Thinking about Spring...

A few weeks ago, I cobbled together a number of boxes for raised garden beds. Enough lumber that I salvaged from an abandoned City owned house down the street to build another four. Idea here is to plan and plant a little neighborhood garden and give away a few plots to some interested neighbors.

Update...1/29/07...very loyal fixBuffalo supporter tipped me off to this - Unhappy Meal, a lengthy essay by Michael Pollen that appeared in yesterday's New York Times Magazine. Hits several points that i've been interested in for the longest time and now exploring with this garden. One of the his observations...

8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden. To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting processes of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be cheap and easy; that food is fuel and not communion. The culture of the kitchen, as embodied in those enduring traditions we call cuisines, contains more wisdom about diet and health than you are apt to find in any nutrition journal or journalism. Plus, the food you grow yourself contributes to your health long before you sit down to eat it. So you might want to think about putting down this article now and picking up a spatula or hoe.

Yes the house over on the right, 1466 Michigan Avenue, had a new roof five years ago and is in excellent structural condition sans windows. It's part of my view from my desk looking out my office window. City has owned this house since October 2005. It's wide open, despite my boarding and re-boarding. Porch is crap...yet this house is an excellent double and sits less than a 100 yards away from the 30m renovation of the future home of Performing Arts High School. There are more than a dozen such abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant places the same distance away from the new school. Worst offender, Rev. Stenhouse's Bethel CDC - Boarding Control. Cool video, right here.

If anyone has some advice on community gardens or would like to help, let me know.

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