Green Fun on the Bayou

Submitted by Bob Randall, Ph.D.

September 2008

Houston's climate is humid year-round and hot most of the year. For 12 months a year, plants and creatures grow and reproduce abundantly in this semi-tropical plant paradise. Or at least they do if not buried in an endless expanse of concrete, asphalt and buildings. Though the Southeast Texas prairie has been largely paved over, heat and rainfall together with the huge Texas expanse, means that there is still a great deal of plant and wildlife here.

The Houston area can support nearly any food crop grown anywhere. Increasing numbers of people here now know it, and they either purchase locally-grown produce, or they grow food themselves. Ample rainfall and biomass make them especially successful.

Although Houston has long been one of the chemical capitals of the world, it is particularly unsuited for chemical agriculture and horticulture. Pests breed quickly, and it's difficult to control them chemically because rain often washes chemicals away before they reach their targets. Chemical fertilizers are also washed away, causing lots of trouble downstream.

Instead, environmentally-friendly, ecological approaches have proved far more effective and sustainable for growing food in the Houston area. Using these methods, we work with Houston's climate, not against it. We make use of the biomass and humidity to improve fertility, reduce erosion, destroy soil-borne diseases, and nurture pests' natural predators.

As a result, in the last 20 years, Urban Harvest-- along with many sister environmental groups-- has made surprising headway in turning the area organic. In addition to some 130 community gardens, UHI developed the first farmers' markets in the area since the Depression era. Most impressively though, it has sustained for many years one of the most impressive outdoor-classroom, school-gardening programs on the planet, with programs at 75 schools. It has also created what is probably the largest adapted fruit tree sale anywhere ($110,000 in sales in four hours last January) and has developed an alliance of 115 landscaping businesses, who meet to learn how to be organic and sustainable. It's also developed what is probably the best curriculum of adult gardening classes anywhere outside of a university. UHI has been teaching permaculture continuously for over 10 years and teaches more than 75 classes a year on organic vegetable gardening, orcharding, habitat gardening, backyard gardening, market gardening and community gardening.

Nowadays, almost all well-known and skilled gardeners are organic, and less than two percent of the gardening classes metro-wide advocate chemicals. Since the city is the nation's fourth largest, and there are nearly six million people in the metro area, this is quite an accomplishment.

Note: Bob Randall is former director of Houston's Urban Harvest.

Photo Caption: Houston resident Bob Randall stands in front of a fruit tree in the humid Houston Forest Gardens. (Photo courtesy of Bob Randall)