“The community was ready for a garden like this. It was just the right idea at the right time.”

By Michelle Pak,
NRCS Idaho
January 23, 2012

Excerpt:

Eric Moore had a vision to grow a garden outside his office window. Moore, an employee of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Idaho, works at the USDA Service Center in Gooding.

For years, the back part of the Service Center property was vacant and covered in weeds. Looking at that weed patch always bothered Moore. So he was excited when he got permission from the landlord to start a garden there last year.

Many partners pitched in to help create the Gooding Community Garden. The city provided water. Glanbia, a local cheese manufacturer, provided funds. Boy Scouts built wheelchair-accessible raised beds, and local farmers plowed the fields and helped install irrigation. The University of Idaho donated a shed.

In one year of operation the garden provided 6,000 pounds of food to homebound seniors, local soup kitchens and food pantries. In addition, 17 families enjoyed free garden plots to feed their families.

Read the complete article here.

“People are starting to see land reuse as a new approach to neighborhood revitalization in post-industrial cities,”

By Lee Chilcote
Hive City Media
January 15, 2012

Excerpt:

Since Lots of Green launched in the summer of 2010, the program has reclaimed more than 150 urban lots (about 17 acres of city land). Some completed projects include community gardens, side yard expansions, pocket parks, a storm water mitigation demonstration site, a block-long soil research site and a 2.5 acre urban farm.

“We now have five community gardens with over 100 registered gardeners,” Presley says. “We’re igniting innovative projects and empowering residents to get involved.”

To assist residents with implementing their projects, YNDC offers small grants ranging from $500 to $10,000 as well as hands-on technical assistance. The group has also published a how-to guide for residents, including tips on tracking down evasive property owners, a list of micro-loan programs and examples of creative reuse. YNDC has also created a catalogue of successful projects and a photo bank to share with residents.

To build on its successful Lots of Green program, YNDC has also initiated a program to acquire, rehabilitate and sell foreclosed homes. Using funds from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, part of the federal stimulus program, YNDC has renovated five homes, three of which are sold. The homes typically sell for under $50,000; down payment assistance and homeownership counseling are offered to buyers.

Read the complete article here.

Helps to Feed 200,000 People Every Month

By John Cueler
growingyourgreens
Jan 6, 2012

From Irvine Wiki:

The Incredible Edible Park a 7.5 acre community garden in Irvine and is located at 15058 Harvard Ave Irvine, CA, next to the meeting of Harvard Avenue and the Walnut Trail and Metrolink. Southern California Edison has an easement on the land and after years of being empty and overgrown with weeds it was decided to transform the area into a park.

The Incredible Edible Park is one of the last vestiges of agriculture in Irvine and features beans, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, oranges, potatoes and squash just to name a few. The crops grown and maintained by the community six days a week and up to 1,2000 volunteers a year. It is subsequently donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County to help feed thousands of hungry families.

The Incredible Edible Park is frequently referenced as an unique solution to several problems. Not only does the park provide food for disadvantaged families but it provides open space for the community, preserves a portion of Irvine’s agricultural history educates local children, and saves weed abatement costs on behalf of the city.

Sponsors and supporters include the City of Irvine, Southern California Edison, the Irvine Ranch Water District, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, Windwood Homeowners Associations, Orange County Farm Community and El Camino Real Elementary. Additional volunteers are always encouraged to contact the Second Harvest Food Bank.

The most expensive place in the country to rent an allotment is Runnymede, in Berkshire, which has increased rents from 34p a square metre in 2008 to 55p in 2011.

Royal Horticultural Society
19 December 2011

Excerpt:

Allotment rents fluctuate wildly across the country, with plot holders in Surrey paying more than 50 times as much for their plot as those in Derbyshire, according to a survey of allotment provision carried out by the University of Leicester.

Researchers found rents have gone up by an average of 21% in the last three years, and confirmed that allotment waiting lists remain high, at 86,787, although this is a drop from the previous figure of 94,124 in 2010.

