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RE: Plant Blindness, Working on a Cure
I feel I see this all the time when it comes to edible plants. Many people don't know the edible plants in their lives and often brand them as weeds when they're highly medicinal. I'm currently in Bangkok and I always see these that local people plant around the trees that line the streets. They plant them with butterfly peas and bananas and amaranth and most people just walk on by not noticing these small guilds of food, just free for the taking. Not only are they edible, they're hardy and native so they would help with many of the hunger issues we see. And they repair the land!
Aho! That sounds wonderful! I would love to see more of this in other cities. Often times, urban planners and architects add the minimum amount of plants, because they did not really plan for them. In order for them to have the space they need to grow and enrich the community, we need to design with them in mind. This is a big part of the work I am doing now! My goal is to create urban spaces that are completely immersed in green, especially medicinal and edible varieties, which in reality are much more abundant than what we are used to. In reality, many plants around us--even common varieties--are edible!
It's actually really interesting when you look out across Bangkok. Everyone sees it as this big urban sprawl but there are some huge pockets of green, especially around the rivers and the temples due to building regulations. This has kept an interesting food forest network in these areas. I'll get a picture later from my balcony and show you!
I would love to see the picture! I am curious if the regulations stipulate that they have to be food producing plants or any type of plants? And if it is the latter, if they went ahead and planting food varieties anyway for people to take from. In many cities, there is a fear of freely introducing food bearing plants for a variety of reasons, though there are groups that are now deliberately creating "food forests" in selected cities in addition to community gardens.
Food forests are an excellent way to really turn the way we use our cities on its head, though it can be quite intimidating for companies that sell food. I don't really see the conflict, since who buys pre-packaged food does not generally grow their own food or is adventurous enough to take from publicly available food. I guess we will have to wait and see!
I don't think there's are rules I think people just do it naturally. I guess some is jungle still left but it always surprises me the pockets of green you can see!
This is wonderful! I love seeing all that green mixed in with the buildings. We need more of this in our cities!