Posts from — August 2008

Photo: In Canim Lake, the BEADS project teaches horticultural techniques and traditional gathering and preserving of indigenous foods.

Victoria, B.C. – August 19, 2008
First Nations communities around B.C. are reclaiming their horticultural roots, thanks to a joint federal provincial funding program.

In the last five years, almost 40 communities have received grants through the Aboriginal Agriculture Initiative (AAI) to establish community and allotment gardens, build greenhouses and watering systems, and buy tools, bedding plants and seeds. The intention, according to Archie Deneault, chair of the AAI Advisory Committee, is to help Aboriginal people achieve self-sufficiency through participation in viable, diverse agri-food opportunities.

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Photo of Jens Larsson’s Allotment Garden.

By Lena Boström, (2007) 38 pages – In Swedish
Faculty of Landscape Planning, Horticulture and Agricultural Science

“The movement of the allotment gardens reached Sweden in the beginning of the last century. The allotment gardens quickly spread among the big towns from Malmö in the south and to the far north of the country. Today, there are about 42 000 owners of allotment gardens in Sweden. This work will show the differencies and similarities comparing the original ideas of allotment gardens with how they are used today. The specific questions were; what are the reasons to acquire an allotment garden; is it used for raising vegetables and fruit or only for growing flowers; is what is cultivated there also gathered and used or is it cultivated only for the pleasure of gardening; and finally how the owners of the allotment gardens spend their time there – by cultivating the land or by recreational activities.

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The course will start September 2008 and will be taught
by Diana Lee-Smith and Wendy Mendes. Diana Lee-Smith is the former coordinator of the Urban Harvest programme in South Africa and has supported various cities, like Kampala (Uganda), Nakuru and Nairobi (Kenya), Yaounde (Cameroun) among others in developing urban agriculture research, programmes and policies. Diana is currently writing two books onurban agriculture and health, and gender and urban agriculture respectively.

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See a short-documentary on guerrilla gardening starring Richard Reynolds, the author of “On Guerrilla Gardening.” The piece basically shows the process, preparation and troops needed to go out on a gardening mission.
From Current TV.

Link with comments on Current TV here.

Report Published by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
July, 2008

“Currently, land being farmed in British Columbia produces just over half of our food requirements. There is, therefore, tremendous potential to expand agricultural production so that it plays a greater role in feeding our growing population. However, a major challenge we face is to effectively manage urban growth in a manner that protects existing farm operations and provides opportunities for the agriculture industry to continue to grow. Part of this challenge in ensuring urban and agricultural land uses can successfully co-exist will require that the interface between these land uses is effectively planned.

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Photo from Plant for Life Environment Report.

Gardens across the UK are changing for the better, with more people planting fruit and veg and returning to traditional trends that benefit wildlife. But are gardeners as green as they think they are?

By Paul Evans
The Guardian, July 9 2008

– gardens plays a crucial role in the environment debate. They account for 15%-25% of the land area in Britain’s towns and cities, and their importance in offsetting some of the effects of climate change – through plants absorbing CO2, cooling urban micro-climates and supporting wildlife, and soils absorbing rainwater run-off and reducing flooding – is a message that is beginning to create trends in gardening.

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Dig for Victory in St James’s Park’s
See larger photo here.

By Sam Jones
The Guardian, June 30 2008

Designed for the Prince Regent by the architect John Nash, Regent’s Park is noted for its lovingly tended blooms. But soon the flower beds of that – and other London royal parks – could make way for rows of humble carrots, cabbages and globe artichokes.

In a plan inspired by American cities, the royal parks are pondering the creation of a string of model allotments to give the public a living, ripening illustration of the virtues of growing your own fruit and vegetables.

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“Agriculture activities have been receding for many years now in most of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) cities thus its main functions are being hindered. Despite the negative pressures, crop cultivation and animal husbandry remain common throughout the region’s cities. Fertile agricultural areas are still considerable and are expected to remain productive for years to come. Urban agriculture in the MENA countries is at present a highly diverse and widespread activity, yet it still suffers from lack of recognition form the planners, agriculturists, policy-makers, researchers and even by its practitioners.”

Link to ‘Urban Agriculture in the Middle East and North Africa’ Web Site here.

Photo Credit: Michael Levenston
1978 – Backyard in Strathcona neighbourhood, Vancouver.

By Jac Smit
See ‘From The Desk of Jac Smit’ here.

There are 110 million Small-Scale Vegetable Growers in the USA in 2008: 95 million of them are urban and peri-urban.

