Last week, two posts on npr.org opened a startling window on the capacity of well tended small gardens. The first article, “Why Micro-Gardening Could Go Big,” discussed the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a large supporter of micro-gardens, defined as “intensely cultivated small spaces.” They claim that an 11 square foot garden can produce “as much as 200 tomatoes a year, 36 heads of lettuce every 60 days, 10 cabbages every 90 days, and 100 onions every 120 days.”
Micro-garden by Nick Saltmarsh, 2009. CC-by-3.0
The post features a number of links to other sites with numerous links of their own, and it soon becomes clear that many groups and individuals are finding new ways of boosting yields. As I discussed recently (Good news on the food front), unless agriculture finds ways of keeping pace with population growth, disaster is a mathematical certainty.
These articles show that there are far more efficient configurations than traditional, single row gardens. Raised beds and containers are common features of the gardens pictured online.
Rooftop garden, Senegal, CC-by-2.0
One nice thing about these photos is that they make you want to get your hands dirty! Maybe not this afternoon, with temps in the mid 90’s, but I’ve already got a spot in mind for the fall and spring. We used to have a veggie garden when we lived north of here and had more time and far better soil. With micro-gardens you don’t need large amounts of time or good soil to get started.
Photo by USDA. CC-by-2.0
NPR’s second post, Micro-Garden Madness, has additional photos of places where people are growing things. Unlike the ambitious plots at the local community gardens, where you often see couples and families work long hours on weekends and evenings, the smaller gardens can work for people who spend their evenings and weekends in strange pursuits like blogging.
Phil Weiner co-founded a company that makes products aimed at micro-gardeners. “Everyone in the world should have a victory garden,” he says.
Can we even begin to imagine what such a world would be like? With these articles and photos, we can begin to envision such a transformation.
The First Gates 
I can’t wait to share this with my daughters. Both will find this of great interest. I love that they are being referred to as Victory Gardens. World hunger is a war and everyone can do a little to help in that fight. Thanks for another thought-provoking post, Morgan.
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I love the name, “Victory Garden” also, with the implication that everyone can contribute. It runs counter to what I heard cited yesterday as a cause of some of our seeming collective passivity in the face of so many threats – “learned helplessness,” the feeling that as individuals there isn’t much we can do. I’ll have more on that later this week. Thanks for reading.
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