The World in a Garden is an Urban Agriculture Project that connects youth and community to the culture, nutrition and production of growing organic food.

“Children working in our garden are getting to experience nutrition instead of just being taught it. Green foods take on a whole new meaning and the children actually enjoy eating their vegetables because they are growing and cultivating them. And, by donating food to the food bank, children are giving back to their community and making a difference in the world,” said Tricia Sedgwick, the Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA) community garden coordinator and nutritionist. “There are many interactive opportunities for students to partake in, from growing and preparing food for harvest celebrations to fundraising and donating.”

The JFSA runs a community garden in Kerrisdale at West 57th and East Boulevard. It is one of 55 community gardens in Vancouver run by a variety of community organizations. The JFSA began work on the garden in the spring of 2007 after receiving the 24 X 9 metre lot (80 x 30 feet) and $3000 in start up fees from the City of Vancouver. The JFSA leases the land from the City for $1 a year.

Potato Fusion Workshop. See larger image here.

World in a Garden website here.

Other local community gardens listed here.

Grow your own revolution gets major land boost

Communities and Local Government
Great Britain
3 March, 2010

Plans to bring under-used and uncared for land back into use so that local communities and keen would-be fruit and vegetable growers have somewhere to get digging, were announced today by Communities Secretary John Denham and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.

There is a huge interest in ‘growing your own’ with people wanting to get more in touch with where their food comes from, as well as staying active and spending more time outdoors.

About 300,000 gardeners in England already have allotments but demand still outstrips supply and the Government is therefore announcing new ways of meeting people’s desire to dig in.

Today, John Denham and Hilary Benn set out a package of measures to help gardeners in the community.

These include:

Working with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens to set up a new national community land bank which will act as a broker between land-holders and community groups who want somewhere to grow food. The Federation is in discussion with a number of local councils to pilot the scheme – including Brighton and Bristol. Local private and public sector landowners, which could include councils, NHS and private developers will work with the Federation to identify possible sites and link them up with community groups looking for land. The scheme will offer support and advice to landowners and tenants over the purchase, sale or leasing of land.

Supporting proposals put forward by Brighton and Hove, Waltham Forest, Birmingham and Sheffield council under the Sustainable Communities Act. These include ensuring food doesn’t go to waste by clarifying that there are no legal restrictions on gardeners selling genuine surplus produce to local markets and shops, making better use of existing powers around allotments and introducing new lease arrangements that will make it easier for people to take control of abandoned land.

Making it easier for local residents and organisations to set up growing spaces on land that is currently unused or waiting development including stalled building sites or sites waiting for planning permission. The Government has commissioned the Development Trusts Association to prepare standardised mean-while ‘leases’ so that organisation can access land while its waiting to be used – while giving the landlord and tenants legal assurances. The idea has been inspired by meanwhile leases for empty shops which has enabled local residents and organisations to temporarily use vacant properties on the high street.

New good practice guidance to help local councils reduce the length of time someone has to wait before getting an allotment plot. The guidance – A Place To Grow – published by the Local Government Association, gives practical advice on making the most of existing statutory allotment sites including reducing plot sizes and managing waiting lists. It also includes advice on providing new allotments sites and what temporary options are available for people who are waiting for a plot to become available.

On a visit to King’s Cross, in London, John Denham and Hilary Benn saw the way in which local charity Global Generation is using a temporary lease to create portable allotments in a series of construction skips, located on one of the capital’s largest regeneration schemes.

The project has involved young people together with local businesses in the creation of ten bio-diverse food growing sites in the bustling heart of King’s Cross – ‘greening’ the top of office buildings, school grounds and housing estates. During the last year Global Generation was granted leases for two temporary food growing sites, on the 67 acre development site.

The ‘Skip Garden’ project is enabling young people from local schools to grow, harvest and sell produce to local restaurants, whilst learning about team working and wider environmental issues. And the garden has a twist – being built in construction skips allows the garden to be portable, so as different parts of the site are brought forward for development the skips will be moved to new locations and continue to produce a rich harvest of herbs and vegetables.

Communities Secretary John Denham said:

“From guerrilla gardeners to community growers there is a real keenness to combine 40’s style frugality and 70’s style good life ethics to meet 21st century demands for healthy living, cheaper meals and locally sourced food. More and more people want to grow their own but their efforts can be held up by a shortage of suitable land.

“We are making it easier for community groups and keen gardeners to access the hundreds of acres of un-used land.

“This will mean communities can grow their own food while brightening up the neighbourhood by turning unloved spaces into fragrant herb gardens and abundant vegetable or flower beds.

We also want to support local councils in meeting their duty to provide allotments and new guidance provides practical advice to local councils on how to get the best out of their allotments. We are also supporting proposals put forward as part of the Sustainable Communities Act for surplus food to be sold at local markets and shops.”

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said:

“It doesn’t matter if you have a large garden or if you live on the 20th floor – we can all have a slice of ‘The Good Life’.

“Community food growing is a great way for people to get involved in the joys and trials of food production – and that is why we want to help more people grow their own and take it home.”

Today’s announcement, part of the Government’s Food 2030 strategy, responds to a resurgence of interest in people growing their own food. The landbank and meanwhile leases add to wider Government-backed community initiatives such as:

The Directgov ‘Grow Your Own’ website;

‘Growing schools’ – helping school children learn about the food chain and develop skills to grow their own food; and

The Eat Seasonably campaign, supported by the Government.

