately went back to when I studied abroad in Madrid. There, there is a vertical garden right in the middle of the city. "The vertical garden, designed by Patrick Blanc, is 4 storeys high and takes up one outside wall, overlooking the plaza. It has 15,000 plants from more than 250 different species and most of it is flourishing" (https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/madrids-green-wall-is-flourishing-as-is-the-caixa-forum.html). I recall seeing this and thinking it was amazing that so much plant life could exist in the middle of so much concrete. I think this is a really cool model for urban farming (as well as art, in a way?!) and would love to see it further implemented.
I definitely learned this in an urban setting and it was not as fruitful because how do you try and learn these with limited resources and spaces. There’s only so much you can do in a small patch of grass
ReplyDeleteI was able to find LVEJO which is an organization I’ve been around but never truly explored. This organization focuses on environmental justice in the neighborhood I grew up in. They used to have their offices less than a block away from me, but they moved a couple of years ago and I lost contact with what they were doing. I did not know this, but they started a lof of community gardens and have newsletter updating members of the community called “El Girasol” (The Sunflower)