‘We see this as the first step in opening up allotment data and making it freely available,’ said researcher Dr Farida Vis. ‘As allotments are such a highly valued resource we feel that accurate and open data has the potential to deliver far-reaching societal benefits.’

The team asked 216 councils across England to answer questions about rents, water charges, changes to tenancy agreements and discounts offered.

Read the complete article here.

Contents – Instructions, cress seeds and waterproof tray
Materials – FSC Paperboard and APET tray

Escape to your allotment without ever leaving your desk and harvest your own crop in a matter of weeks (no wellies required!). Gardening is great for the soul and tending your own tiny patch will be rewarding and therapeutic.

Our allotment pop up PostCarden will brighten any desktop, windowsill or sideboard. It is enjoyable for all ages all year round. Once opened and unfolded into its garden plot, simply sow the enclosed seeds and add water. In a few days your card will start to grow and will keep for 2 – 3 weeks.

See it here.

See larger format of the film here.

4o minute film

Director/Producer: Ella von der Haide
Produced in 2006 – Germany

Synopsis:

Community gardens are widespread in South Africa. Traditional methods and innovative technologies are being used to grow organic food and create communities. The community gardens are places of hope, solidarity, and sometimes of active resistance against official neo-liberal politics. The four examples from the film show three outstanding projects: Women Peace Garden in the Cape Flats,

Green House Project (an eco-technological demonstration centre that includes 2000-square-meter community garden in the centre of Johannesburg), Taifun Park (a self-organized community park in Soweto), Itsoseng Women’s Project (a big self-organized productive community garden in Orange Farm that is involved in interesting political projects).

See larger format of the film here.

See more about Ella here.

By Patricia A. Carney, Janet L. Hamada, Rebecca Rdesinski, Lorena Sprager, Katelyn R. Nichols, Betty Y. Liu, Joel Pelayo, Maria Antonia Sanchez and Jacklien Shannon
Journal of Community Health
Published online Dec 23, 2011

Abstract

This community-based participatory research project used popular education techniques to support and educate Hispanic farmworker families in planting and maintaining organic gardens. Measures included a pre- post gardening survey, key informant interviews and observations made at community-based gardening meetings to assess food security, safety and family relationships. Thirty-eight families enrolled in the study during the pre-garden time period, and four more families enrolled in the study during the post-garden period, for a total of 42 families enrolled in the 2009 gardening season. Of the families enrolled during the pre-gardening time period there were 163 household members. The mean age of the interviewee was 44.0, ranging from 21 to 78 years of age.

The median number of occupants in a household was 4.0 (range: 2–8), Frequency of adult vegetable intake of “Several time a day” increased from 18.2 to 84.8%, (P < 0.001) and frequency of children’s vegetable intake of “Several time a day” increased from 24.0 to 64.0%, (P = 0.003). Before the gardening season, the sum of the frequencies of “Sometimes” and “Frequently” worrying in the past month that food would run out before money was available to buy more was 31.2% and the sum of these frequencies dropped to 3.1% during the post garden period, (P = 0.006). The frequency of skipping meals due to lack of money was not statistically significantly different before and after the gardening season for either adults or children.

Analysis of text responses and key informant interviews revealed that physical and mental health benefits were reported as well as economic and family health benefits from the gardening study, primarily because the families often worked in their gardens together. A community gardening program can reduce food insecurity, improve dietary intake and strengthen family relationships.

Read the complete paper here at a cost of $34.95. (Cheaper to read it at your library.)

Gardeners from Seattle, Wash. made compost from a million flowers that had been left at a vigil for those who died on 9/11 and transported the compost to Battery Park City

By Terese Loeb Kreuzer
Downtown Express
June 15, 2011|

Excerpt:

Luck was not always on the side of the gardeners, however. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, the garden, which was then south of its present site, was knee-deep in debris. A newspaper account of that time quoted McCormack as saying, “I came out to look at my garden and everything was coated with three to four inches of gray dust.”

The plots closest to the World Trade Center were completely destroyed. A more southerly section was salvaged. Gardeners from the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy removed ash from the plants by hand.

