Friends Experimenting Urban Agriculture
Although my personal progress on gardening at home goes very slowly, it seems that this interest was encouraging to others close to me to practice in their own houses and gardens. I am listing below some of these experiments which will potentially become part of my learning network when we start implementing the UA project in Damascus.
Hounada
She is currently growing about ten types of culinary herbs in her garden but the brief sun exposure is not allowing her to expand. The roof is out of question for her because of security issues. She started a passive compost pile to process garden waste and would welcome more training on composting.
Nada
My friend the hairdresser lives in my towen too and has a nice garden which I was planning to design for her in my first year before I realize that it’s going to be long way for me before I can actually produce real designs. Anyways, she liked the idea of planting veggies and herbs instead of regular ornamental plants so she and her husband started to plant different types of veggies and herbs including: mints, chick beans, Lettuce, Cabbage, strawberry, and other ornamental plants and flowers.
They are not interested in composting because it requires lot’s of work while it’s possible to get organic fertilizer (dried manure) at relatively low cost.
My sister
My sister lives in the same nearby town where my parents live. Her interest is plants started at the same time however soon turned into a sort of obsession. My sister needed a hobby to help her overcome her tension over the continuous unrest in her town. However she had more time, more sources of information, and more support from her husband. She created a group of neighbors (four ladies) who in turn showed great interest in growing edible plants in their balconies. One is considering establishing a roof garden, another has successfully started a compost bin.
I also suggested to her to explore more on ways for decorating pots and turn them into gifts and souvenirs. this is currently being considered.
My sister herself has no space for starting her own bin.
Husam
Our relative Husam moved into his new house in our town in early 2013. The house has two gardens with total area of m2. When I briefed him on the potential a good design can bring to his garden he liked the idea very much, however since I still don’t have the capacity to design a garden, there was not much advise that I could offer to him in his project. He started collecting knowledge from nurseries and gardeners and started planting trees and roses. His garden currently includes: Damascus Rose, Lemon, Apple, jasmine, cherry, hot pepper, among others. The roses in particular are growing attractively.
He is not producing compost because his wife is not open to the idea of separating kitchen waste. He also uses huge amount of pesticides arguing that the area is severely contaminated.
Common Notes
- My involvement in the four experiments above is limited to observing while visiting regularly. There were few occasions where I was able to provide some advise, mainly things I had already heard from my friend Dima, the Agriculture Engineer, or things I searched over the net, such as advising Husam not to move plants during the hot season.
- Those experiments did not always come with positive impact. In the case of both my sister and Husam, their new obsession with gardening and plants was not received with welcome among their family members because it seemed to come at the expense of family time. Also in the case of my sister, her new hobby became a burden to the family budget, especially in the beginning as she was establishing her garden.