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    The Quest for Higher Yields
    The Quest for Higher Yields
    The Quest for Higher Yields
    Ebook43 pages15 minutes

    The Quest for Higher Yields

    By Joanne Poyourow

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    About this ebook

    It all began with the simple idea of growing a few vegetables on land that used to be an urban lawn. Over time, the questions began to accumulate: questions about soil fertility, questions about increasing yield, questions about the uniqueness of urban agriculture. Then came questions about gardener time, and lack of funding. And questions about how to maintain high levels of productivity throughout the seasons.

    Ultimately, all of these questions are about Sustainability: what does it take, to bring urban agriculture to "the next level"?

    This ebook explores the philosophical questions behind our work at the Community Garden at Holy Nativity in Los Angeles. It is the first book in the "Abundant Harvests" series, which includes ebooks on soil, water, container gardening, garden design, and the "people" portion of community gardens.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJoanne Poyourow
    Release dateJan 31, 2016
    ISBN9781310544446
    The Quest for Higher Yields
    Author

    Joanne Poyourow

    Joanne Poyourow explores sustainable solutions. Her home garden is an edible landscape and an urban wildlife habitat. In 2004 she co-founded the Environmental Change-Makers community group in Los Angeles.With the change-makers she has built two community gardens and a community-scale, wood-fired bread oven. And since 2008 she has managed the plantings at the Community Garden at Holy Nativity, which grows vegetables for the local food pantry.Joanne finds delicious ways to cook those abundant vegetables. She is a passionate seed-saver, and for relaxation she knits insanely complex lace patterns.She is on Instagram @ecmJoanne

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      Book preview

      The Quest for Higher Yields - Joanne Poyourow

      THE QUEST

      for Higher Yields

      JOANNE POYOUROW

      Book 1 in the Abundant Harvests series:

      High-Yield Vegetable Gardening for City Spaces

      Change-Making Publications

      THE QUEST FOR HIGHER YIELDS

      Copyright November 2017 by Joanne Poyourow

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN to come

      Publication history: Smashwords ebook, August 2019. Amazon ebook, November 2017. Paperback booklet, February 2013

      Additional copies are available via www.change-making.com

      Contents

      Introduction

      What this book is not

      Rediscovering Production

      Scale

      The Lost Art

      There’s Too Much to Learn!

      The Evolving Question

      Drop Yer Bloomers

      Going Organic

      Permaculture

      Why We Grow Food

      High Yield Vegetable Gardens

      About the author

      Introduction

      We’re going on a bear hunt.

      We’re going to catch a big one.

      What a beautiful day!

      We’re not scared.

      – Helen Oxenbury

      In the finger-numbing cold of late January 2008, we broke ground on the Community Garden. A small group of enthusiastic gardeners and environmentalists tore out a 1,400 square foot patch of scruffy lawn on the grounds of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles, and began to plant food. So began the adventure.

      Almost immediately, the questions started. This garden was a bigger space than any of us had ever gardened before. Under public scrutiny, it had to look good. And as food pantry patrons came to depend on the fresh veggies, the Garden simply had to produce. How were we going to do that?

      As the years unfolded, the list of unanswered questions grew. Slowly the realization came to me: Urban agriculture, a movement now in its joyous infancy, has a massive transition ahead.

      At present, most of us city gardeners dabble in food growing. We do it small-scale, part-time, with mixed results. It’s great for a few organic salads or a family activity with school-aged kids. But as the realities of the future descend around us—the end of the oil age, the deepening of economic woes, increasingly wild weather— we must make the shift to serious food production.

      How then, does one do it? How do you achieve abundant harvests of rich, nourishing vegetables, amid a small city footprint, without a lot of gardener time, and without buying a lot of

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