The garden not only gave them a way to contribute but gave them a way to shine.

By Jill Richardson
Latitude News
January 30, 2012

Excerpt:

Imagine escaping from your farm in a war-riven part of Africa or Asia. You arrive in the U.S. What a relief! But you’ve replaced farming with asphalt and concrete of a U.S. city. Bewilderment, shock, all over again.

To help refugee farmers adjust, the International Rescue Committee started an urban farm in San Diego. It hired Amy Lint, then 31, to get New Roots Community Farm up and running.

She was a good choice — San Diego is home to many refugees from Cambodia and Somalia, and Lint knew rural Cambodia from her graduate work, and had been an aid worker with the Somali Bantu.

New Roots farm has thrived. It’s gone from five acres to 80, worked by 90 families, mainly from Cambodia, Somalia, Latin America and Burma. Lint’s work has been recognized by Michele Obama’s Let’s Move campaign with a visit from the First Lady herself.

Read the complete article here.

Much like eating greens provides essential nutrients, so does seeing and being around green

By Frances E. (Ming) Kuo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director, Landscape and Human Health Laboratory University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2010

Excerpt from the Executive Summary

This monograph presents an overview of what scientists have discovered about the relationship between nature and human health, focusing on the most compelling findings. It focuses on three classic indicators of health drawn from animal research. Studies of laboratory and zoo animals, as well as animals in the wild living in degraded and fragmented habitat tells us that organisms living in unfit habitats undergo social, psychological, and physical breakdown. The scientific study of what Richard Louv has coined “nature deficit disorder” in people mirrors the animal research on unfit habitats. When we compare people with more versus less ready access to parks and other green environments, we find that they exhibit differences in well-being and functioning in each of the three trademark domains: social, psychological, and physical health.

Just as rats and other laboratory animals housed in unfit environments undergo systematic break- downs in healthy, positive patterns of social functioning, so too do people. In greener settings—rooms, buildings, neighborhoods, and larger areas with more vegetation, we find that people are more generous and more desirous of connections with others; we find stronger neighborhood social ties and greater sense of community, more mutual trust and willingness to help others; and we find evidence of healthier social functioning in neighborhood common spaces—more (positive) social interaction in those spaces, greater shared use of spaces by adults and children. In less green environments, we find higher rates of aggression, violence, violent crime, and property crime— even after controlling for income and other differences. We also find more evidence of loneliness and more individuals reporting inadequate social support.

Access to nature, whether it is in the form of bona fide natural areas or in bits or views of nature, impacts psychological, as well as social functioning. Greater access to green views and green environments yields better cognitive functioning; more proactive, more effective patterns of life functioning; more self-discipline and more impulse control; greater mental health overall; and greater resilience in response to stressful life events. Less access to nature is linked to exacerbated attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, more sadness and higher rates of clinical depression. People with less access to nature are more prone to stress and anxiety, as reflected not only individuals’ self-report but also measures of pulse rate, blood pressure, and stress-related patterns of nervous system and endocrine system anxiety, as well as physician-diagnosed anxiety disorders.

The impacts of parks and green environments on human health extend beyond social and psychological health outcomes to include physical health outcomes. Greener environments enhance recovery from surgery, enable and support higher levels of physical activity, improve immune system functioning, help diabetics achieve healthier blood glucose levels, and improve functional health status and independent living skills among older adults. By contrast, environments with less green are associated with greater rates of childhood obesity; higher rates of 15 out of 24 categories of physician-diagnosed diseases, including cardiovascular diseases; and higher rates of mortality in younger and older adults. Most important, all of these studies take into account the role that income might play in an apparent link between access to nature and physical health outcomes. While it is true that richer people tend to have both greater access to nature and better physical health outcomes, the comparisons here show that people of the same socio-economic status who have greater access to nature have better physical health outcomes.

