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Sustainability stories - Coventry LM

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Alice Yaxley, Coventry LM

I watched the movie “The Age of Stupid” last year, and heard a presentation about the contracting world economy from one of the writers at The Automatic Earth blog. My response was that I need to grow more of my own food, in the garden at home. I had experienced “eating from the garden” when I was growing up and more recently when visiting friends. I could see there was more I could do. This will reduce my carbon footprint as well as saving us money. The imperative towards justice has become more central to my life. As I understand it God’s invitation is to move towards eating more locally, because this means not stealing from the poor of the earth today and not stealing from the future by burning fossil fuels. We are invited into God’s care, a way of life which lifts oppression to build peace.

I saved up to import 2 tonnes of green waste compost to lay down on top of the heavy clay (£75 including delivery). This added organic matter helps earthworms to mature, and they help mix the heavy clay into the compost to make good soil. I did an online course about planning a food garden. I have begun to plant more food: broad beans, garlic, onions, shallots and winter radishes so far, and I aim to plant Carlin peas in the next month. I hope to also grow carrots, potatoes, mangetout, strawberries, courgettes, and some other squashes later in the year. My back garden is about 100 m2 so I will look for more space as I come closer to using every centimetre of this garden.

There aren’t any allotments near enough for me to be able to get to, but I am convening a group with other local residents to ask the Council to allow us to use derelict land to grow food. Learning how to grow a larger proportion of my food is a big learning curve and I am not going to learn everything in one season, so I just have to do what I can when I can in the knowledge that there will be more I can manage in future seasons.

 

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