Meeting at Moonbird...#just1acre
Times like these are rare. By this I mean that there are rarely times when things come together that exemplify why we are doing the things that we do.
Friday was a meeting of the gardening club of a local elementary school. There were about 12 bright and eager minds from kindergarten to fourth grade. They were anxious to grow something! They wanted to grow blueberries and strawberries and whatever else they could get their hands on.
I was invited to observe and see if The Life Cooperative could do anything to help. Their excitement was contagious, mainly because they were excited over something that was so simple. Maybe not really simple, but that was not outside of the realm of possibility.
When we looked at the things they wanted to do, something came to mind, over and over again. Nature was not the problem. They wanted to grow strawberries. They have plenty of space and sunlight to get some strawberries going. They wanted to grow watermelon. They have some space, but we looked at ways to go vertical with their growing projects. We talked about how to shade them so they don't explode and even though it is December, they talked for a few moments about how to grow pumpkins for next year.
Nothing they wanted to do had not been done before and they wanted to get started as soon as possible. That is where we came in.
While we met with the kids on Friday, the meeting the next day was a bit more crucial to getting things off the ground. We have talked a great deal about what we are calling neopermaculture and how to get these things done in a modern world, so the next day when I met with two of the teachers at Moonbird Coffee, this is when we addressed the hard problems.
Neopermaculture is not about just growing things. It is about doing it in the world we live in with realistic parameters. The digging is easy. The paperwork is hard.
As I sat with these two teachers who had opted to give up their Saturday morning to chat about this, we began to lay down the logistics. We wanted to draw down on costs and permissions and so on.
The new permaculture movement is about bringing together a community because it is going to take lots of work to get these things done.
In the past, we have seen and documented two problems. First, lack of communication or interaction leading to a duplication of resources and an unsustainable model. We have seen many times in the past where a parent, excited about spring and the first warm day of the year, decides they want to help their child's school start a garden. This is great. So they engage in fundraising and finding the space and getting everything that they need. Just as the plants are popping out of the ground, school lets out. Who monitors the garden over the summer? Not only that, but during the week? Weeds begin to grow back as soon as they are pulled and gardening is a daily process. The kids cannot do it. The staff may not be able to as we ask so much of them already.
So the garden goes wild over the summer and too many times we see the process start all over again the following spring. Each time, it gets harder and harder to get the garden going again, not because of the soil or anything like that but because the enthusiasm from the students, staff, and community is not there and when it comes to revitalizing the program, the first question that is asked is what guarantees are there that it won't fall apart again making people reluctant to participate.
Sustainability becomes the starting point. One young lady asked about blueberries, and we have to confront the idea that with a new garden,blueberries often do not succeed until the second year but we can grow strawberries and blackberries. And we can let them work with other things they can harvest and eat almost immediately. While, in the background, we can note that blueberries are growing and so are plums and avocados and so on. The key though, is continuity and sustainability.
The next problem that we wanted to see solved is WHO is involved. Thinking back to my childhood, my parents were involved in the things that I did, but although they are caring people, were never much concerned about what other people's children were doing. The goal of the neopermaculture movement is to look at how to expand that base.
We created the #whitepallet program as a way for community members, even those without kids in the school, to get involved and contribute their kitchen scraps if nothing else.
We created the #greenbox program as a way for people to contribute something as small as an aluminum can that can clean up the neighborhood and be used to raise money for these projects.
We are even engaging businesses in the community, like Moonbird to help with the funding. We are seeing businesses like theirs jump at the opportunity because they care and have a vested interest in the kids in the community being educated and invested in their own community.
Forget kids going from door to door selling candy bars and magazine subscriptions. Why can't they have a market? Why can't they sell things that people need and want?
So we are building them a market where they can sell what they are growing (with a little help from us, of course because we are talking about a nearly full time job no 8 year old should be doing!)
So this is what we are doing. We are solving the problems and not giving anyone a reason to say no.
The meeting at Moonbird was a productive one and it is not going to be the last. Every Saturday in the new year from 10 am to noon we are going to meet there and solve problems we hope in much the same way.
Want to keep up?
