Maybe we are the last generation that can save this environment. We are part of the environment where all or most of our needs are obtained. So, it’s necessary to learn pro-environmental behavior, which can be defined as all possible actions aimed at avoiding harm and safeguarding the environment. Admittedly, education is not equal to knowledge. Knowledge is superior to education, wealth, or social status.
One of the reasons that we don’t behave pro-environmentally is that this knowledge isn’t in its place. For example, in cities, we would receive environmental education which doesn't lead to proper behavior. As a result, the first step to gain this aim is creating awareness in a different language for all kinds of people in the society. Indeed, this awareness is a complex aspect of the environment and includes different dimensions, for example, social, cultural, economic, and religious ones.
Talking about all of these aspects needs a lot of time. But if we want to inherit the earth for the next generation, we should be good to it, and we cannot reach this aim until we don’t pay attention to our footprint in nature.
Rural agriculture
Around four billion people live in urban areas that means over half of the world (55%). Nowadays, one of the solutions that we can do to reduce the environmental concerns due to the increasing urban population is using urban agriculture, i.e., the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas, as a way to behave pro-environmentally in these areas. Another problem that arises from the increased population is decreasing of life quality, as we can’t supply food securely for this population.
The background of urban agriculture is equal to the civilization and dates back to about 3,500 B.C., according to the American Society of Landscape Architects’ (ASLA) blog. As long as we humans have been living in cities, it is likely that we’ve also been cultivating produce there: some research even suggests that urban agriculture developed before its rural counterpart. Since then, it’s improved like cities’ architecture. Urban agriculture is a vast field, but in some cases, it can be very easy and economical to teach every one of different ages. Some people may think that cultivating in an urban environment is impossible because of the lack of garden and space; these are some common excuses. In this essay, we want to explain that these excuses are not reasonable. In the list below we just mention some of them and at the end, we tell you how to make one of them.
Vertical garden
In a vertical garden, which you use a vertical shape to cultivate some plant, like some varieties of tomato, cabbage, kale, leaf lettuce, mustard greens, Romaine lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard and some kinds of medicinal plants like lavender, calendula, chamomile, etc.
A small vertical garden painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi
Box garden
It’s really simple: preparing a box with soil or water. It’s clear that if you use soil box, you don’t have any limitation but in water based system, you cannot cultivate any kinds of plants that you want; just cultivating some leaf plants like lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, etc. is possible.
A box garden painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi
Aeroponic and hydroponic systems
These systems are a little complicated but you can do planting in many different things like pots, PVC tubes, or even boxes. In the hydroponic system, the plant receives nutrients from the water and in aeroponic one, the nutrients are provided in the air.
Aeropnic (left) and hydroponic (right) systems painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi
Sheet mulching or lasagna gardening
You can guess what kind of system it is. You can dig up the ground or build it on the surface of the ground. In this model of gardening, the layers are put on each other, and after a while, that you’ve done layering and composting, you can cultivate your plants. One of the benefits of this kind of gardening is that no weed grows. Also, if the soil is poor or uncultivable, this model is one of the solutions.
Sheet mulching painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi. Layers from top to bottom are peat moss, manure, mulch grass or leaf clippings, manure, peat moss, and newspapers.
Straw bale garden
Another idea that is similar to sheet mulching is straw bale gardening. In this essay, we want to explain how to build your own straw bale garden.
A straw bale garden painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi
This method can be the easiest way if you want to cultivate various kinds of plants in your home.
Here are some benefits of this method:
• The straw bales are moveable, which means you can move them anywhere with enough sunlight.
• If the soil is uncultivable or polluted and cannot be cultivated, straw bale gardening is the solution and you can use them as a bed to cultivate your plants.
• It can be very accessible even for a person who sits in a wheelchair or has a small space.
• For some regions experienced some natural disaster like flood or earthquake, straw bale gardening can be set to cultivate plants.
How to prepare a straw bale garden?
The first thing that you should do is drawing a map of how to put the straw bales according to the space available. The standard size of straw bales is about 36 inches long by two feet wide and about 18 inches high. After that, buy your straw bales! It would be better to buy from a local farmer. Now, you can build your own straw bale garden.
The next step is preparing the straw bales for planting. This step depends on what kind of fertilizers (organic or nonorganic) we use, but it usually takes 14 days. Before starting, it would be better to tell you a little about fertilizers that you can use. You can use organic fertilizers like vermicompost, blood powder, or manure, and non-organic fertilizers like 34 0 0 (nitrogen-phosporous-potasium: NPK), or other synthetic fertilizers.
Here is the step-by-step procedure to make a straw bale garden (every step takes one day):
1. Add one half of a cup of nitrogen fertilizer across the top of each straw bale, especially in the center. And then, water it until it comes out the bottom of the straw bale.
First steps to prepare a straw garden; painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi
2. Let them rest.
3. Add one half of a cup of nitrogen fertilizer across the top of each of the straw bales, and then, water the straw bales.
4. Let them rest, but water it thoroughly again till it comes out the bottom.
5. Add more nitrogen fertilizer across the top of each of the straw bales, and then, water them very well.
6. Water them again.
7. Spread one forth of a cup of nitrogen across the top of each straw bale and water them well.
8. Let them rest.
9. Spread one forth of a cup of nitrogen across the straw bales and water them well.
10. Let them rest.
11. In this step, 10 10 10 or 12 12 12 NPK fertilizers may be used for the surface of straw bales, i.e., first layer of planting.
12. For the next two days, the fertilizers will be added on the surface to make straw bales ready for planting of our little seedlings.
A straw bale garden; painted by Obeidullah Ahmadi
Some points and tips
• The reason we use nitrogen fertilizer is that nitrogen jump-starts the composting process and creates an ideal environment for plant roots. In this process, the temperature may exceed 120° F (about 49° C) in the core of straw bales, but then it will be reduced.
• At the same time of preparing the straw bales, we’ll begin to cultivate seeds in soil pots to provide plant seedlings we want to cultivate on straw bales.
References
Bailkey M, Nasr J. From brownfields to greenfields: producing food in North American cities. 2000. Community Food Security News, Fall 1999/Winter 2000:6.
Balunde A, Perlaviciute G, Steg L. The relationship between people’s environmental considerations and pro-environmental behavior in Lithuania. 2019. Frontiers in Psychology, 10: 2319.
Philpott, T. The history of urban agriculture should inspire its future. 2010. Grist, August 4, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2019, from https://grist.org/article/food-the-history-of-urban-agriculture-should-inspire-its-future/full/
Ritchie H, Roser M. Urbanization. 2018. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization.
Citation
Ahmadi O. From farm to the urban area: footprint of straw bale. 2022. BoomZista for Youths, 1.