Posts from — June 2012

Colorful Edibles

Project Coordinators: Bobby Angell and Wendy Hollender
Designer: Charlotte Staub Thomas
Editor: Bobbi Angell

A coloring book featuring contemporary botanical art created by members of the American Society of Botanical Artists. Thirty-six pen and ink drawings of fruit and vegetables are paired with information about the origins and the uses of each fruit and vegetable.

Truly a coloring book for all ages. Garden teachers will find this activity book to be a helpful teaching tool. A great gift idea for gardeners and a unique raffle/auction item for garden clubs or community gardens.

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Members of an urban garden in Allem Genet. Photo by Borja Santos Porras. More excellent photos in article.

Since 2008 in Ethiopia, the Urban Gardens Program has strived to improve the general health and incomes of women, orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS, through urban agriculture.

By Borja Santos Porras, Debre Zeit
Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Africa
25 June 2012

Excerpt:

“My husband died from HIV/AIDS years ago and then I lost my first daughter the same way,” says Sishae, an elderly widow who works in a community garden established in 2010 in the town of Debre Zeit, an hour south of Addis Ababa.

“By working in the garden I now have some income to help support my children and my grandchildren,” she explains.

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See photo caption below.

City Hall Garden Yields Fresh Produce; New Blog And Facebook Page Help City Growers Share Ideas About Urban Agriculture

City of Somerville
June 26, 2012

From the site’s blog post – see photo above

“This week Senior Transportation Planner (and vegetable supermodel) Sarah Spicer forgot her lunch. Luckily, we have our own food security source at City Hall, so she was able to have a freshly picked delicious salad and get back to making Somerville easier to move in. And then there’s Brian McCarthy from the Communications Department. He’s a novice gardener, a city boy and a little squeamish (no judgment) about touching the garden. Notice he’s got his protective gloves on to assure he doesn’t touch any cabbage worms (see previous post) while he is harvesting chives? Hey, gardeners each have their own way of doing things and as long as more people are growing, they can do it with or without gloves!”

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Patio at Terra Breads. Photo by Michael Levenston.

Terra Breads participates in the Environmental Youth Alliance’s Lawn to Loaves project

Mary MacKay, Head Baker of Terra Breads Bakery seeded planter boxes with wheat seed this spring. It now makes for part of an attractive landscape patio at their 5th Avenue site.

Lawns To Loaves encourages people in Vancouver to grow small patches of wheat which they then pool together for a harvest celebration.

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Myrtle Thompson-Curtis, tills the ground in the Feedom Freedom Growers urban garden on Manistee on Detroit’s east side. Photo by Steve Perez.

Michigan State University to spend $500,000 a year for three years to explore the creation of the MetroFoodPlus Innovation Cluster

By John Gallagher
Free Press Business
June 27, 2012

Excerpt:

The City of Detroit and Michigan State University have agreed in principle to pursue a major urban agriculture research program within the city to explore innovative research and techniques, such as transforming empty buildings into multi-tiered farms.

The program is envisioned as the central hub of a future collection of worldwide facilities focused on urban agriculture research.

No central campus site has been chosen yet, and the memorandum of understanding that was signed Wednesday signed by Mayor Dave Bing and MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon doesn’t tie either side to any specific deadlines or dollar commitments.

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Opened June 6, 2012. Video visit in the Dutch.

3000m2 Urban Farming Rooftop

3000m2 Urban Farming rooftop will open for all residents of Zuidpark. Hands-on sowing, weeding and harvesting will be a reality for everyone. The official opening and open day will both feature a tasty example of Zuidpark’s new agricultural element: courtesy of top chefs.

An office is no longer merely a workplace, it has become a centre in which to meet others, where networks come together and friendships are developed.

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In Wan Chai, Hong Kong, Michael Lueung keeps a hive of Chinese bees on the roof top of the Art galery and library ACO.

Eric Tourneret’s Megacity Honey – 21st Century Urban Beekeeping – 36 Photos

Eric Tourneret: A photojournalist for 25 years, his favorite work involves studies of subcultures and human interest stories.

