As a country girl who grew up on an organic vegetable farm, I didn’t really understand the concept of urban agriculture at first. Hello clichés, but for me, agriculture is green, it’s vast, it’s big fields, tractors, collecting rocks… that sort of thing. Cities, on the other hand, are all roads, buildings, concrete and tar, suburbs and fast-moving people.
I’ve changed my mind
If you take a closer look at a city, you’ll see gardens, beehives and chickens on the roofs of some gray buildings, at the bottom of asphalt streets and even near highways. If you look up, you’ll see vegetables basking in the sun and bees foraging on flowering rooftops. Life abounds, and not just in the cracks of concrete. The people are warm, colorful, passionate and just as hard-working as those of my childhood. What strikes me most about the city is its diversity. Yes, the city is truly a heterogeneous ecosystem, just as urban gardens are overflowing with biodiversity.
Another Fascinating Observation
The city is a far cry from the harsh agriculture of my childhood. Instead, gardening is multifunctional, calming and practised for a variety of health-related reasons. Several studies have recognized the mental and physical health benefits of gardening. Researchers have shown a drop in cortisol levels (the hormone that causes stress) in people who garden.
Gardening also has a beneficial effect on anxiety and the prevention of chronic diseases and cancers.
The practice also significantly improves nutrition, as well as increasing physical activity and time spent outdoors. Contact with the earth and with certain bacteria stimulates our immune system.
While I’m gardening, all around me, the world comes to a standstill. My garden is like the city! In front of me, this infinite city is silently, or almost silently, defining and activating itself. A germ unfurls towards life, pushing the earth gently, slowly. A patient bumblebee waits to take flight in the warmth of the sun. Dewdrops sparkle in the morning, like a cascade of purity. Tiny ants are ready to give their lives for the fatherland. Hordes of aphids abound. Minutes pass, the sun spins, and I’m still here, contemplating this waltz of life, so tiny in the infinite.
So… What Does Urban Agriculture Consist of in Winter?
When I looked around town more closely, I saw bright lights in the windows: stuffed mushroom beds, verdant micro-sprout farms, towers and walls of crisp lettuces and herbs. All in the middle of winter!