A green beginning
There are tons of benefits to having a community garden: stronger sense of community, promoting healthy eating, learning what it really takes to grow your food. It’s also a great way to make gardening a possibility for those living in urban homes with less yard room, and to create a healthy town center for citizens of all ages.
But where should you start if you’d like a community garden of your own? We chatted with Rodney Spencer, the executive director of City Slicker Farms, which provides community gardens for West Oakland residents, to hear his top tips on how to get started.
Do y’all ever just get ANGRY about how cool technology is inevitably used for evil. Like, smart homes could be such an exciting concept?
Imagine: your home is entirely voice activated. You can run yourself a bath when you’re exhausted and sore without having to get up to turn the water on. You can alleviate your anxiety about having left the stove on without having to leave work. The roomba can find your glasses for you when you drop them and all you have to do is ask.
Now imagine that this is all on a closed circuit! Your TV can predict what shows you’ll like, but it won’t give that information to a company that will use it for disturbingly specific advertisement. And everything has manual overrides, just in case.
Can you imagine a future where every car is self-driving? Maybe even solar powered? Or better yet, apply those same concepts to widespread public transportation! We could almost completely eliminate traffic jams.
My house could feed my cats while I’m on vacation! My fridge could tell me when I’m low on milk! I could brew coffee without getting out of bed!
Hell, most of this stuff already exists!
But nooooo, I can’t have any of it because there are people and companies out there who will actively use that stuff against me and I don’t want fucking Amazon to know what kind of underwear I own.
I’m not bitter or anything.
It’s a Native American planting technique that, honestly is genius. It’s called companion planting. You grow the corn first and then when it’s about knee-high, you add a runner bean. Once the beans have sprouted, you plant either summer or winter squash. The corn offers stakes for the beans to climb up and the squash shades the ground to prevent weeds from growing. It’s a really amazing way to nourish the soil and grow a great variety of different vegetables.
Concept: Wakandan-inspired futuristic Philippines or Neo-philippines!
What if, instead of tropical fish tanks, you had a live video stream of a section of coral reef? Every time you “fed” the fish, it would be a button you clicked to donate to the reef’s protection. As more you “feed” the fish, you’re granted more access to other reefs. And nightvision cameras are included so you can see your wild pets at night too without disturbing them with harsh lighting.
Perfect for folks like me who love fish, but do not love cleaning tanks.
Wait for it…
Solar Pines by HG-Architecture
A rest area for city parks, which doubles as a solar collector generating up to 1.2 kW per hour. At night, it uses collected solar energy for illumination. It’s like the sun jar, except you can sit inside it and eat your lunch!
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