Welcoming today’s announcement Jeremy Iles, Chief Executive of The Federation of City Farms and Community gardens said:

“We work with thousands of community groups all over the UK, and we are getting a very strong message that people and groups are desperately seeking land for food growing – the Community Land Bank idea builds on many smaller scale initiatives, and we hope to bring about a sea-change in attitudes to land access, fostering cooperation and respect at a local level and allowing people to get to grips with growing their own food – it should be good for the wider community and the people involved.”

Speaking about the King’s Cross project Paul Richens, the garden’s manager said:

“These sites at King’s Cross Central are important not only as a focus for community engagement but also as an extreme example of how to grow good healthy vegetables in difficult places in a city, in an organic and sustainable way.”

Grow your own revolution gets major land boost news release here.

Allotment boost from under-used land planned news release here.

City farm to go on site of van Egeraat scheme here.

The New Urban Farmer
By Celia Brooks-Brown
Quadrille Publishing Ltd
March 2010

As the New Urban Farmer, Celia has been detailing the day-to-day goings on at her North London allotment since April 2007 through her blog for the Times Online, and March 2010 sees the launch of her monthly column, “Grow to Eat’, in BBC Good Food Magazine.

From her own allotment, Celia brings tales of her adventures in vegetable growing. She shares her gardening expertise and tips from the other allotmenteers in a year-round gardening book that is part-journal, part-gardening manual, part-recipe book with one aim: to inspire you to cultivate and enjoy your own delicious homegrown produce.

See the book here at Amazon Books UK.

From Community Gardening To Community Food Security

by Michael Nairn and Domenic Vitiello
Harvard Design Magazine 31,
Fall/Winter 2009/10

Excerpt:

Tomatoes always seem to taste better when you are acquainted with the person who grew them, especially when that person is you. Many Americans have never tasted a “real” tomato, vine ripened no more than a day or two before being eaten. Corn tastes best when you get the water boiling minutes before you pick it. The joys of fresh produce, along with those of saving money and building community, help explain the recent growth of farmers’ markets and of the fascination with urban agriculture.

Growing food in cities promises the delight of being acquainted with what we eat and its origins more intimately, and of feeling less guilty for our (usually) smaller ecological footprint, since it is typically organic and cuts down on waste. It is something many city dwellers already experience through community gardens and new entrepreneurial urban farms. As cities face the environmental, economic, and social challenges of the 21st century, including hunger, diabetes, and dependence
on global industrial food systems based on fossil fuels, local food production will be more and more important for building food security. How do we achieve this? What do the hundreds of community gardens and farms we recently studied in Philadelphia tell us about the sustainability of urban agriculture and urban life?

In Philadelphia, neighbors breathe in scents of the butterfly bushes and basil of community gardens where once were trash-strewn lots; they pride themselves on reviving and beautifying their blocks. At the farmers’ market at City Hall, adults delight in buying spinach and squash from teenagers who farm a former corner of their high-school soccer field and who actually eat sorrel. At a pig roast, children dancing to bomba drums and eating pigeon peas with rice make grandmothers feel gratified that their garden is preserving their Puerto Rican culture. On the urban farm, apprentices watch honeybees returning to the city to pollinate our food and future.

See the rest of the magazine article here.

From Muslimness
Feb 17, 2010

Excerpts:

Earlier this year I interviewed sister Asiila Rasool an Eco-Muslim from SE San Diego, about the community garden she and her locals successfully grew from scratch. Check out why Asiila was inspired to grow organic, how she roped her community in, and why home-grown produce is worth all that effort.

Whose idea was it to start a community garden?

Our community garden idea began as a jam’ah (congregational) effort of mostly mine and my two nieces during a homeschool project meeting.

With so many organic markets available and grocery stores providing fresh produce why did you want to grow your own?

We live in SE San Diego; with the lack of major grocery stores the people have limited options in buying from from small food marts. Ergo, the push to bring Farmer Markets and start community gardens throughout this area. We began the garden mostly because we read the writing on the wall: “inflation, shoddy produce, recession, less produce”. With all the benefits of locally grown food we thought what could be more environmentally friendly than our own garden?

How many of you are involved in the community garden project?

The crew includes Musa, Jamila, Muhammad, Basheer, Najla, Karemah, also Faheem and moi. We home school our children so what better way for them to get closer to the earth and become more self-sufficient?

Finally sister Asiila, what do you think the future holds for like minded eco-aware Muslims?

The future? It’s coming, and we best get prepared for it. A key issue for us will be finding enough water in this area (and in the rest of the world so I hear). Catching rain is an option, as well as using new techniques like double digging and square foot gardening, which we did with this garden. I believe Muslims will reclaim their knowledge and love of agricultural work;working with the land and with their hands. In fact, all the immigrants I know keep at least a herb garden on the tiniest strip of land, if that’s all they have. They also grow vegetables.

We muslims still have a way to go on learning to give up the plastics and bottled water/sodas and watching what we eat vis a vis our snacks and drinks, but I believe the future will pretty much force Muslims to get back to the old ways. Working in the earth, growing your own food, dealing with Allah’s handiwork hands on is so incredibly grounding and spiritual. I believe Muslims will very much become part of the ‘green revolution’ if we’re not already.

Read the rest of the article and see more photos here.

Release Date: September 2010
Cintia Cabib Video Productions

See the trailer here.

An outdoor classroom, an oasis of peace in an inner-city neighborhood, a link to an immigrant’s homeland: the roles of seven Washington, D.C. community gardens are as varied as the gardeners themselves. Meet them and visit their plots in “A Community of Gardeners,” a new documentary currently in production.

Throughout Washington, D.C., people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are gardening side by side, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in community gardens. Some are looking for basic sustenance, others for a way to remember their homelands, still others for a place to find a respite from their troubles.

The Melvin Hazen Community Garden is a former World War II Victory Garden.

