If
there is one thing the month of November made me grateful for is the weather in
New Orleans. Although there have been chilly days, it doesn’t even start to
compare with the weather in Boston, and for that I'm very happy. No snow
storms, no sub-zero temperatures… Ah, the simple pleasures of life!
With
that said, this month, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the Green Light
New Orleans organization in their backyard vegetable garden program. The organization install free energy efficient
light bulbs and backyard vegetable gardens in New Orleans; helping then to
create an environmental friendly city.
Residents
who are interested in having a vegetable garden contact the organization and
then set up a date to have volunteers come in and install the gardens, all free
of charge! This explains the long waiting list: about 200 people! Residents are asked to maintain the garden
for up to 5 years at least. And if they ever have issues with their garden, or
can’t afford to get seeds, they can always contact the organization.
We
work with residents to build 4ft x 4 vegetable beds in their backyards. I was
surprised to see how easy it is to install a vegetable garden: I learned how to
in about 30 minutes, and along with Miss Debra, the other volunteer we were on
our way to install our first raised garden bed by ourselves. All the materials
are provided by the organization: the tools and the seeds. When we got to the
house, the resident and her son were eagerly waiting for us, ready to help
build their vegetable garden. Her 5-year-old son was the cutest: with his spiderman
gloves and little wheelbarrow.
We
started by digging a hole that was about 6 feet deep, and 4x4 in size. Lucky
for us, the grass was damp (because it has rained earlier in the week) and the
resident had already started digging up the grass before we got there. We lined
the whole with landscape fabric, and filled it with soil. Then, we were ready
to put in our seeds. We planted kale, aragula, basil, and tomatoes.
I
really enjoyed myself, and was happy to contribute to making New Orleans a
greener place. Also I learned a lot about planting and it made me think about
the benefits and importance of having a garden:
-You
have to take care of it (which requires patience and effort), therefore you
learn to have greater appreciation and respect for your food
-You
are then encouraged to eat healthier food, plus you know the source of your
vegetables (in your backyard) and it helps save money too!
-Taking
care of it requires a bit of physical exercise AND it is relaxing too, so not
only do you get to eat healthier, you get to exercise and de-stress too. Keys to
healthy and happy life, and a significantly decrease in your risks of getting lifestyle
diseases.
I’m
happy and confident to say that by helping install vegetable gardens, I am performing
preventive medicine: acting upstream to alleviate downstream health crisis!
I
look forward to installing more backyard gardens, J
What we started with
 |
What we made of it! |
Happy Residents!
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