David sifting soil in the DMZ
My energy level went up today. Perhaps it was the sun. It was still cool but sunny. I did not get much done in my home model garden today, but we got another raised bed built at the DMZ garden. This was mostly due to a couple of older boys in the neighborhood who really worked consistently for the two hours I was there. We still lack enough tools and adult supervision, especially with younger kids, but progress is being made. The most important thing is that the children and adults in the neighborhood are becoming invested in the DMZ community garden. Community involvement is essential, according to Will Allen, for an effective GP community garden. He is right as always.
Actually, community investment is key to the success of any community project, be it in the central city of Milwaukee or in a barrio in Venezuela. When people build, create and use something themselves, it means more. It seems to be a lesson everyone knows but few here in the USA practice. The government here always seems to have a hierarchy and bureaucracy involved which controls but is not invested. Tomorrow I will bring more tools, seeds and know-how to the DMZ to share with the youth. It is slowly becoming their garden, as it should.
I heard today from the young man who is going to draw up plans for Worm Condos and make some from community gardens. Worm Condos will help community gardens make their own worm castings for fertilizer and tea. The more we create the garden the more the garden is ours.
There is an old saying about making your own bed to lie in. That is certainly true in the GP home model of gardening. We make our own beds to plant in. We make our own soil to grow in.
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