Excerpt:

The big capitals of the world are showing an amazing enthusiasm for beekeeping. In London, mayor Boris Johnson has launched a campaign to make the capital “bee friendly”… Apiaries and community gardens have been set up, and – in time for the Olympic Games – the city can boast the creation of 2012 parks… In Berlin, the green city, apiaries have been installed since 2011. The city counts 750 beekeepers, and 2,500 hives.

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At Snug Harbor Heritage Farms, Carolyn Dimitri and her students get a chance to visit a real farm and “get their hands dirty” planting, composting, and transplanting vegetables. “It makes our theoretical discussions in the classroom very concrete,” Dimitri says.

The State Of Urban Farming In The United States: Enhancing The Viability Of Small And Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms.

From At A Glance
News from the NYU Steinhardt Community
Apr 23, 2012

A recently awarded $453,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will allow the associate professor and researchers at Penn State to study urban agriculture in fifteen cities. The project is titled, The State Of Urban Farming In The United States: Enhancing The Viability Of Small And Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms.

Urban farms are not easy to characterize because in many cities farms are located on roofs, vacant lots, or in greenhouses. The researchers will be analyzing data from the agricultural census, a survey of farmers, and information gathered from interviews to evaluate the technical assistance needs of urban farms.

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Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre at Helen Bernstein High School Garden in LA

By EMA Staff
Environmental Media Association
June 21, 2012

Toyota of Hollywood sponsored Helen Bernstein High School’s vegetable garden in conjunction with Environmental Media Association’s (EMA) Young Hollywood Garden Project. EMA member Rachelle Lefevre (“Twilight’s Victoria) and EMA President Debbie Levin helped with our first planting in May.

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One possible site for the vertical urban farm is the Samuel Hannaford-designed Crosley Building, an eight-story, 300,000-square-foot vacant structure.

Urban Farm Project could possibility use some of the Crosley for vertical integrated farming of fish, worms, produce

Kevin LeMaster
Building Cincinnati
June 25, 2012

Exceprt:

The Camp Washington Community Board has applied for an $800,000, three-year community development grant to establish the Camp Washington Urban Farm Project.

The grant, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Community Services would be used to address the “food desert” problem in the neighborhood by establishing several community garden sites, creating a distribution network, and provide the foundation to expand into vertical integrated urban farming using vacant former industrial spaces.

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Produce from the recently cultivated Mission Urban Garden on 5th Street and 20th Ave. S.W. will be featured on the menu of Brava Bistro. Photo by Trevor Scott Howell.

‘Everyone Wins’ With Mission Urban Garden

By Shannon Gormley
Open File
June 25, 2012

Excerpt:

Everybody wins here,” says Woolley. “The landowner wins, because the lot looks beautiful. The restaurants win, because they get to use local produce. And the whole community wins, because it finally has another garden.”

Just don’t confuse this project with attempts to surreptitiously plant rogue potatoes on private property.

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System Uses sensors (to detect water level, pH and temperature), microprocessors (mostly the open-source Arduino microcontroller), relay cards, clouds and social media networks (Twitter and Facebook)

By Kirsten Dirksen
Faircompanies
June 25, 2012

Excerpts:

The land in West Oakland where Eric Maundu is trying to farm is covered with freeways, roads, light rail and parking lots so there’s not much arable land and the soil is contaminated. So Maundu doesn’t use soil. Instead he’s growing plants using fish and circulating water.

Aquaponics has become popular in recent years among urban gardeners and DIY tinkerers, but Maundu- who is trained in industrial robotics- has taken the agricultural craft one step further and made his gardens smart.

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A banana orchard grows where a home once stood, within a dense neighborhood. Photo by Claire Napawan-Seybert.

An interview with Claire Napawan-Seybert, who is a landscape architect, and a professor in the U.C. Davis Department of Environmental Design.

GrowCity
May 3, 2012

Excerpt:

Is there anything specific about the infrastructure of the city that you feel contributes to the success of urban farming? Are there any lessons American cities might learn from a physical planning perspective?

Government support was instrumental for training new farmers, making urban land available, providing equipment and growing materials. Being a communist nation, where the government owns nearly all urban land, makes assessment and leasing of land more facile than in the U.S. Issues [we have here] such as high urban property values, etc. are not issues there, since the buying and selling of property is illegal in Cuba.

