DCL
The USDA has recently begun a project it's calling the "People's Garden." The soon-to-be six acre plot was once a parking lot but is now being developed to demonstrate "what individuals can do to embrace organic practices and healthy eating regardless of where they live or work." Currently, the garden features five interesting elements that could be useful, whether you have a container garden on your apartment's balcony, or a large field beside your country manor.
Interesting Features of the People's Garden:
Potager Pollinator Garden: This "kitchen garden" mixes vegetables and flowers to encourage bees and butterflies in the area. It's a traditional method of blending plants that is practical and aesthetically appealing.
Transition Field Plots: In an effort to attain its own "organic" label, the USDA is using transition rotations to rebuild the garden's soil, eliminating the need for pesticides and chemical fertilizers. First, organic field peas will be planted, plowed in, and replanted with buckwheat. A planting of crimson clover will follow to complete the process, expected to take three years.
Bioswale and Rain Gardens: Both of these features are designed to reduce runoff and erosion. Bioswales filter runoff, reducing silt and pollution while improving soil and water quality. The result is compost, which will be used in the garden.
Rain Gardens are planted in shallow depressions to collect rainwater. By planting native grasses and shrubs, the gardens thrive without additional fertilizer and are more tolerant of local climactic and growing conditions.
Bat House: Bats are great predators of night-time insects, making sitting outside on a summer evening that much more enjoyable. As Matt Arnn, area landscape architect for the US Forest Service, explained, bats are also important pollinators for plants and their guano, or droppings, act as a natural fertilizer for the garden.
Three Sisters Garden: This unique element acts as a showcase for traditional Native American agricultural techniques. One of the most important lessons from this part of the People's Garden is that growing food can be a way to teach and learn life lessons, and build traditions, with your friends and family.
The overall message of the People's Garden, Mr. Arnn explained, is that:
Even if you have a small apartment, you can do organic container gardening, if you have a school or an institution we can build larger raised beds?if you're in an ex-urban or suburban landscape there's some room to do field planting right in your front lawn. Basically, everyone has room for a garden. "It may seem like the six-acre site is a very small footprint when we talk about regulating climate and cleaning water," Mr. Arnn told us, "but if we think about it in the context of UDSA properties nationwide?we really have a chance to make a significant impact in getting our own house in order before we ask other people to do the same." More than anything, this lesson is one that extends far beyond the USDA and the People's Garden. It is a statement about the power of every individual flower pot, compost pile, and vegetable patch. So don't wait: Get planting today.
