Community Gardens

Community Gardens

As a idea, the concept of community gardens is great. As an application it is less than realistic. On an individual basis it does work, however in this country, unlike in other countries, such as continental Europe, where such community gardens do work, this country is very self centered, and therefore it is very difficult to get people to work towards a common goal without a catalyzing factor. Can such programs work, yes, they have for centuries work in many places, however in this country it is about competition for resources rather than cooperation for conservation of resources.

This being said, I do believe that we are soon to realize that catalyst that will make such efforts more possible. I have seen some communities that worked, but how long have they worked, and on what scale. They do not work on the larger scale, because people do not feel the need for such and therefore they put greater effort on what seems the more important issues. This is a common circumstance, as it normal in this country to compartmentalize issues as if they are unrelated, and prioritize them as if getting one done will therefore free up the other. It is however only parts of a single problem, and that it will only be solved by taking a holistic approach to the issue.

It will be necessary to look at the Urban landscape in a different light, as one that is more agricultural than previous thought of. That some percentage of the food needed by the residence living in the Urban areas will have to produce some of their own food, as there will be no food available in the stores they are used to shopping in. This has not happened yet, and until this does happen it will not create theh needed factors to generate the need for community gardens to be more than a novelty. There is ino way that community gardens will completely replace the local farms, which are more dedicated to such programs as Dairy and meat production. Even though a small community can produce a great amount of the needed food, and cooperation will produce even greater community, until the factors that create the need for this, it will be difficult to make this happen for more than select groups and there will be no long term development past the current generation of development. To make this happen for many generations it must include a social shift as well as a holistic vision, which includes agriculture in both the urban landscape (which is only a large group of communities tied together by common networks of roads and communications), and throughout the outlying areas where larger scale agriculture can support the urban communities with products that these same communities can not produce due to space or skill. However it is likely that these same urban communities will be the very areas where artistic development will flourish and therefore provide for theh others the tools and other products that will be needed, in the trade off for the products that can not be developed in the Urban Landscape.

This is possible, yes, probable, not likely in this current environment and economy, but I do believe that it is the way that things will turn in the near future, but only by force of these factors being in place, as Americans specifically do not help each other like they used to, or like the Germans do, because we are taught from the very beginning it is all about what we have and what others do not. After all it is the person that has the best toys and the most glitter that wins right.

I have been a proponent of community and community gardens for many years. This does not mean that it will work, it only means that if you have a visionary person willing to put forth their effort to lead, others will follow, at least for now, it takes a very forceful vision with carefully crafted design to make it happen for longer than their lifetime.

As this is a response to a comment from someone who was not brave enough to even put their name to it, I provide but a slight response. The truth is I have great faith in the human race, but I know that it will take a very devastating event in the social and economic factors for this selfish and self centered society that we have built to make that leap into community, or many generations of slow growth, with a consistent leadership that champions this community aspect.

Let us hope that either or both will work out to be better than the current direction, which does not lead one to believe that we will continue with out dire consequence to our environment and therefore our potential for existence.

Now and Future Plans

Our plans are to build a horticultural operation, based on three main green houses and perennial gardens. This is based on our current potential property. We will build two 20x40x20 tunnels (tube houses) and one 20x60x20 tunnel that will create a L shaped green house complex. This complex will also have a fence around it, allowing our chickens to be used to keep the complex clean. In the green houses we will grow market crops specifically for target markets. We are currently working with individual organizations to determine what they are seeking and this will determine what we grow. All the operations will be certified organic. We will be installing a water treatment plant that includes filtering systems designed by myself. It will include the OWR by Nordic Living Water. It will also include a gray water system that will provide continuous water to the green houses through a passive filtering system and drip and mist system.

We will build an electronic monitoring system based in open source technology and utilizing hand held computer for local data capture and wireless network for instant transfer of captured data of both active and passive monitoring systems. This will all be held in a database that will be used to analyze the data and then provided to our customers in near real time, so that they will have up to date information on the health and progress of their crops. This will also allow us to provide data for educational purposes, and to educational institutions, specifically our educational partners, including Cornell University and Cornell's Cooperative Extension. W are currently working with Cornell's Cooperative Extension to put together the financial plan needed to begin operations.

We will also feature extensive perennial gardens with many herbs and other plants for seasoning and medicinal purposes. The gardens will also be ornamental and based in permacultural practices, providing for aesthetic values. We will also be featuring local connections to local educational institutions to provide educational opportunities to elementary through high school students about organic agricultural.

We are also talking with the farmer that owns the land surrounding our property to arrange for some type of expansion of our current property either through a long term lease or through a purchase plan that will allow us to expand our operations into livestock, dairy and other operations.

We will also be considering housing in the future, to provide some type of housing provision for individuals and couples who will assist us in the operations of our organization.

We currently are in contact with several retailers, and restaurants in Rochester and Seneca Falls, NY to provide them with green house products. We will also provide products direct on the farm through a farm stand. We are also considering local farmers markets, however we have not investigated that avenue as thoroughly yet to consider it a viable outlet at this time.

More information is available about this project by contacting the principal James E. Doud at this site, through the comment system. We can not provide an email address here, as the level of spam that will be generated does not allow us to do this at this time. We are working on this, and will be putting a website up soon, that will allow people to contact us directly.

We are also interested in investment partnerships, in either finance or in knowledge, and they can contact us through the website once it is up and running. The web address will be posted here when it is completed and operating.