Rarely do the scientific findings on any question align so clearly. While for scientists the search for greater understanding of how and why and when contact with nature impacts health continues, for society as a whole the findings are clear. Parks and other green environments are an essential component of a healthy human habitat. While street trees, parks, and public green spaces are often regarded as mere amenities—ways to beautify our communities and make life a little more pleasant, the science tells us that they play a central role in human health and healthy human functioning. Much like eating greens provides essential nutrients, so does seeing and being around green. To promote a healthier, kinder, smarter, more effective, more resilient, more vital populace, communities should be designed to provide every individual with regular, diverse sources of “Vitamin G.”

Chapter 3

Psychological Functioning and Breakdown

Alleviating Stress and Anxiety

Easing Depression

Promoting Optimal Functioning

Reducing Attention Deficit Symptoms

Promoting Overall Mental Health

The Hidden Common Thread: The Role of Green Experiences in Resilience

See the complete report here.

“We need to be cautious about our expectations that any single intervention is going to work, is going to keep people from going back to prison.”

By Don Terry
New York Times
September 17, 2011

Excerpt:

Mr. Jones’s life in the street landed him in jail for 15 months beginning in early 2009 before a judge gave him a break and instead of sending him to prison for carjacking, sent him to the Cook County Sheriff’s military-style boot camp. There, behind the razor wire, he discovered a three-quarter-acre vegetable farm that produces tomatoes, kale, carrots, peppers and hope.

Now 19, Mr. Jones is free and spends most of his day thinking about dirt and the life buried underground.

“Before I went to jail, I didn’t know anything about gardening or where food comes from,” he said. “But this is going to be my career for sure. Making things grow, feeding people, is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Read the complete article here.

Potato Harvest Day – Students at Queen Mary Elementary School work with Summerhill Seniors

Video by Charlie Miller and Damian Inwood
The Edible Garden Project

Excerpts:

Two years ago the Queen Mary Community Garden was built in North Vancouver. Included in the garden were four large plots dedicated to the students at Queen Mary Elementary School – right next door.

Students take part in planning, planting, and maintaining the garden plots for their classroom. We work with students from grade 3, 5, and 7. They each have a compost bucket in their classrooms that they empty in the garden composters; a great was to learn about closing the loops between food waste and helping their garden grow.

See more here.

Seniors Celebrate National Allotments Week 8 – 14 August 2011

Green-fingered residents at Richmond Northampton, the award winning retirement village built and operated by Richmond Villages in Grange Park, are keeping fit and enjoying each others’ company while growing their own food on their allotments. A bumper crop is expected this summer as they celebrate National Allotments Week.

National Allotments Week, run by the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardeners, is a great opportunity to demonstrate just how much fun allotments can be. For those who have sold their homes and gardens to retire to Richmond Northampton, time out tending plants is still possible thanks to some local allotments.

Nick Ives, head gardener at Richmond Northampton, says: “We have award-winning landscaped grounds and gardens at our retirement village, and these are carefully tendered for the residents to enjoy so they don’t have to get involved with any work. However, some people were missing their gardens and the thrill of growing their own seasonal fruit and veg, so we arranged for them to have access to local allotments. We did all the heavy work to prepare the ground, and built a pagoda for them to sit and chat while taking breaks from gardening.”

Residents, who range in age from 61 to 95, have been busy growing a variety of produce, including potatoes, onions, sweet corn, apples, pears, lettuce and lots of soft fruits. Richmond Northampton is currently preparing two further allotments; one will have a fruit cage and the other a traditional Victorian kitchen garden with raised beds. Soon, there will be a harvest for all the residents to enjoy.

The six allotments are just a short walk from the retirement village, and residents pay Grange Park Parish Council a yearly rent of just £25 per allotment, or half that for a smaller sized plot.

Paddy Brice, managing director of Richmond Villages, comments: “We’re grateful to Grange Park Parish Council for making the allotments available. They have proved such a success with our residents. Gardening is an excellent way to keep fit while enjoying the outdoors, and when you’re on an allotment it’s also a very sociable activity. One of the best things though is that you reap the fruits of your labour and enjoy ‘just picked’ fresh fruit and vegetables.”

More here.

That is a gift the garden gives to all who pass it, even if they never set foot inside its gates.

