Efficiency of Home Gardens Compared to Farms: Could we realistically get to where at least a third of our food is produced in home gardens? Let's explore.
What I think is missing here from the argument is the community garden.
We grow (well, my wife does the bulk of the effort if I’m being honest, the jungle of vines out there I fully credit to her) a good amount of food. Herbs, beans, cucumbers, squashes, lettuce, tomato, carrot… Every trip we grab more than we can use, or it will just go to waste.
We share with others who garden and some who don’t, but around us do. They also give us kale, varieties of berries, and others that we don’t grow.
You don’t need a lot of plants to end up producing more than you can realistically use, even getting creative with their use (we’ve started making a lot of syrups). Sharing with your local community can make this all even more efficient, making better use of what’s been planted.
Which is a long AF, adhd-laden way of saying “Community gardens / sharing is even better with efficiency imo”
I think there’s also a big difference between “a community garden” and “a community that gardens”. Lots of (most?) “community gardens” are simply a collection of rental plots where everyone just grows what they want to grow in their plot. When I’ve had gardens like that, yeah people will give each other some handfuls of whatever they have too much of, but there’s not that much sharing.
In an ideal world, i think you’d actually have a bit of a plan as a group and distribute tasks^From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs^. E.g., maybe Alice has a yard that’s perfect for growing tomatoes, Bob has a lot of shade, so he can grow leafy greens, Charlie hates gardening but likes foraging, Dave has a good spot for composting, etc.
What I think is missing here from the argument is the community garden.
We grow (well, my wife does the bulk of the effort if I’m being honest, the jungle of vines out there I fully credit to her) a good amount of food. Herbs, beans, cucumbers, squashes, lettuce, tomato, carrot… Every trip we grab more than we can use, or it will just go to waste.
We share with others who garden and some who don’t, but around us do. They also give us kale, varieties of berries, and others that we don’t grow.
You don’t need a lot of plants to end up producing more than you can realistically use, even getting creative with their use (we’ve started making a lot of syrups). Sharing with your local community can make this all even more efficient, making better use of what’s been planted.
Which is a long AF, adhd-laden way of saying “Community gardens / sharing is even better with efficiency imo”
I think there’s also a big difference between “a community garden” and “a community that gardens”. Lots of (most?) “community gardens” are simply a collection of rental plots where everyone just grows what they want to grow in their plot. When I’ve had gardens like that, yeah people will give each other some handfuls of whatever they have too much of, but there’s not that much sharing.
In an ideal world, i think you’d actually have a bit of a plan as a group and distribute tasks^From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs^. E.g., maybe Alice has a yard that’s perfect for growing tomatoes, Bob has a lot of shade, so he can grow leafy greens, Charlie hates gardening but likes foraging, Dave has a good spot for composting, etc.