Outrageous Gardens!

I have long agitated whenever given the chance, against any type of factory farming–animal or grain or vegetable or fruit. WHY? Because of the statistical probability of failure and disease.  Why are so many of us gravitating toward locally produced, organic food? We know that on so many levels it’s better for us. By the same token, if you believe you need to eat meat to be complete, you might want to reconsider where that meat comes from and at what price–not just on the sticker, but for the environment and for the future health of the land and water and our bodies and our children’s bodies. (more…)

Recycled metal flower bed at 4th Street.

Our bag garden fitted with strawberries.

We’ve had a couple of very successful new gardens set up in Albuquerque in the past month.  I’m busy balancing the writing of my book, consultations and workshops.  Somehow spring seems to be bypassing us again in Albuquerque, pushing winter later into the year and now with near 80 degrees coming toward us by the end of this week, we may just fly over that season all together.

Here are some photos from our workshops on 3/21 at the North 4th Sustainability Center and on 4/18 at The Source on South Carlisle both in Albuquerque.  Above-ground gardens are so much easier to start and maintain in our changeable and quixotic landscape. Straw bale gardens maintain a more even soil temperature and moisture so plants are less stressed. Tire gardens can be set up nearly anywhere–on a roof or under an eave or tree.  Try it! You can see how happy they make folks….

The mighty sheet mulchers on North 4th Street from New Mexico Youth Organized

Starting the lasagna beds

Filling up the straw bale

A crop of happy gardeners at The Source!

These words from the Haggadah, the traditional re-telling of the story of Exodus, are spoken during the annual Passover Seder. Many Jewish families still follow the instructions and invite total strangers to their table to partake of the story, the food, the ritual that dates back thousands of years.

I know myself that the sweetest moments in my life have come when I lifted something from the soil–a new carrot, a beet or radish, the first tomato off the vine, new potatoes attempting to hide inside damp earth from my probing fingers–and offered these to the first person I met never thinking for a moment that I should have the first nibble from my labors.

It is an act of grace to be able to offer sustenance to someone, especially a stranger.  Within this act of offering food–particularly to someone we may not  know or meet again–is the essence of nourishment, not just for the body but the soul and heart as well.

So who are the hungry in America?

This year in Albuquerque I’m hoping to revive the concept of growing extra food and offering it to food banks in our area. The program is called “Plant A Row for The Hungry” and it began in 1995 by the Garden Writers of America.  It’s success continues to grow (no pun intended) and to date more than 14 million pounds of food have been contributed to foodbanks and pantries in the US and Canada.

The concept is quite simple:

• Plant or glean vegetables, fruits, herbs or flowers.
• Deliver the harvest to a food agency near you.
• Give a PlantARow brochure to anyone who could help.

The need is great and increasing as the economy remains precarious. According to America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest charitable hunger relief organization, 24-27 million Americans rely on emergency food services annually and I’m confident that number will be larger this year.

Roadrunner Food Bank (RFB) of New Mexico is the state’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to ending hunger in New Mexico. In 2006, Roadrunner distributed nearly 14 million pounds of food through a statewide network of over 700 partner agencies and six regional food banks. RFB converts every $1 donated into $9 of fresh produce, bread, meat and non-perishables for hungry New Mexicans and since 1980, has distributed more than 150 million pounds of food.

Here are the statistics for New Mexico:

• New Mexico is first in the nation in the percentage of people who must sometimes wonder where their next meal will come from (16.7%).  Each month in New Mexico, 89,000 people visit pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens in search of emergency food for their families. Some are turned away because there is not enough food for them, but, thanks to the state’s food banks, most receive help.
• New Mexico is fourth in the nation in childhood poverty (27.5%).
• Last year, Roadrunner Food Bank, through its statewide network served 238,000 children and adults in need of emergency food assistance.
• Hungry people lead a fragile existence and make difficult choices among life’s necessities–rent and utilities over food, medicines over food, even clothing over food. And of course nothing left over for music lessons, movies, or tutoring their children.

In lean times everyone can do something to help alleviate hunger and one thing garden-minded folks can do is PLANT SOMETHING! (And if you still aren’t convinced you can garden anywhere, please spend more time on this site.)

