"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Global Gratitude Gardens: Possible Evokation
The last few days I've been doing alot of work in my garden. We mapped it all out using Google Sketchup:
Tomorrow we're inviting dozens of community groups to the barn to discuss building around 24 community gardens across town. They're going to come every other week and design and build a garden here in the shape of the raincross (which is the upside down bell on the map above), and then the alternate weeks go back to their community location (a church, a school, a hospital) and design their own gardens.
Then next do the hardscape. First with us, then their location.
Then the irrigation, same learn and apply. Then the pathways and raised beds. Then planting. Then learn how to find local partners and identify volunteers and resources in their community. Then harvesting. Then replanting.
All in the learn, then apply style, where they'll be emboldened to do projects they would otherwise not have the spark or courage to undertake.
Plus they'll be networked to support each other, and there will be a complementary city-wide vegetable exchange they'll participate in that will also interface with local soup kitchens.
Its an ambitious plan, but we've worked on similar stuff in the past and are just trying to use all the assets the community already has. We've been asked to do this enough times, we figured its high time we embarked on a serious, integrated plan.
So wish us luck, we're also going to be submitting the Garden Mosaic with its Veggie Exchange, Resourceful Gardens, and Sustainable Hub to the city public utility, the state Strategic Growth Council, and the Metropolitan Water Agency.
I'm thinking of building on this idea for a possible Evokation. I'll contact a few of the agents currently working on food and food security, and discuss my ideas for Global Gratitude Gardens. If you're interested, send me a message.
Tomorrow we're inviting dozens of community groups to the barn to discuss building around 24 community gardens across town. They're going to come every other week and design and build a garden here in the shape of the raincross (which is the upside down bell on the map above), and then the alternate weeks go back to their community location (a church, a school, a hospital) and design their own gardens.
Then next do the hardscape. First with us, then their location.
Then the irrigation, same learn and apply. Then the pathways and raised beds. Then planting. Then learn how to find local partners and identify volunteers and resources in their community. Then harvesting. Then replanting.
All in the learn, then apply style, where they'll be emboldened to do projects they would otherwise not have the spark or courage to undertake.
Plus they'll be networked to support each other, and there will be a complementary city-wide vegetable exchange they'll participate in that will also interface with local soup kitchens.
Its an ambitious plan, but we've worked on similar stuff in the past and are just trying to use all the assets the community already has. We've been asked to do this enough times, we figured its high time we embarked on a serious, integrated plan.
So wish us luck, we're also going to be submitting the Garden Mosaic with its Veggie Exchange, Resourceful Gardens, and Sustainable Hub to the city public utility, the state Strategic Growth Council, and the Metropolitan Water Agency.
I'm thinking of building on this idea for a possible Evokation. I'll contact a few of the agents currently working on food and food security, and discuss my ideas for Global Gratitude Gardens. If you're interested, send me a message.
Views: 70
-
Comment by Jane McGonigal on March 23, 2010 at 7:15am
-
Amazing, congratulations on taking this project to the next level...!
-
Comment by Nicholas Nagao on March 23, 2010 at 1:17pm
-
Sounds like another great project Nick! I like the way you've broken down the "integrated plan". Just out of curiosity, do you usually have all of your participants from the first weekend, or do you get more as the program goes on through word of mouth (I suppose you lose a certain number as you go on as well). Also, how long is this project planned for? I'm sure the answer is obvious, but where are you doing this (California)? Perhaps adding the location to the tag would be helpful for newbies like me hehe. Well, sounds like some great things you're starting wherever it is.
-
Comment by Nick Heyming on March 23, 2010 at 2:25pm
-
Thanks Nicholas. Its in Riverside, California, which was recently designated an Emerald City as a prototype sustainable model for all of California. Most of the reason for that is because of the "top-down" city stuff going on, there was very little in the way of grassroots organizing in that plan.
So when we at Growcology heard that, we decided we'd BE that grassroots movement. So we're taking all the existing community groups that already want to build gardens, and give them the tools. We're also going to doc**ent the wh*** thing, and create scalable models for our wh*** region (the Inland Empire/Green Valley) and the wh*** state.
The Global Gratitude Gardens will Tie into it as well...
