Here is another idea for expanding the number of people who could create and practice ‘life-enhancing’ organic and sustainable food gardening in their own yards. From my own experiences, I have repeatedly seen the profound and immediate effect that experiencing a green space filled with native plants and creatures, and food plants has on people.
Developing a permanent organic food and habitat demonstration garden would be a good way to educate and encourage people to start their own home gardens.
Hermann Park would be an ideal location; it is in a relatively high traffic location that is accessible to a diverse cross section of the Houston and visiting population. This could be a beautiful, useful, and popular addition to Hermann Park and to Houston.
We are very fortunate that the Houston climate allows us to experience the wonders of gardening all year round!
Some details:
- It would be a combination fruit, vegetable, and native plant garden.
• This garden would be different from a typical community garden. There would not be rented beds.
• It would be similar to the Japanese garden in that it would be open during the day and locked at night. There would be one or two paid or volunteer gardeners working and answering questions whenever it was open.
• It would be a unique place for people, from all over the city, to come and see the variety of food plants, from all over the world, that can be grown in Houston at different times of the year. It would also serve as source of new information as people from different backgrounds and parts of the world visit and share what they know.
• One of its main purposes would be to educate people about how to grow some of their own food simply, economically, and attractively in their own yards and patios (and possibly spare land in apartment complexes). Example beds might feature plants that have different growth characteristics: food plants that don’t require full sun, vining food plants, high yielding perennial vegetables, etc.
• Simple cooking technique demonstrations (stir-frying) of the food plants would help facilitate the introduction and incorporation of unfamiliar food plants into people’s gardens and diets.
• Seeds, grown on site, and volunteer plants or cuttings could be freely shared.
• Techniques for very simple composting and organic gardening would be demonstrated to eliminate the hindrance of the ‘unknown’.
• The garden would also demonstrate the important link, between our native plant and animal biota (i.e. pollinators, insect predators) and our food supply.
Thoughts?
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