//\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\

tiny tomato harvest...

for a first garden, planting in small styrofoam boxes during an ultra hot and ultra busy summer.. i gained a good experience. plants need a lot of love and time.  they need a patient heart and serious commitment.  active consideration.  

my setbacks:

-lack of communication between neighbor's (who could give me good advice about how to grow in the city)

-landlady spraying pesticides on my plants (nooo!!!  my lettuce wound up tasting like chemicals.  I was sad.)

-hot summer, rooftop increases the heat, lack of shelter, protection from the hot sun,

-quick drying of soil - i started using old plastic bags to keep the moisture in

-difficult watering system (water bottles had to be carried up and down the stairs. 

-i only learned halfway through the season that plants shouldn't be watered mid-day sue to shock to their system

-lack of space for roots (i should have planted only one plant per styrofoam box)

-catapillar problem.  baby lettuces were quickly eaten up.  i added a mesh net to protect them but it was too late.  the best lettuce of the season was mustard and chicory.  the arugula was eaten up too quickly.

utopia with bridget martin.

at the edges and even inside new songdo there are illegal farms made by the older community.  i visited bridget as she was doing research for a thesis project for obtaining her masters. she took me on a tour exploring the city and its periphery.  

looking at the images, you can see there are multiple entry points to hidden gardens where, if not for these old "grandmother's' and 'grandfather's", land would remain un-used. 

if we imagine a timeline of these spaces:

1) people's homes, small shacks, people living mostly self sufficiently, traditional older community, many of them fishermen.  homes border the sea.

2) the filling in of miles of land over 30+ years 

3) the demolition of homes and shacks and the relocation of communities to the new city in songdo. this is a process of urbanization. we can imagine that many of these people's jobs changed from agricultural/rural to urban workers and laborers. this particular community would likely (but not necessarily) have acquired ultra-modern apartments (under the new digital songdo city concept) as part of the settlement of eviction of their space.  People can live more comfortably.  But transition results in a massive loss of land by the working class. 

4) the process of development. the land is sectioned off, sold, bought, and walled.  i believe bridget mentioned that a blockbuster movie theater complex will be built here (the location in the images).  the development was stalled so people started using the spaces for their garden's and farms.

as i look at these photo's i'm thinking a lot of things...  i'm thinking about urbanization and the potential loss of tradition and identity.  the older community in korea is used to living more self-sufficiently.  actually it is very interesting that korea's population is (as i heard last) 83% urbanized...  but 4% of people actually live off the land (in comparison to the U.S. where 79% live in urban zones but only 1% of people live off the land despite that fact that people have more land and the country is much larger)   

...

i never feel sure if i should agree with stewart brand or not.  he describes the process of urbanization as better for the earth, in his book 'whole earth discipline.' basically, cities increase human population density in specific area's protecting larger area's of nature and biodiversity.  additionally in cities the population rate lowers... there are many that contest his views and i'm not yet sure what side of the fence i'm on myself.