Category — Community Gardens

Carver Garden.

Thirty-Two Manhattan and Bronx Community Gardens Turned Over to Local Land Trusts

By Kristie Deptula
TK\PR Public Relations
June 28, 2011

This week, The Trust for Public Land, conveyed the first 32 of 69 New York City Community Gardens to the newly established Manhattan and Bronx Land Trusts. The 69 gardens make up the largest network of Community Gardens in the country. After initially saving these 69 parcels of land from destruction, which make up a total of eight acres with a current value of $7 million, from the City of New York 12 years ago, The Trust for Public Land has worked with community members and organizations to save and preserve the crucial green oasis. The remaining 37 gardens will most likely be conveyed to the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust this fall.

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Maria and I met up with Holly Schmidt on the waterfront in False Creek, Vancouver, where we were shown the beginnings of a wonderful garden art project.

Exploring urban art and agriculture

Located in Vancouver’s “greenest development”, the Olympic Village, Grow explores sustainability issues through a series of walks, workshops and creative experiments in urban agriculture. Walks led by artist, Holly Schmidt and invited guests from architecture; design and the humanities focus on the challenges faced by rapidly growing and changing cities. Workshops invite people to imagine new possibilities for agriculture in the city through inventive prototype building to support the production of food in the urban environment.

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With groceries getting more expensive, more families are now looking to grow their own produce with their neighbors.

By Aaron Dimick
WEAU News
Jun 21, 2011

Excerpt:

WEAU 13 News talked to organizers of two community gardens in Eau Claire on Tuesday, who said they’ve seen an increase in interest.

“Most people are growing vegetables or flowers. And most people have these plots because they don’t have the space in their home or they need additional space for their gardening,” said Erin LaFaive of the Eau Claire County UW Extension.

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When a local community garden lost one of its two plots, Angela Baker stepped in, converting her family’s yard into 31 fruit and vegetable beds for everyone to share

By Angela Baker
This Old House magazine
June, 2011

Excerpt:

The quarter-acre lot is larger than most in Portland, but the yard was in rough shape. The sod covering the front yard was dying, and the backyard was mostly weeds, invasive bamboo from a neighbor’s yard, and a damaged ornamental plum tree. I planned to grow vegetables in the backyard and a traditional lawn out front.

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Urban Farming founder Taja Sevelle, in a garden at Linwood and Gladstone in Detroit, estimates that there are 1,000 similar plots in the metro area.

In 2005 Sevelle created Urban Farming, a movement to plant vegetable gardens as a step toward ending hunger.

By Cassandra Spratling
Detroit Free Press
June 11, 2011

Excerpt:

“This is more than a gardening organization,” Sevelle says. “I want people to see farming as a way of life, a way we really can end hunger in this generation. If we want that to happen, we can make it happen.

“Look at recycling. Recycling is pretty much a way of life. A few years ago, few people were recycling.”

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For $30 a year, a household receives the resources and technical aid necessary to grow vegetables and prepare nutritious meals.

Latin American Herald Tribune
June 9, 2011

?Excerpts:

DENVER – Dozens of Latino families in a low-income Denver neighborhood are taking part this summer in a project to grow their own vegetables as a step toward economic independence and food security.

The Re:farm Denver initiative is focused on the Westwood neighborhood, where Hispanics make up 76 percent of the 15,000 residents.

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Summer Camp at the Wasatch Community Gardens.

A total of 4 parcels totaling 50 acres were leased for the 2011 growing season.

By: Olsen, S.H., Extension Professor, Utah State University Extension
Peck-Dabling, J., Open Space & Urban Farming Program Manager, Salt Lake County Mayor’s Operations

Journal of the National Association of
County Agricultural Agents
Volume 4, Issue 1

Abstract:

In the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in local food, including rapid growth in farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. In many urban settings, a scarcity of farmland is a major barrier to increasing local food production. In 2009, Salt Lake County started an urban farming program to lease unused parcels of land to farmers. Some goals of the program were to preserve agricultural land near cities, support local farmers, and provide agricultural based economic development.

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Rt. Hon. John F. Spellar MP.

Stated quite clearly that they do not “intend to remove Local Authorities statutory duties to provide allotments.”