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Centre for Environment and Society Research – Birmingham School of the Built Environment, Birmingham City University

Deadline for applications was 20th June 2012.

Applications are invited for a 3 year PhD Research Studentship within the Centre for Environment and Society Research. It will pay University fees at the home/EU level, and a tax free living allowance equivalent to UK Research Council level (approx £13,590). The Centre for Environment and Society Research (CESR) studies human intervention in the physical and social environment with a strong desire to improve current and future conditions. In the latest RAE, the research centre demonstrated that 10% of its research outputs were of “world class”, and 55% were of international, quality standards.

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Beijing residents grow vegetables and plants on their building’s roof. Photo by Xinhua.

With growing wealth, concerns about food safety and the fever for online shopping, more urbanites are taking to farming on their own terms.

By Zheng Jinran
China Daily
June 23, 2012

Excerpt:

The perfect storm of two major trends in China – online shopping and growing concerns about food safety – has given birth to a generation of urban farmers.

More urban residents, many of whom are young people between the ages of 25 to 35 living in metropolises such as Beijing, are growing vegetables and herbs on their balconies or rented farmland in the suburbs, and turning to Taobao, a major online shopping service provider in China, to start their apartment gardens.

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Works by Klaus Enrique Gerdes

By David Carlson
The David Report
Nov 22, 2011

Excerpt:

During a photo shooting of a human eye that was peeking out amongst hundreds of leaves, it occurred to photographer Klaus Enrique Gerdes that he could actually utilize leaves to construct portraits or masks. He researched what other artists had created along these lines and discovered Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who made paintings with this concept in mind over 400 years ago. The more he thought about it, and the more research he did, the more convinced he became of creating his own series.

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The Shifting Growth mobile garden beds allow the temporary conversion of a vacant, contaminated site into a safe growing space.

An innovative temporary solution for improving community interaction and beautification compliments municipal land utilization policies.

Shifting Growth’s mission is to transform private vacant lots into temporary community gardens through raised, mobile garden beds. Shifting Growth offers a turnkey project management service for landowners. Partnering with numerous community-based organizations and professional contractors, Shifting Growth’s services are built upon their ability to co-ordinate and manage all required activities to transform a private under-utilized vacant lot into a public growing space. Shifting Growth is a registered non-profit based out of East Vancouver, BC.

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Beau Garrett chats with students. Photo by EMA.

Calvert Street Elementary School Garden in Woodland Hills, CA, visited by actress

By EMA staff
Environmental Media Association
June 20, 2012

Excerpts:

Beau got a personal tour of the garden, which started out a few years ago as a few small raised garden beds and has grown so much in such a short time.

Calvert’s parents and community are active in the school garden and a CSA (community sustainable agriculture) sale is hosted with seasonal fruit and veggies. Beau helped set up for the day’s big sale.

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The Flemming St. plot finally starting to look good and productive. Photo by Barefoot Farms.

Farming in multiple backyards in Vancouver

Barefoot Farms is a small farm operating out of multiple backyards in Vancouver and a half acre in south Richmond. Our home base is in the Kingsway and Knight area in east Vancouver.

HARVEST SHARE is $625 for the season of a wide variety of tasty vegetables in your harvest share. see FAQ’s for an example of a weekly share. That works out to $550 ($30.56 a week) plus a farm improvement fund of $75.
TOTAL: $625

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Permit for using land.

Tells the story of Josh Singer and his determination to reclaim an abandoned piece of land in Washington DC’s Park View neighborhood.

Produced by Still Life Projects

Excerpt from blog description:

That’s when the challenges began. Washington DC had no record of the land. It had no parcel number, no address and no records. According to the government, the land didn’t exist. Josh returned to the government offices 20 times but kept running into dead ends. He was determined not to give up.

After facing setbacks, doubt and being told to let it go, he eventually spoke with a man who supported his idea. They eventually learned that the land was passed down from the Veterans Home to the Children’s Hospital and that somehow the Department of Transportation currently owns it. There was now a glimmer of hope. Several forms, visits and fees later Josh was awarded a public space permit.

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