Have you ever grown a plant? Have you ever grown something that you then got to eat? Grameen Bank have 16 decisions that their owners/customers sign up to. Number 4 on the list is:
4.0 We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus.
Grameen Bank know that growing vegetables is good, and they want their owners/customers to have a good life. So finances and vegetable growing are tied together.
Lets do a thought experiment. An imagination exercise.
Imagine that growing vegetables is a requirement for you to live at your house. Maybe it is part of your tenancy agreement. Maybe it is part of your mortgage contract. Maybe it is just part of the city planning rules where you live. Every residential dwelling must be growing vegetables at all times.
You can grow what you like, you just have to grow something.
Imagine you've been doing it for a year. For a whole year you've had to plant, care for, harvest and eat vegetables from your garden.
What have you learnt? Who have you met? How have you changed?
Growing vegetables is more than just gardening. It is about your health. Learning new skills. Meeting new people. Spending time outside. Learning about seasons. Connecting with nature. Experiencing weather. Building the resilience of our food supply network. Going as local as it gets. And more, and more.
Property offers us more than a place to live. The land offers us more than just a piece of dirt to build a house on.
What else is on offer us that we might overlook?