Through the voices of young people, senior citizens, immigrants, garden volunteers and educators, the one-hour documentary, “A Community of Gardeners,” will explore the vital role of seven urban community gardens, not only as sources of fresh, nutritious food, but as outdoor classrooms, places of healing, centers of social interaction, and oases of beauty and calm in inner-city neighborhoods. The documentary will also look back on the history of community gardens in the United States, from the potato patch farms of the late nineteenth century, to the victory gardens of World War II, to community gardening’s current renaissance.

Visit the film website here.

Cintia Cabib is an independent producer, videographer and editor whose award-winning programs have aired on PBS affiliates and on cable television. Her videos have been screened at film festivals and have been purchased by non-profit organizations, school systems and libraries. Between 1991-2005, Cintia was the training director at Montgomery Community Television in Rockville, Maryland, where she produced informational and educational programs, taught and managed video production classes, and supervised community-produced television programs. Cintia’s documentaries and educational videos have covered a variety of topics, including the history of an 88-year old carousel, health issues affecting African Americans, a vocational class for students with disabilities, and the art of juggling. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cintia is fluent in Spanish. Several of her videos have focused on Washington, D.C.’s Latino community. To learn more about Cintia’s programs and to view video clips, please visit www.cintiacabib.com.

Visit the filmmaker’s website here.

Published by Local Government Association (LGA)

The LGA has revised this best-selling resource for allotment officers and associations, to provide an update on the policy framework, legislation and practice affecting allotment gardening.

1 The second edition of this guide was commissioned by the LGA in September 2006, and substantially updates the original which was published in June 2001. The preparation of the guide has been managed by the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens.

2 The objective of the guide is to assist those who are responsible for managing allotments, either within local authorities or under schemes for devolved management, to work efficiently and effectively by emulating examples of good practice.

3 The guide will also help other stakeholders in allotments, including local authority officers in other departments, support organisations, allotment associations and individual plotholders, to understand the opportunities which allotments present for achieving multiple and inter-related benefits, and the advantages of working together to attain common goals.

4 The guide acknowledges the widespread renaissance in allotment gardening that has taken place since the first edition was published, including demands for new sites in some areas and growing waiting lists in others.

5 The guide is based upon extensive research into current good practice in the management of allotments in England and Wales. This has drawn in particular on documentary evidence, information from the internet, correspondence with allotment officers in leading-edge authorities and allotment associations, and the shared experience of the Allotment Regeneration Initiative’s Mentor Network.

6 While the guide makes no claim to document every example of good practice in allotment management in
England and Wales, it does uncover a wealth of innovative and successful ideas, which can be widely imitated.

7 The guide is organised in three parts: the plot, the tools, and the seeds, dealing with objectives, strategies, and practical methods respectively. Each part is illustrated with examples and case studies of good practice.

8 The ‘plot’ sets out the exciting opportunities and challenges that allotments now provide to councils and local communities, and maps out a course for getting the most out of allotments.

9 The ‘tools’ identifies allotments as a key resource in achieving a wide range of local authority agendas, including wellbeing, health promotion, cohesive communities and quality green space. It also identifies some of the key partners with whom allotment managers should be working, for mutual benefit.

10 A model is presented for an allotments strategy that links in with other areas of local authority work and offers a fully reasoned and resourced path to achieving good practice. Key elements of the allotments strategy include: promotion; resourcing; devolved management; effective administration; monitoring performance; and the achievement of best value.

11 The ‘seeds’ is a compendium of practical means to achieve good practice in allotments management,
including: ideas for promoting allotments to convert latent demand into real users; setting rents and raising capital resources; supporting devolved management; communicating effectively with other stakeholders; provision of facilities; management of tenancies; and measures to cope with hazards and nuisances before they arise.

12 The guide concludes with a practical summary of key aspects of allotments law and signposts to further information.

Purchase here.

Hayes Valley Farm – San Francisco

Our Vision

Hayes Valley Farm (HVF) is an education and research project with a focus on urban agriculture. Situated on the city-owned lots bordered by Oak, Fell, Laguna, and Octavia streets, the project is organized by an alliance of urban farmers, educators, and designers that comprise the HVF Project Team. HVF is a Parks Partner, a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco Parks Trust.

The project is founded on an interim use agreement between Hayes Valley Farm and the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development- a two to five year time frame – until which time the City moves forward with other development plans for the site.

1. to create a successful, sustainable urban farm where community members can access healthy local food
2. to serve as a model and a resource center for urban agriculture education and green job training
3. to build community resiliency around local food production

What does this look like?

We envision Hayes Valley Farm as a place where people come regularly to meet and connect with each other. Friends exchange food, recipes, stories and knowledge about ways we can all live in greater harmony with our surroundings. They are surrounded by an abundant and rich forest of food that encourages connection and understanding of the vital life systems that support human kind.

Video by Chris Martin

Where is Hayes Valley Farm?

We are located in the heart of Hayes Valley in the city block formed between Oak St., Octavia St., Fell St. and Laguna St. Our main entrance is located at 450 Laguna St., San Francisco, CA 94102.

What are some of the activities that exist at Hayes Valley Farm?

We are offering urban agriculture courses and classes including fruit tree care, kitchen garden basic, herb garden basics, backyard bio-intensive farming, bee care, sustainable landscape design and many more. View a full listing of our activities.

I’m not sure I want to eat the fruits of this garden because it used to be a freeway. How much lead is in the soil?

