Category — Community Gardens

Linking the 1931 Thrift Gardens with the 1894 Potato Patch Plan through Mrs. Hazel Pingree Depew, the former Mayor’s daughter

Mayor Frank Murphy – the Detroit Years
By Sidney Fine
1984 Vol 3

Excerpt:

The outstanding popular success of the Mayor’s Unemployment Committee (MUC) and, in the opinion of the mayor, “perhaps” its “most important undertaking,” was the Detroit thrift-garden program. The suggestion that the MUC undertake this activity came from Murphy himself, who had been reading George Catlin’s The Story of Detroit and had been impressed with the account of Hazen Pingree’s famous “potato patch plan” and the manner in which a substantial number of welfare families in Detroit during the depression years 1894-1896 had grown a portion of their food on vacant lots donated to the city for that purpose. The MUC decided in March, 1931, to undertake a similar program of “vacant lot gardening.”

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Photo by Chris Steele-Perkins, 1999

Detroit Mayor Hazen S. Pingree

From Reform in Detroit – Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics
By Melvin G. Holli
1969

Excerpt Page 70:

During the second summer of the depression (1894) Pingree launched his “potato patch plan,” which, as a work relief measure, has been described as one of the original contributions of the nineties. The Mayor’s scheme envisioned the cultivation of vacant lots by the city’s unfortunate, who were, in many cases, but a few years removed from a peasant agricultural economy of Europe. Since Detroit’s poor commission was near insolvency and the city treasury almost empty, Pingree called upon the churches to contribute funds for the purchase of ploes, implements, and seed. “the Mayor proposes to find out if those elegant churches are only for show or for doing some real good,” a Pingree aide told a reporter.

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A Food Revolution – Urban Communities Growing Fresh Food

November 24, 2009

Fresh vegetables and fruit can be hard to find in the inner cities, but one man is trying to change that.

Photo by Jared Braiterman PhD

Reported by Jared Braiterman PhD
in Tokyo Green

I visited Odakyu’s Agris Seijo rental farm in Seijogakuenmae in Setagaya and was prepared to be charmed by a community vegetable farm built by a rail company above their tracks. Three years ago, the Odakyu corporation rebuilt the station, undergrounded the railway, and used some of the new land to promote urban farming. But I left feeling somewhat strange that reclaimed land could be gated and restricted. Although it is the rail company’s property, I think they missed a huge opportunity to create a great space for the neighborhood.

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See larger image of the Farm plan here.

By sydneycityfarm
18th November 2009

Sydney siders are one step closer to having a City Farm and Sustainable Living Centre with the unanimous support of the City of Sydney Environment & Heritage Committee to fund an investigation into potential sites and models.

City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore spoke in support of the proposal which goes before a full sitting of Council on Monday November 23.

“City Farms provide real, hands-on experiences to teach residents, businesses and schools about sustainable living. City Farms demonstrate the simple ways that everyone can Live Green and give the community access to local organic produce.”

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“Sow and Grow” poster, Cleveland Public Schools Horticulture program.

Feeding Cleveland: Urban Agriculture

Cleveland State University Libraries presents The Cleveland Memory Project

A recurring theme in 20th century Cleveland that continues to the present day is that during difficult economic periods communities of people have come together to  raise food crops on city land. The working men’s farms during the Great Depression, the victory gardens during World War II, community gardens established during the years of urban renewal, and the present day market gardeners of the local food movement, all provide examples of revivals of urban agriculture as a response to economic difficulties. 

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Growing Home is committed to bring fresh food to Chicago’s South Side.

“Englewood, where our Wood Street Urban Farm is located, was once a flourishing Chicago neighborhood. It has suffered from decades of neglect and the flight of about 50% of its population since the early 1960’s. This dismal cycle of decline in Englewood can be seen in the vacant buildings and sparse population that have allowed drug trafficking and other criminal activity to grow. As gangs protected their territories, violence increased and youth became at risk of either gang assaults or gang recruitment.

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Brixton urban agriculture. More photos here.

Growing Round the Houses – Food production on housing estates

By Ben Reynolds and Christine Haigh
2008

Rising food prices and increased interest in healthy food, means more people are looking to grow their own. Growing Round the Houses, a briefing paper by Ben Reynolds of Sustain and Christine Haigh of Women’s Environmental Network, explains how social housing providers and their tenants can work together on their estates to grow food. As well giving advice on how to set up a food growing project on their estate, it describes examples such as the Spitalfields Estate Community Garden, where residents worked together to build themselves a food growing space for vegetables and herbs popular with the local ethnic minority community.

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The Organic Gardens at Manatawna Farm in early spring.

Community Gardening in Philadelphia – 2008 Harvest Report

Domenic Vitiello and Michael Nairn
Penn Planning and Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania
October 2009

Overview

This report summarizes research on the state of community and squatter gardens in Philadelphia, with a focus on the production and distribution of food. The specific aims of this project were to measure the amount of food grown in community gardens and to trace its distribution. The broader goal of this ongoing research is to understand the roles and impacts of community gardens in building food security for households and communities.

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Photo by ARLEN REDEKOP — The Province. James Oickle was attracted to the Hastings Folk Garden near Columbia Street. “I didn’t think I had a healing process I needed, but it did become that,’ he says.

Garden gets green thumbs up – Passers-by call out, ‘Good job!’ says its creator

BY ELAINE O’CONNOR
The Province
3 Nov 2009

It’s not hard to turn urban wasteland into urban farmland. You just have to plant the seed. PHS Community Services Society’s Peter LaGrand planted that seed in late 2007 when he had the idea of turning an abandoned lot owned by Concord Pacific into a vegetable garden for the residents of the Downtown Eastside.

