Got Grass?

A big Thank You! to those that were able to show up and help with the digging up the remaining lawn at the new Ginger Olive garden last Saturday. We were able to get that pretty good sized area dug and the grass turned over that day, and now the exposed soil is happily drying out and will be ready for some further bed prep in the next few days.

More and more this whole urban farming thing seems to be about being in the moment, paying attention to what's right in front of you, and moving available resources to where they have the highest use. By not focusing on a single growing space, or farm, and it's unique situation, I've started to see how the gardens are a place to concentrate materials so that the plants can do their thing. When you are able to let go of the feeling of ownership about things, places, and situations, you start to see how opening up to a slightly larger perspective allows things to flow back and forth in a wonderful way.

I find myself telling many random people I meet about growing what works in your yard, helping your neighbors grow what works in their yard, and then sharing what you've all got with each other. You know, that's really all I'm doing, on just a bit bigger scale. I'm just the one who is happy to hold that space on pretty much a 24/7 basis, and knows what's growing where. Oh, and I've learned how to talk to the plants too. ;)

I'm also finding it's about action. The plants, the seasons, they are all on their own schedule. And I find they are much more serious about survival than most humans. When the season is right, when the moon is right, when the weather is just right, it's time for some kind of action in regards to growing food. We don't need another meeting to discuss what to do. We can just spend that time in the garden watching what the plants are doing on their own. We can chat for 5 minutes with a hoe in our hands about what to do that day. Because until that day and moment presents itself, we probably don't know what that day in the garden will bring.

If you'd like to share some of those moments get in touch by email about what's going on, and when you'd like to spend some time seeing what's happening in one of the gardens. While there will be more organized get togethers like last Saturday, there is also something happening somewhere every single day too.

As we hear more every day about institutions and organizations that have become ineffective if not near complete demise, I am only concerned with our society's lack of action about feeding itself. As I travel throughout SE Portland each day I see so many huge expanses of neatly manicured, bright green lawns and empty lots, and I wonder when the majority of us are going to wake up and realize that produce from China and Mexico are not going to feed us in the long term.

The empty lots I feel will become more and more available as the owners of those lots realize they are not going to cash in by building condos there, if they are even able to hold off the bank from taking them. And what is the bank going to do with those lots? I'm sure I will be growing and helping to grow food in many of those places, but what of the huge expanses of resource intensive lawns in so many places? There needs to be a huge shift in consciousness of those who dictate what grows in those spots. I think it's only a matter of a year or two until growing a lawn becomes an unacceptable use of resources and space that could be growing food.

When you start to really notice lawns, it is astounding how many of us hold on to that very old concept of royalty who used lawns as a way to show that they were wealthy enough to not have to grow their own food. An old idea from another era. And I'm not talking just about front yards of residences. Start noticing how many lawns and parking lots you see at schools, churches, parks and golf courses. How much grass and asphalt do we really need? I think many more of us will start seeing those places as I do, with food growing there. I just heard in the last few days of a group starting to buy up old golf courses to plant food. Not sure where I heard that or I'd provide the link which I don't remember. If you are the one who told me that, could you please send me that link?

BTW, you might have seen the "Got Grass?" flyers starting to sprout up on bulletin boards around SE. It's aimed at telling potential land-lenders what's in it for them if they agree to become a partner in this urban farming by letting some food be grown in their space. I felt a different picture of this might have been painted at the urban farming event in Feb, and I wanted it to be known how I and a few of my farming allies see the stewardship of a new garden plot. Take a look at the info page on the website. Got Grass?

I just read a very interesting story in Mother Jones about the current state of the "local" and "organic" movement that you need to read, Spoiled: Organic and Local is so 2008. This article truly has some food for thought about where we are and where we might need to go. While I don't agree with everything that Paul Roberts writes here, such as that the majority of food production will be in rural areas, I do feel that some important points were made that might not be obvious.

There is a recurring theme in the story about what won't work because it's not very successful on a large scale. This points out what I think we all need to wrap our heads around, and that is that it's this large-scale thinking that got us into this sad state in food production anyway. Many small efforts that collaborate and support each other are what's going to work for us. The era of competition is over folks. We're going to have to learn to work together and trust each other, oh yes, and be willing to give things away if we want to create true abundance.

There is much food for thought in this article that you will not find in similar articles in the mainstream media who are all jumping on the bandwagon with what they call relevant news about the topic of food in our future. Even George Will wrote the thinnest article you can imagine recently about the evils of agribusiness while quoting Michael Pollan for more than 50% of the article. Nice try George, but you're about 5 years late with no new info in that article. Has war become too much of an unpopular topic for the journalistic hawks to make a living at it?

If you want to see what's really going on with food, get yourself to a garden and watch what is happening there. The plants will love your company.

Peace and peas,
Calliope