Nematodes Control the European Chafer Beetle

The European Chafer Beetle pest is attacking lawns on the east side of Vancouver. Soon these pests will migrate and destroy lawns on the west side too. In an attempt to control the beetle, it is recommended that residents apply nematodes to their lawns in the third week of July. Maria, City Farmer’s Bug Lady, describes how to do this.

See our previous video showing lawns upturned by crows looking for chafer beetle grubs.

European Chafer Destroys Lawns in Vancouver

European Chafer in Vancouver from Michael Levenston on Vimeo.

Lawns are being dug up all over the east side of Vancouver by birds and animals looking for the fat grubs of the European Chafer Beetle. Maria goes out to look at a boulevard where crows are having breakfast on someone’s no-longer-perfect lawn. She makes some suggestions for homeowners - they can use nematodes to help control the pest, or find an alternative to grass. How about vegetables?

Five variously suitable production environments for tomatoes were selected in and around The Hague: an industrial greenhouse in the Westland, a hobby greenhouse, an urban garden and a roof terrace in the inner city, and a shop window in a shopping street. In preparation, twenty five little tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Dirk’) were grown from seed in equivalent circumstances. Five of these little tomato plants were bedded out at the same time in each of the environments chosen. From that moment on, each plant became a reflection of its habitat. Differences in temperature, light, atmospheric humidity, precipitation, soil structure and care are expressed in the growth process of each separate tomato plant.

These factors influence the habitus (form of appearance and behaviour) of the plant: root capacity, foliation, flowering, fruit yield and the taste of the ultimate tomato. In order to portray these local differences in environment, a photograph is made at each location every day, and relayed via the internet. Each new photograph of the plants in their environment is added to their existing series. The films are thus updated with new material every day, from the very beginning through to the plant’s harvesting and decomposition. The films-in-progress make the differences and the similarities of the divergent processes of growth visible.

The tomato is the most cultivated vegetable in the Netherlands, second only to the potato. Tomatoes are easy to grow yourself and are moreover beautiful plants. Yet we almost never come across a tomato in our everyday surroundings. Tomatoes are cultivated in the Westland among other places, in large industrial greenhouses that can supply fresh tomatoes from March to December. Our Westland tomatoes are exported to Russia for example, and the tomatoes on the shelves of greengrocers in The Hague may come from Morocco or Spain. In short, the tomato as product is totally disconnected from time and location in our perception, in that it may be obtained throughout the year and is imported and exported across the globe. It is exactly this connection to location and time which is given a central place in the project Tomato Habitus.

See these tomatoes growing here.

Sheridan School War Gardens. Trespassers, Destroyers and Thieves. Beware $100. fine. One year imprisonment. Dogs are subject to the law. Keep them off.

By Elizabeth Orton Jones 1945

The warm sun is shining in our garden.
That’s where I planted seeds not long ago.
Such little wrinkled things they were
As I held them in my hand!
Now they have grown into vegetables,
Many shapes, many colors, many tastes.

How could each seed grow into the right vegetable
And nothing else-
The red radish, the white onion, the yellow carrot,
All down there together
In the same black earth?
How could they know just how to be themselves?
God must have whispered to them in the ground
And told each one the secret of itself. 

Learn about Elizabeth Orton Jones here.

By Dave M. Matthews
CNN June 29, 2009

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

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

But the garden serves an even greater purpose. The harvest helps feed some of the neediest members of the neighborhood.

“It’s a reawakening going on. It’s almost like it’s a renaissance,” says Cashawn Myers, director of HABESHA Inc.

“There’s a Ghanaian proverb that says Sankofa. Sankofa means return to your past so you can move forward. Even if you look at coming over here during our enslavement, we were brought here to cultivate the land because that’s something we did on the continent. So really, that’s what many of the people are doing now,” he said.

Myers believes urban farming is a way for many African-Americans to reconnect with their past.

“They are going through a process of Sankofa and going to what they traditionally did, which is connect to the Earth so they can move forward and grow,” he says.

But HABESHA Gardens isn’t unique.

Former pro basketball player Will Allen, who is considered to be one of the nation’s leading urban farmers and founder of Growing Power Inc., estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of urban gardens in inner cities across America.

