#urban farm
This is an “after” shot of a front strip, raised bed vegetable garden my crew and I worked on this week. The people who own this home have 5 kids and they’re all excited about the new garden. We planted tomatoes, peppers, arugula, beans, cucumbers (I still need to come back with trellises, and supports), Rainbow Swiss chard, basil, cilantro, lavender, mint, Walla Walla onions, marigolds, raspberry (container shrubs), strawberries, and corn (not pictured, it’s on the driveway strip adjacent to this one.)
I love the way this came out, I hope it gets huge. It was a somewhat sad dirt patch before, with just a few drought tolerant flowers around the tree. We added a bunch more flowers, pink ice plant, around the tree. I love my job.
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Broken bottles so thick you couldn’t walk – that’s how he remembers the lot that’s now a thriving farm in south Dallas.
Q is giving us a tour of Bonton Farm-Works, or at least of the life-packed 2 acre portion of it where the organization first bloomed (…excuse the pun).
People didn’t want to come to this area, and now look, he says, gesturing to our small group. This is how the community should’ve been all along; people of all races and walks of life enjoying a place. He touches his chest when he talks about his youth in the area.
He lived the struggle, he says.
Now he’s grateful to have a different trajectory, but in the same location, a place that’s dear to him. Home.
This community is being transformed by a little farm, a green space, a place to grow food and connect with the earth and with other humans.
Even as I grappled with my stroller, pushing it over mulch and through the chicken yard, the goat pen, and rows and rows of produce — Even in the June heat and humidity as I sought shade under short fruit trees or against fences — Despite these distractions, I noticed how green, how beautiful, how happy a little space can be. A few acres and a few simple ideas, put to the right use, can bring life to a community and change individual lives.
Transformations. Q said it was so inspiring – nothing like it in the world – to plant a few seeds and in a few weeks or a few seasons see so much progress, so much change.
That inspires me. How would I feel if I gardened regularly? How much would my kids learn if they planted seeds and saw the results? (My oldest is only 2, but I still think lots of the lessons are available to him.) How would the world be different if more people saw that kind of positive change and knew they were able to be part of the change?
On the way home, we drove through neighborhoods that are actively being bulldozed to make way for more expensive housing – housing the current residents won’t be able to afford.
Is the handwriting on the wall for urban centers in the crosshairs of gentrification? Would more urban farms and tighter communities help turn the tide against further disenfranchising the poor? I don’t know.
I do know a little more farming, a little more outdoor time, a little more connection with nature and each other, and the realization you can make a positive change can’t hurt.
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Below are a few photos from my visit. I especially liked that the goats get exercise and enrichment during a “goat walk”, which I didn’t get to participate in but enjoyed watching. Check out Bonton Farms here.
Join us at the 1st Georgia Avenue Winter Fest hosted by @Artomatic! The Festival is indoors at the former Murray’s Grocery Store at 3400 Georgia Ave. NW.
We’ll have these and more at our table:
- HANDMADE SPICES.
- GOURMET MUSHROOMS.
- GIY MUSHROOM KITS.
- CSA CLUB SUBSCRIPTIONS.
- GIFT CARDS.
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Making Sauerkraut - We picked 3 cabbages (about 10 lbs. total) and are turning them into 4 half gallons of sauerkraut.
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My tomato plant keeps giving! It’s mid-November and most of my summer crop has long since shriveled up and been pulled. One Celebrity tomato plant is thriving and still growing big, juicy tomatoes!
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We are fighting lots of insects and mildew this fall, but we managed to pick our first cucumbers from this fall’s planting and are making them into Bread & Butter pickles.
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Growing cucumbers Take 2 -
Well, the summer cukes were a bust, they shriveled up (like most of my garden) after our first pickle making session. So, I am giving it another try.
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Potato failure
Growing potatoes in bags makes all kinds of sense, but this is two years in a row of a pitiful yield. At least we had the good sense to open the bags in a wheel barrow so we can reuse the soil into our raised beds without shoveling. I will probably try it again next year.
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A busy canning day! We canned 10 pints of marinara sauce, 14 pints of peach jam, and 8 ½ pints of salsa. We grew everything except the onions.
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