Category — Community Gardens

By Dave M. Matthews
CNN June 29, 2009

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — On a plot of soil, nestled against the backdrop of skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, a group of residents are turning a lack of access to fresh produce into a revival of old traditions and self-empowerment.

HABESHA Gardens is one of many urban gardens sprouting up around the country. Fruits and vegetables are thriving in this community garden located in an economically depressed area of the city known as Mechanicsville.

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Casa Frela Gallery presents The Fruitful Wound, photographs by Dennis Santella. The exhibition runs from July 18th through August 22nd, 2009 in Manhattan, New York.

The Fruitful Wound

For a full year, Dennis Santella has been searching out and photographing gardens and green places across Harlem using a special panoramic camera manufactured by Siciliano Camera Works of Brooklyn. His large richly detailed gelatin silver prints draw on the improvised beauty of Harlem’s open spaces — from cultivated areas such as community gardens, to empty lots, and neglected border areas where plants struggle to survive.

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Click on the YouTube icon to get a larger video screen.

Late last fall in the rain, I interviewed David Buddle of Prima Properties about the community garden his development company was setting up in downtown Vancouver.

Just eight months later, on a sunny June Saturday, I interview a very happy community gardener who is successfully growing food on her plot.

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Poster advertising Urban Farms & Gardens Tour

By Janet Brown-Moss (excerpt from Urban Grown newsletter)

Food from the City for the City officially kicks off June 18, 2009, with a gathering of Kansas City’s leading practitioners and visionaries to talk about the area’s urban food production and how it is changing city neighborhoods and family diets. Join us at the Downtown KCMO Public Library at 6PM for an inspiring conversation preceded by a reception featuring local food and wine.

A couple days later, head over to the Ruiz Branch Library, KCMO, and learn about “Farm Animals in the City”, a topic that got quite some press recently here in Kansas City. Then check out the just-released documentary Mad City Chickens to be screened on June 23 at All Souls Unitarian Universalists Church. It is a sometimes wacky, sometimes serious look at the people who keep chickens in their urban backyards.

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The slideshow above gives an overview of Urban Agriculture Projects in the Chicago Area and was released for the June 5, 2009 symposium “Urban Agriculture: Feeding the Movement” in Chicago.

Some of the speakers and topics for that event:

Overview/Urban Agriculture framework and expected outcomes
Rose Hayden-Smith, M.A. Ed., M.A., Ph.D. Candidate, County Director University of California CE and Food and Society Policy Fellow

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©2008 Evershed Card Collection

Urban Delight

The street eating graffiti takes no pity on your soul,
Yet a garden chanced upon, in a sea of concrete
Works magic in your bones,
Like foliage embracing stones.

Tilled soil gives birth to bluebells,
Baby’s breath silences the endless traffic
As urban gardeners work miracles,
With seeds of hope.

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It takes place at the Bath Organic Group Allotments, Victoria Park, Bath.

‘The time is ripe for digging. As cheap imported fruit and veg rapidly become a thing of the past, Kilter invites you to grab a spade and elope to the allotment for a theatrical journey into the future of food. Through an intimate tale of love and vegetables, Kilter leads you and your neighbours down the bean-rows to explore food-security in a post-oil world.

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Prepared by Megan Horst
University of Washington, College of Architecture and Urban Planning
July 1, 2008. 74 pages

Introduction

Planners and policy-makers in the United States and around the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of food systems planning. Effective food systems planning at the local and regional levels offers tools to address some of the major challenges faced by modern cities, including high rates of joblessness, poverty, and hunger along with growing environmental problems related to fossil fuel dependency and resource consumption. Urban agriculture, mainly in the form of community gardens, is one of the many food systems planning strategies that different cities have been using to address these kinds of problems.

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Help Goodness Grow

“At Campbell, we believe quality ingredients are grown from the ground up – and make truly delicious soup. That’s why, for over 70 years we’ve painstakingly cultivated seeds for tomatoes that go into our delicious soup.

“Now you can get seeds we use for growing tomatoes. Your request will help Campbell donate seeds to plants gardens in communities and schools across America. This is all part of our commitment to the National FFA Organization, which is dedicated to developing our future leaders through agricultural education.

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“Communities nationwide use brownfields funding to assess and clean sites for a variety of uses, including community gardens and farmers markets. Brownfields are properties that are vacant or abandoned due to concerns about real or perceived contamination on the property. Using funds from EPA, states, tribes and other sources, communities can assess sites and clean brownfields, creating safe spaces where people can grow their own food, or buy locally-grown food. The cleanup and redevelopment process helps to ensure safe and healthy garden and market areas.”

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See larger image here. Photo by wbgo
See photo set here.
There are about 1,000 boxes sitting on a previously empty lot in this center city location and on a rooftop nearby.

Excerpt from:
Farm fresh, in the city
by Jennifer Weiss/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday October 08, 2008

“We put EarthBoxes up there, and I couldn’t believe how well the plants grew,” Haberthur said. “It was like I had a green thumb.”

Taylor found out about the 29-inch-long containers at a Whole Foods store. EarthBox says they can produce double yields, using less water and fertilizer than conventional gardening. Taylor bought 500 of them at a wholesale rate of $13 each, and he said EarthBox donated 500 more. Gibbons, the lead investor, contributed $20,000 and said about half that was spent on the containers and soil.