“It’s beyond a movement at this point. Its more like a revolution,” says Allen.

Both Allen and Myers agree that the boom in urban farming for African-Americans is born out of necessity and not just echoing traditions.

“Minority people are affected by poor food, more than any other groups,” and many inner cities lack access to quality fruits and vegetables, Allen says. “Our food system is broken.”

“When you’re poor, when you don’t have access to resources, you have to create your own,” says Myers. “So this is a way for people of African descent to use their creativity to grow their own food.”

Many poorer communities don’t have full-scale grocery stores. Allen charges that companies have red-lined those areas and won’t build stores there.

So community activists like Myers have taken up the fight.

“[Starting] community gardens in local communities, specifically in urban areas, is important, so you create your own food security network,” says Myers. “You’re not relying on large grocery stores to provide food for everyone because if those grocery stores have problems, your access to food is done.”

HABESHA Gardens makes the fresh food accessible to people in Mechanicsville by opening up the garden to people in the community every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.

“We invite people from the local community here, the immediate community but also from the greater Atlanta community … to come out, work in the garden; learn, reconnect with the Earth and also be able to take food home with them after the harvest.”

In addition to providing food for those that work in garden, HABESHA partners with organizations such as the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the MLK Senior Center to provide food from the garden to the hungry and elders in the community.

HABESHA is more than just an urban garden. HABESHA, an acronym for Helping Africa By Establishing Schools at Home and Abroad. The organization mentors young African-Americans by sending them on a yearly trip to Ghana and educates the youth in Mechanicsville through the garden’s after-school program called Sustainable Seeds.

“Not only are we teaching them about agriculture, [we're] teaching them about solar technology, rainwater catching,” Myers says. “A majority of the food that was planted here was done by the youth in the after-school program. They helped to build the shed, they helped to build the greenhouse, they helped to build the shade nursery … They are very much a vital part of the process that goes on here.”

Malik Parks, 12, is a member of HABESHA’s mentoring program.

“Well, it feeds us. That’s a big thing — to know that we’re helping the earth. Us planting it, that gives us exercise; then also, eating it gives us nutrients,” says Parks.

Sporting a “Black to Our Roots” T-shirt, Parks is already well aware of the higher purpose he and HABESHA have with their garden.

“I believe to some, its hope. I know there are a lot of people over here that live in poverty. I know you can come and pick food, so that’s food for them,” Parks says. “So it’s hope to stay alive longer and be energized and do what you have to do to get back on your feet.”

Myers, who is his mentor, agrees.

“We encourage the people in the community to come, be a part of the process of growing the food, so it’s more empowerment than it is giving as charity,” says Myers.

And with urban farms like Will Allen’s becoming half-million dollar enterprises in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, and many other farms in New York City and Detroit, Michigan, urban gardening is spreading like the roots of the vegetables they grow.

“This has become a multicultural, multigenerational movement, a revolution,” says Allen. “This isn’t just the hippies and tree huggers. Everyone is getting on board. It’s really exciting.”

Link to CNN story here.

We grow lots of garlic at the Vancouver Compost Garden. But not many people know about scapes, the flowering stems that appear in June about three weeks before the bulbs are harvested.

Maria picked some of our scapes and prepared a quick and easy recipe for delicious pesto sauce.

Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Gooseberry, Tayberry, Saskatoon berry

Maria takes us on a tasting tour at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden. It’s the end of June and we love sampling what we grow.

Policies to Change the World, prepared by Miguel Mendonça in 2006 and discussed and approved at the World Future Council’s Annual General Meeting in 2008.

Excerpt from the report. Page 29

Urban Agriculture

Introduction

Urban agriculture, as the literature will often make clear, has an extremely long history. This is understandable, in that transportation was limited in the past, and the hinterland of an urban area may not have been entirely safe from enemies. Agriculture within the walls or close to the city was safer, and its produce took less time and energy to distribute.

Passing rapidly through time to the modern day, urban agriculture is once again finding favour for a great many reasons. Increasing pressure is being applied to governments to also favour the practice through legislation. Policy can significantly support and enhance the production of food in urban areas.