I can’t say health is our number one priority, because access to water, mulch and manure was, but it was our second. Honestly, we take the health of the community seriously. We’re not just interested in understanding the issue, but overstanding it. Before we started planning we lab tested 64 soil points across the site, all parts of the site came back with lead levels lower than the EPA’s standard for soil (400 ppm by weight) with the exception of the southern facing hill along Oak St. between Laguna and Octavia. Second, our plan is to place 3-4 ft of organic material thus building 1-2ft of soil on top of the current site fill, which is a proven method of diluting lead levels if they do exists. Third we plan on measuring the lead in the plant roots, shoots, leaves and fruits after the first harvest before allowing human consumption. Fourth, plants that produce fruit (apple, tomato, pepper, etc) tend to store minuscule amounts of lead inside the fruit with the majority being taken up into the roots and some remaining in the shoots.

See Hayes Valley Farm website here.

See more photos of the project here.

See From Freeway To Farm In San Francisco here.

By Alex Chisholm
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts of Leadership
2008 – 150 pages
Email: alex.1chisholm@gmail.com

Abstract

Community gardens and other forms of urban agriculture (UA) make vital contributions to the environmental sustainability, food security, and economic prosperity of urban life. Community gardens also improve cities’ social, recreational, and aesthetic qualities. Yet growers continue to struggle for access to land and mechanisms to expand agriculture within cities. An umbrella organization that advocates and negotiates for land access and favourable government policies on behalf of growers could be an effective tool for increasing UA within the City of Vancouver.

Acting as an intermediary, an umbrella organization could navigate the requirements of civic administrators and other land stewards on behalf of growers. This research engaged community garden and UA stakeholders, and the City of Vancouver Social Policy unit in an action research project to examine civic systems and the intermediary socio-political functions an umbrella garden organization could perform to increase agriculture in the City of Vancouver.

Introduction Chapter Summary

UA and community gardens have an important, though perhaps still somewhat undervalued, role to play in the urban environment. Nonetheless, awareness of the environmental, recreational, social development, and food security benefits is generating a growing acceptance of community gardens. In order to stimulate the growth of new community garden developments, community organizers and other key stakeholders are rallying to find solutions. Creating an umbrella organization that can bridge the civic system with garden organizers is being considered by some groups. This umbrella organization could help spearhead the development of new community gardens. This research project took on the challenge to understand how an umbrella organization might work and how it might interface with the city. With the City of Vancouver’s Social Policy unit as the organization sponsoring this research, I engaged the community to help me understand what an umbrella organization might effectively do to help build new gardens. In support of this research a review of the literature on UA and community gardens follows.

See synopsis pdf here.

See complete thesis pdf here.

By Elise Harris
Email: eliseharris2@gmail.com
An Honours thesis submitted as part of a Bachelor in Urban and Regional Planning School of Natural and Built Environments University of South Australia
October 2008

Excerpts:

Abstract

Community gardens have been shown to have positive social, nutritional and educational benefits for their users, and improve the amenity, safety and patronage of the surrounding area. They also tie into wider themes of sustainability and food security. Despite these benefits, urban planners, as the keepers of land and determiners of land use, have had little to do with community gardens. This thesis will explain the benefits of community gardens and detail planning policies throughout the world that support community gardens. Lastly, recommendations will be made on how the South Australian planning system can better support community gardens.

1. Introduction

Community gardens create the types of social and environmental benefits that planners often strive to achieve in their work. They break down barriers between people, increase socialisation, provide exercise, improve nutrition and create safer spaces. Why then, have community gardens been overlooked by planners? A lack of interest and lack of knowledge has meant that planners have been ignoring community gardens in planning policy and literature, and inadvertently creating barriers to the creation of community gardens. This thesis argues that planners should become involved in creating, protecting and promoting community gardens, because of the multiple benefits that they offer. To aid them in this task, plans from around the world have been searched for planning policies that relate to community gardens. These plans have then been used to guide recommendations on how the South Australian planning system can aid community gardens.

This thesis will seek to promote the promotion, protection and creation of community gardens in the South Australian planning system. Firstly, a case will be made for the promotion of community gardens by urban planners, by explaining the benefits of community gardens. The literature on urban planning for community gardens will be discussed to give understanding and context to the issue, and then the state of planning for community gardens in South Australia and Australia will be ascertained by searching for planning policies that relate to community gardens. International planning policies will be examined to find the types of policies that could be used in South Australia to promote community gardens. Lastly, recommendations will be made for how South Australia can better plan for community gardens.

This introductory section will explain the broad global factors affecting the food supply, the implications for Australia and the role that planners can play in increasing food security.

6. Conclusion

This thesis has concentrated on a way that planners can improve people’s food security – by supporting the development of community gardens. It has been shown that community gardens can also contribute to other desirable outcomes, such as improved health, crime reduction and community building. A literature review has found that the literature on urban planning on community gardens is not well developed, and that the broader concept of urban planning and food is still a relatively new field of planning. Most of the literature comes from the USA and Canada, and very little comes from Australia. Critical analysis of the literature and policies was limited by the lack of negative or dissenting views on community gardens, and research into the effectiveness of the policies. The low awareness of the importance of planning for food could explain why there are so few planning policies in Australia that relate to community gardens. Hopefully, this will change. Planners are well- placed to aid the development of community gardens, and there are a wide range of policy options of aiding in their creation, promotion and protection. To stimulate change in South Australia, a range of planning policies from around the world have been discussed, which have guided recommendations for how the South Australian planning system can plan for community gardens at the state and local level. The task now is for community groups to push for the recommendations to be put into policy, and for planners to recognise the benefits of community gardens, and aid in their development. By doing this, wider social and environmental causes will be aided, and cities will be better prepared for future food price increases from the decline in global agricultural production, and the double threats of climate change and peak oil.

The complete thesis can be found here.

