Man in Overalls

This coming weekend, I'll be leading a Tallahassee delegation to the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) annual conference in Atlanta, GA.  ( Conference website for more details ). Mark Tancig and Robbie Estevez, representing the Damayan Garden Project , Qasima P Boston (Project Food) and Joyce Brown (CANDI), both with ties to the Greater Frenchtown Revitalization Council, Merlin JnBaptiste, teacher at Astoria Park, and Thomas Lynch, a teacher at Riley Elementary will all be going.  The objective is a) for us to return inspired and equipped to be stronger community garden leaders and b) to build an inter organizational/institutional team to further the food movement here in Tallahassee. The conference will cover a cross section of community garden topics (including one especially interesting workshop to me: Making More Gardens: Cooperation/Collaboration In Challenging Times: How typical non-profits, governments, businesses and congregations can find common g...

People invite me to their houses to for me to offer ideas and advice and/or to scout out sites for where I'll place their new Square Foot Gardens... and every now-and-again, they ask, "So is this all you do?"  This question always makes me smile. I know (I assume) this question originates from intrigue.  How cool , they must think, I'm able to keep busy just doing food gardens.  If they only knew... It's springtime and the soil is growing warm. Starting at 8am yesterday morning, I led a team of high school boys (who are members at my church) around town doing community and school garden projects.  We started at our church, Faith Presbyterian where we top-dressed and-- with the help of the elementary kids-- planted "God's Giving Garden."  From there, we took two trips to Hartsfield Elementary to deliver a load of compost (compliments of the Damayan Garden Project ) for their newly cleaned-up garden.  Last, the boys and I visited Bethel Towers ...

Orange Ave Apts community members, supported by Damayan volunteers, installed a 500sq.ft. raised-bed, community garden in their neighborhood. The beds are framed with recycled concrete and filled with mushroom compost. Damayan brought in a few benches. Children and volunteers planted blueberry bushes and a tangerine. Already, the garden in creating a new sense of welcome to a forgotten space in the neighborhood. When I pass through to check in with community folks, I notice people mlling around the garden to check on the growth of the newly planted collards, mustards, and flowers. Here are a few pictures courtesy of Michelle. Mr. Oliver overseeing the compost dump. Jacob busting up concrete. Mr. Oliver and the Man in Overalls talking plants after spreading compost. Trystann and William bringing over the plants. Planting collards. It's been an honor working with the children and adults in the Orange Ave Apartments community that are bringing food move...

Here's one of the greatest things about gardens: Even in the face of neglect, they keep growing. For most of the past three weeks, I laid the overalls aside to complete a home renovation. In preparation for my sister's belated wedding party here in Tallahassee (she lives and was married in the Seattle area), our family frantically renovated both our kitchen and bathroom. On more than one occasion, I found myself at Lowes before the sun came up and worked well past midnight in order to achieve some semblance of order before the party. Needless to say, I didn't have much time left over to garden. And yet, things continued to grow and to ripen. Below are a few pictures from my own food garden. The bounty astounds me; I find myself surprised that so much goodness could self-create outside my windows while I struggled to refinish old cabinets. Take a look. Turnips . We ate greens at my sister's party. Last night, we ate some of the roots in a stir-fry with onio...

I spent this past weekend at Lichgate with the Damayan Garden Project to receive folks stopping by as part of the 2nd Annual New Leaf Farm Tour . Amidst guiding folks through the demo garden, talking about good soil and compost, encouraging folks to peruse the silent auction tables, pointing out the labyrinth, and providing snacks, we volunteers had a bit of time to brainstorm. One idea that came up was this: as an organization, Damayan could increase its notoriety and ability to encourage food gardening by attending neighborhood association meetings all over town with a standard presentation. Said presentation would highlight a) WHY we should garden; i.e. the reasons (economic, health, environmental, communal) for food gardening, b) HOW we can garden; i.e. models of home and community gardens, and lastly c) THE WAYS DAMAYAN CAN HELP get things rolling. Thus, if you serve on a neighborhood board and would be interested in having Damayan present, please let me know-- or email Dama...

Folks, the food movement is growing quickly in Tallahassee; however it is not root-bound within our home town. A few years back, I read a book named Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson. It's about how semi-connected individuals can work together as a coherent whole; the system can and usually displays an "intelligence" greater than that held by the component pieces and a productivity greater than the sum of its parts. In this light, think about yourself... or even all of us in Tallahassee who are "experimenting" with and "just beginning to" food garden. At first glance, it seems we are all fumbling with pests and heat and humidity beyond our abilities. Most food gardeners I talk to comment upon how they're not growing "that much." But, if we take a step back and look at the entirety of the city... or the country (or the world for that matter) we begin to gain a sense of the great a...