Since April, I have participated in the City Farmer School program run by our district office. We urban farmers gather every Friday morning, learn how to grow vegetables from our instructor and work together in our community garden.
We planted various leaf vegetables including kale, lettuce and crown daisy. We also planted potatoes, radishes and fruit vegetables such as eggplants, pumpkins and cucumbers. On the edge of our plots, we planted fragrant herbs like basil, apple mint and peppermint.
Time passes quickly when we work in the garden. We harvest leaf vegetables, remove superfluous buds of cherry tomatoes and water all the crops. We work only for a short time, once a week, but have enjoyed bountiful harvests.
I feel good when working on the soft soil. Everything in the garden is beautiful. Red radishes, yellow flowers of tomatoes and small green tomatoes make me smile.
Urban agriculture has many benefits. It provides city people with fresh vegetables. Our community garden is only a 10-minute walk from my house. Eating freshly harvested vegetables is joyful. Taking part in the City Farmer School program, I came to like diverse kinds of vegetables, even the little bitter ones that I hadn’t particularly liked before.
Also, urban farming is helpful in withstanding the climate crisis. In mid-May, temperature already exceeded 30 degrees Celsius due to global warming. These days, it is hot when we work in the garden even in the morning. We work for only an hour a week there, but I’m worried about farmers who work for long hours in fields even under extreme heat. We need more green spaces in cities, including community gardens, that can contribute to responding to the climate crisis.
Community gardens also enable us to feel that we are connected with one another. In our garden, various people, from those in their 20s to those in their 70s, work together. Last week, we harvested arugula, radishes and young summer radishes. We shared recipes that we can use with the harvest. I made pasta and sandwiches with the arugula. Other participants made kimchi or water kimchi with the radishes and young summer radishes. Community gardens can be beneficial especially for older adults and people who live alone because community activities tend to be helpful to those who spend a lot of time alone.
Urban agriculture makes our environment beautiful, too. In Curitiba, a city in Brazil, there are many community gardens. They had been mostly empty spaces or places treated as garbage sites. However, the city supported creating community gardens through urban farming programs, and the once abandoned spaces were transformed into gardens where citizens can grow fruit and vegetables (Green Review—Vol. 186). Community gardens full of colorful vegetables and flowers not only provide healthy food but also create a beautiful environment.
I hope that more people can enjoy the benefits of urban farming and find joy in their lives.
Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/everythingchanges) wrote “Love without Hesitation” and translated “Little Lord Fauntleroy.”
Source: Korea Times News