By Sarah Goodyear
Grist
19 July, 2011

Excerpt:

I emerged from the subway at 125th St. and Lexington Ave. into the most oppressive kind of urban summer scene. Heat billowed off the asphalt and concrete. Exhaust fumes stung my eyes and throat. Car engines roared. Horns blared. The sun beat down on the thronged sidewalk. It felt like I was being pressed into the pavement.

Three blocks and a few minutes later, I was listening to the wind rustle in the leaves of tall trees and watching butterflies sport among squash blossoms in a carefully tended bed of vegetables. A breeze ruffled a blackberry bush. The temperature was easily 10 degrees cooler than it was where I had gotten out of the subway. On the other side of the fence, cars inched toward the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge on-ramp, but I was barely aware of them.

Such is the power of a community garden. It has an almost magical power to transform the urban landscape.

Read the complete article here.

“Our own little Garden of Eden.”

By Adeline Chen
CNN – Eatocracy
May 16, 2011

Excerpt:

“We eat what we get. It’s not like I can say ‘I’m going to eat something healthy,’” says Joel, a resident of a downtown Atlanta shelter.

For Joel, and other homeless people like him, having a meal does not mean choosing between an organic pear and gorgonzola salad or locally-grown arugula with artisanal cheese. Instead, food options boil down to one thing: sustenance. The food is received mostly by donation, which means it’s often cheap, non-perishable, and generally less than healthy.

However, one Atlanta nonprofit, the Atlanta Mission, has recently taken the term “community garden” to a new level by adapting a vacant lot in the downtown area and transforming it into a garden filled with raised vegetable beds. It’s tended daily by the very men who inhabit the shelter and whose bounty will benefit the shelter’s kitchen.

This plot is manned by the most unassuming and unlikely gardeners. Ty, a former gang member with tattoos on his face, and Joel, a recovering addict, spend half their day pulling weeds, watering and pruning the multiple-bed garden in hopes that they’ll be able to harvest a successful bounty of fresh produce by the end of the season.

Read the complete article here.

Group empowers people with developmental disabilities

News Release
May 5, 2011

Event in Vancouver BC:
Saturday, May 14, 2011. Garden build 8:00am – 5:00 pm. At: 4410 Kaslo Street, Vancouver (across from the 29th Ave Sky Train Station)

‘Can You Dig It’ is an urban agriculture and community development initiative hosted by posAbilities, a not for profit organization that empowers people with developmental disabilities. In partnership with MOSAIC immigrant settlement services and the Simon Fraser Society for Community Living, a new 50 plot community inclusive garden will be developed at 4410 Kaslo Street in Vancouver. Para Space Landscape Inc. had generously donated over $11,000 of expertise, time and materials to this garden, and the City of Vancouver has offered the land. Over 100 volunteers will work shoulder to shoulder on May 14 to build the site in just one day!

Can you dig it offers a unique way to bring together people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences through gardening. In the garden, barriers due to ability, age, ethnicity or socio?economic standing are removed. Together, we can all plant a seed. Gardening is a natural way to connect neighbours, develop new skills and gain access to nutritious food. This initiative is also very much about contribution, with a portion of each garden’s harvest donated to local food depots.

The Vancouver Foundation and BC Social Venture Partners provided seed funding for Can you dig it. Currently in its second year, the project has developed 20 gardens throughout the lower mainland, involving more than 600 gardeners. A wide variety of partners are engaging in this initiative, including the BC Cancer Foundation, local faith and childcare groups, families, local businesses and other community living organizations.

More about their projects here.

Successful Build – Update May 16, 2011 – See Photos

See Facebook photos here.

non·a·ge·nar·i·an – A person who is from 90 to 99 years old

By Deanna Duke
Crunchy Chicken
March 3, 2011

Excerpt:

A few weekends ago I went to a book release party and ended up hanging out with the parents-in-law of the author. The dad had a birthday coming up that week and was turning 91. His wife was also turning 91 this year, in August.

I don’t know how we got on the topic, but our conversation turned to gardening, raising chickens and canning. They had been doing it all for decades and still grew a huge amount of food in their yard and canned like fiends every year.

They were excited to find someone my age so involved in doing something that, in the intervening decades had lost its “popularity”, so to speak. Having lived through the Depression and WWII, victory gardens weren’t something they did just during time of need. They were a wealth of information, sharing tips on pressure canning, canning peaches and nectarines and secrets of canning green beans.