If you already have a garden space or participate in a community garden, insist that some area be reserved for this program. And remember: NO contribution is too small.

For a list of agencies providing food in New Mexico, visit New Mexico Association of Food Banks

Hunger IS simply unacceptable and if each one of the 88 million gardeners in the country would simply plant a little more to give away, we could easily supply fresh produce to every one of those in need. I’m encouraging all new gardeners at my workshops to participate.

For more information on the PAR program, contact Garden Writers Association PAR office at 1/877-492-2727.

To learn more about the PAR project here in New Mexico or to consult on ways you or your organization can begin to grow food for this program, please contact Yvonne Scott through my email address outrageousgardener [at] yahoo dot com with “PAR” in the subject line.

One of my teachers, Dattatreya Siva Baba, encourages his students to serve food to those who are hungry. Not just buy some commodities and drop it off at the food bank. No. He means SERVE them. Literally, by going to any place where a hungry person might be and offering them food you have prepared yourself–with love and care. In this way, we honor and respect our brothers and sisters who are truly the same as we are….except they are lacking food.

The underlying goal of this website has always been offering another avenue for ending hunger, for leveling the field so ALL can benefit from the abundance of this Earth. In the following article written by one of my personal heroines, France Moore Lappe, [included in today's post in its entirety] you will see  just how possible it is even for large cities to reverse hunger and poverty…if there is the compassion and the WILL to do so. Not surprising for me, the person who engineered this system in the third largest city in Brazil is also a woman.

Austin (TX) Capitol Area Food Bank campaign, 2008 (http://www.austinfoodbank.org/)

The City that Ended Hunger

A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.
by Frances Moore Lappé, YES! Magazine

Friday, March 13, 2009

“To search for solutions to hunger means to act within the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of a mere consumer.” City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil (more…)

“Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant a garden.” – Orson Scott Card.

You don’t have to be unemployed to join us on March 21st for our “Outrageous Gardens Party” in the near North Valley in Albuquerque.  But if you are, we can show you some creative ways to increase your food security. Here’s what we hope to accomplish in just one day:

With a little help from some friends (YOU!) and some donated materials, we will do an extreme makeover of a former parking area into an attractive and functional community garden space in just a few hours!!

You’ll learn how to create highly productive above-ground gardens using straw bales, tires, burlap bags, rocks, old terrones, fencing and other recycled items all without tilling. These gardens are designed for intensive planting with a minimum of labor and materials. They come from all over the world, are fun, inexpensive and quick to set-up.

DATE: Saturday, March 21st

TIME: 10-3pm

Children are encouraged to participate accompanied by parents.

For more information, to register and for directions, contact outrageousgardener [at] yahoo.com.

Don’ forget: hats, sunscreen, water bottles, garden and hand tools to use on site and gloves.  Snacks will be provided.

COST: $20 + ONE of the following: Small bottles of toiletries (unopened); 2 canned goods; gently-used children’s books.

Donated items will support food pantries, homeless shelter clients, & reading programs for shelter children.

WE BELIEVE EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A GARDEN!

…and produce 60-80% of the world’s food supply in Asia and Africa. Yet these same women–who also bear the children, tend the children, haul the water and wood and cook the food they grow–share few if any of the benefits and incentives their male counterparts receive. (more…)

World population, which is currently 6.5 billion, is growing at 76 million annually, with an expected peak at 9.5 billion by 2070.

For the first time, global population estimates this year show that more people live in cities than in rural areas. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations projects that almost all of the population growth between 2000-2030 will be urban.

By 2020, according to the International Resource Centre for Urban Agriculture and Forestry, some 75 percent of the world’s city dwellers will live in developing countries – many of them in poverty. Already in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN, almost three-quarters of city residents live in rapidly growing slums. And this isn’t a migration of rural poor to the cities. These are groups impoverished by living conditions within the urban setting which prevents access to basic needs such as clean water, sewers, education and food production or the availability of fresh foods.

