Garden Green

Getting food from farm to plate is undeniably one of the most complex and political processes we participate in today. The source and variety of seeds, use of fertilizers and pesticides, method of cultivation, distance and mode of transport, amount of processing, and eventual place of purchase are all factors that have strong political, economic, and environmental consequences not always considered by the average food shopper.

Although there are many options for improving the state of our food, such as eating local, organic, and sustainable, the best way to ensure that your food is grown in a responsible, sustainable way is to do it yourself.

The benefits of gardening are endless. It provides cheap, fresh, tasty and more nutritious produce than the grocery store. It is also a fun and educational experience, which puts people more in touch with the ecology of their surroundings.

Gardening can also be an interactive and community building experience. Growing your own food is significanty better for the environment than relying on foods grown far away with damaging chemicals, or packaged in non-recyclable materials.

For most people, the largest obstacle to buying organic is the higher cost of organic produce. By gardening yourself, your organic produce will be even cheaper than the conventional produce on supermarket shelves.

Not everyone with the desire to garden has the resources to do so. In this chapter, we will go over the different options for gardening with different types of space from containers, on a deck, in a greenhouse, in a yard or a community garden. We will also go over composting, an important accompaniment of organic gardening, and all the different options available.

In short, the point of this chapter is to convince you that even if you think you have no gardening skills or not enough space, you can still be an organic gardener. Check out the links below and start digging!

the basics
container gardening
bed gardening
community gardening
compost