Episode 006: What is Urban Gardening?

Recently, Shana sat down with Tiana Lopez, to kick off her next series. Tiana is a writer, botanist, and urban gardener. After graduating from college, she started Creative Tiana and Potted Poetry. Both platforms combine Tiana's passion for entrepreneurship with the love of writing and nature. What originally started as a relaxing pastime, quickly transformed into a love of language and land. Tiana has become more passionate about educating groups on the importance of returning to the land. Whether it's through urban gardening, implementing more eco-friendly practices, or environmental advocacy, Potted Poetry, seeks to educate others on how people are never separate from the planet.  She also shares her knowledge and passion with the community by being involved with local victory garden initiatives, community gardens, climate change, and urban greening and gardening. 

Together Shana and Tiana discussed what is urban gardening and how we all can start our own gardens at home. Tiana provided a lot of great, useful tips for the listeners. They also discussed the status of the City of Reading's municipal urban gardens and ways we could revitalize them. Programs like the Victory Garden Task Force breathe new life into urban gardening in Reading. Tiana and Shana also discussed how important it is for city residents to have access to fresh and healthy food. They even talked about what it could look like if the city grew fruit trees and fresh produce on the steps of city hall! What could that do for the city's resident's physical and mental health?

If you would like to learn more about urban and victory gardening and it’s many benefits check out the Weekly Ingest Newsletter published on June 29th.