Compost was needed but composting supplies had been decimated. In a gesture that is still remembered by the Battery Park City gardeners with great emotion, gardeners from Seattle, Wash. made compost from a million flowers that had been left at a vigil for those who died on 9/11 and transported the compost to Battery Park City. In September 2002, the Liberty Community Garden was rededicated with two Seattle City Council members in attendance along with gardeners from both cities.

Read the complete article here.

“If everyone is responsible for the same communal space, it makes everyone feel safe and we can inspire and encourage each other to take steps towards more sustainable living.”

By Liam Sloan
The Oxford Times
30th November 2011

Excerpt:

Neighbours in East Oxford are being urged to tear down their fences and join their back gardens together to create a communal park.

Six people have been working with Green city councillor Matt Morton to draw up a masterplan for the block of 97 houses on the block surrounded by Hurst Street, Bullingdon Road, St Mary’s Road and Leopold Street.

They believe that if neighbours pool their land to create a single growing area, it could provide fruit, vegetables, eggs, and honey for every household.

Under their plans, householders would keep a small stretch of private garden behind their homes, but the majority of their garden would become part of a landscaped open area used for growing produce.

The group estimate that if the 18,000 sq m area behind the houses is tended collectively, it could produce 15kg of orchard fruit and 21kg of soft fruit per household, plus 40 per cent of seasonal vegetables for every home.

Read the complete article here.

Farming Concrete NYC Informational Video from Valerie & Schenkman on Vimeo.

2010 data from NYC, 67 community gardens, 1.7 acres, 87,700 pounds of fresh produce, worth more than $200,000

Open Space Newsletter
Sept 23, 2011

Excerpt:

In 2010, a team of volunteers from Farming Concrete traveled to community gardens around the city, conducting outreach and recruiting city gardeners to participate in the study. Over the summer and fall growing seasons, 110 gardeners weighed all of their produce, mapped their garden beds and counted the total numbers of the crops that they planted. After analyzing the results, Farming Concrete found that in the 67 community gardens from which data was gathered, which make up a total area of just 1.7 acres, 87,700 pounds of fresh produce was grown and worth more than $200,000.

Although Farming Concrete compiled more than just numbers—anecdotes about the gardens’ communities and traditions emerged from the research as well—its study’s quantifiable data provides tangible evidence of the importance of community gardens to the city. Knowledge of their monetary value helps to legitimize community gardens as a form of public land use, which may help gardens threatened by land tenure conflicts to survive. The data that Farming Concrete gathers will be a resource for developing policies on urban agriculture, and may in fact spur on the creation of even more community gardens.

In Crop Count 2011, Farming Concrete hopes to expand its citizen-science research by mapping and inventorying even more of New York City’s gardens. This year it has expanded to include school gardens in its study. Gittleman is measuring success through participation in the research, and from the wide range of gardens throughout the city that are participating in the project, she sees that Farming Concrete is growing.

Read the complete article here.

See Farming Concrete here.

Allotments listed on Landshare

Landshare
2nd September 2011

Excerpt:

Over 20 National Trust properties are now running allotments or community gardens or orchards on their sites, many of which are stunning historic properties with incredible views as well as great growing soil. At Kingston Lacy in Dorset a set of 118 new allotments have been established. There are 40 allotments for members of the local community; 26 for school and community groups and a further 52 subsidised plots for individuals referred through local housing associations.

The plots lie between the formal gardens and Home Farm in an area formerly used as the kitchen garden and never before open to the public. There is also an area of raised beds for special needs groups and wheelchair-users, and the team hope to recreate an orchard and pond at one side of the garden.

Read the complete article here.

The National Trust allotments here.

“Our main focus was to make sure that food was accessible to our community at reasonable prices.”