26th May 2011 News Release

Warley MP John Spellar who has been campaigning against proposed changes to allotments legislation has welcomed a climb-down by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The Government had issued a Consultation Paper on Legal Duties on Local Councils which could be removed. Among those were obligations under the 1908 Allotment Act to provide allotments. John Spellar and other MPs had warned that this could lead Councils, especially those facing financial pressure, to reduce their commitment to allotments.

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Archive photo from 45 years ago. Date: 1966. Description: Youth working on Roxbury/Dorchester Community Beautification Program project site. Label reads: “The lot was cleared of two abandoned automobiles and several truck loads of trash. Railroad ties and top soil were put in place to form small flower gardens.” Group: Freedom House (Roxbury, Boston, Mass.). Northeastern University Library.

Community members will also be able to meet with prospective farms to discuss their proposals before starting to farm

By Gintautas Dumcius
Dorchester Reporter
May. 26, 2011

Excerpt:

City Councillor Charles Yancey and several disgruntled residents faced off against Menino administration officials this week, claiming they were not informed about the city’s attempt to temporarily turn four city-owned vacant lots in Dorchester into urban farms.

Proponents say the farms would put the vacant lots to use, improving community access to affordable and healthy food by allowing cultivation of crops and composting of materials on properties that range from a quarter acre to a half-acre. The properties, owned by the Department of Neighborhood Development, include 131 Glenway St., 18-24 Standish St., 23-29 Tucker St. and the parcel between 94 Ballou Ave. and 116 Ballou Ave.

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The city has forbidden Jacob de Raadt from gardening in a plot beside Nicomekl Elementary. Photograph by: Les Bazso, The Province.

Red tape trips up green thumb in Langley, BC

By Cheryl Chan
The Province
May 25, 2011

Excerpt:

All Jacob de Raadt wants to do is plant some vegetables.

Instead, the 68-year-old Langley gardener’s visions of a bountiful harvest are getting nipped in the bud by what he calls “absurd” bureaucratic requirements.

When de Raadt and his wife Lydia paid $15 for a community garden plot beside Nicomekl Elementary near their townhouse in March they were told they had to undergo a criminal record check for the last five years.

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Released for the Five Year Anniversary of the Eviction Of the South Central Farmers in Los Angeles

Featuring Daryl Hannah, Julia Butterfly Hill, Alicia Silverstone, John Quigley and More

Press Release:

LOS ANGELES (May 19, 2011) – June 13, 2011 marks the five-year “anniversary” of the eviction of the farmers from the South Central Farm in downtown Los Angeles. The award-winning documentary short film SAVE THE FARM, directed by Michael Kuehnert, will be released on digital platforms on June 7, 2011 to commemorate the needless destruction of an important environmental and cultural oasis.

The South Central Farm (SCF) sprung up on an abandoned industrial area of approximately 14 acres in South Central Los Angeles. The land had been acquired by the City of Los Angeles in 1986 from developer Ralph Horowitz for $4.7 million.

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This is the Lots O’ Greens neighborhood garden in Detroit, The city, which revolutionized manufacturing with its auto assembly lines, could once again be a model for the world as residents transform vacant, often-blighted land into a source of fresh food. Photo by Carlos Osorio/AP.

“The gardens are everywhere, and you almost can’t drive anywhere without seeing one.”

By Mark Bittman
New York Times
May 17, 2011

Excerpt:

Imagine blocks that once boasted 30 houses, now with three; imagine hundreds of such blocks. Imagine the green space created by the city’s heartbreaking but intelligent policy of removing burnt-out or fallen-down houses. Now look at the corner of one such street, where a young man who has used the city’s “adopt-a-lot” program (it costs nothing) to establish an orchard, a garden and a would-be community center on three lots, one with a standing house. (The land, like many of the gardens, belongs to the city and is “leased” for a year at a time.

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Downtown Minneapolis. Photo by Tim Kiser.

13 “non-buildable” City-owned vacant lots available for community gardeners

Minneapolis City of Lakes
January 13, 2011

With seed catalogues arriving in the mail and flower and garden shows around the corner, now is a good time to look into establishing a community garden. The City of Minneapolis has 13 vacant lots available for qualifying groups to lease for community gardens. These City-owned lots were selected because they are not appropriate for development. This means that they will remain available for years of gardening even as the economy changes and redevelopment picks up.

