Category — Articles

Image from Growing Gardens, Portland Chickens.

At the 5th Annual Portland Tour de Coops in July, about 600 people visited, on average, 17 backyard chicken farms in Portland, Oregon. Link to their web site here. See photos of hen houses at Dave’ Garden Forum here.

U.S. City Dwellers Flock to Raising Chickens

By Ben Block, Worldwatch Institute
October 6, 2008

In the backyard of a suburban home in Denver, Colorado, 22 chickens are hiding out from the law.

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Photo by Michael Levenston
The City of Vancouver and City Farmer have provided worm bins to City residents since 1991.

By Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight
October 9, 2008

Friendship can grow from just about every imaginable place and situation. For Farhat Khan, one blossomed out of the compost she creates in an indoor bin.

A few years ago, while Khan was volunteering for City Farmer, a Kitsilano-based group that teaches urban farming to Vancouver residents, a woman approached her and asked if she knew anyone who could give her some compost. The woman had a plot at a nearby community garden but didn’t have a composter.

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Photographer: Iwasaki, Hikaru — Hyde Park, Massachusetts. 1944
The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
Larger image here.

Sheila (age 6), Setsujiro Uno, Chick Masaru Uno and Naomi (age 2-1/2) are shown picking string beans in the victory garden in the back yard of their home at 21 Beacon Street, Hyde Park, Massachusetts. The Unos lived at Tule Lake and Minidoka and came to Boston in November, 1943 as a result of a job offer from the American Baptist Home Mission to lead the boys’ club work in the West End Settlement House. With them came Mrs. Shizuyo Sese, Mrs. Uno’s mother, and Mr. Setsujiro Uno, Chick’s father. In looking for a place to live, they had no trouble because of nationality but did experience it because of the small children since landlords didn’t want to rent them an apartment.

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Link to the video here at theinsider.com Video is at the top of linked page.

This one-of-a-kind garden video, shot on October 3, 2008, features Bette Midler describing her passion for composting and community gardening and all things green.

The Target East Harlem Community Garden Opens

Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project (NYRP), a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and revitalizing parks, community gardens and public space in New York City, announced the opening of the Target East Harlem Community Garden.

NYRP and Sean Conway have outfitted the newly designed garden with wind turbines and solar panels which will power the 5,000 square foot garden’s LED (Light-Emitting Diode) energy efficient lighting and a built-in irrigation system.

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By Stan Cox
AlterNet June 23, 2008.

I didn’t mean to lead anyone down the garden path. Adding my small voice to those urging Americans to replace their lawns with food plants wasn’t, in itself, a bad idea. But now that food shortages and high costs are in the headlines, too many people are getting the idea that the solution to America’s and the world’s food problems is for all of us in cities and suburbia to grow our own. It’s not.

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Photo: Boy Scouts at attention — staircase, rotunda, City Hall. (Victory Garden day, April 1st, 1918.) The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley.
See larger image here.

Although we associate victory gardens with World War II, Laura Lawson says the term was actually coined near the end of World War I, replacing the more commonly used “war garden.” This, after all, was the conflict in which sauerkraut was renamed “liberty cabbage.”

Lawson’s book describes the festivities on April 1, 1918, designated by the mayor as War Garden Day in San Francisco. The Chronicle editorialized that “the first food gun of the nation” had been fired.

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“All users have to do is click their location on the website map and choose their veggies. Once a person has started a garden, he or she can add a small carrot representing that garden to the World Map of Small Food Gardens. This map is configured to let browsers find ideas or connections with other gardeners for sharing tips, seeds, recipes, and whatever else they need to know or swap in quest of the perfect small vegetable garden.”

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Onni Community Gardens in Vancouver BC from Michael Levenston on Vimeo. See HD quality by clicking on screen.

400 People on Waiting-list Prompt Developer to Build Second Garden.

Onni opened its second garden in late September under sunny skies. Earlier this year, Mike Clark talked to us as the developer was about to open its first community garden. Once again he provides us with details about the second site, which is located adjacent to the first one.

Just 3 weeks ago, the downtown Vancouver city block was covered in buildings. They were removed and new garden beds, paths and an irrigation system were installed. This has to be a ‘Guinness Book of Records’ record for the development of a new community garden.

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SBS Morning Wide is a variety, morning news show in Korea, which covers local, nationwide, and global issues. The show is very much like ABC’s Good Morning America or CBS Early Show in the U.S. This segment’s subtitle is ‘City Design Projects and World Famous Sustainable Cities in the Pacific Northwest’.

Charles Kim/Field Producer, Ji-eun Kim/Producer Director and Hyoo Joo Park/Cameraperson visited the Compost Demonstration Garden yesterday to shoot a segment on urban agriculture.

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Location of Community Gardens in Portland, Oregon.

Demand grows for community gardens in Portland

By KGW Staff, Portland, Oregon
September 24, 2008

If you’re trying to get a plot in the city’s community gardens — get ready for a long wait. More than 1,000 people are waiting and there are only 1,200 plots available citywide.

The only expansion planned is 22 new plots in Southeast Portland. Volunteers say it’s not nearly enough to cope with record demand.

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