Parking lots and Gardens

Happy New Year to you all! I've now had 2 Christmas' without my "x". And they have been the best that I've had in a long time. We didn't get to have a snowball fight this year but we all had fun. I had a very busy season selling lots of clocks, so that was very good. Now I need to replenish my stock, that's going to take some time though, but I get to go to the junkyards and that's totally worth it. Now onto getting a studio space so that I can get some welding done and maybe things will pick up with the art work. I am hopeful for next year!

So, onto parking lots. I did some holiday shopping for my daughter, Mom and Dad, family, and a few special friends. I look at the parking lots wherever I go. Even during the busy holiday shopping season the lots are usually not that full, half full at best. Why? Zoning laws. So many parking spots per square foot of retail, restaurant, and other shop space. Basically developers are forced if you will to provide enough parking for the maddest Black Friday crowds and all of their cars. But realistically most of the spaces are never used and what was once a farm is now acres and acres of blacktop or concrete. This causes lots of other unintended things, heat islands, run off from rain, and waste of fertile or potentially fertile land. Yes, we all need to shop for things, I do too! I rarely see anyone park far from the store, usually you will see people circle around and around the lot looking for a close space, can't walk that far. Yes, there are exceptions but I will park and walk because I can but many people are just lazy. Ever see people circle around the parking lot looking for a close spot to their gym? Hilarious and Ironic.


Now onto the gardens. I would love to see communities embrace taking unused parking lot spaces and turning them into community gardens. First, plenty of parking! Second, lots of sunlight, if a parking lot has trees they are usually small and spaced far from each other and unfortunately look sad. Third, empty retail space that can be used for storing tools, seed, soil, fertilizer, and staff. Fourth, with the large number of homeowners associations people are unable to garden in their own yards. Fifth, old neighborhoods with tree cover could benefit also, I once lived in Lakewood and we had lots of tree coverage, so veggie gardening was challenging to say the least.  Oh, hey, I just created jobs. Don't tell anyone though, it makes too much sense.

Just because a sleepy Lab!

Happy New Year!