The Basic 5: The Primer

By Robbin Swinger Otey

Are you ready to embark on your journey into urban gardening?

"The Basic 5: The Primer: A Guide for Novice Gardeners to Cultivate Competence, Confidence, and Sustainability 2nd Edition" is the inaugural installment in a series developed to empower novice urban gardeners as they take their first steps into the world of gardening. In this introductory volume, discover five keys to becoming a Competent, Confident, and Sustainable Urban Gardener.

1. PLAN: Lay the foundation for your garden with investigative note-taking techniques.

2. PLOT: Design and organize your space in sustainable ways that encourage your creativity. Drawing, coloring, and map-making are encouraged.

3. PLANT: Practice the art of placing your plants in ways that will establish a beautiful, healthy, flourishing garden. Plant at the correct times in the best locations.

4. PAMPER: Cultivate a greener thumb with an introduction to the essentials of plant care and maintenance.

5. PULL: Harvest the fruits of your labor. Preserve them, store them, and maybe even sell them. Celebrate the success of your urban gardening venture.

Since 2016, these techniques have been successfully practiced and taught to individuals and groups via hybrid workshops and seminars. Whether you are a newcomer or an experienced gardener seeking to refine your skills, "The Basic 5: The Primer" series can equip you to transform any urban space into a sustainable and vibrant garden.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robbin Swinger Otey
• Release date: Apr 6, 2024
• ISBN: 9798990044814

Book preview

Introduction

Thank you for being here. This book is written for novice urban gardeners and other interested individuals. If that is you, you are reading the right book at the right time. You are also entering a learning community where you are invited and welcome.

There are only two criteria for this community.

First, you are a reader. I knew that you were out there—readers who prefer a direct, start-forward way of gathering information about a new topic—simple with simple resources.

Some of you have the eBook. E-books are your jam. Maybe you are active on Goodreads and leave reviews there. You can have the full experience with your personal garden journal. Don’t have a garden journal? There are plenty to choose from, depending on your style and budget. I recommend a blank or lined journal for the first two years to log your thoughts, draw your maps, and make your investigation notes.

Some of you have the paperback, and you are excited to write, note-take, cross out, and add directly to the book. If you are not excited about that, get excited! Your notes and drawings could be family heirloom notes one day!

Maybe you are like me and choose to have both digital and handwritten support. The eBook contains all active links, whereas the 8½ x 11 version has ample space for expressing your creativity directly in the book.

No matter your gardening experience, I believe every aspect of gardening can be an opportunity to grow in many ways, including creativity and order. Being a reader implies both creativity and order, so criteria one met.

Secondly, you are interested in learning more about urban gardening. Maybe the words competent, confident, and sustainable drew you to this book. Did you pick it up at a book signing or a farmer’s market? Was it the table display or the beautiful book cover? For reasons you will visit here soon, your interest in urban gardening meets the second criterion.

Okay, I mentioned being straightforward, so let me get to it. a georgia green project of Colorado, LLC (aggp) is in the business of developing competent, confident, and sustainable urban gardening Communities of Practice.[1]

The term Communities of Practice is relatively modern, but this type of group learning dynamic has existed since ancient times and has three primary components. 

Domain. Defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership implies a commitment to the domain and a shared competence that distinguishes members from others. The domain is not necessarily recognized as expertise outside the community.

Community. In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.

Practice. Members of a community of practice are practitioners who develop a shared repertoire of resources (i.e., experiences, stories, tools, and ways of addressing recurring problems). This takes time and sustained interaction. To be a member of a Community of Practice is to be an active practitioner in the Domain.

For aggp, our Domain, Community, and Practice are as follows:

Our Domain is interested and committed to equipping urban gardeners and others to be active in their local food system. We are learning to grow, harvest, and preserve to support our common interests. It will not be discussed in this primer, but the aggp domain also includes actively learning about and engaging in civic activities that support our interests.

Our Community is a Community of Practice within the community of global food sovereignty[2]. Our community includes other urban gardeners, local farmer’s markets, and local legislators. We also have urban garden educators, community garden landholders, and food justice organizations in our community. We build relationships through shared learning experiences, including our Facebook group[3] and reading this book and others in The Basic 5 series.

Our Practice includes implementing The Basic 5 curriculum, working with aggp coaching cohorts and private coaching groups. Our practice allows for learning and opportunities to grow food, flowers, and herbs together.

As a reader of this book, you are now a member of a georgia green project of Colorado, LLC Community of Practice. No matter your location, station in life, or level of gardening skills, reading this book has made you a practitioner with us.

As you enter the aggp Community of Practice, you can relax. There are no mistakes in gardening, just lessons learned and shared. This book is a primer[4] written with brown thumbs and novice gardeners in mind. I will lead with science and encourage you to dig more deeply on your own.

Nothing in this book is a new or unique technique or thought. Our ancestors started as egalitarian societies that had to live from the sustenance they could forage and eventually grow. I hope this book stirs your intuition and the ancient wisdom we have all inherited.

The white spaces in this book are intentional. You can use the space to make notes, draw maps, keep track of your investigations, color your charts, scratch things out, highlight and document your thoughts as you go through this experience, and more.

The JOURNAL prompts allow you to focus on your thoughts, feelings, and observations. There are NO right or wrong answers.

I am a witness to the fact that the more time you spend studying, writing, drawing, and investigating, the more competent and confident you will become in supporting your plants. Just watch out for the Dunning-Kruger Effect[5]. You will never know everything. If you come across a gardener who thinks they know everything, run as fast as you can.

There is no one way to garden. All gardeners have their own pedagogy; you will develop your own over time. This primer will introduce you to basic urban gardening principles, techniques, and tips to support your journey and help you develop your gardening style and methods.

I hope you find this book engaging, empowering, and fun as you learn about The Basic 5 - Planning, Plotting, Planting, Pampering, and Pulling with the a georgia green project, LLC Community of Practice.

PLANNING

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