This last fall I went to the Iowa Organic Agriculture Conference in Iowa City. I learned a lot about organic farming and I heard an amazing speaker, Will Allen, speak. For those of you who don't know who Will Allen is allow me to introduce you to him!
Will Allen is a former NBA basketball player. When he retired he needed something to do with his time and began to dive into organic farming. He now owns Growing Power located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and solely puts his efforts into running multiple "urban farms". What exactly is an urban farm?! Well it's when you take space in a city and create something magical on it! If you have grass you can dig it up and create a garden right there- perhaps it is in a city park or maybe it is in your own back yard no matter where you live. Something else Will Allen does is put gardens ON TOP OF BLACK TOP!! He has an urban garden in Milwaukee that used to be a parking lot!!
Needless to say, Will Allen is doing amazing things with growing produce in unlikely spaces. At the conference this last fall Will challenged everyone to think about spaces differently in your city. Your front yard? It could be a garden! The vacant lot next door? Garden! A vacant parking lot? Garden! What about a roof top? GARDEN! So, this naturally got Super Snack Lady thinking.....
Where can we put a garden at an elementary school that has no grass or field?? So I looked around and guess what I saw across the street- a BIG open space at a church! So this is the beginnings of a community garden for the students at Johnson School of the Arts. It doesn't look like much yet, but wait until it gets warmer....
So, where could you put some vegetable plants around your house? Where could you create an urban garden? A garden doesn't have to be millions of plants but rather just one tomato plant or one cucumber plant that can climb up a stair case. Just think about it!
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