Community Gardening
Community Gardening
All these vegetables came from this Community garden.
photo by Suzzycue
More Gardening Tips and Outdoor Fun
If you live in an apartment with a balcony, than planting a Topsy Turvy with tomatoes and a variety of peppers, in the spring,will provide fresh vegetables, and a lot of gardening fun without losing a ton of space on your balcony. Also if you have a window that gives you seven hours of daylight , you can grow your Topsy Turvy indoors and receive lots of tomatoes for your effort.
If you are lucky enough to have a backyard garden than learn the advantages of growing Kale, Beets, or Chard instead of Spinach.
More DIY easy projects to save you money in your home.
My City
My small city of thirty thousand people is having the same problems as many towns and cities all over North America. The auto industry and other factories that generate wages for three to six hundred people each are moving south to Mexico taking with them a higher quality of lifestyle that we became accustom to.
Therefore, our options now are to work for minimum wages after our severance pay and unemployment insurance runs dry. We can go back to school to get retrained in the medical field, which is doing well, since the last of the baby boomers is in their fifties.
Alternatively, we can bring back the barter system and trade our goods and services to each other instead of trading our time for money in factories. We can help our friends and neighbors. The old saying goes; if I do not spend it, I do not have to make so much. In other words, learn to live off what you make. This means unfortunately going without.
Vegetables Harvested From Community Gardens
It was laborday long weekend and the nutrition teacher said to take everything left in the garden because he was going to rototill the garden before winter came.
photo by Suzzycue
photo by Suzzycue
vegetable sauces or veg stew made with harvested vegetables
photo by Suzzycue
Community Gardens
Although we might have to park our cars, we do not have to go without good nutritional food. Community Gardens are popping up everywhere in my city. The Nutritional teacher at one of the high schools, out of his own pocket money, started a Community Garden on school property.
The students and the community can weed and hoe, a vegetable garden that also has two apples, and two pear trees on each of the corners of it. This garden also features a garlic patch and an asparagus patch to the right of it.
The garden itself is rich with tomatoes, cucumbers, spices, and numerous kinds of squash, root vegetables, and eggplant, along with every color of peppers in the rainbow. In September, when the school year is starting , Mr.Wilson, with the help of the students, will prepare and cook to feed his classes with the vegetables from this garden. In doing this students learn what to do with the vegetables and how the vegetables will improve their health.
This kind of garden is showing up in many other spots around the city. We had mystery gardeners (who at midnight) went and dug up the grass in the a few boulevards (that run in front of the sidewalks) and planted vegetables and spices for anyone to pick and enjoy.
Their logic, plant something you can eat. These gardens are also in empty lots, in patches near low-income housing, plus numerous other yards where people are kind enough to share their vegetables.
Stratford is famous for flower gardens and is voted one of the top seven prettiest cities 2010. There are flowers everywhere in the downtown core. There is a one-day garden tour for people to board the train and stop in ten destinations though out Southern Ontario to view flowers and Stratford is one of the stops.
Community gardens are catching on in bigger cities. With less empty lots near their downtown cores, they are planting community gardens on rooftops and donating the vegetables to soup kitchens that feed less fortunate people on the streets.
We can all help even if you live in an apartment, you can find one of these gardens and get your hands dirty. It is great therapy to play in the dirt. Taking home vegetables from trading your time for some exercise hoeing is well worth it. It could even improve your health.
Garden Tips
- Advantages of Growing Kale, Beets, or Chard Instead ...
DIY Garden tips. This hub will compare growing greens in your garden and how to use them after you harvest them. Growing greens are an awesome out door décor that you can eat to improve your health
Garden Tips
- DIY Planting Your Topsy Turvy Planter Grow Tomatoes
How to get seeds inexpensively. Growing your own seedlings. Using the Topsy Turvy Planter on a balcony.
Comments
Susan Britton (author) from Ontario, Canada on July 09, 2012:
Thank you nanadolls for your comment. This was last year in September. I am sure in September/labour day, I will uncover more than enough bounty for my vegetable stew.
nanadolls from Stratford on July 09, 2012:
Suzzycue I have been to that garden it is full of weeds. How did you find anything that wasn't weed related. Good searching.
LittleHomestead from Illinois on February 11, 2012:
They fulfill one of our most basic needs in life!
Susan Britton (author) from Ontario, Canada on February 10, 2012:
Thanks a lot LittleHomestead for these tips. I will certainly pass them on to the teacher. I love being in a garden and hoeing this one gives me great pleasure. Seems like gardening and food does bring people together.
LittleHomestead from Illinois on February 10, 2012:
Hi Suzzycue,
Before we bought a place were I can garden, I belonged to a community garden at a local church. The lady who started the garden applied for grants and received at least one to help cover the cost of straw for the paths, fencing to keep rabbits out, and fertilizer to share with the gardeners. She also went to several local hardware stores and plant nurseries and, by asking nicely and sharing the name of the donors, received free packets of seeds to share. One of the nurseries also gave her the vegetable starts that weren't doing very well. They couldn't sell them and the community gardeners planted them and cared for them. Soon they were producing like crazy. All they needed was a little love.
Maybe your community garden can use some of these ideas too. Happy gardening this year!
Susan Britton (author) from Ontario, Canada on February 01, 2012:
Thanks Trudy.I love gardening and even grow tomatoes on my balcony.
Trudy on February 01, 2012:
Your hub was very enjoyable Suzzycue, like me you enjoy the rich and rewarding experience that gardening can bring.
Susan Britton (author) from Ontario, Canada on February 01, 2012:
Thank you b.Malin for the warm welcome. I look forward to reading more of your hubs too. I think there is something spiritual about gardening and am grateful to go to this community garden at the highschool because I live in an apartment.
b. Malin on January 31, 2012:
I so Enjoyed you Hub Suzzycue, and certainly more "Community Garden"s are needed. It is a Rich and Rewarding experience for Everyone involved.
I look forward to Following your Hubs, and Thank You for becoming a Follower of Mine, and a Big Welcome to Hub Pages!
Susan Britton (author) from Ontario, Canada on January 31, 2012:
Thank you HendrikDB I appreciate your kind comment.
HendrikDB on January 31, 2012:
Very commendable! Keep it up.
Susan Britton (author) from Ontario, Canada on January 30, 2012:
Thank you chspublish I have a lot of fun at the highschool garden and plan to spend more time there next year.
chspublish from Ireland on January 30, 2012:
How right you are. More city and community gardens are needed and what a lovely way to spend the time, being so productive within the city or town confines. Here's hoping it becomes the common thing in years to come.