Read the complete article here.

Also see “103-year-old gardener is Britain’s oldest worker”.

By The Huffington Post

The Fountain House, a working community for people with mental illness in New York City, has developed a program for its members to grow their own food using a unique hydroponic growing system.

The hydroponic garden has proved both therapeutic and healthy.

Link here.

Waterview Community Garden Project

Report to Investors Group, Victoria Branch
Pacifica Housing Advisory Association
Report compiled by David Stott, Project Coordinator
December 14, 2010

The following report outlines the progress of the Waterview Community Garden Project, which took place between February and November, 2010. The project was dedicated to the creation of a community garden at Waterview Apartments in Victoria, a 49 unit residence whose tenants are formerly homeless and at risk Victoria residents.

What the project achieved

A total of 12 tenants began taking part in Waterview community garden project in February of this year. Each tenant had a different challenge or disability including various types of mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or chronic depression-physical disabilities such as 10% vision;

or addiction issues such as alcoholism or drug abuse These and other issues were obstacles to their functioning well, both personally and with one another, and contributed to the personal challenges and social isolation that many experienced. In addition, low income and/or lack of knowledge about growing and/or preparing nutritious foods contributed to many people making poor food choices and experiencing poor health situations.

What has happened as a result of the project? In the process of planning, building, planting, and maintaining their gardens, the participants were offered the opportunity to learn a range of skills. Depending on their interests and abilities, some people chose to do a small number of activities such as building the raised beds, while others become involved in a wide range of tasks, from plant starts and building a transplant table to moving soil, participating in garden maintenance, and attending the weekly group meetings and workshops. And while many preferred one-on-one work with the coordinator to working together as a group at any given workshop or learning session, about 60% of the gardeners would take part in any given session. Nine of the twelve who started the year gardening completed the season and are planning to garden again next year. Following are some of the participant?s comments on the difference the project and the garden have made for them and/or the Waterview complex:

“The garden activities brought the tenants involved in the garden group together as a community. The activities were enjoyable and got me outdoors.”

“I learned the basic things about gardening and David?s tips were useful.”

“It made the place more homey.”

“It brought the people here together.”

“I know for me it gets my mind off my illness [terminal cancer]. It is a place to come and relax and gives us something to look forward to. I get to leave my mark on something that will be around long after I’m gone.”

Read the complete report here.

Each month the market garden supplies fresh produce to the Pearson Community kitchen

Farmers on 57th at George Pearson Centre
Vancouver, BC
Summary, November 2010

George Pearson Centre is a home for 120 adults with disabilities. The people who live here require specialized assistance as a result of disability, such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord and traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, or a variety of other conditions.

Market Gardens

In our market gardens, 5 hard working young urban farmers have transformed lawn into a ½ acre organic urban farm—first selling at Farmer’s markets in 2009, then shifting to a CSA (Community supported Agriculture) program in 2010. Participating families receive a fresh-picked organic harvest box each week through spring/summer, and their children see where and how their food is grown.

Our CSA program is highly in demand, with 22 families currently on our waitlist and plans to expand. The market garden currently produces approximately $10,000 of produce each year. We consider ourselves a model for urban agriculture on institutional land, and have hosted various groups for food security workshops and visits: four Land and Food Systems UBC research teams, the UBC Sowing the Seeds farm apprenticeship program, Churchill highschool classes, Langara community garden coordinators, and the Unitarian preschool-program.

The Gardens

From its inception in 2008, Farmers on 57th has created a complex of gardens that are educational, therapeutic, productive and community inclusive. At its heart is George Pearson Centre and its residents: 25 acres of arable land that is home to 120 adults and seniors. This population lives with disabilities, eats a highly processed hospital diet, and has limited opportunities to connect with the wider community. In 2008 we proposed the gardens, and conducted extensive outreach to neighborhood organizations. We invited Pearson residents, Pearson staff, urban farmers, nearby schools, community centres, Food Bank groups, neighbours, disabled gardening associations, and post-secondary scholars to garden, eat, research and run programs at Farmers on 57th. The response has phenomenal.

