Community Gardens

As we head into uncertain times, it may well be time to start a Community garden in your neighbourhood. I first mooted this with our neighbours the day after seeing the events of 11th September. They all thought me mad at the time because it did not concern them.

Now however, they are beginning to warm to the idea.

Having served populations through depression and survived times of affluence, it seems that community gardens and city farms are now finding renewed vigour worldwide. http://www.magna.com.au/~pacedge/garden/...

Contacts for community gardens in Australia.

The Community Gardens Network is an informal, voluntary network of people interested or active in community gardens.

The purpose of the network is to facilitate the sharing of information and knowledge. http://www.magna.com.au/~pacedge/garden/...

At a purely practical level, even if you are in a Unit, you can help grow your own nutritious food; sprouts.

Why Eat Sprouts? quoted from The Wonders of Sprouting by Lucie Desjarlais,RNC.

"Lots of reasons! They carry plenty of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and enzymes, all necessary for the body to function optimally. In addition to providing the greatest amount of these nutrients, sprouts deliver them in a form that is easily digested and assimilated. In fact, they improve the efficiency of digestion. Sprouts are also deliciously fresh and colourful!

Sprouts are very inexpensive (even when organic), always fresh (they grow until you chew them) and have the potential to help solve hunger and malnutrition problems in our communities and in developing countries, because they are so rich in nutrients, affordable, and easy to transport before sprouting. Sprouts are precious in winter, when the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables is declining as their price increases."

"(Sprouts) supply the highest amount of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. of any food per unit of calorie."

"... sprouts nourish and strengthen the whole body, including the vital immune system."

We go into Coles or Woolworths and buy ready made sprouts when we all could be growing our own. Back in the late sixties Rene and I went through a vegan stage when we grow and grew sprouts of all kinds. God, we got so thin; sigh.

Sprouting your own seed is a lot of fun. As well as being an enjoyable pastime, sprouts yield probably the highest level of nutrient by weight of any vegetable. Many bushwalkers carry along little sprouting containers to keep up a supply of fresh greens while they are out in the bush.