Photo from Magic Bean Farm

Magic Bean Farm – Seattle’s Pioneer Market Garden

By Ashley DeForest
Urban Farm Hub
March 25th, 2010

Excerpts:

Today’s interview is with Josh Parkinson of Magic Bean Farm, one of Seattle’s first—if not only—urban market gardens. With nearly ½ an acre of land in production in West Seattle, Magic Bean Farm is ready to supply Seattle’s foodies with nutritious, hyper-local, gourmet produce.

This past December I moved with my girlfriend Shabnam to West Seattle in the Duwamish Co-Housing development. There isn’t much land on-site for food production, but I’ve collected about 13,000 square feet (1/3 of an acre) from nearby backyards using online tools such as Urban Garden Share and Land Link.

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The idea is to create a modern, energy-efficient, high-quality and attractive allotment garden area.

In the city of Lieksa, Eastern Finland, a new allotment garden area will be established with a new concept.

By Krista Kimmo
Finnish Forest Association
07/28/2009

A new allotment garden area to be built in the city of Lieksa, Eastern Finland, promotes building with wood. The cabins will be designed for year-round use.

“We want to update the idea of allotment gardens for the 2000’s. Originally, allotment gardens were created to enable poor people to grow fresh vegetables, but that’s not what people need or want from them nowadays,” explains Mr. Markku Karjalainen, architect and docent at the University of Oulu.

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Head gardener Marko Pesu from the University of Helsinki’s botanical gardens has already terminated 120 rabbits with extreme prejudice this year.

Private citizens eager to take the law into their own hands over Helsinki’s escalating rabbit problem.

Since last autumn, 2,000 rabbits have been culled legally in the Finnish capital.

By Ann-Mari Huhtanen
Helsingin Sanomat
25.3.2010

Helsinki’s rabbit wild situation has reached the point where the little furry creatures are now being hunted by any means necessary, especially in residential districts with gardens to protect.

According to head gardener Marko Pesu of the University of Helsinki’s botanical gardens, also in the city’s allotment gardens some rather dubious rabbit-elimination methods have been introduced.

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Organic shift: Veggies sprout on home rooftops; FTII has a patch too

Ranjani Raghavan
Indian Express – Pune
Mar 15, 2010

Less than two months ago, a small vegetable patch came up on the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) campus on Law College Road. Those running the boys’ hostel mess planted vegetables like cabbage, spinach, fenugreek (methi), chilli, and tomatoes. Recently, they harvested at least 6-7 kgs of fenugreek, enough for a meal for the students at the mess.

The mess gets its supplies from designated organic vendors around the city. “Our aim is to ensure we are able to sustain ourselves as much as possible with our own vegetables,” said Shammi Nanda, part of the team that runs the boys hostel mess at FTII.

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