Four of us from the DMZ garden co-op went to visit Growing Power today. At the headquarters, after some introductions, Will Allen took us on a tour of the facility. The basics of growing power are the “same old, same old” but some of the ways have changed. For example now the planters are most filled with compost and worms with some castings on top with the seeds. Coir is no longer used in the planters except for the seedlings and sprouts. The compost pile is now a 75% carbon and 50 % nitrogen rather than 50/50.

Today the event was in three parts, the tour of Growing Power and than a visit to a garden in Butler that Growing Power is working with community and grade school nearby. When I asked Will about doing something with the vacant lots in the city, he repeated that it was important to get the community on board first before establishing the garden. Than I told him that we Dawn owned a lot in the central city and we did have a community on board to do something with it. I asked for his help. He said Growing Power would help but jokingly aid he would give us a test. Latter on the tour I said we were ready for the test.

After the garden tour we went to the central headquarters of SHARE. Share is a wonderful food coop that serves healthy food for all members in the Midwest. Share serves all, rich, poor or middle class and for $18 a month you receive about $40 of meat and produce. Growing Power rents space at the SHARE warehouse for its food and produce program. AT SHARE we had a wonderful, delicious and organic meal and had a chance to see what the persons visiting from London were up to in urban farming.

The day was informative for all four of us and gave us new hope and inspiration for our plans for the DMZ garden, where we will try to apply the principles of growing power to the garden and vacant lots of the central city.

The visit with Will Allen and Growing Power made me more convinced that we need to stay in closer contact with Will and the good people at Growing Power. They not only have a lot to offer us but we have some ideas to offer them, such as worm condos at home and the new five-pane windows we are creating in our sunroom. I do need to find a way to communicate with Will and to take him up on his offer to help our community in the DMZ.

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