Sheryl shows us how we can put all that mint growing in our Demonstration Garden to good use. This traditional Cuban highball should probably be made after work, not at ten in the morning when we put it together.

Photo: Terrassa under the clouds by Paco CT.

“The empirical analysis was carried out in the municipality of Terrassa, one of the largest cities in the MRB, and also one with a higher number of vegetable gardens. We interviewed 132 plot users and obtained data about the legal status of gardens, their size and appearance, and crops grown, as well as the reasons for pursuing this activity. Our results show that, in general, this is an activity undertaken by people over 60 years old, often retired members of the working class that migrated to Catalonia from other Spanish regions in the 1960s and 1970s, and that use these spaces for a variety of reasons (personal goals, support to their families, and also as a bond to their rural past).”

Abstract of Paper:

Elena Domenea and David Sauría,
Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
revised 22 March 2006.

“This paper examines urban vegetable gardens in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB) in the context of a political ecological approach. We argue that these gardens provide an interesting example of how the urbanization process creates particular “socionatures” linked in this case to retired members of the working class who occupy (often as squatters) and transform the interstices left by the expanding city in order to produce food at a small scale. We document how these vegetable gardens are the product of a peculiar form of the recent urban history of the area, and also how they are increasingly under pressure due to the rapid process of sprawl now characterizing the expansion of the built environment in the Barcelona region. Vegetable gardens also highlight the contradictions of public policies in managing urban development, since the general attitude towards their elimination from the urban landscape stands in opposition to many of the sustainability initiatives such as the “greening of cities” promoted by city councils in this area.

“The empirical analysis was carried out in the municipality of Terrassa, one of the largest cities in the MRB, and also one with a higher number of vegetable gardens. We interviewed 132 plot users and obtained data about the legal status of gardens, their size and appearance, and crops grown, as well as the reasons for pursuing this activity. Our results show that, in general, this is an activity undertaken by people over 60 years old, often retired members of the working class that migrated to Catalonia from other Spanish regions in the 1960s and 1970s, and that use these spaces for a variety of reasons (personal goals, support to their families, and also as a bond to their rural past). Finally, we develop some conclusions regarding vegetable gardens in which we maintain that different social classes may create different natures but that class and power relations appear to legitimize some of these natures over others, for example, private and public gardens having a much larger social and institutional appeal and support than the vegetable gardens of the retired workers.”

Full paper available on-line for US $ 31.50

A Vancouver Urban Designer, Planner and Landscape Architect recounts her experience with gardens during her recovery from cancer.

“Having had cancer has allowed me certain freedoms I never had prior to my illness. One of those freedoms is the ability to talk openly and candidly about my experience. This piece entitled ‘The Spirit of Healing’ comes from a place deep inside. A place from which we all have the ability to seize and harness energy, but a place few of us tap into until we are confronted with a crisis in our lives. How each person harnesses his or her ability to heal is as different as each person is different.”

“Another aspect of the framework was the garden. I believe all gardens are nurturing, restorative and healing in themselves but this garden embodied the notion of sanctuary through courtyards which led from the public street, through a semi-private courtyard, to an inner private courtyard, and eventually to the house. The outer courtyard was rambling with flowers and vegetable patches. The inner courtyard was well protected from the sun and the wind. The garden, like the beach, invited involvement but allowed for passivity as well. There was privacy in the garden and a sense of separation. When I was ill, I needed privacy and separation. The frameworks of the garden and the beach, though different in scale, both suggested safety and protection.”

“In the garden I found elements which were complementary to the overall framework. These elements were the nature of the plant materials and the complexity of the setting itself. For me there was relief in returning to a more natural world. Tending to the garden and the plants within it was analogous to tending to my body. The time I took caring for the plants, picking off dead heads, weeding, watering and restaking would reap a bounty in the garden. So it was with my body. I felt that if I took care of my body, eating better food, rebuilding my physical strength, and taking the time to meditate, my body would reap the benefits more so than if I neglected it.”

Read the complete article, ‘The Spirit of Healing’, here.

Read more about Horticulture Therapy here.

Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cotthem, Honorary Professor University of Ghent (Belgium), has set up a wonderful program to help people in desertified regions.

“In every village of the developing countries where we have constructed family gardens and school gardens in the past, there is now less risk of famine. Indeed, we have shown the people and the children how to produce their own vegetables and fruit trees with a combination of traditional methods and modern technologies, e.g. soil conditioning to keep a garden soil moistened with a minimum of irrigation water. Such things are never forgotten, even if these people move to urban areas, where they will try to set up a tiny little garden.”

“That is the reason why I make this appeal upon you : please help us to collect seeds of vegetables and tropical fruits that can be grown in family gardens and school gardens in desertified regions.”

Read more here.

Early photo of children gardening at school, USA, circa 1899.

See large version of photo here.

Urban Agriculture, originally uploaded by drippin_pitch.

City gardens in Fulong, Northern Taiwan.

See larger image here.