Urban gardening: The real green revolution

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Urban gardening, the gardening in the towns and suburbs, is highly political. Anyone who belittles this movement blocks his own view of this societal change.

If one would want to measure the success of a movement on the number of those that claim that it cannot possible be any good then the Urban Gardening Movement has during the few years that it has been in existence come a long way already.

Unfortunately there are some writers in newspapers and other media who belittle this to the extent that the state that those who long for the countryside and for gardening and farming should move to the countryside because towns and cities have been sealed, poisoned, and so on. They find it laughable that people are planting Marigolds in front of their doors or tomatoes on their balconies.

But many of those writers have actually no idea, it would seem, what this urban gardening and urban farming is all about. It is not about just growing food for oneself but to actually grow food for the people in the city, and in some cases those urban gardens are created in such a way that everyone can have the food for free (or almost for free) and the movement is growing regardless.

Urban gardening does not mean annexing of ground for private use but free access for all to grow food. It is a fact that the almost 500 urban community garden in Germany, for example, are some of the few places in the gentrified towns where people from different social strata meet in the public realm and interact by creating such gardens and working them.

Those urban community gardens are an innovative contribution to the restructuring of the living together in towns and cities where there is an increasing delineation between the different classes (and I do use the word class/classes here deliberately) which produces a great many risks for our living together in those spaces.

While growing produce for use by all, in community gardens “managed” and worked by all, by people from different strata and classes in the city, is one part of it such gardens also and especially aim to overcome the borders that have been created between people of different groups in society, in our increasingly gentrified towns and especially cities.

Through gardening together in reclaimed public spaces collective forms are created that can be seen as part of an ever strengthening commons movement even and especially in our towns and cities. Those forms could be the basis for new political framework to change society and all for the better.

Though not everyone may be realizing the potential that the urban gardening movement has to change the political structure and through it society as a whole. The powers-that-be, however, are well aware of its potential and thus use the media to belittle those that participate in this, whether in the form of community urban gardens or simply by trying to be somewhat more autark by turning their front and back yards and their balconies, etc., into spaces in which to grow at least some of their food.

People who are independent – to some extent – from the markets and people who join in community of whatever kind are perceived as a threat by the powers-that-be and thus every attempt possible is being made to discredit them in they eyes of the majority not as yet involved.

© 2017

Sustainable Raised Beds

Raised beds are popular with gardeners, growers and allotmenteers. Tom Girolamo from Eco-Building & Forestry explores the need for them to be built with sustainable materials.

Can raised garden beds be part of a sustainable landscape? I've often pondered this question. Cutting down old growth cedar (or even redwoods) to construct them, using lots of other materials and doing a lot of work just to grow a few dollars' worth of vegetables doesn't sound that sustainable.

However, Sybil's raised beds (above) that I constructed for her, changed how I think. She wanted this protected and raised garden as part of her lifestyle on her property and she wanted it to fit her personality.

Lessons learned

Make raised beds fit your lifestyle and personality

Place the raised beds where you will see and use them every day

Create an outdoor 'room' with a variety of uses including relaxing and even for entertaining

Build in reduced maintenance and easy repair

Read more: http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/sustainable-raised-beds

Urban gardens are key in times of crisis

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Allotment gardens have often been sources of local resilience during periods of crisis. During World War I the number of allotment gardens surged from 600,000 to 1,500,000 in Britain, supplying city people with food and other ecosystem services.

The gardens were planted in parks and sports fields, and even Buckingham Palace turned up the earth to grow vegetables. After declining abruptly in the 1920s and 1930s, World War II saw a new explosion in the numbers of allotment gardens in cities of Britain and other parts of Europe.

In Germany, and several other European countries, allotment gardens have always played a great role for the people and in giving them a small measure of self-sufficiency in food though some do manage to grow more than enough for themselves and their families as far as vegetables are concerned.

In Britain the law, theoretically, states that councils have a duty to provide land for allotment gardens if a certain number of people demand them. This appears to be (1) a little known fact and (2) something councils often do not follow either, even if the demand is there.

In other European countries the allotment garden movement is far more active than it is in Britain and also much better organized and there are allotment colonies all over the place. Cities, towns and even villages have them and they are well used, it would seem.

However, we need more urban and suburban community gardens where people can grow their own food and there is enough derelict land around in most places so that this can be possible, also in the UK, and in the middle of the cities. Where the soil may be contaminated it is quite feasible, though it means bringing in healthy soil, to do the growing beds in large containers such as reused builder bags which nowadays, to 90%, are not reused by the companies and cannot even be returned. This is, basically, killing two birds with one stone namely having a place in which to grow food and also keeping such bags, made predominately from woven polypropylene, out of landfill.

Using this approach could turn many empty urban lots in any town or city into productive community gardens without needing to dig the ground, which might be covered in concrete or tarmacadam and thus cannot be easily dug or ground that is possibly contaminated. Yes, it would require bringing it good soil to fill the bags with and then grow the food therein but that still is better than not having such gardens at all.

Allotments must be made available also to all that want to work such plots and not just in urban areas but in them and suburban areas especially as there less land at home is available for the growing of food and people must be encouraged to grow at least some of their own food at home or at allotments and similar gardens.