By Clifton Joseph
with photography by David Trattles
Canadian Geographic
Oct 2011

Excerpt:

Jamaican-born single mother Janet Young and her teenage daughter Andrene are working opposite ends of their plot. Andrene has gloves on and is pulling out weeds from around the tomatoes, while Janet is disentangling big leafy green vines from some of the other plants. “Steups!” she hisses, kissing her teeth. “I gotta tell you, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never plant the zucchini next to the callaloo or the peppers, because it takes so much space that it overpowers anything else that’s too close to it. You’ve got to give the zucchini space!

“But my plot was very successful,” she continues. “I planted callaloo, zucchini, cabbage, chili peppers, Scotch bonnet peppers, tomatoes, thyme, collard greens, broccoli and onions. It’s fresh, all-natural organic stuff; no pesticides or anything like that. It tastes better than what you get at the supermarkets.”

The plot next to the Youngs’ blooming bed is brimming with hot chili peppers, eggplant, bitter melons, mint, okra and more. It belongs to Pakistani immigrants Qamar Sadiq and Muhammad Vaseer and their three daughters Javaria, Sadaf and Marriam.

“I always bring my daughters when I come here to work,” says Sadiq, “because I want them to know that they can grow some of their own foods.” Sadiq speaks quietly, with humility, but also with some glee, about her veggie bounty. “It’s not so much economics, because the batches are tiny, but the vegetables are so crisp and so tasty. I make mint chutney, I cook an eggplant dish that’s fried in chickpea flour and my husband makes his salsa every day with fresh chili.”

Read the complete article here.

The Bronx currently has about 175 community gardens administered by Operation Green Thumb, as well as a number of community gardens operated by nonprofit entities, such as the Parks Council, and community gardens on private property.

By Michelle M. Althaus Ottman, Dr. Juliana A. Maantay, Kristen Grady, Nério Cardoso, and Nilce Nazareno da Fonte
Cities Environ.
2010 March 5

Excerpt:

Results: For the Community Gardens that have been visited so far in the Bronx (n=19): 53% of them grow predominantly vegetables, 32% cultivate mainly flowers, 11% grow flowers and vegetables in approximately the same amounts, and 5% have mostly trees in the garden. Just two of the 19 Community Gardens visited sell their produce in farmers markets located in the community. Most of the 32 gardeners interviewed (62%) share out less than half of their harvest, and 31% of the interviewed gardeners shared more than half.

Usually they share with friends, neighbors, people from community or other members of the garden. When asked about the benefits they have in their lives by participating in urban agriculture in the Community Gardens, 96% of the gardeners answered “stay closer to the family,” “neighborhood beautification,” and “family health,”. The gardeners’ perception about how the Community Gardens have improved their quality-of-life is very positive, indicating that they use the garden for many purposes: growing food, enjoying nature, and active recreation. When they were asked about the challenges they are facing to keep the gardens viable, most of them answered that they have problems with maintaining the volunteers, vandalism and the constant threat of potential eviction from the garden by the City. The lack of secure tenure and long-term protection of many Community Gardens was also pointed as a problem by Tanaka and Krasny (2004) in a study about the Latino Community Gardens in NY.

Read the complete paper here.

They announced they had amassed 25,000 signatures

By Monique Beaudin,
Montreal Gazette Environment Reporter
November 15, 2011

MONTREAL – A coalition of 50 organizations has made history in Montreal by collecting the required 15,000 signatures on a petition to force the city to hold public hearings on the state of urban agriculture here.

Members of environmental, gardening and social groups spent the last three months gathering the signatures from Montreal residents. On Tuesday, they announced they had amassed 25,000 signatures.

“This shows the interest that Montrealers have in urban agriculture,” said Marie-Eve Chaume, a spokesperson for the Groupe de travail en agriculture urbaine, which organized the signing drive.

“We would like the consultations to happen as quickly as possible.”

Link here.

Tuscany’s first plot made into gathering place

By Tony Seskus
Calgary Herald
October 12, 2011

Excerpt:

It’s part of a blossoming trend. In 2008, there were 11 public and private community gardens in the city.

By last May, there were more than 100 – a surge driven by residents at the grassroots. Now, gardens can be found throughout Calgary, in the core, inner city or the ‘burbs.

