The Artdog Image of Interest
Last week’s Image of Interest focused on the problem of food deserts and food swamps. This week, I’d like to focus on one of the solutions that can be used to combat them: the growing movement to create and cultivate–in ALL senses of the word–community gardens.
Community gardens are becoming increasingly popular for more very good reasons. Beyond helping lower-income communities stretch their food budgets and gain access to healthy food, which would be enough in itself, they:
Make good use of previously-vacant (often trash-plagued) plots of land. This is efficient, fights blight, and discourages crime.
Teach people of all ages practical skills they can use to improve their lives. This is why they’re an outstanding project for schools.
Bring communities together, because there’s nothing like gardening side-by-side to promote people talking with each other, creating friendships, and sharing ideas or skills.
Yes, I know it’s getting on toward winter in the Northern Hemisphere. But winter is the time to PLAN gardens. The infographic below, which promotes the annual Project Orange Thumb, sponsored by Fiskars, offers good starter tips. If you think you’d like to apply for Project Orange Thumb, the next call for applications probably will go out in January.
IMAGES: Many thanks to Suburban Stone Age, via Pinterest, for the image-with-quote about tomatoes, and to Fiskars’ Project Orange Thumb, for the infographic about community gardening.
