Food gardens
Founder of UN Food Gardens Arif Khan
A team who worked hard to help bring the garden
about...Ela Pogwizd-Leja, Joe Messick, Arif Khan,
William Gates and Samson Oshunrinde.
Khan says that taking the idea of the UN Food Gardens from
zero to flourishing was an interesting process. With an urban
planning background and a natural interest in land use - and a
long time urban farmer personally - Khan said that on working at
the UN Headquarters he started noticing some unused land in the
complex that would be ideal for a vegetable garden. “I imagined
a food garden on this unused space.”
Khan wisely started eliciting support
from people who he felt would
probably most oppose the idea. “Early
on in the construction someone asked
why we ‘weren’t planting pretty flowers
and just vegetables,” chuckles Khan.
The “story plants”, indeed, have amazing tales to tell of our
humanity. Gardening appears to break down barriers between
people, as gardeners are focussed on the practical rather than
the political. Gardening also keeps people very busy.
Khan is a passionate protagonist of transforming unused or
under-utilised city spaces in the urban areas into urban farming
plots which produce healthy food for inhabitants. He has long
been involved in depave.org which
transforms asphalt and concrete
paved areas into food plots.
“I’ve been a keen urban farmer
since 2001, where I started out
in Oregon growing food at my
home, and even kept some goats
on my plot back then. The kids
in the neighbourhood loved the
goats!” he tells us.
Let us plant seeds of
peace - UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon
The concept, however, got the goahead, and the garden has just grown.
The UN Food Gardens – once a
rather sterile wasted space – has been
transformed into a vibrant, buzzing with bees, food producing
garden, and is becoming sought after as an event-space, only
one year after its establishment.
International crops
With the joys of food gardening and growth, the intercultural
exchange and connections forged in this international edible
garden are heart-warming, says Khan. As gardeners tend to do,
the UN staff volunteers bring in seeds, for example, from tomatoes
that came from a grandparent’s garden in Italy or Russia, and
so many other places. This is after all international territory! “It’s
amazing the bonds and exchanges that originate in the UN food
garden. Many of us recall our grandparents’ flourishing food
gardens when we sow seeds here and grow crops,” he says.
“I planted a mint in the garden that originated from a plant that
my mother brought with her from Northern India forty years ago,”
he shares with us.
The UN Food Gardens in New York on architect
William Gates’ drawing board.
The UN Food Gardens launched on International
Nelson Mandela Day last year.
Drip Irrigation
Some interesting dynamics have arisen around the garden. For
instance, the smokers in the building, who gather outside, have
become quite involved in the garden, by default. The smokers
often lend a quick hand with a bit of planting, watering or
composting. Always something to do in a garden.
With regards to irrigation, the UN Food Gardens are utilising
water-wise drip irrigation in its deep generously designed beds.
The UN Food Gardens also have wooden bee hives and
composting barrels.
The UN Food Gardens architect William Francis Gates says the
UN Food Gardens is 3 600 square feet (335 square metres). It is
planned that the UN Food Gardens will grow In future to 7 000
square feet (650 square metres).
Soil arriving for the garden
Beds ready for the UN Food Garden’s crops.
SABI | JUNE/JULY 2016
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