220: Ben Raskin on Practical Advice for Community Gardens.
Organizing a community garden from scratch with smart planning and long-term goals.
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In This Podcast:
For those envisioning a perfect community garden, Ben has put together a fabulous resource to guide, inspire, and empower the designers and leaders of future neighborhood plots. He tells Greg about the purpose he had for writing his latest book and some of the lessons he’s learned during his years of farming.
Listen in and learn about:
- How he started learning about gardening because he enjoyed food and cooking
- His time hanging out at an Italian vineyard and learning the skills of growing
- More about the Soil Association and what they do in the UK – and how they offer certification as well
- The new Community Gardening Handbook that he wrote and why
- The concept that gardening is “an old man’s hobby” since the advent of victory gardens and how there is a shift with young people starting gardens these days
- How Community Gardening is helping bridge so many gaps
- Being able to envision many different types of community gardens to gain inspiration
- Why he added practical advice on setting up a community garden and the community aspect
- His struggle to decide which gardens to include in his book
- The community farm project that he was involved with that helped connect the people of Bristol
- Some of the key elements necessary during a start-up phase for a community garden to be successful
- How the conversation about food supply and food sourcing changes when people are educated and understand more about growing their own food
- Community orchards and edible trees in the city
- Finding land in the cities for community gardens
As well as:
- His failure – his first big commercial venture when he was trying to plant right after a rain and struggling to decide if he should wait for the soil to dry out and learning the value of patience; and the time he rushed and planted too much too fast without resources, learning the value of effective planning
- His success – the future growers training that was started at The Soil Association ten years ago to help growers learn and grow together
- His drive – He loves doing new and interesting stuff, and he loves people, and food.
- His advice – Find some local vegetable gardeners and spend time talking or if possible working with them for a while
Books written by Ben
Grow: A Family Guide to Growing Fruits and Vegetables
Compost: A Family Guide to Making Soil from Scraps
Ben’s Book recommendations:
The Salad Bible: Leafless Gourmet by Davida Rantz Zelcer How to Grow Winter VegetablesHow to reach Ben:
Twitter: @ben_raskin
UrbanFarm.org/BenRaskin