Customer Reviews

Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City & the World

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I found this book, which is an anthology of essays on the subject of the community gardens movement in New York City and other urban areas, to be very informative and a good source of history. Though I do not have an intiuitive understanding of the consciousness of most environmentalists, and I have grown little more than an avocado plant in my lifetime, this book helped me better undertstand the importance of natural surroundings to the urban community. The opposing forces are the indigenous, autonomous, self-help movement that created the gardens on garbage-strewn, abandoned lots during the 1970s; and the government's favoritism toward private developers and other forces of gentrification which threaten the ethnic and class diversity of the city.

"Avant Gardening" is an inspirational anthology of essays on the community garden movement. Set mostly in New York City, these essays explore the struggles of the urban poor to reclaim public space, grow wholesome food, build community, and resist gentrification. Readers interested in organic gardening, food security, and urban politics will enjoy this short but informative book. By transforming vacant lots into community gardens, these inner-city farmers are planting not only medicinal herbs, healthy crops, and trees for oxygen; they are planting the seeds of hope and the seeds of change.