By Alex Woodward
Best of New Orleans
Jan. 22, 2010

Allison Pressimone and Allie George, students from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, are only in town for a few days but Joseph Brock is making sure they get their hands dirty.

The volunteers, part of a dozen on a service trip to New Orleans through HandsOn, are tilling soil and setting up tomato supports on the raised beds at the Wise Words Community Garden. Other volunteers are busy planting herbs and spreading fertilizer.

“If you build it, they will come,” says Brock, the Mid-City Community Garden executive director.

He broke ground on the lots at 724 S. Hennessey St. in November 2009. “Right now I’m in construction mode,” he says. “That’s the hardest part.”

The garden is designed for both food and art; Brock wants the garden to resemble an outdoor gallery, with works on display along the fences and in the soil beds. As the name implies, words of inspiration will line each bed and brick. The garden also will celebrate the art of food, with local chefs preparing dishes using ingredients from the garden during weekly cooking demonstrations. Brock already has caught the attention of neighborhood joints Huevos and Crescent City Pie and Sausage, the Ruby Slipper Cafe, Liberty’s Kitchen and Parkway Bakery and Tavern.

Next up are rainwater cisterns, slated roofs on each container bed and a greenhouse.

??The garden may be in its infancy, but it’s producing. Basil, parsley, dill and a few other herbs, as well as leafy greens and vegetables are filling out several of the container beds, with room for tomatoes and seasonal produce in the coming months.

“Every single space needs a plant,” he says.

Brock also wants to build a chicken coop, much like the one he installed in the Mid-City Community Garden at 516 S. Salcedo St., in his own backyard. The community garden grew from his personal vegetable stash. The seeds cost him pennies, he says, and he gave what he couldn’t eat to his neighbors at no charge. “I had more than I could eat,” he says. “I didn’t want to waste seeds.”

He extended his lot to the paved one next door. Rather than dig up the busted soil underneath the concrete, Brock enlisted community partners to help — the New Orleans Food and Farm Network and HandsOn volunteers helped build a container garden, leaving a rough skeleton of a garden sitting on the lot, which Brock cared for himself.

“The neighborhood don’t believe in green,” he says. “You have to show it.” Neighborhood kids brought their families to investigate rumors of live chickens, and ended up joining Brock’s co-operative garden program that now includes Wise Words, where members can “reap the benefits of the Mid-City garden,” he says.

See the complete article here.

Wise Words Community Garden website here.

Mid-City Community Garden website here.

Photos by Lamiot

“Bruggen naar Rabot” is the name used to designate several rehabilitation projects in Gent (Belgium), opening up the development of a district considered the poorest in Flanders. In 2008-2009 a re-development of an abandoned neighbourhood, “Rabot-Blaisantvest”, was begun behind the courthouse. A large urban agriculture community garden was established which comprised of micro-plots raised above the ground on concrete slabs that had once supported the now destroyed Alcatel factory.

Larger photo here.

Today, these slabs protects the soil from the pollution in the underlying soil in the organic urban gardens. There is also a small area for livestock (poultry, rabbits) built by local residents as part of an art project. Many edible plants and flowers are grown by participants.

See more photos of the project here.

See larger image here.

See larger image here.

In San Diego, fertile ground for the seeds of understanding

At the New Roots Community Farm, refugees plow and share — and watch friendships sprout. It’s not just a source of food, but a connection to their homelands, their new country and one another.

By Anna Gorman
LA Times
January 15, 2010

Reporting from San Diego – A slight breeze carried the scents of onion, cilantro and mint through the roadside garden.

At plot No. 17, Bob Ou picked up a well-worn can and watered rows of radishes and Asian lettuce. At plot No. 33, Bilali Muya crouched down to pull weeds from beds of carrots and sweet chard. He spotted a bright red tomato in a nearby plant, grabbed it and took a bite.

“Your tomatoes are so huge,” Ou said, warning that he might steal one when he walked by.

Muya laughed as he licked the juice off his fingers. “Don’t touch my tomatoes, buddy!”

The two men, who have come from two war-torn corners of the world to this piece of land, call each other brothers. Strangers when the land was still just dirt, Ou and Muya grew close as they fought for permission to open the community garden and help turn the barren soil into a thriving farm. The New Roots Community Farm opened in September and has become a haven for more than 80 immigrant and refugee farmers who now have a source of food and a connection to their homelands, their new country and one another.

The story of the friendship between Ou and Muya is like the garden itself — slow to start, but once the seeds were planted, it was as if it had always been there. In some ways, the vegetables guided the way.

The garden was born out of conversations between a group of Somali Bantus and a refugee aid group, International Rescue Committee.

After a long day’s work (Photo by Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Somalian women walk home along busy 54th Street after spending the day working in their gardens at the New Roots Community Farm.

The refugees wanted to grow their own food. In America, budgets were tight and grocery stores overwhelming, so many of them abandoned fresh fruit and vegetables and instead ate fast food. The nonprofit staff, seeing high blood pressure and cholesterol among many refugees, wanted a way to encourage healthier eating and help clients put down roots in urban San Diego.

In 2006, the agency’s staff identified a location for the garden: a 2.3-acre vacant lot at 54th Street and Chollas Avenue in the City Heights neighborhood. They reached out to other immigrant groups, including the Cambodians, who had settled in large numbers in San Diego in the 1980s, said Amy Lint, a community development coordinator with the nonprofit. The land was owned by the city, so Lint had to get a lease and a permit, a process that would stretch out for more than two years.

During the process, Ou, from Cambodia, and Muya, from Somalia, raised funds, met with city officials and organized their communities. When they first saw each other at a meeting, Ou said he was curious about Muya but felt nervous about talking to him. Muya said he, too, was reluctant to get to know Ou but admired him for speaking up on behalf of his community.

