Hearing about others’ earth-friendly endeavors is always a highlight of Creation Care Council meetings. At its June gathering, the council learned a new strategy for gardening in small spaces from member Greg Bowman.
Greg Bowman presents the "living bucket" at the Creation Care Council meeting.
Bowman works for Goodness Grows in North Lima, Ohio—an organization that makes healthy, local food accessible in its community. Bowman showed the group a “living bucket” containing a patio tomato, basil and lettuce. This is a strategy his organization has adapted from globalbuckets.org in order to help people grow food even if their space, money and expertise is limited.
Two food-grade plastic buckets from restaurants were nested, with the bottom bucket serving as a self-watering reservoir. Disabled people drilled the holes in the buckets, and college students designed a business plan to promote the product. The whole committee got a kick out of the bucket and took lots of pictures.
Joanne Moyer, who had recently returned from dissertation research in Kenya, showed photos of environmentally friendly initiatives she had witnessed there, such as a tree farm and charcoal briquette manufacturing. “In North America, being green is often pitted against the economy,” Joanne said. “In Kenya, over and over, I saw people improving their circumstances through green initiatives. It makes me defiantly hopeful.