Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

The website you included http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/IndividualItemPages/FoodNotLawns.html
is a useful source of information and books.  Books from Carla Emery and
Seymour I have and draw from. As always we can't necessarily agree with
everything every author writes, but all in all it's wise to be growing food
instead of grass you can't eat. At least for those who have their own lawns
to begin with. But looking at Flores I have to point out that street
theater and art swaps won't feed the hungry, though it may appeal to a
certain crowd I don't have time for. As for growing in medians and vacant
lots, it's a fool's errand. Flores apparently hasn't a clue about building
healthy soil. Put some work into a median (know what kind of dirt and stuff
they backfill medians with, Flores?) and you'll find it walked on and
polluted with exhaust fumes. Mess with medians around here and you'll have
police all over you. That's city property, not yours. That vacant lot she
rhapsodises about may be toxic, and if not and you manage to grow
something, you're not likely to be the one to harvest it. I wonder if she
ever grew anything, since most gardens need watering and people living
beside vacant lots aren't likely to do it for you. Maybe you could carry a
lot of water every week in summer. And if the owner doesn't call you on
trespassing. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 4/2/2007 at 5:36 AM Douglas  Willhite wrote:

>For those of you interested to learn more about Food, Not Lawns here is
>an overview from the publisher:
>
>Food Not Lawns combines practical wisdom on ecological design and
>community-building with a fresh, green perspective on an age-old subject.
>Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step
>permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build
>fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their
>own "paradise gardens." 
>
>
>
>But Food Not Lawns doesn't begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful
>permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of
>the paradise garden-simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness,
>and community-to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren
>intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street
>theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from
>refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot
>of land; work with children to create garden play spaces. 
>
>
>
>Flores cares passionately about the damaged state of our environment and
>the ills of our throwaway society. In Food Not Lawns, she shows us how to
>reclaim the earth one garden at a time.
>
>
>
>You can also read a book excerpt from chapter 2, Urban Ecology here:
>http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/IndividualItemPages/FoodNotLawns.html
>
>Cheers,
>Doug
>
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