Cultivating a Suburban Foodshed

Peak Moment 123: Landscape architect Owen Dell has a vision: transforming suburban neighborhoods into shared "foodsheds" with food-bearing and native plants, and even chickens. Neighbors can start by finding edible plants already growing in their yards, maybe remove fences, plant what works best in each location. Best of all, share the resulting food abundance with one another ("Hey, it's lemon time. Come and get 'em!") and build the social network with shared food potlucks. Tour Owen's own edible landscape yard, including a rooftop container garden complete with visiting cat. [ http://www.owendell.com , www.mesaexchange.org]

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• suburbia
• food
• gardening
• community

[itisaduck]

I'm into clean air and water, organic food. . I grow edibles in Southern California, Great Grandfather was into farming here in SoCal. I have experimented with solar and wind power. Not very efficient. Oil and natural gas is cheaper. The Warming Hoax is now busted. The English head of this quit, says he may committ suicide. That would help as less evil Methane gas, but we are actually cooling, not warming. Good fences make good neighbors! A Firearm keeps neighbors friendly! Giive extra food away

[peakmoment]

Since oil and nat'l gas are cheaper, it prevents many folks from transitioning to non-renewables. Yet. Fossil fuels will get more costly, and we may not be prepared with alternatives.

"Global Warming" is a misleading term. We are witnessing rapid climate change: systems are becoming less stable, less able to absorb the additional carbon in the atmosphere. Oceans are becoming more acid (destroying coral reefs), glaciers melting and chunks of Antarctic ice shelves coming off far more rapidly.

[peakingout]

Keep up the great work Janaia and Robyn!

[peakmoment]

Thanks! We hope you're enjoying some of the recent programs, too.

[impalapez]

grow food not lawns

[1hseibel]

While I don't believe in global warming, I do think he's right about using our yards as gardens and urban homesteading is a fabulous way to live.

[OceanJeff37]

should have included the conversation with the mailman! LOL

[survivesimply]

lol @ the mailman, gotta love random events - good video with some informative ideas. :)

[gregmbullock]

I really appreciate your message owen - Food, shelter or building materials grown sustainably, bring neighbors together on bikes - I'm sold.

[rob741258]

Hi DoblyTufnell, I agree that monoculture leads to the pest/disease problems you mentioned. However, if each alotment grew a different type of useful plant then the "village" itself becomes biodiverse. I feel that for non-gardeners, the idea of having to look after so many plants can be daunting, so starting small, learning along the way, would work for this demographic quite well. Spread the word, spread the value, spread the skills... Pass It On.

[OwenEDell]

I don't suggest that each person grow only one crop. Diversity is indeed essential. I do recommend "tuning" the neighborhood for a balanced diet, selecting crops for particular locations and microclimates that are ideal for those spots. If peaches are missing from your neighborhood, find a spot in someone's yard to plant a few peach trees. If you have a neighbor with suitable land, but for one reason or another they're not able to garden, do it for them and share the bounty.

Owen