Want to garden? Live in a little townhouse with no sun on the patio (uh, like me)? Longing for a community garden like progressive communities have?
A group called LEAF is trying to make it happen! Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont has set up a Ning that you can join to help them get this exciting effort underway. Traditionally, community gardens are shared spaces where residents get personal garden plots to grow their own fruits and vegetables, while sharing overall maintenance. You get exercise, you get to be outside, you get to grow things that may not be at the farmers’ markets, and you get to control how they’re grown. (Honestly, it’s so bizarre that in the US we “exercise” and spend energy to accomplish nothing, when ideally we should spend that energy gardening, volunteering, enjoying nature, or something–it’s unnatural for humans to work so unproductively and miserably. Community gardens are one way to correct this weird imbalance…OK, tangent over, I promise!)
Anyway, I’m really excited about this! There’s been coverage from the Argus and the Tri-City Voice, if you’d like to read more. Of course, there’s also information at www.leafcenter.org. You might see some familiar names and faces, such as that of Bill Merill, who’s the former manager of the late, lamented Navlet’s garden center.
What would you like to grow if it happens? I know my husband is all about the heirloom tomatoes. Me, I don’t know–maybe some kind of berries, and perhaps some of the few Japanese things that I can’t always get at the farmers’ market already. Could I grow shiso/perilla in that kind of setting? I’m not sure!