Our food security depends on this for our individual regions as much as for the country as a whole and there was a time when all cities had market gardens and small farms surrounding them and even almost in their hearts, as did Paris before World War One and we must bring this back to make local foods available to all.

Allotment garden, known as Schrebergaerten or Kleingaerten in German, have in that country been in use for about a century or so and they are, as previously stated, well received and they are much like that Dachas in Russia, and in some cases, just like on their Dachas in Russia, people spend their entire summers, growing plants, both flowers and vegetables, living in little cabins.

During the Second World War the roads and streets of Germany, including those in towns and cities, were lined with fruit trees to provide fresh fruit, especially apples, pears and plums, for the population during the war time and many of those trees were still about in the 1980s though rarely anyone made use of the fruit provided by the trees.

There were also, once upon a time, so-called common trees of various fruits that lined the country lanes of Britain but most of those trees have been grubbed out by now as they were deemed a danger to motorists. The car has to come first, obviously. But, actions of guerrilla gardeners grafting fruit tree branches to that of city trees and the reception of this by the people proves that it would be popular to have fruit trees lining the streets and being found in our parks and open spaces. Many, the majority, in fact, of our common woods in the countryside were a mix of timber trees with fruit trees (the latter in the end also will provide valuable timber) to a ratio of 2:1. Proof that it is all possible and that food security can be created for every area, including our urban and suburban areas. Time we got going.

© 2013

Green Spaces essential for human health, study finds

Who would have thought? </sarcasm off>

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Now that was the very reason why Parks were created in Britain under the Public Health Act of 1875 and subsequent ones.

You probably also already know about the power of green spaces on your mind and body, but there hasn’t been any sort of real scientific assessment of that – until now.

But, was there really a scientific study needed? Well, maybe yes. Maybe this will make people value their parks and open spaces more.

Frances "Ming" Kuo, Director of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois has studied the effect of green space on humans in a number of settings and measured the effect of nature on human health and well being by using data such as police crime reports, blood pressure, performance on standardized neurocognitive tests, and physiological measures of immune system functioning.

What she discovered was what most of us probably already know. "In greener settings, we find that people are more generous and more sociable. We find stronger neighborhood social ties and greater sense of community, more mutual trust and willingness to help others. "In less green environments, we find higher rates of aggression, violence, violent crime, and property crime -- even after controlling for income and other differences," she said. "We also find more evidence of loneliness and more individuals reporting inadequate social support."

Because of this strong correlation between nature and health, Kuo encourages city planners to design communities with more public green spaces in mind, not as mere amenities to beautify a neighborhood, but as a vital component that will promote healthier, kinder, smarter, more effective, more resilient people.

It is for that very reasons that publicly owned parks and open spaces, parks to which the public has access to and gardens at home and especially also allotments must be part and parcel of our (urban) environment.

For that very reason also the provisions for parks and open spaces and those for allotment garden must not be reduced but must be increased rather. More people having access to such areas would, more than likely, reduce a lot of our problems in society today.

Not that that, probably, will make any difference to the people wielding the knife and the axe in Whitehall and other government departments in the UK as well as in countries such as the USA, etc.

They rather tackle the problems than to provide preventive means, which parks and open spaces and allotments are. In addition to that allotments are a vital part of national food security.

When that was mentioned, however, and the fact that we need to be more self-sufficient in food production some idiots in DEFRA and other government departments stated that, as a nation we have enough money to buy our food from abroad. Doh? And what are we going to do when we can no longer (afford to) bring the stuff in because of lack of fuel or of uneconomic costs of same? What then?

© 2011

What should you be doing in the garden now, in the middle of September?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

If you live in the northern hemisphere where autumn is now upon us then harvesting should be your priority, along with sowing some of next years crops.

If the recent strong winds have not blown all your apples off the trees – especially here in Britain – then you should be picking the ripe fruit before they fall and get damaged.

Once picked, clean and dry each apple carefully and store the best individually wrapped in newspaper.

Store the apples in a cool dark place and check on a regular basis and remove any rotting fruit.

With the bumper crops we are having this year in the UK there should be plenty of fruit to keep you eating apples into the winter.

Apples that have blemished and that may be a little bumped make into apple sauce and apple butter and can those.

Also about now you should be digging up your main crop potatoes and storing them in potato sacks.

Crops to be sowing now for next year should now include Broad Beans and hardy peas.

In anticipation of a similar winter to that which we have had last year in this country, Britain, you should think of protecting the crops in the worst of the winter weather with cloches.

Many good ideas for how to winterize a garden and how to, in fact, continue growing food in your garden all year round can be found in the book “The Winter Harvest Handbook” by Elliot Coleman published by Chelsea Green. Definitely worth investing in.

© 2009
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CobraHead Announces E-Coat For Their Tools

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Cambridge, WI – July, 2009 – CobraHead LLC (a leader in ecologically friendly gardening products) is now using E-Coat epoxy coating on the blade of their CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator and the locking collar of their CobraHead Long Handle. E-Coat is a special formulation organic polymer that provides a good looking, tough and rust resistant black coating. The coating is durable but will wear away on the small tool as its blade is in contact with the ground. As it wears away, it breaks down into non-toxic, bio-degradable components.

