Charlotte has been a little behind with the urban farming trend, plots with outstanding success are few and far between. I use the term trend loosely, but fittingly, based on the history of Charlotte planning and development, which follows the tide of nation-wide city building trends: suburbs cropping up then a sudden boost to move back to center city; parking lots circling the outer perimeter of strip malls then a shift towards pedestrian friendly shops with integrated shopping; sports arenas on the edge of town getting razed and integrated with the uptown night life. The history of the city shows that in a couple decades (or less) the development trends will change, and the building concentration will again change with the tides.

A recent email discussion among a handful of gardeners got me thinking about why this is, and I think it's because there are essentially a bunch of garden spiders (spiders can be a good thing in the garden!) building webs on top of each other.

These thoughts, of course, are coming from me: a lifelong non-joiner (thanks, debilitating shyness) that is looking in mostly from the outside. Those with insider interest might have a different perspective.

It's great to have successful, well-organized groups, but are we helping each other with such a saturated overlap or are we spreading funding too thin when mission statements are essentially the same?
What about a giant garden mash up? How do we connect the dots?