The National Gardening Association [NGA], with inputs from a Roper survey and the USDA, finds that 40 percent of America’s 275 million households are growing vegetables and culinary herbs, approximately 110 million households. The US Census tells us that the country is 80 percent urban. In rural communities the share raising veggies is about 2 of 3 and in urban neighborhoods, from Boston to Fargo, it’s about 1 in 3. Arithmetic says 15 rural and 95 million urban healthy food producers.

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“A woman pays to feed an elephant in a residential area of Bangkok.”
Photos and article by Brent Lewin
Link to Brent Lewin’s website and his Urban Jungle photos.

“30km from Bangkok in the suburb of Bang Bua Thong is a half-built housing community occupied by over 1500 squatters. In the furthest reaches of the development live 5 Khmer-speaking families from a poor province in Thailand who come to Bangkok when the rice-growing season is finished. As if out of a classical tale of days gone by, the elephants live side by side with their mahouts and use the concrete foundations of their surroundings as their jungle gym.

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Photo by Michael Levenston. Link to larger photo here.

Up five floors at the YWCA in downtown Vancouver, amongst skyscrapers, is a spectacular rooftop food garden. Our two videos feature an interview with Ted Cathcart, Operations Manager and Rooftop Food Gardener at the YWCA.

Email Contact: tcathcart@ywcavan.org

Link to YWCA Vancouver Rooftop Food Garden website.

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Photo from ‘Cowfiles African Gardens’.

From: ‘Ideas that will catch on here.’
July 12, 2008, BBC

“Another fantastic idea I picked up – which could make its way onto my allotment before long – is the keyhole veg bed. This is a raised bed with bells on: it’s about 1m (3’6″) high, and the outer bed, where the vegetables are growing, slopes down from a central hollow column. There’s an access path to the column (giving the bed a “keyhole” shape viewed from above) and inside it is what amounts to a compost bin, held in with hessian: you fill it with kitchen waste, stable manure, grass clippings – whatever you’d put on your compost heap.

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Photo Credit: Philip Solman

Farmer in the Sky
By Kimberley Fehr
Spring 2008
Edible Vancouver Magazine

“This year he has expanded to about 12 gardens and almost 8,000 square feet of land, thanks to a Vancouver Sun article last autumn that sent his phone ringing off the hook. Apparently, a lot of Vancouverites love the idea of someone else farming their backyard. Offers of acreages in Surrey, huge yards in South Vancouver — suddenly Teulon had his choice of prime farmland. He sat down and did the math, looked at the practicalities and came to the conclusion: anything farther than five kilometers (about three miles) just didn’t make sense.

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“We are three young women dedicated to promoting urban agriculture in Mexico City, working under the name Sembradores Urbanos (“Urban Cultivators” in English). In August 2007, we inaugurated the first urban agriculture demonstration center in the country, believing that people need to see real examples of how to grow food in the city. The Romita Urban Garden has become our “show garden” – an office, edible garden, education center, workshop site, and a gardening supply store, all on less than 80 square meters of concrete.”

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Eat The View’s Petition:

“We, the undersigned, are petitioning the next President of the United States to plant an organic food garden on the White House lawn, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to local food pantries. The White House is ‘America’s House’ and should set a positive example for the country and the world. The new President would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had fruit and vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as climate change, food security, and fossil fuel dependence”

Link to ‘Eat The View’ here.
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As the rain makes a pitter-patter sound on my umbrella, Maria ‘tugs’ up some of her garlic at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden. She braids the soft-necked variety into something quite beautiful, which she will hang in her kitchen.

First Forum for the North American Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Alliance

Saturday, October 4th 2008 Noon – 5:30pm
University of Pennsylvania, Houston Hall,
3418 Spruce St., Philadelphia PA

Please join us for the first public forum for the new North American Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Alliance (NAUPAA), founded to support the growing community of sustainable farmers and policy makers working in and around the metropolitan areas of the U.S., Canada, and beyond.

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What do you do on a rainy Vancouver summer day? You turn to crafts in the garden. Maria picks some lavender and makes it into something useful.

Photo of Pitt Meadows Community Garden, July 2008
11410 Bonson Road

Interview with Diane Brinton that was given to the Maple Ridge Times.

How many people approximately have plots in the garden?

48 plots – the garden is laid out in 15 x 30 ft. plots, but an individual plot is 15 x 15 feet. Some members have double garden plots. There are four raised accessible gardens, two are in use now. There are two buildings (shipping container type) on site – one tool shed and the other with bathroom facilities and a small room with table and chairs.

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A frantic scratching sound inside one of our unused standing rain barrels drew Joan’s attention to a trapped young raccoon, which had fallen through the small opening in the top. All of our barrels have screens covering the top hole except this one, which is not connected to a downspout.

We carefully tipped the barrel onto its side to allow the frightened animal to escape.