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27th August 1948: Mr John Hodder and his wife, aged 86 and 80 respectively at work in their allotment in Fulham, London. Photo by William Vanderson

Allotments - Take this job and shovel it

Apr 8th 2009
From The Economist

As spring makes its usual staggered start, the Fielding Street allotments, off south-east London’s Walworth Road on a second world war bomb site, are buzzing. Plotholders—a mixed bunch of beekeepers, university lecturers, Zambian migrants and “Nyudies” (new yuppie diggers) alongside the London-Irish flat-cappers of old—are making up for winter neglect. Exotic tubers and decorative blooms jostle carrots, spuds and beans in plots that range from pocket handkerchief to half a football pitch in size. For the privilege, the allotment society pays a nominal rental to Southwark Council, which owns the land.

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Photo caption: Environmental activist Karen Wristen (front) and City Farmers Sharon Slack (left), Carole Christopher (back) and Michael Levenston stand in the City Hall plot that will be reserved for a community garden to grow food.
Photo by Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun

By Doug Ward
The Vancouver Sun
7 Mar 2009

Plot set aside for community garden

Barack Obama’s got nothing on Gregor Robertson when it comes to having green cred with the local food movement.

Organic food activists in the United States have been urging the new president to install a community garden at the White House.

A few days ago, Vancouver’s new mayor announced that a portion of the city hall lawn, just north of the main city hall building, will be converted into a community garden for people to grow food.

“Vancouver has really beat Obama on this one,” said Mike Levenston, executive director of the City Farmer Society.

The idea of bringing agriculture to 12th and Cambie comes from Robertson’s Greenest City Action Team, which has been charged with making Vancouver the greenest city in the world.

“If we want Vancouver to be a truly sustainable city, City Hall needs to lead the way,” said Robertson.

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By Urban Omnibus
The Architectural League of New York

Urban Agriculture: East New York is a documentary video in five chapters that explains how East New York’s urban agriculture movement evolved. Each chapter is dedicated to one piece of a complicated process: a portrait of a veteran local farmer in her garden; a trip to the East New York farmer’s market; a look at asset mapping analysis by the Pratt Center; land transfers from HPD to Green Thumb; and the investment in the neighborhood’s youth made by agricultural organizers and experts.

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The map above shows the location of allotment sites in the Dublin area. See interactive map here.

By Michael Cullen
September 2008

A thesis submitted to the Dublin Institute of Technology in part fulfilment of the requirements for the award of M.Sc. in Culinary Innovation and Food Product Development

Abstract
This study investigates Urban Agriculture (UA) in Dublin. This concept encompasses those who are engaged in growing their own in an urban environment. The study investigates why there has been a rise in UA over the past 15 years with the focus of the study being on allotments, a historical form of UA.

The objectives of the study include investigating the concept of urban agriculture, to examine the history of allotments in Dublin, to aid an understanding of modern UA in Dublin. The study focuses on the motivations of the allotment holders as well as uncovering the types and varieties of food being produced on their allotments.

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See larger image here.

October 1942: Champion gardener 89 year old John Hall carries a pile of his prize winning vegetables, at his allotment at Foots Cray. Photo by Reg Speller

Trust helps fuel grow your own revolution

February, 2009
The initiative comes as demand for growing spaces is at an all time high - with more than 100,000 people currently on allotment waiting lists – as people look to spend more time with friends or family, exercising in the outdoor ‘gym’ and enjoying the fresh food they can produce.

It has been estimated that these new growing spaces could produce up to around 2.6 million lettuces per year, 50,000 sacks of potatoes or, alternatively, mixed produce worth up to an estimated £ 1.5 million.

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An artist’s impression of a canal boat being used to grow food. Photograph: British Waterways.

Feb 19, 2009
BYM News

British Waterways’ Chairman, Tony Hales said: ‘British Waterways is very excited to be part of the Capital Growth project. The 100-miles of canals and rivers we care for in London provide a green corridor through the city, offering an escape from the hustle and bustle of the streets.  We are working with Capital Growth to identify any suitable pockets of land along London’s waterways that we or others might not be using, and matching them up with local groups and schools looking to grow their own food. 

‘We are also looking into more creative options, such as giving a new lease of life to some of our retired workboats, saving them from the breaker’s yard and converting them into floating vegetable gardens, moveable feasts that could provide growing opportunities in even the most built-up of areas. 

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Photo: La Finquita community garden.

Urban agriculture has proven to be an effective way to promote community development because it is a way for the residents of downtown Holyoke to maintain a connection to their culture while putting down roots in their new home. Most of our members grew up on the farms of rural Puerto Rico and many first came to the Northeast as migrant farm workers.

Though they may live in the city now, they are farmers at heart. They have lifetimes of experience in agriculture and it is part of their heritage. Projects based on agriculture, such as markets and community gardens, build on the skills and knowledge that participants already have, and are proud to have the opportunity to use to improve their community and to teach to a younger generation.

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3 DVDs, Spanish/English, each film lasts 35-45 min.
By Ella von der Haide

In a series of documentaries, Ella von der Haide features urban Community Gardens in Cities in South Africa, Argentina and Germany.

Urban community gardening is a phenomenon that is spreading throughout the world. More and more people are coming together, in order to shape their surroundings and to produce organic food. In addition to gardening itself, there is a great number of social, pedagogical, and political reasons for establishing community gardens, which depend upon the natural and social context of the garden itself, and the imagination and ends of the group.

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