One of the things that made me the Renegade Doc was both a love for gardening and independence and growing my own food, as well as understanding the connection between food and health. In medical school I took the time and made the effort to have the fence row vegetable garden. When we got the first home when practicing medicine in Virginia the herb garden when in by the side porch and the raised beds took up my day off each week. The apple trees and grape vines on that property took me to a whole different place and new experiences. From there the move to the organic farm in Swoope, VA added animal husbandry with raising sheep, goats, cows, rabbits, chickens and turkeys.
Moving to St Louis took me out of the country but didn’t take the country out of me. One friend called me the “urban farmer!” During this time massage entered my life along with the need to generate more cash, so the gardening got pushed off into lawn care and an attempt to convince clients that organic fertilizer would be more healthy for them.
There has always been this tension between wanting to be the farmer or the healer and it’s been tough to know which one to emphasize. Finally, the just basic love of and need to be connected to ground has taken over. The marketing/money thing can take care of itself – I’m not good at that. The healer part is just who I am and will always be there and active even when just talking to people; the part that crosses over into the massage room will be even better. Now here we are, looking at the back yard and dreaming about where the vines and fruit trees and veggies are going to go.
And while we are at it, why not let others walk the process with me?
So yesterday, the beautiful day that it was, found me out in the back yard doing the pre-project video, right after tearing out a lot of dead lilac bush. Following that was learning how to capture the video off the camcorder and posting it to
Today it will be setting up the blog and autoresponder so folk can follow along if they wish.
Am also spending some time thinking, pondering, designing what I want and where.
There are some criteria that will guide me:
General
Has to be sustainable and organic with results based on soil fertility and not just numbers
Will use the principles of permaculture and layered production
Raised beds
greenhouse?
row covers
solar seed starter?
Has to be pretty and a place where I want to go to relax and meditate and connect to spirit
Plants
Vegetables
Flowers, maybe edible?
Herbs
Fruit – strawberries, grapes at least
Trees – fruit (apples, pears?), nuts (walnuts, ?)
Animals (?) – have to be small and quiet and producing usable products
Rabbits? – manure
Chickens? – a few for digging, eggs?
Bees? – pollination, honey?
We’ll use lots of resources. My own bookcase has a lot of stuff collected over the years. The internet is almost limitless with text and videos and how-tos.
Should be fun!
Jon
Urban Farmer
