Urban Sustainable Living

Video and Text by Garden Girl Patti Moreno of Boston.

Urban Sustainable Living is a term I coined when trying to explain to friends and neighbors what I was trying to accomplish with the days, which turned into weeks and then months of experimentation and construction of my garden. They would look at me with faces turned quizically and ask, "What are you doing that for? You can buy that already done." One of my friends, Joel W., who is a vegetarian, had the nerve to say "I don't want to eat a rabbit poop carrot." With this I realized that I had a lot of work to do. Urbanites act is if organic food is something new, when in fact, factory farming is new. Organic farming has been in practice for thousands of years and what we now call traditional farming is mearly an outgrowth of the industrial age and biochemical revolution of the 20th century.

As I looked around the city and talked to my fellow Urbanites I realized just how dependent we are on the outside world, and after Katrina devastated the gulf coast, it became clear that not only was I on to something, but maybe sharing some of the innovations I have been working on for years would be important in preserving our culture for future generations. Starting a garden and growing your own food isn't as important as knowing how-to live sustainably and build Urban Sustainable Living systems. Ultimately what I do is find ways to innovate and invent methods under the umbrella of permaculture design principles to fit into Urban landscapes and lifestyles.

Urban Sustainable Living is about using what you have to make and produce as much as you can. My gardens produce stunning amounts of food, and have become a focal point for the green culture of my inner city community. My weekend farmstand has become a place of fun and enjoyment for kids and adults from all around my Boston neighborhood. The farmstand can also bring in about $200 dollars by selling seedings for my neighbors' gardens and organic produce such as eggs, lettuce, cucumbers, kale, and whatever else is ripe. I now know one hundred of my neighbors by name. It's like bring a little bit of country back into the city.

Whether you have a patio, window box, or a back yard, start off small and expand gradually. Anyone can live sustainably even in the city, by doing your part no matter how small. If I can do it, you can too!