In our community gardens, our custom designed tabletop gardens are fully wheelchair accessible to all Pearson residents. Every interested resident is guaranteed a garden space, along with the support needed to plant, tend and harvest their food at our weekly Garden Club. The program is led by Aimee Taylor and Jen Rashleigh, with strong support from Pearson Recreation Program, from CARMA, and a fantastic crew of committed volunteers.

All our plants are started from seed in our greenhouse. We also have 20 dwarf heirloom apple trees planted, which promise to bear fruit in 2012. Seed saving is a major goal for our gardens this year, and to that end we have recently purchased a fridge and are equipping it for seed storage. Big plans for next year also include juicing our harvest, so that tube-fed residents can enjoy the benefits of organic, living food.
Our garden is a full, happy and productive space. It’s a lovely and much visited place on staff breaks and in the evening.

Additional Information on Outreach and Partnerships:

NEIGHBOUR PLOTS

In 2009, our market gardeners offered a season-long course for interested neighbours to grow their own food. The course filled, and all nine families have continued growing with us in our second year.

PEARSON COMMUNITY KITCHEN
Each month our market garden supplies fresh produce to the Pearson Community kitchen, which gives Pearson folks a chance to eat homemade food made with fresh, living veggies and enjoy a communal meal.

COMMUNITY GROUPS

DIGA (Disabled en Gardeners; Association) has three table top plots in our garden. In exchange for the garden space, they offer several workshops at Pearson each year on adapted gardening for people with disabilities.

Developmental Disabilities Association volunteered at our garden several times.

SIR WILFRED LAURIER ANNEX AND IDEAL ALTERNATIVE HIGHSCHOOL

These schools have a combined four garden plots with us. It’s great to have them in the garden!

VISITING STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS
IN 2009/2010, three research teams from the Department of Land and Food Systems undergraduate program conducted research and community-based learning at Farmers on 57th. They helped to plan and install our apple orchard, and helped our market gardeners make the shift from a farmer’s market distribution system to a CSA model.

In 2011, two graduate students from UBC’s Occupational Therapy Graduate Research Project will be conducting research on health and therapeutic gardening at Farmers on 57th Garden Club.

SOYL (Youth Leadership Program)
In 2010, eight students from different highschools through the Lower Mainland did a 6-week internship with Farmers on 57th. They learnt about the local organic flower trade, built an insectiary, learned about medicinal plants, made educational signs for the garden, and did the tremendous job of rolling sod and laying pathways.

CHURCHILL
In 2010 we liaised with Churchill teachers and students, and organized field trips for six classes. Approximately 120 students visited the farm, and learned about the global food systems, ecological diversity, structures of land ownership, self-sustainability…and of course got their hands dirty!

UNITARIAN CHURCH
Is a church just 10 blocks away. Their childrens’ program visited our garden in February to tour the garden, plant peas and talk about local food. Farmers on 57th provided fresh local harvests for their At Our Children’s Table Program (a program for families on assistance) and for a community celebration dinner.

Visit their website here.

“This garden teaches us to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables”

By Matthew Kelly
Brooklynink
August 15, 2010
The Brooklyn Ink is devoted to news and features from the borough of Kings. The staff of the Ink, composed entirely of students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism , works tirelessly to bring you breaking news, multimedia and longer features five days a week.

Excerpt:

Standing over her garden, Joyce Dixon leaned down to weed the soil, tending to her patch of young tomato plants. The summer air was thick and sticky with 90-degree heat. Dixon stood up to wipe the dark skin of her brow, she shook the dirt off her t-shirt and gave a smile.

“I grew up on a farm as a little one,” she said, “and this brings me back.”

Dixon’s farm was on the island of Jamaica, but now it is in the East New York section of Brooklyn. She’s 65 years old and is a volunteer gardener at East New York Farms!, which is a program of the United Community Center. On Saturdays, she tends her patch at the youth farm behind the center, where interns help volunteer gardeners.