“Traditionally, people do move to the suburbs because they’ve got families, they want a yard, but then I think they’re also craving that sense of community,” says Harpreet Sandhu, vicepresident of the Tuscany Community Association.

In some ways, Calgary is rediscovering its gardening roots. The city has a long history of community gardens, with the oldest located in Bridgeland.

Read the complete article here.

By Irma Widjojo
Times Herald
10/02/2011

Excerpt:

With three Vallejo areas deemed food deserts, a child obesity rate of 32.8 percent, and an abundance of vacant lots, many Vallejoans agree that the city needs healthful food options.

A few residents have chosen community gardens to kill two birds with one stone: Use the vacant lots productively and produce healthier food for the community. However, the city of Vallejo has no ordinances for such ventures, a fact that has proven problematic.

A city council member has planted the seeds to address the lack of guidance for city officials, but garden organizers are tilling the soil in the meantime. Coincidentally, the community gardens are emerging at about the same time the federal government recently deemed that three South Vallejo areas are “food deserts” because their residents live more than a mile from a supermarket.

Read the complete article here.

One can hear 15 different languages there, amid the neat rows of kale, rape and banana plants — but body language is the lingua franca.

By Patricia Leigh Brown
New York Times
October 9, 2011

Excerpt:

Among the regular customers at the New Roots farm stand are Congolese women in flowing dresses, Somali Muslims in headscarves, Latino men wearing broad-brimmed hats and Burundian mothers in brightly patterned textiles who walk home balancing boxes of produce on their heads.

New Roots, with 85 growers from 12 countries, is one of more than 50 community farms dedicated to refugee agriculture, an entrepreneurial movement spreading across the country. American agriculture has historically been forged by newcomers, like the Scandinavians who helped settle the Great Plains; today’s growers are more likely to be rural subsistence farmers from Africa and Asia, resettled in and around cities from New York, Burlington, Vt., and Lowell, Mass., to Minneapolis, Phoenix and San Diego.

Read the complete article here.

Turning empty lots into inner-city veggie patches yields a harvest of goodwill in Prince George, British Columba

By Josh Massey
TheTyee.ca
Oct 10, 2011

Excerpt:

“We can grow lots right here in Prince George, while some species do better in other communities like Quesnel. I imagine a bartering system where we are exchanging produce between communities.”

One section of the Growing Community Gardens is dedicated to testing different strains of kale to see which fair best in the colder climate.

“There were little kids and seniors and everything in between,” Green says of a recent cooking workshop held at the gardens. “Almost everyone who is a plot user lives within three blocks. If your garden is close, it’s an easy trip and there is sense of ownership and connection.”

One inner-city gardener is raising her grandchildren by herself, and the free gardening space is a way for her to put affordable vegetables on the table.

Read the complete article here.

“I don’t want to give up on this project just because of the thefts,” Beltran-Figueroa said.

Indianapolis (WlS)
The Associated Press
10/7/11

Excerpt:

However, some larger community plots like Grassroots’ have seen their peppers purloined and are wondering how to stop it.

“Thefts and vandalism are huge,” declared Kay Crimm of Grow Me gardens. Last year, her group had a three-acre site near 46th Street and Arlington Avenue. It was plundered so badly that the gardeners left the site and moved to a plot at 46th Street and Post Road, she said, but it has “been ripped up, too.”

The garden coordinators said veggie thieves are brazen, making their raids both at night and in broad daylight.

Beltran-Figueroa said “private property” signs did not stop the thefts recently.

Read the complete article here.

By Anne Miller
Mansfield News Journal
Oct 4, 2011

Excerpt:

It’s part of a national effort to provide green space in urban areas allowing residents to grow their own food or donate what they have grown.

“Next year’s garden here at the Mansfield Area Y should be even better,” said Jolee Hill, who coordinated volunteers to care for the vegetable garden on the building’s south side, just a few hundred yards off busy Lexington Avenue.

Old timers who took part in the Y garden project likened it to the victory gardens prevalent during World War II.

Read the complete article here.