Sometimes I think that the next Revolutionary War will take
place in a vegetable garden. Instead of bullets, there will be seeds. Instead
of chemical warfare, there will be rainwater, carefully collected from the
gutters of the house. Instead of soldiers in body armour and helmets, there
will be back yard rebels, with bare feet, cut-off jean shorts, and wide-brimmed
hats. Instead of death, there will be life, sustained by a harvest of
home-grown produce. Children will be witness to these battles, but instead of
being traumatized, they will be happy, grimy, and healthy, as they learn about
the miracles that take place in a little plot of land or pot of dirt.
Daisy Luther
The Growing In A Nutshell Project was born in the ebbing months of 2012. The brainchild of Julie Bluemoon.
Initially it was planned as an educational project to
introduce schools and their pupils to the “radical” notion of growing your own
food. We felt that with the ongoing corporate take-over of the world’s food
supply and the patenting of seeds that a hands on demonstration of small scale
horticulture and seed harvesting, coupled with the idea of growing food
anywhere, would be a timely project indeed.
As the vast majority of people on our islands live in an
urban environment we felt that it would be of benefit to demonstrate at least
some of the many aspects of vertical gardening.
We worked hard and by early summer 2013 we had examples of “gutter
gardening” and many “grow food anywhere” items. We had lettuce and radishes,
onions, chives and carrots growing in anything from damaged kitchen utensils,
drainage pipes, old boots even second hand bras! (HH for potatoes) mostly acquired from charity shops. And of course gutters for the vertical gutter
gardens.We had dog food tins painted up. You can grow a fairly decent lettuce
in a dog food tin. In the centre of the garden we made a raised bed from
pallets in which we grew Swiss chards and cabbages. Many people don’t realize
that veggies are easy enough to grow. Also on display was a small greenhouse
made from recycled water bottles and this attracted a lot of attention.
By the summer it was clear we wouldn’t have enough mature
examples to visit schools with before the holidays, so we started considering
where we could demonstrate our ideas.
Summer festivals seemed a possible
prospect and so we approached the wonderful Glastonbury Festival in Somerset
with our plan and were delighted to have our project accepted.
We spent two happy weeks down on the farm and built in that
time a lovely little garden (photos of which we include). The Nutshell Garden
was greatly admired and many people took a considerable interest. A photographer
from Permaculture Magazine arrived to take photos which he later published. The
director of the Green Gathering Festival asked if we could do it all over again
at that event but unfortunately we had to decline as it would take more
organization than we had time for as a lot of our display was only ever
intended to be temporary and a lot of our produce was consumed at the Last
Night’s Great Feast.
However we intend to make the items on display more permanent with plants being in them from early spring onwards, leaving little
to do apart from loading and transporting. Which is a job in itself.
We had a crew of eight but with more examples planned of
vertical gardening and ”grow anywhere in anything” items we will need a bigger
crew. It can be quite hard work. So we are on the lookout for enthusiasts who
might be interested in our project and would like to be involved. You can use
the contact form to contact Julie.
We intend to broaden our base as well to include information
and examples of backyard composting, seed harvesting, hydroponics, aquaponics
and renewable energy for the smallest of plots.
In the meantime sowing and planting continues down on the
allotment.