The farm is a half-acre of land on New Lots Avenue, across the street from New Lots Community Church and its cemetery. The other cross street is Schenck Avenue, with the aptly named Schenck Playground east of the farm. Every few minutes, a couple blocks north, the elevated Number 3 subway pulls into its final stop.

“This garden teaches us to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables,” Dixon said. “In this neighborhood and around the city.”

Since moving to New York in 1964, Dixon has lived in the Bronx and Queens, but for the past 19 years she’s lived in East New York. Lately, Dixon has been eating more greens, like Swiss chard, spinach, and lettuce; omitting starchy vegetables, like carrots, beats, and potatoes from her diet. “I have to watch out for the vegetables that are sweet, because they turn into sugar. I’m supposed to be losing weight,” Dixon said, “and I have bad arthritis in my knees. This is not only a hobby, I need it, to improve my lifestyle.”

See the complete article here.

Stressed out Tokyo city dwellers try to get in touch with their traditional farming roots.

Reuters
05/22/2009

SANBU, JAPAN – Farming just got fashionable in Japan, where scores of stressed-out urbanites are spending their weekends trudging through mud to painstakingly plant rice by hand and, hopefully, find themselves.

Growing concerns over food safety and the environment, and the ideal of a laid-back rural lifestyle, are attracting more urbanites to agriculture, once the mainstay of Japan’s economy.

Popular for years among retirees, part-time agriculture courses are now drawing younger professionals seeking a break from the rat-race and a space to call their own.

“More and more young people are now looking at farm life as an alternative,” farming instructor Hidechika Akiba told Reuters as some 30 students and their friends squelched through a paddy field 60 km (37 miles) southeast of Tokyo.

Every year, many burned-out employees kill themselves in Japan, a country with one of the highest suicide rates in the world which even has a special term for death from overwork.

Students of the agriculture course at Tokyo’s Marunouchi Morning University, so-called because it offers office workers classes before they start their jobs in the morning, pay 38,000 yen ($400) for eight lessons over eight weeks.

In addition to the field trips, the students — all employed full-time — also attend lectures at the city campus to learn the theories behind rice farming.

“It feels so good to walk in the mud,” said 35-year-old Sahoko Kashina, who planted rice with her 4-year-old son, Yuu.

“It’s also educational to my son, though I need to keep my eyes on him to stop him playing with mud,” Kashina added as Yuu gleefully scooped up a handful of snails.

At the fields, the students learn to plant rice in the laborious, traditional “hand-pick” way, which is obsolete among Japan’s modern, mechanized farms.

This throw back to ancient methods, however, appeals to city-dwellers looking to find their roots.

“I’ve always believed that agriculture is the pillar and foundation of a society and is of utmost importance. But until now I didn’t have very much involvement with it,” said Kohta Yamamoto, a 23-year-old businessman from Tokyo.

Introduced about one month ago, the university’s agriculture class has inspired some students to consider full-time farming as an alternate way to earn a living, lecturer Masato Wakisaka said.

“There are city people, still not that many, that are starting to look at farming not merely as a different lifestyle but a business they can live on,” Wakisaka added.

For some students, like 33-year-old Masami Hasegawa who recently quit her Tokyo job, farming could possibly be the final escape from the stresses of the city.

“I had felt stressed-out at my job, working day-in-day-out in the IT industry. I am hoping this farming may help me enjoy the day moment by moment,” Hasegawa said.

See article here.

University students study Japanese rice cultivation

Photo by Teruo Miyagawa, Tokai University, Faculty of Challenge Center.

Tokai University Environment Challenge Group, are doing practical rice field work, from rice seed germination to harvest, and they are eating what they produce throughout this year.

See more photos here.

Broken Spirit on Earth Day

By Serita “Green” Newell

During the summer of 2009, at the peak of harvesting, when tomatoes were ripe and ready to be picked, a female neighbor, along with three of her friends or relatives, stole vegetables out of my father’s garden. My father, Henry Green, caught them in the act and asked them to leave his property and when he turned his back, they were about to go back into the garden again. So again, he told them to leave off of his property. I was very upset about what they did and wanted to speak to them directly; however, my father asked me not to and out of respect I did nothing.

