[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: TH: 17th Annual Community Gardening Conference / Sep 96. (fwd)



Some gardeners find bamboo to be the ultimate companion plant to the
garden. What other plant can grow upright, screen from view, act as a
windbreak, provide a steady supply of garden stakes, and provide edible
bamboo shoots early in the spring. More gardeners should be using this
plant wisely.


>It is certainly a good idea to plant more trees in community gardens. There
>is a good strategic question concerning the proper mix of edible and
>non-edible woody and non-woody plants in community gardens. Of course, these
>are decisions to be made by the gardeners themselves; yet those of us in
>community gardening organizations who try to help groups garden at urban
>sites need to be clear ourselves as to what to advise. Annual food plants
>(vegetables) grow fast, produce results, and their production techniques and
>propagation techniques (seeding) are much more widely known in the population
>than are fruits, and mistakes are less costly. People practice plant skills
>as easily on beans as on grapefuits with less costly errors. Also, shade
>trees in urban areas such as ours (Houston) make the growing of fruits and
>vegetables more difficult, and this encourages depend3ency on food imports
>from distances. Thus, the issue of mix and more importantly effective
>dissemination of information on fruits and nuts that do well in an area with
>little training are important considerations that many community garderners
>wrestle with continually. In any case, our conventions would benefit from as
>many permaculturalists as possible.  Bob Randall, Urban Harvest.

  /H\\H                             H                               //H
   H /H \  Gib Cooper               H\   Voice/Fax: 541-247-0835     /H\\H \
  /H  H  Tradewinds Bamboo Nursery /H    bambugib@harborside.com    / H HH  H\
   H\\H\  28446 Hunter Creek Loop   H \                             H\H\HH\ H
   H /H\   Gold Beach, OR 97444     H                              /H H HH  H
  /H\HH \\               http://harborside.com/bamboo/              H H HH\\H\
   H HH                                                          // H H HH /H
     H                                                                H H