Growing a Brighter, Greener Future.

Over the past decade, more people, including Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers alike, are becoming increasingly interested in getting back to the land. And there are two other categories of people as well, the urban and guerrilla gardening.

The Covid-19 pandemic may pan out to reveal hockey stick growth in food gardening. During this historic event, seed companies are doing all that they can to fulfill orders, and some have had to close due to not being able to keep up.

So there’s good in the bad of Covid-19. For more people to grow their own organic food is good for human bodies. For more plants and trees to be planted and nurtured is good for the planet. Planting and growing food is good for the planet.

Whether it’s by gardening, or spending time in nature, getting back to ‘real’ life experiences as opposed to the simulated online experiences, is beneficial to physical, emotional and mental health. Gardening is good for the spirit too!

Beyond that, there’s the primary benefit of ready access to inexpensive, healthy, organic food.

We celebrate this steady movement toward getting back to the Earth, back to nature and simpler times. For the city bound, one really beneficial way to do this is community and urban gardens. For the inner city dwellers without any or much land, there’s even guerrilla gardening.

Gardening is a fantastic way to get in touch with nature and nurture.

Gardening Improves Health and Alleviates Depression

Getting moving and out in nature plays a vital role in our health and wellbeing. Gardening therapy is real as it is proven to be beneficial in reducing stress, anxiety and depression, and so much more. Just the fact of eating the healthiest foods on the planet in their freshest possible state, from garden to table, is hugely beneficial in so many ways.

Generational Transformation and Beyond

The concept of transforming impoverished and neglected patches of land to flourishing food gardens is incredibly inspiring as to what’s possible. Beyond growing healthy foods… gardening restores a healthy relationship with nature and with self… ones own nature.

Ron Finley is doing more than transforming scruffy city scapes to foodscapes. He’s doing more than transforming lives. This is a story of transforming people and cities for generations to come. Beyond that, it is a story of transforming Mother Earth, one urban—and suburban—landscape at a time.

Ron Finley, also known as the “Gangsta Gardener”, or “Guerilla Gardener”, has a funny, somewhat sobering, but mostly inspiring TEDTalk about why we need to get back to growing our own food. Ron’s organization is helping kids, families, and communities re-build & re-connect… from the ground up, beginning with community gardens.

At the end of the day, no matter our age, we’re all looking for a deeper sense of purpose and connection with each other and nature.

Connection with nature restores our own.
~LeAura Alderson, GardensAll.com

Ron Finley’s TED on Uban Gardening

Over the past few months, I’ve seen several Millennials commenting and sharing their interest in gardening and nature on the Gardens All Facebook Page.  As much as I love technology… it’s high time we get down and dirty with mother nature!

“Growing your own food is like printing your own money.”
–Ron Finley, fashion designer, ‘Guerilla Gardener‘

“The drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”
–Ron Finley, fashion designer, ‘Guerilla Gardener‘

“Rebellion is not what you think.”
–Ron Finley, fashion designer, ‘Guerilla Gardener‘

“If kids grow kale, kids eat kale. If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. But when none of this is presented to them, if they’re not shown how food affects the mind and the body, they blindly eat whatever you put in front of them.”
–Ron Finley, fashion designer, ‘Guerilla Gardener‘

If you put beauty in a place that generally doesn’t have it… that’s a game changer.
–Ron Finley, fashion designer, ‘Guerilla Gardener‘

These are just a few excerpts pulled from Ron Finley’s TEDTalk, but it gives us a lot of healthy food for thought, in how we think about gardening.

Gardening is not just a hobby activity. It helps the quality of our lives, our children’s lives, and our micro-environments, which feeds the health of the macro-environment.

Check out this interesting trailer on Ron Finley’s Master Class.

 “If you aren’t eating healthy, nutritious, vibrant food, how’s anything in you gonna grow?”
–Ron Finley, fashion designer, ‘Guerilla Gardener‘

Freedom and Gardening

“Gardens to me, represent freedom.”
~Ron Finley, ‘Gangsta Gardener‘

Documentaries to Enjoy

Urban Gardening Documentaries

• Can You Dig This?
• Urban Fruit

Small Farms Documentaries

• The Biggest Little Farm – We wrote more about that in this permaculture documentary article
• The American Farm – Series

How Do I Legally Start a CSA?

Written by Kristen Ploetz contributor on ModernFarmer.com

Assuming you are talking about a single-farm/producer model — where you are the only farm involved in growing and producing the food and do not use any other employees and/or volunteer labor — there are a few things you will want to consider first.

Business Structure/Legal Entity

I’m going to assume that you are not otherwise already operating as a commercial farm entity/business. As with forming any small business, it is a good idea to think about what kind of business structure/legal entity makes the most sense for your particular situation. The primary types of business models include sole proprietorship, corporation (C or S), partnership, and limited liability company (LLC).

Distribution 

In some instances, local zoning laws could pose a problem for getting your veggies to subscribers. Ideally, it is probably easiest if your subscribers can come to you. However, if you are looking to have on-site distribution, you must be certain not to run afoul of whatever restrictions exist in your zoning district.

Miscellaneous

A CSA program is a form of direct marketing from farm to consumer that has countless benefits on both sides of the equation. But, given the growing popularity of CSAs across the U.S., some states are starting to develop regulations in this area and you will need to pay attention accordingly.^[1]https://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/dear-modern-farmer-legally-start-csa/

Editors Note: If you run into trouble with your Homeowner’s Association, here’s an article on gardening and HOA’s, here’s an article on ways you can work around some of the rules. We’d love to hear how you’re gardening, with your kids, community, or just in the backyard! Feel free to share photos and stories on the Facebook Page!