See the complete article and more photos here.

The Garden of Happiness

By Erika Tamar (Author), Barbara Lambase (Illustrator)
Harcourt Children’s Books, 1996

From Publishers Weekly:

Tamar, the author of such tough-minded YA novels as Fair Game, turns dewy-eyed in her first picture book, an idealistic tale about a community garden in a rundown part of New York City. A studiously multiethnic coalition of neighbors claims an empty lot, and there Mrs. Willie Mae Washington plants black-eyed peas and greens “like on my daddy’s farm in Alabama”; Mr. Singh raises valore, as he did in Bangladesh; etc. Young Marisol, pining to grow something, too, plants a seed she finds on the sidewalk and waters it faithfully. She is ecstatic when a sunflower finally blossoms and then grief-stricken when, at the end of the season, it dies.

Overawed dialogue (”Los girasoles from Mexico, where they bring joy to the roadside,” says old Mrs. Garcia), exaggerated emotions and an unlikely happy ending turn this outing into a sort of urban Marisol of Sunnybrook Farm. Lambase, a debut illustrator, wisely interprets the goings-on as fantastic. Her exuberant oil paintings tweak perspectives to the extent that Marisol’s “flower of sunshine” reaches to a fifth-story window, and her warm palette bathes the characters in a protective golden light.

See more here at Google Books.

Celebrations As Bristol City Farm Is Saved By Hitting £50K Target

Bristol Evening News
December 21, 2009,

A city farm in Bedminster has been saved from closure thanks to the public, who have helped raise £50,000 in just five months.

The four-and-a-half-acre farm was started on derelict land in 1976 as a result of the demands of local people, and has grown to an attraction visited by 200,000 people every year.

Windmill Hill City Farm, which currently employs 80 people, is a registered charity, so there is no charge for entry, but every donation helps to keep the farm operating as a free community facility for the enjoyment of the public.

With an annual turnover of just below £1 million, the farm generates about 70 per cent of this, leaving 30 per cent to raise through other means each year.

Last year, the farm didn’t manage to raise the 30 per cent, and had no choice but to use its reserves.

Windmill Hill City Farm gives the public the opportunity to learn about farming and to become involved in the production of their food.

Animals on the farm include a variety of goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and poultry.

It is a working farm, with community garden plots and a wildlife conservation area. Organic fruit and vegetables are grown and supplied to the farm shop and cafe.

Schools take trips to the farm for guided tours, and the farm also offers hands-on activities for people with learning difficulties, as well as opportunities for trainees and volunteers.

The farm runs educational courses in partnership with the Workers’ Educational Association, including computer and photography courses, arts and crafts, and horticulture.

There is also a 50-place nursery and an adventure playground on site, and an all-weather sport pitch.

See the complete article here.

See the Windmill Hill City Farm website here.

By Mr. Brown Thumb of Chicago Garden
See more great urban agriculture stories by Mr. Brown Thumb by following the ‘reading more’ link.

Excerpt:

The last place you expect to see a vegetable garden is behind tall fences topped off with razor wire, but at the Cook County Jail there is a 13 thousand square-foot vegetable garden grown by inmates. This vegetable garden is a joint effort by The Cook County Sheriff’s Department of Community Supervision and Intervention and The University of Illinois Extension. The inmates who work the garden are non-violent offenders serving time under county sentencing guidelines for cases involving drugs or a DUI.

Mike Taff wrote this letter to the Brown Thumb blogger.

My name is Mike Taff and I have been the garden coordinator for the last 7 seasons. Seven years ago I volunteered to take over this garden not knowing anything about gardening. I attended the same classes in horticulture as the inmates do, I received my Master Gardeners certificate and have loved every minute.I will give you some short facts. All the food we harvest is donated to soup kitchens, homeless shelters and food pantries throughout Cook County.Since the inception of this garden back in 1993 we have donated over 52 tons of produce.The national recidivism rate is about 54%, The recidivism rate of inmates graduating from our garden program is 17%.Quite a savings of tax payers money. Every year we try to grow something extra ordinary. Last year it was peanuts this year it was giant pumpkins. As you shown in your video we do have a pumpkin that we believe will make it to 400 LBS.Today we broke ground for our new greenhouse. I believe it will be the first of its kind.The greenhouse will give us an opportunity to extend this program all year round.We hope to graduate double the amount we are doing. We also plan to package and sell what we grow to Chicago restaurateurs. Charlie Trotters has agreed to start purchasing our product next spring. Our goal is to make this program self sufficient and not use tax payers money.

See photos and article about the jail garden by Mr. Brown Thumb here.

More great posts by Mr. Brown Thumb in Chicago

An Uncommon Rooftop Farm in Chicago

To see Chicago’s first certified organic rooftop farm you’ll have to look up. This urban farm is situated on the roof of Uncommon Ground, 1401 W. Devon Ave.

You would think that with a 2,500-square foot organic rooftop farm to look after on a full-time basis Natalie wouldn’t want to spend her free time playing in the dirt. She lives on the second story of an apartment building just south of Wicker Park that has no garden, so she farms the two fire escapes outside her kitchen and bedroom windows.

Link to the organic rooftop farm story here.

Potager: French Kitchen Garden

When I asked Mayor Daley why Chicago didn’t place an emphasis on Victory Gardens, like the rest of the world did this year, he mentioned that we had one in Grant Park. Unless, I’m completely mistaken; he was talking about this garden. The kitchen garden in Grant Park, really a mini-farm, is a project by Growing Power, a national nonprofit organization and land trust that focuses on urban agriculture.