Now, here we are in the spring of 2010, and my father, for the first time, does not want to plant a garden, because of what his neighbor did last summer and concern that they would do it again. At age 91, gardening is what has kept my father motivated, vibrant and healthy and what happened last summer has broken his spirit.

My father was born in the spring on March 30, 1919, in South Boston, Virginia. Henry Green did what was natural by farming the land where he lived. He knew it would provide food for his family; however, it was through gardening that he felt closest to God. Planting a seed and watching it grow with the help of the sun and rain gave him a great appreciation for nature and the earth we live on. Because Henry was born in the spring and having a name like “Green,” everyone said he had a natural “green thumb.”

Being a realist and an optimist, Henry did not understand why he felt his happiest in the spring. After hibernating all winter, it was the spring that brought out the best in him, when everything became alive again. For many years Henry thought he was born on May 29, 1918; however, at age 65, he needed a passport and therefore he needed his birth certificate and it was then he discovered not only was he a year younger, which made him happy, he was born on March 30th, a “spring baby.”

Henry raised his family of six in South Boston until farming no longer provided enough money for his family. On the suggestion of a friend, he moved to Washington, D.C., and worked alone and sent money back to his family until he could afford to bring them to the city. While in D.C., he worked a variety of jobs; however, part-time he did what he loved best which kept his hands in soil which was landscaping because it was natural to him. His business was called; you guessed it, “Green Landscaping.” He even taught D.C. youths landscaping skills through the Neighborhood Youth Corp and the National Capital Park Services.

For the past 25 years in retirement, while living on 12th Street, N.E., Washington, D.C, in Culpeper, Virginia, and now on Lake Arbor Drive in Mitchellville, Maryland, Henry always had a garden in his back yard. My brother, Brent would till the land and my father would plant many vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, corn, strawberries, herbs, such as mint, rosemary, sage etc., and last year, he planted two fig trees. He would purchase his flowers, vegetables, and fig trees from local stores such as Lowes, Home Depot and local nurseries such as Homestead Gardens. Before there was an Earth Day, over the years Henry has planted many trees for himself and customers. In addition, another Earth Day contribution would be to make his own compost for his garden.

Now here we are on Earth Day, April 23, 2010, and Henry has not planted one plant and that makes me sad because he was very proud of his garden. So, if there is anyone out there who wants to do something special on “Earth Day,” come to Henry’s house and plant a garden for him and post a sign, “No Trespassing.”

Please email me on snewell8152@gmail.com for more information regarding Henry Green.

By The National Trust
2009

Excerpts:

Gardens connect people with food

21 per cent of people have taken up gardening to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

The Trust now cares for 26 working kitchen gardens, from Trengwainton, Cornwall, to Wallington, Northumberland. At the magnificent 2.5 acre kitchen garden at Knightshayes Court in Devon we work with local schools who now come on a regular basis to tend their plots and learn about growing
food.

The National Trust now looks after over 200 gardens and parks and and 32 Plant Heritage National Plant Collections and over 70,000 plant species. We employ 450 professional gardeners, who are assisted by 1,500 volunteer gardeners. Another 2,400 volunteers help with activities such as plant selling and guided talks.

Gardens are a source of joy and pleasure

Gardening is one of Britain’s most popular pastimes. Most weekends 11 million of us will be tending our gardens, and more than twice that number say they enjoy visiting gardens each year.

Garden keep people healthy

Weeding for 30 minutes can burn the same amount of calories as a half-hour walk.

Gardens provide opportunities

Public gardens, domestic gardens, botanic gardens and parks, nursery trades, market gardens and historic properties employ over 200,000 people in horticulture.

Gardens help change lives

The ladies from Styal women’s prison had the chance to experience a variety of skills they probably would never have even considered. The scheme so far has had great success with two of them on release finding employment in a very short time and getting their lives back on track.

Gardens inspire action

A garden sprinkler can use 300–650 litres in an hour – as much as a family of four uses in a day. We are resurrecting old wells and harvesting rain water and installing more efficient irrigation.

Garden are wildlife refuges

Paving over of front gardens is one of the main reasons why London’s house sparrow population has declined by 70 percent in 10 years.

