Edible Plants Growing out of Holes in the Concrete

I removed sections of concrete in this vacant lot. I then planted a variety of edible plants in the exposed ground underneath, a substrate consisting of a variety of things, including brick, clay, sand, 200 year old bottles, and comparably old fragments of what appears to have been highly ornate chinaware…

These photos are taken at the end of the dry season, during which time there was no irrigation aside from the occasional rain shower. At present, the plants appear to be growing fairly well considering the minimal care and no irrigation. Now that the rainy season about to commence I have begun to augment the soil with compost that I’m making with organic refuse that can be found in abundance throughout the city. Unless it is intercepted before being trucked away, all of this valuable material ends up in Cerro Patacon, the municipal landfill.

There are innumerable vacant lots in this city, most of which are covered with a slab of concrete, reflecting and magnifying the heat of the sun by day (exacerbating the almost unbearable urban heat-island effect), and providing sanctuary for feral cats and deviant humans by night.

All it takes is a logical, conscious effort: remove the concrete, make space available for growing food.

However, as is currently apparent, the modern populace seems to be content surviving off of fried meat and coca-cola, cigarettes and alcohol, concerned with modern trivial pursuits and accomplishing illogical feats of faulty engineering, such as erecting larger and larger skyscrapers occupied by few and fewer pople. The long-term health, efficiency and functionality of the city does not appear to be a number one priority.

Eventually, as a consequence of the increasing price of decreasingly nutritious produce, urban masses will become more and more malnourished and desperate for non-synthetic sources of nutrients, and we can expect the popularity of growing significant quantities of better quality food closer to home to gain recognition as a valuable initiative.