Link to the kitchen garden story here.

Hull-House Heirloom Urban Farm on UIC campus

Steps away from the Hull-House Museum and the Hull-House Soup Kitchen, where Re-Thinking Soup is held every Tuesday, an urban farm dedicated to growing heirloom crops for the soup kitchen grows.

Link to the heirloom urban farm story here.

Rick Bayless’ Urban Edible Garden

The garden, really more of a working urban farm, produces $20,000 worth of crops that are used in Mr. Bayless’ restaurants. To grow that much produce they spend $3,000 on seeds every year. The urban edible garden sits on three city lots in the Bucktown neighborhood, but the area used for agriculture is a pretty standard-sized backyard in Chicago, at least compared to the ones I’ve seen. Bill Shores takes advantage of the garden’s microclimates to plant lettuce three times a year. It gets planted pretty close to one of the houses that provides shade and cool surroundings during the summer heat.

Link to the edible garden story here.

Also see this Chicago networking group – Chicago Advocates for Urban Agriculture – here.

New Growth in Ledroit Park

by Amanda Abrams
DC NORTH
September 2009

Last year, when Common Good City Farm found out it had to leave its home on 7th Street, co-founder Liz Falk wasn’t sure where the project would wind up. Her feeler emails soliciting suggestions resulted in a response from someone she barely knew. “Call me,” it said.

Thirteen months later, the urban garden and education center is part of the redevelopment of Gage-Eckington School in Ledroit Park. Not simply a side project, the farm wound up being an integral element that kept the redevelopment plans moving forward.

When Falk sent out her email, she got lucky. Included on the list was Dana Bryson, whom farm staff knew from the Bloomingdale farmers’ market. Bryson, it turned out, was also heading up the Gage-Eckington working group for the Ledroit Park Civic Association, helping to decide how the school would be used after it closed for good at the end of the 2008 school year.

Neighbors’ hopes for the site were mixed: some wanted to see social services agencies filling the old school; others thought the building should be torn down and a park built in its place. But everyone agreed on a garden.

Falk, of course, said yes. “So we worked with them for 13 months, back and forth with the group and the mayor, about what they wanted the site to look like. It was a very long process,” she explained.

Jeff Herron, president of the civic association, was involved in negotiations all along. The planning process wasn’t a smooth one: stakeholders spent months seeking agencies and nonprofits to fill the old school, only to see those plans scrapped when the city determined it couldn’t afford the renovations. Changing direction, the groups finally decided the site would become a three-acre park, with areas for sports, dogs, and kids.

But the garden was crucial from the very beginning. “[Common Good] needed a place to move to and wanted to start preparing, so that drove us to get something done,” said Herron, adding that even when the initial plan was nixed, the garden proposal wasn’t touched. In October, Common Good moved to its new half-acre home.

On a recent afternoon, Falk was busy watering bean plants designed to improve the soil of the former baseball diamond they were growing on. Nearby was a spiral bed planted with eggplant, beets, and squash.

Falk says the Gage-Eckington site and residential neighborhood around it is a great fit for the farm. “Our kids’ program has grown at least threefold, and our workshops are always full.” The organization also just received unofficial notice that it will be awarded a USDA grant allowing Falk to finally begin paying her staff, so the mood at the farm is upbeat.

Sitting at a picnic table eating tomatoes from the garden were three program participants who live nearby: Norman Bethea, 13; Tim Mamadou, 12; and Greg Malone, 10. All three said they’d continue helping out at the farm when school started again, and they all agreed watering was the best task. Why? “You’re creating new life,” said Norman.

Article here.

Visit Common Good City Farm website here.

Battling the Chef Menteur Landfill

By Kari Lydersen
Colorlines
December 9, 2009

Tung Duc Tran’s backyard is a lush tangle of life. On a steamy New Orleans summer day, Tran, 80, leaves the cool of his small home to stroll under the trellises hung with bitter melons and fuzzy squash shading an assortment of carefully tended crops. The garden consumes the modest yard sloping down to the Maxent Lagoon, a canal whose waters are nearly obscured by an explosion of aquatic vegetation laced with a few old tires and other trash.

Like many elderly Vietnamese American people in the close-knit Versailles neighborhood on New Orleans’ east side, Tran grows his own vegetables to eat and share with friends and neighbors. But in recent years he has felt less confident consuming his produce, because he fears contamination from the lagoon that often spills over onto his land, and in the soil itself, which was swamped by the toxic floodwaters of Katrina four years ago.

Urban farming was key to helping the Vietnamese American community of about 20,000 become among the first to return to flood-ravaged homes and restart their lives after Katrina, with little assistance from government officials. They immediately planted small gardens, even outside FEMA trailers housed on a large vacant lot before moving back into their own homes. It took many months for a grocery store to reopen anywhere nearby, but urban farming provided them sustenance along with a sense of calm and cultural connection in trying times.

Now, because of fears of lasting contamination in the soil and the canals that crisscross the area, community leaders want to open a 20-acre urban farm where they can make sure the soil is safe and create a stable social environment for the mostly elderly farmers. The plan is spearheaded by Father Vien Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church, and the affiliated Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation (MQVCDC). They have worked with urban planners and architects from around the country and raised considerable grant money to develop a plan that includes a new venue for the popular Saturday market, community gathering spots, free-range livestock, aquaculture and individual plots for about 100 farmers.

See the complete article here.

Gardens ripe with tales of Albany – Urban community plots are a fertile ground for diverse crops and a variety of people

By PAUL GRONDAHL
Times Union
August 23, 2009

ALBANY — Dressed in his formal chef’s whites, Noah Sheetz, Gov. David Paterson’s executive chef, ambled across Eagle Street from the Executive Mansion and picked his way through the bounty of the community garden that borders Lincoln Park.

