This month, in celebration of Earth Day, we're thinking about starting a garden in the yard. For those of us with black thumbs, the thought of gardening is a bit daunting. But the urban agriculture movment is on the rise as people living in cities seek a healthier, more sustainable local food system. We burn through a lot of fuel transporting produce from the farm to the city, storing and refrigerating it at the market and driving to the store and back to buy our groceries every week. Growing our own vegetables, herbs, flowers - even chickens - is a great way to lighten our environmental load. Click here for an overview of the situation and here for ways we can respond. You can also check out our archives page for previous agendas and meeting ideas.
April Focus: Grow Your Own!
> Welcome & Check-In (approx. 5 minutes per person)
If this is your first meeting, members can use this time to
introduce themselves, talk a little about why they're interested in
going green and how they'd like to see the group evolve. If you met last month, this time is an opportunity for each of you to talk briefly about your successes and challenges from last month's goals. Questions you might ask include: How did last month go? Which goals did they try? What worked? What didn't and why? This is a good time for people to ask each other for suggestions too.
> Break (5 minutes)
If you have a large group or a good conversation, the check-in may take about an hour. If this happens, you may choose to take a quick break before moving into the next section of the meeting.
These educational bullets are intended to provide the group with a baseline understanding of the chosen focus area. The facilitator can choose to share these points or supplement them with additional information and resources.
The Situation
> Urban populations throughout the world are growing more than twice as fast as rural populations. The world is fast approaching the point where the majority of the human population will be found in urban areas. According to the UN Centre for Human Settlements, more than half of humanity will live in cities by the year 2015.
> Most of the food consumed in urban environments comes from rural and agricultural areas. Significant resources are spent producing, transporting, distributing, marketing, processing and managing our food supply uses tremendous resources. Up to 25 percent of the ecological impact of an 'advanced' city can be attributed to its food systems.
> Urban agriculture increases the efficiency of national food systems by supplying perishable products such as vegetables, fresh milk and poultry products, complements rural agriculture by positively impacting urban food security as it decreases foodmiles – the distance between field and plate. (Doors of Perception)
> Our urban gardens can use our food waste as compost and graywater for irrigation, further reducing our impact on our environment.
> Urban agriculture programs like City Slicker Farms provide people living in inner-city, low-income communities with the tools and skills to grow their own inexpensive, fresh, healthy food.
> Wage cuts, inflation, job loss, civil strife, and natural disasters are becoming more frequent, leading to greater food insecurity. It wouldn't hurt to have a fresh food stash in the yard, just in case.
What We Can Do (20 minutes):
From this list of green lifestyle changes, each member of your group can choose a reasonable number of goals to work on over the next month. Your group can decide if you want to each choose different goals, work on the same ones, or scrap all of ours and create your own. Please let us know if you have new goals to add to our list.
> Talk to an expert or two
If you're new to gardening (like me), it might be worth your while to do some research and talk to someone who knows what they're doing. If you don't know a gardener personally, you can always find expert advice and support from gardening organizations like Urban Tilth or Seattle Tilth.
> Choose your space
Spend some time thinking about how much you want to take on. Here' are some useful links for different garden sizes:
- Hydroponic Gardening
- Container Gardening (Here's a link to all kinds of interesting containers.)
- Plastic Swimming Pool Garden
- Square-Foot Gardening
- Big Gardens
> Learn about soil and try building a worm bin for your compost*
There's a science to soil, starting with choosing the right kind of composter. Here's a link to a cheap and easy worm bin that even works for apartment dwellers. For those of us with mad carpentry skills to pay the bills, here's a plan for a wooden worm bin.
> Look into ways to collect rainwater and graywater for irrigation*
A great way to help the environment and reduce your water bills is through collecting rainwater. You can do this with the aid of a rain barrel.
*If you live in Seattle, our esteemed public utlities company will deliver rain barrels and Green Cone composters to your front door. Go Mayor Nickels! If you don't live in Seattle, you could make it happen in your community too.
> Grow something
and tell us all about it!
> If all else fails, sign up for a local organic farm's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and enjoy fresh, delicious, organic produce every week. Those farmers really know what they're doing.
> Super Challenge! (5 minutes)
If your group likes to live on the wild side, try a Super Challenge. It's a fun way to take a green risk and try something new. You can choose one related to the month's theme, pick one at random, or create a new one as a group (send us your favorites to add to our list).
For those of us new to gardening, just starting is a super challenge! For those who have been doing this for a long time, what are you doing to take things to the next level?
> Wrapping It Up (5 minutes)
As you wrap things up after all that good green fun, make sure to determine the facilitator, location, date and time for next month's meeting. The new facilitator will be responsible for reminding the group a week or so before the next meeting.
And that's it! If you run into snags or want to celebrate your goals over the next month, you can talk it out with the other members of your group or here in our online community.