"Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there."
--Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
+++
--Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
+++
I guess you could say I am fond of making quotations my pretext. This quotation, also taken from aforementioned random quote bank, made me think of the holistic purpose and consequences of community gardens and community gardening. That being said, I think there is an important primary distinction to make between the garden, and the gardener; and secondarily,between a private and community garden. The definition is contested, and in order to set aside my highly ignorant mental schema of a hippie vegan with dreadlocks harvesting or planting their tomatoes, exploring what it means to garden, generally, and then in a communal context will help to illuminate its urban presence.
Doing a quick Google Scholar search (you've used it, once or many times, admit it), I noticed so much research has been done. First response? Where do I start? I guess I start in realizing that this task is two-fold, if not more. First, to address community gardening as a social and spatial phenomena unique (or maybe not?) to the Urban context. Second, to take this context and apply it to Vancouver. On one hand, this undertaking is very much concerned with gardens, their presence and effect on city landscapes, but also it is an analysis, like all other things urban, on what is unseen, the ideologies and principles that create and sustain these gardens and the intangible legacy of community-efficacy it grows.
In essence, this undertaking is to discover all that is (metaphorically speaking) reaped, from the initial act of when a community begins to sow.
Doing a quick Google Scholar search (you've used it, once or many times, admit it), I noticed so much research has been done. First response? Where do I start? I guess I start in realizing that this task is two-fold, if not more. First, to address community gardening as a social and spatial phenomena unique (or maybe not?) to the Urban context. Second, to take this context and apply it to Vancouver. On one hand, this undertaking is very much concerned with gardens, their presence and effect on city landscapes, but also it is an analysis, like all other things urban, on what is unseen, the ideologies and principles that create and sustain these gardens and the intangible legacy of community-efficacy it grows.
In essence, this undertaking is to discover all that is (metaphorically speaking) reaped, from the initial act of when a community begins to sow.
1 comment:
If you're in Vancouver, you might want to check out the Strathcona Community Gardens annual Open House on July 8, from 11am - 2pm. For the location of the gardens, see http://www2.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/dbs/redbook/orgpgs/2/2472.html
Apparently between 500-1,000 community members come out for the open house every year to celebrate the gardens and eat a free lunch.
Post a Comment