From neatly ordered, weed-free rows in a corner plot he tends, Sheetz yanked up a fistful of ruby beets the size of baseballs and sliced off a head of broccoli as wide as his palm.
“This has worked out really well and it’s great to learn from the other gardeners,” said Sheetz, a Culinary Institute of America graduate with solid restaurant credentials.

As Sheetz commiserated about tomato blight and an influx of pesky beetles, gardener Euthia Benson, who grew up in the Deep South, told a story about how her mother taught her to grow tasty okra when she was a young girl.

“If her okra plants weren’t producing well, she’d show me how to come along with a switch,” Benson explained, pantomiming a tap-tap-tap on the plant’s stalks with a slender stick. “She’d hit the okra and talk to the plants. I swear they grew bigger.”

If you want to hear human tales and discover the essence of “The Story of Albany,” spend some time between verdant rows of cabbage and cucumbers, collard greens and carrots, strawberries and Swiss chard.

Or, as we did, you can loan a few digital cameras to staffers with Capital District Community Gardens and encourage them to document the vitality and love evident in the faces of the people who tend the 46 community gardens across Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties.

Community gardens are an urban oasis, a window that opens onto a cultural melting pot. All that’s required is a bit of labor and a yearly donation of $20.

Here, you’ll find Jamaicans raising callalo, a leafy green vegetable used in Caribbean stews and soups. Burmese refugees who managed to escape their embattled homeland with a pocketful of seeds coax vegetables nobody has seen before from the soil. Gardeners from India grow varieties of beans as long as the span of one’s arms.

In these inner-city acres, rich and poor, white and black, young and old and people spanning the social, economic and ethnic spectrum mingle and create a community that is something of a surrogate family. Over the years, the community gardens have been the site of weddings, at least one funeral and fertile ground that has spawned countless romances and lifelong friendships.

“What happens in a community garden is very special,” said executive director Amy Klein.

The experiment started in Troy in 1975 with Dean Leith, who joined Garden Way executives and a loan of Troy-Bilt rototillers to give urban dwellers the tools and land necessary to grow vegetables.

In the late 1970s, Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd heard of the gardens in Troy and imported the idea to Albany. Schenectady joined in, too.

About 3,000 gardeners currently participate, some of whom have tended their plots for decades. As a response to tainted food scares and the economic recession, the number of new applicants doubled this year and a usual 500-square-foot plot had to be trimmed in half for newcomers to meet the demand.

See the rest of the story here.

You can find out more about Capital District Community Gardens, gardens and other programs including The Veggie Mobile (a mobile produce market making fresh fruits and veggies affordable and accessible to inner-city residents) and The Produce Project (a youth powered urban farm in the heart of Troy) here.

Birmingham’s Jones Valley Urban Farm – Making a Difference

By Mary Christiansen
Tannehill Trader
Publication of Eagle Media
August 12th, 2009

Urban farming is on the rise along with an interest in making food choices that enrich individuals and communities. Birmingham’s Jones Valley Urban Farm is a shining example of this movement that is reconnecting people with food. VUF, a non-profit community-based organization, not only grows organic produce and flowers, but offers a wide variety of programs that teach youth and communities about sustainable agriculture and nutrition.

Over 5 acres of vacant downtown property, along with a 25 acre farm at Mt Laurel, have been transformed into community gardens that grow organic produce that is sold at local farmers markets, restaurants, grocery stores and food stands.

Their Food Box Program offers low-cost subscriptions for a weekly family size box with a variety of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, long with a newsletter and healthy recipes. The After Work Farm Stand, located at 701 25th Street North, is open Monday thru Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m., during the months of May – October. During these same months, JVUF also sells their produce and flowers at Pepper Place Farmers Market and Mt Laurel Farmers Market on Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. until noon. The East Avondale garden and the Gardens of Park Place have 50 households participating in farming with JVUF assistance in this community enriching endeavor.

These ventures fund JVUF’s community educational programs. Programs targeting youth include pre-school gardening, a nutritional education program for elementary schools, a state-accredited agri-science course for high school students, and internships for college students. Among the offerings for the general public are organic gardening classes, food and nutrition education, along with a series that teaches about community gardening.

On a recent visit to the JVUF booth at Pepper Place, I spoke with Intern Katie Willis, a student at Millbury College in Vermont. When I asked her what difference JVUF has made in her life, she did not hesitate in saying she wishes to be a farmer. It has made a difference in the way she lives her life and in the way she views and selects food. I found this very impressive, as was the colorful selection of vegetables, herbs and flowers from which I purchased some excellent tomatoes and cucumbers.

According to JFUF Executive Director Edwin Marty, “We started Jones Valley Urban Farm as a way to start changing Birmingham’s long list of liabilities into a glowing list of assets. The vacant land all over Birmingham could be the very earth that feeds the people that aren’t getting enough fresh fruits and vegetables. And it could give those same people jobs and a way to make an honest living. Imagine if Birmingham grew 50% of all its own food! There would be no vacant lots left to gather trash. People would be working the land again and feeding themselves. There’s nothing stopping us now. We just have to do it.”

From giving inner-city youth an opportunity to connect with nature and learn about good nutrition, to providing delicious, fresh produce to the general public, JVUF is indeed making a difference in the Birmingham area. A difference that just keeps growing. To learn more about programs, events and how you can get involved with JVUF, visit their web site at www.jvuf.org or call (205) 439-7213.

See Mary Christiansen’s article here.

See Jones Valley Urban Farm website here.