Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Douglas Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.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

Thanks for the letter, Paul. I've included it in my posting to the group in case you haven't posted it already.

 

While I agree with much of what you've said, and I have no monetary or emotional investment in any book or web site, I think anything that gets folks excited about growing food is good -- especially here in the United States where there's such a disconnection between food producers and consumers. Unanticipated disruptions in the supply chain could make for a lot of hungry and irate people.

 

I live rurally and haven't had to resort to trying to build healthy soil in vacant lots or on road medians but that may be the only opportunity that some who are homeless or living in high rises have -- that and container gardening. I've seen programs on Link TV (Direct TV Channel 375) which illustrated that some neighborhood groups have indeed created thriving gardens on vacant lots and benefited from them.

 

I'm no authority on hungry people -- never having met anyone who was truly starving -- but it's conceivable that street theater and art swaps could help in keeping the spirits of hungry people up if all they had to eat was the bare minimum -- say a potato or a cup of rice.

 

So I hope we don't let what is ideal get in the way of what is better than nothing.

 

Take care,

Doug