When I think of Calgary, I do think pretty heavily on the weather. And while I love snow, I'm a little tired lately of the long winters and limited heat in summer. This year, however, summer arrived without any seasonal progression. We rushed direct from Winter to Summer and it's been gorgeous ever since. I can't help but wonder about this dramatic change, and how we've affected our climate enough so that it behaves in unpredictable ways. Certainly, the weather is nice, but with looming forest fire threats up North etc., I wonder if our environmental disconnect in the city permits us to enjoy the weather safely, while forgetting the havoc that it is causing. Furthermore, I wonder if the rapture of heat, blinds us from the reality that Calgary, historically, didn't experience weather so abruptly with regards to seasonal change. I imagine weather in Calgary has always been quite capricious.
But these posts are to celebrate our garden, not cynically address the errors of industrial society, so what am I getting at? Recently I learned that the energy required to provide us with our non-local food compared to the amount of energy gained by that food is a 10:1 ratio. All the irrigation, all the petroleum fertilizers, all the transit exhaust more energy than what we can get out of it. Obviously this system isn't sustainable. What makes local food so awesome then, is that it truly has a massively positive impact on the environment because for every bit of energy you get from local food, you've overcome that 10:1 ratio.
More and more I'm getting excited about the future design of the garden for this reason. I see the garden as a great opportunity to fill that space with fruit trees and vegetables that the whole sunnyside community could access. Part of the hard work though, for us living in Calgary, is less the growing than the shattering of the conviction that local Calgary is an impossibility. For those reading then, I encourage everyone to bring one new person to the garden, and better so if they are skeptical. Entice them with beer if you must, but let's work on breaking this sentiment.