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Twitter.
And as always you can see all of our projects at www.thelifecooperative.org
Friday was a meeting of the gardening club of a local elementary school. There were about 12 bright and eager minds from kindergarten to fourth grade. They were anxious to grow something! They wanted to grow blueberries and strawberries and whatever else they could get their hands on.
I was invited to observe and see if The Life Cooperative could do anything to help. Their excitement was contagious, mainly because they were excited over something that was so simple. Maybe not really simple, but that was not outside of the realm of possibility.
When we looked at the things they wanted to do, something came to mind, over and over again. Nature was not the problem. They wanted to grow strawberries. They have plenty of space and sunlight to get some strawberries going. They wanted to grow watermelon. They have some space, but we looked at ways to go vertical with their growing projects. We talked about how to shade them so they don't explode and even though it is December, they talked for a few moments about how to grow pumpkins for next year.
Nothing they wanted to do had not been done before and they wanted to get started as soon as possible. That is where we came in.
While we met with the kids on Friday, the meeting the next day was a bit more crucial to getting things off the ground. We have talked a great deal about what we are calling neopermaculture and how to get these things done in a modern world, so the next day when I met with two of the teachers at Moonbird Coffee, this is when we addressed the hard problems.
Neopermaculture is not about just growing things. It is about doing it in the world we live in with realistic parameters. The digging is easy. The paperwork is hard.
As I sat with these two teachers who had opted to give up their Saturday morning to chat about this, we began to lay down the logistics. We wanted to draw down on costs and permissions and so on.
The new permaculture movement is about bringing together a community because it is going to take lots of work to get these things done.
In the past, we have seen and documented two problems. First, lack of communication or interaction leading to a duplication of resources and an unsustainable model. We have seen many times in the past where a parent, excited about spring and the first warm day of the year, decides they want to help their child's school start a garden. This is great. So they engage in fundraising and finding the space and getting everything that they need. Just as the plants are popping out of the ground, school lets out. Who monitors the garden over the summer? Not only that, but during the week? Weeds begin to grow back as soon as they are pulled and gardening is a daily process. The kids cannot do it. The staff may not be able to as we ask so much of them already.
So the garden goes wild over the summer and too many times we see the process start all over again the following spring. Each time, it gets harder and harder to get the garden going again, not because of the soil or anything like that but because the enthusiasm from the students, staff, and community is not there and when it comes to revitalizing the program, the first question that is asked is what guarantees are there that it won't fall apart again making people reluctant to participate.
Sustainability becomes the starting point. One young lady asked about blueberries, and we have to confront the idea that with a new garden,blueberries often do not succeed until the second year but we can grow strawberries and blackberries. And we can let them work with other things they can harvest and eat almost immediately. While, in the background, we can note that blueberries are growing and so are plums and avocados and so on. The key though, is continuity and sustainability.
The next problem that we wanted to see solved is WHO is involved. Thinking back to my childhood, my parents were involved in the things that I did, but although they are caring people, were never much concerned about what other people's children were doing. The goal of the neopermaculture movement is to look at how to expand that base.We created the #whitepallet program as a way for community members, even those without kids in the school, to get involved and contribute their kitchen scraps if nothing else.
We created the #greenbox program as a way for people to contribute something as small as an aluminum can that can clean up the neighborhood and be used to raise money for these projects.
We are even engaging businesses in the community, like Moonbird to help with the funding. We are seeing businesses like theirs jump at the opportunity because they care and have a vested interest in the kids in the community being educated and invested in their own community.
Forget kids going from door to door selling candy bars and magazine subscriptions. Why can't they have a market? Why can't they sell things that people need and want?
So we are building them a market where they can sell what they are growing (with a little help from us, of course because we are talking about a nearly full time job no 8 year old should be doing!)
So this is what we are doing. We are solving the problems and not giving anyone a reason to say no.
The meeting at Moonbird was a productive one and it is not going to be the last. Every Saturday in the new year from 10 am to noon we are going to meet there and solve problems we hope in much the same way.
Want to keep up?
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Twitter.
And as always you can see all of our projects at www.thelifecooperative.org
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