Getting Ourselves Back to the Garden
Thursday, April 24th, 2008, 5:25 PM
A spate of articles–from Michael Pollan’s Earth Day piece to one on the kitchen garden movement–encourage readers to get back to the garden.
Tapping into the gardener in each of us, these articles stress, is not only good for our health but good for the planet, too.
Of course, not all of us have gardens to dig into: My Brooklyn apartment is certainly not garden-friendly. Those of us garden-inclined, but city-bound, can transform our stoops, windows, or porches or tap into the abundant gardening possibilities popping up across the country. Here in New York City, thousands of gardeners get their fingernails dirty in community gardens in all five boroughs. Seattle Tilth has been helping folks in that slightly greyer city get into the garden, too.
During World War II, nearly 40 percent of the nation’s produce came from kitchen gardens. It’s long time for a new homegrown food revival.
Learn more at Kitchen Gardeners International: www.kitchengardeners.org.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I always love to hear stories about community gardens in big cities and folks bringing plants into their apartments and on their stoops. Living in a semi-arid environment with poor soil, I can relate to the need to “invent” opportunities to cultivate outside of the traditional models.
Here’s to a growing movement! Cheers!