The lack of a tax on aviation fuel provides another opportunity for commerce to engage in the patently absurd list of practices which have become notorious in recent years. The concept of ‘food miles’ has certainly swum into public focus, yet the alternatives to engaging in the existing system remain limited. In the US food system in particular, sustainability does not feature significantly. Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, too, as an emphasis on technology-intensive production, which is yet to be effectively reshaped, despite the ongoing CAP reforms.

Nevertheless, organic and fair trade foods have broken into mainstream consciousness in the north, and farmer’s markets are becoming increasingly popular. The EU’s four freedoms have allowed tastes to change and develop, and a long list of food scares have brought about a mistrust of food that has resulted in traceability systems and labelling schemes being implemented.

All of this and more could set the stage for a popular return to local food production, contributing to social capital and food security, and putting money into the hands of the urban poor. Urban agriculture means different things in different places, and this paper suggests that its benefits can be huge, not least to the creation of sustainable cities.

Conclusion

Cuba is a leading example of UA practice, although perhaps an exceptional case. Its well-educated population is not only quick to adopt new techniques, but accepts a level of socialist regulation and control that would be difficult to impose in a less authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, from an almost standing start, its achievements in small-scale urban agriculture are remarkable. How can city authorities working in a less regulated situation achieve better policy-making for land use management? The first necessity is likely to be the setting up a municipal committee that includes representatives from all departments that have an interest in urban agriculture, including health, water supply and economic development. A policy must be developed and offered for public consultation. Plans must be developed to see what spaces may be available for urban agriculture and what type of farming activity would be most appropriate and where. Laws and regulations, especially relating to land tenure, must be drafted, and land taxation - and tax exemption if appropriate - defined. Tariffs must be set for the use of treated wastewater. For the continuing good management of urban agriculture, committees should be established to provide a link between the municipal authorities and users.

UA has different benefits in the developed world, compared to the developing world, although some are shared. For the former, aside from those positive attributes already listed, it can provide a level of preparedness for any interruption to food supply, caused most likely by future oil shortages. The skills of self-reliance that wartime and baby boomer generations in the west took for granted are dwindling in younger generations as the separation from the land extends in time and space. Gardening, while still culturally embedded in some countries,
is less popular in others, and gardens compete for space with roads and housing.

Agricultural policy in the EU is veering away from industrial-scale production, and toward land stewardship, further affecting our capacity to feed ourselves. Britain and Portugal are not food secure at this time, a matter that will require serious consideration from both governments in the future. UA, in the face of increasing urbanisation across the continent and the rest of the world, should be examined by governments for a variety of reasons. As carbon emissions targets begin to bite and many governments face failure to achieve them, food miles are increasingly seen as a major contributor to the problem.

The 2005 DEFRA report on the validity of food miles as an indicator of sustainability, found the following for the UK: Food transport accounts for 25% of all HGV vehicle kilometres in the UK; food transport produced 19 million tonnes of CO2 in 2002, of which 10 million tonnes were emitted in the UK (almost all from road transport), representing 1.8% of the total annual UK CO2 emissions, and 8.7% of the total emissions of the UK road sector. Transport of food by air has the highest CO2 emissions per tonne, and is the fastest growing mode. Although air freight of food accounts for only 1% of food tonne kilometres and 0.1% of vehicle kilometres, it produces 11% of the food transport CO2 equivalent emissions. The direct environmental, social and economic costs of food transport are over £9 billion each year, and are dominated by congestion.

The same forces that make UA such an attractive option for sustainable cities may also compel consumers to save energy by moving down the food chain. Meat production is very energy-intensive, and as with high-food-mile vegetables, the energy content is a fraction of that which it took to produce. In any part of the world, local food, produced without chemical inputs, can be a win-win-win proposition when supported by local government, and urban agriculture is one of the best examples of this.

See the complete report here. Urban agriculture begins on page 29.

June 24, 2009
ABC News report

See the video story here at ABC News. (after the short ad)

Link to Urban Farming website here.

The Fruitful Wound

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

Dennis had lived in and around Harlem for eight years, when his girlfriend Barbara, now wife, moved to 117th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Next to her building was an empty lot, home to some stray cats, flourishing weeds and a spindly tree.