Since then, the Hastings Folk Garden on Hastings Street near Columbia has grown into a gathering space for green thumbs.

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Photo by Andre van Wyk/allAfrica

South Africa: Urban Subsistence Farmers Spread Wings

All Africa
30 October 2009

Cape Town — A project which began as an effort to empower citizens of Cape Town’s poorest neighbourhoods to grow their own food has mushroomed into a scheme for selling vegetables for the city’s wealthier residents.

When AllAfrica first visited the project, operated under the banner Abalimi Bezekhaya (’Planters of the Home’), nearly two years ago, its focus was on urban woman farmers practicing subsistence agriculture.

But when our reporters returned this week to one of the food gardens in the low-income suburbs spread around the edges of the city, tell-tale white markers were testimony to what community organizer Rob Small called “a big step forward.”

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Photo by Michael Levenston

Farm brings dirt without hurt to gritty Eastside

By CTV British Columbia’s Peter Grainger
Sat Oct. 31 2009

A pilot farming project in Canada’s poorest area code is bringing dirt – without the hurt – to Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside.

Volunteers worked tirelessly Saturday to build a community garden. Although urban community gardens are becoming common sights across Metro Vancouver, the East Hastings Street location is quite different because it will be a fully functional farm once completed.

“They’ll be growing vegetables that will be sold to restaurants and the like in the Downtown Eastside,” Projects in Place Society’s Bryce Gauthier told CTV News.

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Berlin. An oasis in the middle of the city: All over the country — whether on the outskirts of cities or in otherwise hard-to-use spaces, such as next to train tracks — you will find little garden plots, known as Schrebergarten, which can be rented from cities for a few hundred euros per year. By Verlag W. Wächter / Brigitte Einführ

Urban Farming Under Threat
Popular Mini-Gardens in Berlin May Soon Be Paved Over

By Christian Schwägerl
Spiegel Online
Oct 15, 2009

Tiny urban gardens are everywhere in Berlin and they have been for decades. But now, the city government is threatening to level many of them to make way for new construction. A battle is looming.

Berlin prides itself on being in the vanguard of a number of trends — and it might have found itself another one. In this case, it’s what climate experts and city planners call “urban farming.” Many see the drive to produce foodstuffs within cities — rather than carting them in from far away — as the farming of the future.

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Mr Rotervator by Chris Cyrus.

Chris Cyprus
Born April 1971, Gorton, Manchester.

“I read somewhere recently that digging potatoes is like unearthing buried treasure and the excitement of watching your own vegetables grow brings the child spirit out of us.

“This is similar to the thrill of opening new tubes of paint, and starting a fresh canvas and not really knowing what the finished product will become. After your last crop before winter sets in, there is the exciting process of planning what to do with next years crop, and where you are going to plant it.

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Midmar Drive Allotments by Sandy Gemmill
Larger image here.

By Jake Butcher
This research was conducted as part of an Ecology (conservation and management) dissertation at the University of Edinburgh.
16,000 word dissertation. Complete paper on-line. Link on next page.

Summary

A recent increase in urban food production has been stimulated by both the recognised advantages which it brings in terms of health, recreation and urban sustainability and by the solution which it represents to the many problems associated with the globalisation of the food system, urbanisation and increasingly intensified agriculture.

The City of Edinburgh has experienced not only a growth in the number and diversity of urban food growing projects over recent years but also a rise in waste, carbon emissions and both human and environmental health problems.

This study aimed to address these problems by assessing current food production and subsequently quantifying the room for expansion of food growing in the city. Case studies were conducted detailing information on 16 different food production projects within the City.

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Costa’s Garden Odyssey

Six episodes of Season One are now on-line in brilliant colour. See what’s happening in the city of Melbourne. You must see these shows! (Mike)

Examples of stories from the show:

Collingwood is an inner city suburb of Melbourne and it’s the home of the Collingwood Children’s Farm, a special place where children enjoy the opportunity to have some “hands on” experience with farm animals. It’s also a community garden where Costa meets people like 70-year-old Harry Haralambos who grows wonderful produce for his entire family here as well as Joy McGaffrey who introduces Costa to the taste of “Worm Juice”.

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1900-1914
Elizabeth Peabody House
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Children gardening in the community vegetable garden at the corner of Charles and Poplar Street, near the Elizabeth Peabody House in Boston’s West End neighborhood.

Five more wonderful photos of the children on the next page.

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The Gardens – Richmond BC Canada.

The Gardens, a housing development in Richmond, BC for 550 housing units, will include agricultural plots for food production, community and restaurant garden plots, orchard for food production, and rooftop gardens.

From Community Workshop 3

Edible landscape and other educational landscape features and displays could be incorporated into the gardens. The ponds could also serve the dual function of accommodating storm water retention. Community gardens and an orchard are provided for the surrounding community and residents to enjoy.

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A trailer showing Zell and Krist growing, revitalizing, and transforming the Artan Garden into a Creative Cultural Centre in North Bay Ontario.

Artan Garden

Mr. and Mrs. Artan came to North Bay with their family over 35 years ago. Mr. Artan built a cottage at the end of Judge St. The foundation is still there in the back parking lot. Mr. Artan came with many skills; his talents in stone masonry, cement, and permacultural design came from his long career as a General Contractor, at the age of ten, Artan was laying ceramic shingles on Mediterranean homes. Artan Contracting was a thriving business and employed many in the community.

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