Suburban Food Production – Growing Your Own Is Not As Hard As You Think!
I’ve had a post brewing in my mind for the last day or so relating to the idea of home food production (a potentially important consideration on the journey towards ‘sustainable living’). As you may recall from my post about Edible Estates, I’m really passionate about the idea growing your own food and connecting with nature on the homefront.
Well everything came together for me this morning (I love it when a plan comes together!) while reading a great post written by one of our eco-friends, Shea Gunther (Update on my urban food gardening business idea) in which he discusses an interesting idea for an organic gardening business. I highly recommend you check out the post.
Essentially, the idea would be to start up a company devoted to helping people set up organic food gardens in their yard. Depending on the customer’s level of experience and/or desire to get involved, it could be as hands-on or hands-off an experience as they wish! In other words, if the ONLY thing they wanted was the organic produce for their family (not the hassle of tending to the garden etc etc), the landscaping company would simply take care of everything.
I think its an absolutely brilliant idea and I’m interested to see if anyone is doing something similar here in Ontario (I’ll mention some other Canadians involved in this type of business in a minute).
I’m sure there are a lot of people who would love to have a productive organic food garden at their disposal, but just don’t have the time/energy/know-how/courage to take action.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a non-gardening friend of mine when he was over for a bbq this summer. We were out in the yard admiring and chatting about my tomato plants and he said something that really caught my attention. It was something along the lines of being scared to get into gardening because he knows nothing about it (doesn’t know the difference between a garden plant and a weed and so forth).
Being a person who has been getting my hands dirty in one way or another all my life (whether it be looking for salamanders under logs, or helping my dad out in the garden etc), I just couldn’t comprehend that mindset.
Looking back now it all makes sense. I bet there a many people who feel the same way – that is to say, people who would probably love to have a garden but just don’t have to confidence in themselves to try it out.
I imagine some people might not be all that agreeable when it comes to the idea of digging up their beautiful suburban lawns, but another variation of Shea’s idea that came to mind could involve starting an organic plot at some other location – ie. you phone up the company and tell them what sort of organic produce you are interested in, and they simply grow it for you somewhere else.
All this has my mind churning with possibilities! Thanks again to Shea and his perfect timing!
Speaking of which, earlier I mentioned that there are some Canadian’s involved in businesses with a similar scope (mentioned in Shea’s post).
Be sure to check out The Urban Farmer, a green landscaping business based in Edmonton Alberta. Here is a blurb from their homepage:
The Urban Farmer is an Edmonton-based organic gardening and landscaping business specializing in the design, construction, and maintenance of sustainable urban landscapes. Our business emphasizes the use of edible plants, native plants and select “exotic” plants in the creation of landscapes that are both beautiful and productive.
Also mentioned in Shea’s post was Green Cycle Urban Agriculture, based in Vancouver BC.
Green Cycle is about taking back control of what you eat. It’s about your right to know what is in your food and how it was grown. It’s about rebuilding lost or forgotten skills. It’s about nurturing yourself and the land. It’s about being conscious of your impact on the earth and taking action to reduce your footprint. It’s about providing for others, sharing, and teaching.
I’m definitely going to do some more research into all this. Very very interesting stuff!
By the way, in case you are curious, the image at the beginning of this post shows my final harvest of tomatoes this year. What’s funny is the fact that I really didn’t take my gardening too seriously this season. I ended up planting the tomatoes a month late, so many were still green by the time I collected the last of them. Nevertheless it served as a fantastic reminder that there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to growing plants! Vegetable gardening (and gardening in general) is a lot easier than many people think, and it can be a hugely satisfying endeavour.
I’m already excited about all the possibilities for next year!
Technorati Tags: gardening, edible estates, edible landscaping, organic, vegetables, sustainable living, self-sufficiency
Written by Bentley on November 24th, 2006 with
7 comments.
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David
#1. November 27th, 2006, at 2:41 PM.
That’s such a great idea for people who want the organic veggies but don’t know how to get into gardening. Iwill be overhauling the backyard of my first home to create a veggie garden and flower beds next spring, and although I don’t know a lot about it, my parents and grandparents have always been gardeners and I’ll have them around for guidance. If not I don’t know how I would get into it, so it’s great to know there are people out there teaching it. I’d rather do the upkeep myself, but for people who don’t have the time, at least their yard will be put to good use, and they don’t have to go far for great produce.
It would be interesting to see if they could take it a step further, with the company buying excess produce from the gardens they tend to and selling them locally. The homeowners get what they need and make a small profit from the rest.