Readers of this magazine will certainly, I am sure, appreciate the features and value-for-money cost of these high quality tools. The tools are made in the USA from US sourced materials. Not often you can say that about a product nowadays.

The short handled version incorporates a bio-plastic handle comprised of post-industrial recycled plastic and strengthening fibers from agriculturally grown flax.

The long handled version is custom sized according to the user’s height and is perfect for anyone who has difficulty bending over. Left or right handed gardeners will find both versions comfortable to use.

The tools have a knife-quality steel blade of a unique "cobrahead" shape that easily cuts through soil. The blade is best thought of as a “steel fingernail®” that grabs weeds and pulls them out intact, including the whole root. The edges of the blade are quite sharp, so the tool is also effective for scalping and cutting off weeds at or below ground level. Its weeding capabilities are superior to all other small weeders currently being marketed.

The short handle CobraHead® Weeder and Cultivator weighs just 9.2 oz and is 13" long. It is available for purchase through the www.cobrahead.com website ($24.95 including shipping) and at select garden stores and catalogs.

The long handle CobraHead® Weeder and Cultivator weighs 2.4 pounds and comes in handle lengths of 48", 54" and 60" (inches). The blade assembly adds 8" to the length. It is available for purchase through the www.cobrahead.com website ($59.95 including shipping) and at select garden stores and catalogs.

© 2009
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The CobraHead® Weeder and Cultivator & CobraHead® Long Handle Tool – Product Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The CobraHead® Weeder and Cultivator is a tool that was developed by Noel Valdes, the owner of Cobrahead LLC, as a result of his gardening hobby. The blade is called a cultivating tine.

The US garden tool industry cranked out hundreds of thousands of long handled tools with three and five of these blades on tightly curved tines locked into cast iron heads and with various forms of attaching screws., and the same is true for the garden tool industry in Britain and elsewhere. Those cultivators could be found all over.

Production ceased sometime in the late 1950s in the USA with the collapse of gardening as a necessity by most Americans. The old tools are still out there, and many are still in use by hard-core gardeners.

Noel modified the blade to work as a short handled weeder and cultivator. The tool is primarily a weeder, but it is an excellent cultivator and also an extremely useful planting device. Using it is mostly intuitive, but think of it as a "steel fingernail®" and its logic should become apparent.

It scrapes, scratches, and digs. It can extract huge tap roots, pull out grasses, and shave off small weeds. It works in the tightest areas, but it can cover an amazing amount of ground for such a small tool. It can clean out the cracks in pavers and flagstones. It lays down an excellent furrow for seeds and it makes a nice hole for transplants or bulbs. Its uses are, as they say, limited only by your imagination.

The CobraHead® Long Handle is actually a variant of another tool that used to be made in the US. It was called a single tined cultivating hoe. It used the same blade shape, but with a more pronounced curve, similar in shape to a shepherd's crook.

Noel realized an advantage of making the sharp all-around, flat blade absolutely perpendicular to the handle and this tool can be used as a scalping or scuffling hoe and by holding the tool like a broom, one can sweep off small weeds before they get established. With it, you have both excellent reach and the ability to work in the tightest areas. The tool is also a superb cultivator, and what it lacks in width, it more than makes up for in the efficiency of having the thin blade cut through soil with very little resistance.

As a company Cobrahead LLC decided to “walk the green walk” from the outset as regards tool production and for the company's business model.

The tools are made locally, right there in Wisconsin and all the rawmaterial inputs for both the tools are US sourced. The small tool features steel with a recycle content of at least 60% . Its handle is a unique "bio-plastic" – an injection molded blend of 80% recycled polypropylene and 20% agriculturally grown flax fiber. The flax makes the plastic lighter and stronger.

The long tool features replaceable parts, so should the blade be broken, the tool does not need to be discarded, but can be repaired. The handle is North Carolina ash, considered the best for wood handles of this type.

The CobraHead® Long Handle has an MSRP in the States of $59.95. It is available for that price (including shipping) from the company's website at www.cobrahead.com, and stores and catalogs listed on the site.

Customers outside the USA and Canada can order directly from the website but there will be a delivery charge added then to the cost of the tool(s).

I have have received samples of both the small tool and the big tool for review and I must say that the tools definitely live up to what has been said about them and the workmanship is superb.

They work both very well in small spaces while, as said, they can also cover large areas easily.

The CobraHead® tools are ideally suited for work in market gardening and raised bed operations and the intensive close growing operations that are favored now by many that grow produce for personal use and also for sale.

Having a tool that can weed, hoe and till the soil all in one, so to speak, is a great way to go and the depth of the tillage is very good as well. The CobraHead® tools are the kind of tools you always were looking for but did not know that they existed or you did not believe that they could work that well.

Personally I would not want to be parted from those tools ever again as far as my own gardening work is concerned. I am definitely finding the CobraHead® tools to be indispensable aids in my vegetable gardening endeavors.

© 2009
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