Now would be the time for community! Tacky but true. Gardening and growing food locally is looking like more than just a trendy idea. We need to produce much more than our daily bread. Can we form a gardening club – as in big time? Can we make community gardens everywhere there is society? Can we get people with lawns to allow a garden society to change that space into food gardens? Can we get the government to allow us to garden food in their flower beds or other land spaces they own?
The 1930s showed what could happen. Can we do better? Can we change things so that we are less reliant on giant companies? Can we get to the point at which we proudly rely on our community? It is time. It is spring! Planting seeds has begun. I planted a six-by-12 garden. With the grace of the weather as well as the love and work of a community can we grow a new future?
More than once I have turned a lawn into a food garden. There are many ways to make your garden, some very easy and cheap. Books and practice used to be the way to learn. Now we have the internet. For the most part you don’t have to experiment.
The people on YouTube have experimented for years and are sharing their ideas and showing us their gardens. Duck Duck Go is also a great place to search garden and food growing. Maybe you’re interested in growing sprouts or micro-greens. It’s all right there! Can we grow together with our neighbours and turn this paradise valley into the garden of eating?
I do encourage you to go on YouTube, type in Hugel Culture gardening, raised bed gardening, mulching, greenhouses, easy gardening tips. Try any garden topic, watch a video or two and be inspired. The building season is upon us, and the government has shut down the dumps to building material. A lot of that material could make raised beds and small greenhouses to grow our much-needed food. Can we, the community, organize something to change the way we see waste?
Spring has arrived! What can we grow?
John Northcott
Longbeach