Community Gardens

All over Gwangju there are mini gardens.  They are in empty city lots, carved out of a hillside, or part of a jigsaw community garden.  I have been so surprised how garden-active Koreans are.  But, considering how crazy they are about their vegetables, it makes sense. 

By the way, I am getting really spoiled on the WONDERFUL vegetables available in this country!

The basic vegetables grown in these gardens (as far as I can tell) are: spinach, lettuces (of all kinds), cabbage, green onions, carrots, and radishes.

The layout is as follows: Build up rows of dirt to allow the heavy rains to drain down and away from the roots.  Small patches of vegetables jig-sawed with other vegetables.  Crop rotation within the small plot.  Compost and manure are great fertilizers.

   There are at least 12 separate gardens in this picture, and there are many more around it not shown in the photo.  These are next to a busy road … you can see the traffic in the upper left corner.

This photo is to the left of the previous picture.  Notice the blue tarp fences.

    Tarps are used to protect new plants and I always see green onions sticking through black tarps.  In the very center of this picture there are small red leaf lettuce plants growing. 

     This gentleman was spreading fertilizer.  Notice the height of the rows.  Also, isn’t the soil a beautiful color.

     A fence around one of the gardens.

   This is the same fence as before.  A number of other gardens are behind it, going up the hillside.

There are also mini-orchards throughout the hillside and gardens.  I’m not sure what type of trees these are.

  

  

Happy Growing!