An Experience on an Urban Farm

I attended a really inspiring workshop yesterday with the Institute of Urban Homesteading (check them out online at: http://www.sparkybeegirl.com/iuh.html). The class I attended was called Organic Gardening 101, designed to teach the principles of gardening including soil types and preparation, composting, planting seasons, maintenance, and some elementary botany lessons. I found the most inspiring part of the course, however, was just seeing and experiencing this amazing backyard garden in the middle of Oakland that is able to produce so much food.

I was really taken aback by the whole aura of self-sufficiency surrounding the operation. And through producing your own food, one appreciates the immense amount of embodied energy that goes into growing food. It’s a lot of work. The work is immensely rewarding, however, and after spending time in the garden it was obvious how much love had gone into the operation.

The class brought me to think about my own ability to produce food in my garden. Yes we grow some food in our garden, but not as much as the land is capable of producing. Often it is just a matter of dedicating more time to working in the garden. And also knowing and accepting that it’s not going to be perfect the first time around.

Gardening is a learning experience. It’s impossible to get everything right the first time, but through observation and experimentation you learn more about what conditions each plant needs for the next season. And the work is never done. It’s like caring for lots of children as they grow, each one with a different personality and temperament. Once they are grown, then its back to preparing the garden for the next batch.

The Institute for Urban Homesteading offers all sorts of different courses to guide us to becoming more self-sufficient urban dwellers. Some might say it’s a return back to pastoral knowledge that was somehow lost in the past few decades. Yet I think it is essential for the future. Urban farming will become more and more prevalent with the sustainability movement, because it just makes sense to produce food where people live. More and more people want to have local food security, especially with the economic recession.

The idea of taking abandoned urban lots and turning them into small micro-farms is beautiful (see South Central Farmers in LA: http://www.southcentralfarmers.com/). To further encourage the urban farming movement there needs to be some alterations in city regulations and zoning laws. And of course further citizen education, like the work that The Institute of Urban homesteading is conducting.

For more inspiration and information on urban farming also check out Novella Carpenter’s blog, an Oakland resident who turned an abandoned gas station into a beautiful urban farm. http://ghosttownfarm.wordpress.com/