-
Comment by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on March 23, 2010 at 6:42pm
-
Great project!!! Best of lucks to everyone at Growcology!!! I like the spiral design on the top left. Are those herb spirals?
-
-
One is an herb spiral, one is a children's educational garden, and the big one on the bottom is a butterfly and hummingbird garden. We've also got a massive beneficial insect attracting garden, a Master Gardener Grow Lab, the Chef's du Potager culinary students' gardens, and the Resourceful Gardens community hub.
-
-
I should label all those.
-
Comment by Jan Lampe on March 26, 2010 at 10:52pm
-
hey, i just saw you tagged it changemind (sorry for being so slow), would you like me to feature it as well?
-
-
Sure Jan! Your post was one of the ones that inspired me to take it to the next level.
-
-
Random fact: Raincross is Riverside California's city symbol. I was trying to figure out if a rain cross was some sort of irrigation system :)
http://www.missioninnmuseum.com/collect_missions/mis00007.htm
-
Comment by Daniel LaLiberte on March 26, 2010 at 11:26pm
-
Alright.. I've been stewing on this idea all week, and maybe finding this blog will push me over the edge. The idea, related to your own it seems, is to put together an internet site/service/portal/whathaveyou to facilitate community gardening around the world.
I do web sites, and collaboration technologies, and I know about gardening, but I would need the help of many other people to do the wh*** garbanzo. I see the need to encourage many many people to grow their own food, locally, regionally, far less globally unless it can be done much more efficiently. But we are all in a fix to put together the necessary resources to make it happen, so we all need to collaborate.
The reason for a global service is to promote networking and sharing of information on a wider scale even if we don't necessarily distribute as many physical resources globally. We have a lot to learn from each other around the world. Another reason is that even if we only shared with our neighboring regions, all regions neighbor other regions, so it is again a global network.
I don't think such a service exists yet, but I will of course investigate that first. Certainly there are global collaboration networks we can leverage as well, but this service will new a few widgets targeted at the needs of community gardening, and the geographic based networking. How this all comes out as an implementation is part of the challenge. Obviously a long-term project, but initiating it is the first step.
That's it in a nutshell. I'll be getting my ACT2 together on this tonight.
Latest Activity
Fourth of July on the Lake
This past weekend was the annual celebration at the lake house in Connecticut. It is amazing that the lake is still so clear and beautiful after all these years. The watershed association has done a wonderful job protecting these waters from the damaging effects of development.The wood grill was finally ready to cook on, so we didn't miss the propane tank fueled grill anymore. The food actually tasted fresher than in the past and was easy to keep fueled.Dad was very proud of the solar hybrid…See More
Stinging Nettle
In this blog post I will focus on a plant that is abundant in our nature, and which is immensely nutritious. It's of course the Stinging Nettle. Let's start with the chemical constituents of this plant:37 % Non-Nitrogen-Extracts19 - 29 % Ash9 - 21 % Fiber4 % Fat22 % ProteinOnce the leaves are drid, their protein content can reach an astounding 40 %, which is much higher than beef, which even under the best of circ**stances can never exceed 31 % protein. In addition the Stinging Nettle consists…See More
The meal
It is 7'oclock, I was late home from work due to an assignment that i wanted to get ahead on. By the time I get home I am feeling extremley tired and I cannot be bothered to make a proper meal. I walk to the fridge and open it to see what there is for me to eat. All of the out of date foodstuffs have been automaticaly thrown away by the fridge, they will be recycled tomorrow as animal feed or something. I see i have organic local eggs and some local cheese. Foods are vacc** sealded for easy…See More
Future
FutureToday is 2020/1/1. It is just like yesterday. The war is still continuing. It has started since 2010. In 2010, that year was a horrible year. Almost every energy ran out. Every country’s governments were crushed down at the same time. There were riots everywhere. All of the big company’s bosses were killed xdeadx in the riots. Troops fought each other everywhere. Food was bought up xawayx at once. There were no more food supplies in any shops. The economy was all crushed down. All the…See More
public servants
The exchange works directly for state and public workers and servants. It gives them credit in exchange for the amount of public work they contribute to the community. The more constructive they are based off a base rate the more credit they recieve.
© 2024 Created by Alchemy.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!
Join Urgent Evoke