This is a scenario which will become more common I feel in days and months ahead. And living in the United States does not mean we are exempt. Residents of inner cities and marginal income areas have suffered from a lack of access to quality fresh foods for decades. It’s just that more of us may become aware of this problem in the months ahead.

One answer to over-crowding in our cities and to the wasted space atop business building, schools, hospitals and yes, parking garages (while we still have them) is to create garden oases.  And one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to do that is with childrens’ wading pools. Back in the mid-1990’s, Dr. Job Ebenezer was then Director of Environmental Stewardship and Hunger Education for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Job (as I refer to him) initiated an experiment in food growing on the rooftop of the church’s parking garage. Practical, compassionate, inventive and determined, Dr. Job is a true hero in service to his community.

The hope was that the roof top garden would serve as a role model for creative use of urban space throughout the country. Dr. Job proved the feasibility of growing vegetables in plastic wading pools, used tires and feed sacks. Urban gardeners at the ELCA offices in Chicago harvested nearly 1,000 pounds of vegetables from approximately 40 wading pools and a dozen of used tires and feed sacks. Here are his figures from those years: (more…)

[UPDATE: Thanks to the 37,693 other people who joined me in our fast on Feb. 1st. Stay tuned for Kumi Naidoo's report on the results of his appeal to African heads of state in Ethiopia.]

A protest!

From the amazing AVAAZ.org website, comes this invitation to joins tens of thousands of people on Sunday, Feb. 1st as we fast in solidarity with the starving and impoverished citizens of Zimbabwe.

The movement for democracy in Zimbabwe has just raised the stakes: hundreds of activists in Southern Africa, including Desmond Tutu, have begun a rolling hunger strike to press for justice. This regional demonstration of commitment is putting real and growing pressure on leaders to demand a fair settlement in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has descended to an almost unimaginable state of desperation. Most of Zimbabwe’s 11 million people eat one meal a day—or less. But as pressure rises at home, in the region, and around the world, Mugabe’s grip on power may be slipping.  That’s why this one day global solidarity fast -(from sun up to sun down)- is so important, for the more of us that fast, the stronger the call for justice and democracy.

And now watch Kumi Naidoo’s video appeal – he will deliver our global message of solidarity to African heads of state gathering in Ethiopia on Sunday, 1 February!

Each day in the world nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry, most of them women and children and the people of Zimbabwe are among the poorest. Please fast with us at Outrageous Gardens this Sunday as we stand with the people of Zimbabwe to eradicate poverty and hunger with every tool we can find.  They are counting on us and for some, this may be their last chance.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

The blogs will be overflowing today with intensely personal reflections on this historic date of January 20, 2009. And as tickled as I was to watch the former president fly away from Capitol Hill this morning (yes, I’ll admit I was screaming FASTER! FASTER! at the tv) there was something else that was mentioned several times by reporters and commentators that resonated even more profoundly for me.  It had nothing to do really with the color of skin of our new President, or his faith, or the long march to freedom long overdue people of color, or his promises to again live by the rule of law which sounded so delicious to my ears burned by 8 years of the Bush monarchy. No, what kept rolling over and over… (more…)

It’s nearly midnight here in the middle Rio Grande of New Mexico where I live.  I’m spending the evening in a reflective mode, enjoying the near 40 degrees outside rather than the middle teens we had a week ago.  I’ve walked the nature center trail this morning, fed my neighbor’s cat, talked to my children and even purchased a used car–with great fuel economy and carrying capacity I quickly add. A very interesting New Year’s Eve day.

I also took the time to listen to several PhilosophersNotes downloads as a segue into the new calendar year.  I highly recommend these 20 minute uplifting messages first because they are profoundly inspiring teachings condensed from books on various financial, metaphysical and self-development subjects and second, because they are completely free (at least right now.)  As I set up about an hour’s worth of readings to listen to from Wayne Dyer, Eric Butterworth, David Koch and others, I jotted down various comments, quotes and ideas that attracted my interest.

When I looked back on what seemed like unconnected doodles on my spiral notebook, a pattern had emerged.  A pattern of thought, a pattern of purpose and a pattern for engaging in this work I’ve chosen for myself.  Two words stood out:  banish doubt. (more…)