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See photos of the garden here.

Cardiff photographer Tom Ashmore visits the Riverside community allotment garden

Excerpt:

I was met by a lovely lady of the earth called Jenny Howell, who let me through the gate with a warm-hearted welcome. She gave me a tour of the site and we had a chat about what they’re up to. I was instantly drawn to Jenny. You know the type of people – she had a chirpy voice and was full of life and humour. Being a total garden novice I relied on her expert knowledge to give me an understanding of what they do, why it’s different, and how people benefit from volunteering.

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Tilling in preparation for fall crop planting, with the clubhouse in the background and one gardener dressed on his way to a funeral.

Community gardens are popping up quickly in a city once known as the most dangerous city in America.

By Robin Sheeves
Mother Nature Network
April 15, 2011

Excerpt:

Clean up and foundation work for the 100th community garden in the city of Camden, N.J., began yesterday. If you’re not familiar with the city of Camden, let me tell you, this is a big deal. I live about seven miles from Camden, but I might as well live a world away because my community is so different from Camden.

For years, Camden was known as the most dangerous city in America. It no longer holds that title, but it can proudly claim a different title, Fastest Growing Community Garden City.

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Good Ground Garden.

Thesis – Sacredness in the landscape

By Shawn C. James
Thesis 2011
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Landscape Architecture in Landscape Architecture in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011

Abstract:

Faith-based organizations throughout the United States are creating gardens with a variety of visions and results. Ten such gardens were present in Champaign and Urbana, IL in 2010. This phenomenon of faith-based gardening is designated as stewardship gardening within this thesis. While these gardens are recently conspicuous, they are certainly not new; disparate connotations of environmental stewardship have developed since the Garden of Eden. The contemporary call for environmental stewardship should acknowledge its historical implications with consideration of the boundaries between ecocentric and anthropocentric world views.

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Winter cover crops contribute to healthy gardens.

A Horticulture Project at Cornell University

Our goals are:

To document the roles of community gardens in providing healthy food, green space, and environmental education, in order to build support for community gardening in urban policy and planning.

To develop environmentally friendly vegetable gardening practices like cover cropping, with and for urban gardeners.

To enhance educational programs in urban gardening by incorporating collaborative, discovery-based learning methods that increases gardeners’ understanding of ecology.

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Video: Jon Woodward on urban gardening.

Forget lofts in Gastown. The hottest real estate in Vancouver is somewhere you might not have expected: your local community garden.

By: Darcy Wintonyk,
CTV BC
Apr. 5, 2011

Excerpt:

Neighbourhood plots are springing up around the city, but not fast enough to keep up with the demand from urbanites hoping to get a healthy injection of the city farming experience.

Wait lists continue to grow as the desire to be a part of plant parenthood blossoms, says Michael Levenston, executive director of Vancouver’s City Farmer, a non-profit agency dedicated to urban agriculture.

“The more multi-family homes in the city, the more people want to get out and get their hands in the ground. It’s getting back to nature and it’s hot in terms of demand,” Levenston told ctvbc.ca from his Kitsilano community garden headquarters.

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Mang Khan Zam, left, and Whitney Sewell transplant seedlings to their beds on the land they are farming on Folsom Avenue in St. Louis. The farm is part of the International Institute’s Global Farms Initiative that is designed to teach immigrants and refugees organic farming skills that they can develop into careers as farmers. Photo by David Carson.

“We’re trying to get them to eat familiar foods that they can grow instead of going to fast food places.”

By Doug Moore
SLT Today
April 15, 2011

Excerpt:

The urban agriculture program, run by the International Institute of St. Louis, is one of 19 across the country that have been funded by grants from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. The grants this year total $1 million nationwide, with typical local awards of about $75,000.

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Photo by Stephanie Parker.

GRO1000 Grassroots Grants in the amount of up to $1,500

The next round of applications will be accepted starting in the fall 2011

Overview

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has established GRO1000, a commitment to install 1,000 gardens and green spaces in the United States and select international sites by 2018. The last installation will be completed in 2018, which coincides with the 150th anniversary of the founding of ScottsMiracle-Gro.

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