Out on the High Desert landscape, better known for sagebrush than subtropical plants, Shiv Shakti is growing avocados. Inside the greenhouses he designs and builds in Central Oregon, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs grow year-round without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Even through winter snowstorms and subfreezing nights, Shakti's plants thrive. The secret, he says, isn't just the structure overhead, but the living systems built beneath the soil.
"I don't just build greenhouses," Shakti said. "I build food systems."
Shakti is part of a nascent army of gardening specialists in Central Oregon who are looking for ways to empower people to grow their own food. These entrepreneurs are building raised bed gardens, greenhouses and designing personalized crop plans for people who want a garden but need some help getting one started.
Their collective goal is to make Bend more food sustainable. That can have multiple benefits, including lowering this city's carbon footprint, along with a reduction of fertilizers and chemicals entering the environment.
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