Gardens as outdoor classrooms

The majority of the public (80 per cent) think that all children should learn about gardening, including growing food, at school. Studies have shown that pupils from years six to eight developed better interpersonal relationship skills after participating in a garden programme.

Gardens act as gene banks

Over 300,000 species of cultivated plants are grown in UK gardens, compared to only around 1,500 native species.

Gardens as part of our cultural heritage

Keeping garden traditions alive and interpreting their histories for new generations is a vital part of the management of all National Trust properties. At Sissinghurst in Kent, the famous gardens designed by Vita Sackville-West are carefully maintained by a team of gardeners in the spirit of her original plans and methods.

Facing the challenges to our gardens

The Trust is re-thinking what conservation in a changing climate will mean, and we are already altering our gardening methods. For example, we mow over 30 square miles of lawn, consuming more than 200,000 gallons of fuel a year, so finding alternatives is vital.

Call to action

Expanding and improving the quality of public and community gardens and allotments should be at the heart of green infrastructure strategies and community development, particularly in areas with a poverty of green space.

See the colourful, information-filled document here. Large document 28 page PDF – slow download.

In this December 1914 photograph, a British soldier of the London Rifle Brigade poses proudly behind his garden, festooned with stoneware rum jugs (on the extreme right). In the months to come, this location at Ploegsteert Wood in the Ypres Salient in Belgium would become the scene of horrific fighting. From the NPR website – from Imperial War Museum.

Kenneth Helphand published Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime in 2006.

“Kenneth Helphand, writes about war gardens — not just victory gardens, grown in time of scarcity, but those planted on hostile fronts, including Eastern Europe’s ghettos and the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II. Helphand calls the gardens an act of defiance.”

• Gardens of World War I, built behind the lines of the Western front
• Gardens built in the Warsaw and other ghettos under the Nazis during World War II
• Gardens created in Europe and Asia by prisoners of war and civilian internees in both world wars
• Gardens constructed by Japanese American internees in U.S. internment camps during World War II

Helphand’s website continues the story with pages about Afghanistan, Ghetto Gardens, Guantanamo, Iraq, Japanese – American Gardens, POWs, and Prison Vietnam.

See Helphand’s Defiant Gardens web site here.

See NPR’s Defiant Gardens web page with photos and audio interviews here.

As a teenager, Roman Kent tended a garden with his brother in the Lotz Ghetto southwest of Warsaw. The Holocaust survivor speaks with Ketzel Levine about the garden.

Though not a professional gardener, Yasusuke Kogita loved stone. During his four years at the Minidoka Internment Camp, located in southern Idaho, he’d walk miles and miles into the surrounding sagebrush to find intriguing rock. He then engaged the help of his two young sons in getting sometimes massive boulders back to the camp, where he created an elaborate garden.

Aboriginal Community Kitchen Gardens at UBC Farm, Vancouver, BC

Since 2002, members of the Musqueam First Nation have grown vegetables on the farm site for their community kitchen project. With an interest in expanding the potential benefits of this community nutrition project, the farm initiated a new pilot program in 2005. In collaboration with 17 different agencies working on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), a plot of land on the farm is dedicated towards the DTES Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden Project.

Clients at community kitchen and food bank projects not only have the opportunity to get fresh produce, but also come out to the farm to grow it. Students, in turn, have a great opportunity for on-campus community service learning. With promising initial results, we hope to develop and formalize this project in years to come.

UBC Farm web site here.

UBC Farm Blog here.

Bush Tucker
Lemon Myrtle (backhousia citriodora)
Davidsons Plum (davidsonia pruriens)

Herbs for Cats
Catnip (nepeta cataria)
Catmint (nepeta mussini)
Catgrass (dactylis glomerata)
Cat Thyme (teucrium marum)
Dogbane (plectranthus neochilus)
Pennyroyal (borago officinalis)

Link to Byron Bay Herb Nursery here.

See a short-documentary on guerrilla gardening starring Richard Reynolds, the author of “On Guerrilla Gardening.” The piece basically shows the process, preparation and troops needed to go out on a gardening mission.
From Current TV.

Link with comments on Current TV here.