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Guerrilla Gardening

AM I WASTING MY TIME AT THE COMMUNITY GARDEN?

marymooBehold my merry plot!

I have been asking myself that almost daily. The health benefits of being with people has been scientifically documented. Either mix and mingle or die. So it’s good on that front. Getting the soil microbes on my skin is good because again, science has found certain bacterias cause a sense of well-being and can only be absorbed by getting your hands into the soil. So there is that. But am I thinking too small?
Anthony at rawmodel.com got me thinking. He’s big into perma-culture and food forests. Basically building a sustainable, long lasting agriculture on a little spot of land that lasts for generations. Forget the struggle with veggie gardening and all that. This is big time. He said to me once via his blog, “That’s great, but think bigger.”
Think bigger.
My plot is currently 30 feet by 40 feet. That’s a ton of room. But I can’t grow trees, and why would I want to anyway there at the community garden? I’d just be throwing my money away should we move someday.
The plots cost $65 a year and I have three. That’s $195 a year. Also, I like to bring in compost and that’s another $40 a yard x a minimum of 5 yards a year. Then you’ve got seeds, etc, etc. So as you can see, it gets pretty expensive, pretty quick. The outlay of cash is significant when you also factor in all the time I spend there in the evenings. What is my time worth? Well it’s not like we can’t afford it, we can. And I love that my little boy is going to be growing up in the garden.
But what I really want is a stitch of land. Doesn’t even have to be a lot although maybe 5 acres? That would do nicely. I would be able to homestead, have a few greenhouses and grow my own food forest.
Of course education for those interested would be a lot of fun too.
I’m torn.
Right now the plot is getting ready to be completely tilled under and planted with crimson clover.
Maybe just maybe that will be my gift to next years gardener?

crmsnclvr

If I take action on that dream, it means eventually moving the hell out of this area, where a half an acre of undeveloped property sells for $469,000 dollars. Could somebody please wake me up? Did I just land in Santa Barbara or Gross Pointe?

On other fronts, I have been looking into guerrilla gardening. It’s a fun and fascinating technique where people take open spaces, like traffic islands and plant! To el with permits matey!

Take a look at this video:

I’ve scouted out the areas in my neighborhood for similar enterprises!
We have a steep ravine surrounding a creek. So much so that the developers just left it alone. I could plant in the trees if I was clever, fashioning hanging planters on 60 lb fishing line, dipping them in the creek and pulling them up into the sun. Now that would increase my readership!
But its just more time. Fun as all get out for sure, but would my efforts be better spent saving every penny I have so that I can get me some land of my own?

October 8th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments are closed

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