I’ve been meaning to make a whole professional-looking “now’s the time to start growing food!” post for a good few days but honestly this situation isn’t doing good things for my mental health and it just feels exhausting. But anything is better than nothing so here’s a quick summary:
- We don’t know how long this situation is going to last or how existing infrastructure will cope with it as time goes on. Regardless of what happens, having extra fresh food to share with your neighbors will absolutely be important going forward. If you’ve ever wanted to grow food, you should do it now
- Gardeners are thinning their seedlings and trying to distribute their extra seeds as we speak, and they’ll be thrilled to share if you want to get started. I’ve been doing this myself, giving away seedlings as much as I can. Talk to your friends, look up local gardening groups, visit the house in your neighborhood with veggies growing in the front, whatever. My local mutual aid list even has a urban farming tab for these kinds of offers and requests, with lots of gardeners and local farms offering seeds, advice, even labor. Check your local group, and put a call out asking for them - you might get some offers!
- You can also grow certain veggies from food scraps you might already have around. And needless to say, you can save the seeds from your produce as well
- You should also start composting ASAP. I made a post recently with a dead-simple guide to get started - it’s not nearly as hard as you’ve heard, it doesn’t take any skill, special materials, or really much care. There are also resources in that link for getting your organic materials to others who are already composting, if you don’t have the space to do it yourself
- I have a whole tag full of gardening resources. There’s soooo much in there. And if you need any more help getting started and don’t have any local connections, DM me and I’ll be happy to answer your questions
Please reblog! It’s vital that we get as many people as possible growing food right now!
Coop Gardens Comission is a project seeking to give people free access to seeds, land, mentorship, etc with a special focus on supporting marginalized and food insecure communities
How tf am I supposed to grow food if I live in a 600 sqft apartment with no yard or even balcony
Inside
That’s not that hard to figure out
If you’re in a situation like this, you have options! There are ways to use almost any materials you have for container gardening. One of my favorites is this plastic bottle tower system, which helps you conserve water and maximize the amount you can grow in a small space, indoors or out, but the linked blog has a ton of resources for container gardening in general for anyone with limited access to land.
You should also look around your local area for unused land that might be suitable for a community garden. While we all need to be following social distancing guidelines and not getting too close to anyone outside of our own households, it’s also crunch time for forming neighborhood connections/organizations for making sure everyone gets fed, and plus getting in some dirt will help keep you sane through this wild fucking ride. Remember, you don’t have to do every single thing yourself, you can start anywhere as long as you START. Guerrilla Gardening is a good resource for cultivating neglected land without waiting for permission, as is Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t.
I also keep tips and resources in the #gardening tag on this blog and general/info/theory stuff under #sustainable food.