Every few months men would cut the lock from the lot’s gate, level everything but the tree - grown too large for their trimmers - and put up a new lock. Watching this cycle of growth and destruction from the apartment window, Dennis and Barbara, thought of sneaking in and planting vegetables and flowers. They soon learned about the community gardens of the area, and found that the same impulse to make use of neglected land had launched many of the gardens.

The community gardening movement took root in the late 1970s when The City made the decision to abandon large amounts of land that it could not afford to maintain. Faced with these neglected plots - often sites of drug use, dumping, or worse – locals took over the areas and cultivated them. Where urban blight might have flourished, gardens were planted. Shaped by the resources and histories of the participants, each garden manifests a complex set of physical, psychological, and social conflicts and compromises.

Today, these gardens are a rare refuge from the city’s asphalt and stone. But with development money pouring into Harlem, and Columbia University’s ongoing Manhattanville project, these sites are disappearing. While some gardens have been taken over by the city or purchased and protected by non-profit organizations, empty lots are now carefully fenced off, and many gardens and lots have seen buildings grow over them in less than a season.

Dennis Santella has a rich background of study in both the sciences and fine arts. While also photographing he has earned a BA in Neuroscience and Behavior, an MPH in Environmental Health Science and an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University. His black and white photographs are informed by this diverse intellectual background. Born in Manhattan, he was raised just across the Hudson River in Teaneck, New Jersey. He has worked professionally in the sciences, conducting research, and in the arts, working for a private photography collection and teaching photography.

See the Casa Frela Gallery Website here.

More from Dennis Santella here.

A film by Mark Lewis (2000)

“Through interviews and reenactments, The Natural History of the Chicken investigates the role of the chicken in American life and tells several remarkable stories. A Maine farmer says she found a chicken frozen stiff, but was able to resuscitate it. Colorado natives tell a story of the chicken who lost its head– and went on living.

” A Virginia farmer tells about (and demonstrates) the benefits of raising chickens for his own consumption. Perhaps most surprising is the case of the Florida woman: she bathes her pet bird, and takes it both swimming and shopping. Through these and other stories, this documentary illuminates the role that chickens play in (some of) our lives.”

Part 1 of 6

Now on YouYube in six parts. Watch the whole movie here.

Phase 1 plans utilize more than 70 acres of underutilized vacant lands and abandoned properties on Detroit’s lower east side.

World’s Largest Urban Farm Planned for the City of Detroit

Preliminary Plans Call For The Development Of Underutilized Land To Produce Fresh, Local, Natural, Safe Fruits, Vegetables And Trees

Press Release:
 
Detroit, Mich., Mar. 23, 2009 – Preliminary plans for a newly developed urban farm within the City of Detroit will utilize vacant land and abandoned property to create Hantz Farms, the world’s largest urban farm, announced John Hantz, CEO of Hantz Farms, LLC.

“Detroit could be the nation’s leading example of urban farming and become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement,” said Hantz, a Detroit resident. “Hantz Farms will transform this area into a viable, beautiful and sustainable area that will serve the community, increase the tax base, create jobs and greatly improve the quality of life in an area that has experienced a severe decline in population.”

Phase 1 plans utilize more than 70 acres of underutilized vacant lands and abandoned properties on Detroit’s lower east side.

Hantz Farms plans to grow natural, local, fresh and safe fruits and vegetables to help meet Michigan’s increasing demand for locally grown produce. In addition to food and trees, Hantz Farms will harvest wind energy and utilize geothermal heat and biomass fuel from recycling compost.

Hantz Farms is working directly with Michigan State University to add its expertise on agricultural and soil sciences and consulting with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a national leader in community-based food systems.

“It makes great sense to utilize the blighted and abandoned land in the city to produce fresh, nutritious food for local consumers,” said Rick Foster, vice president for programs at the Kellogg Foundation. “Urban development projects like this one not only create good food and connection to nature, but serve as an economic development anchor for others in the community.”

“Urban agriculture is an opportunity to provide an effective economic development program for the Detroit community. MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has been providing expert advice to Hantz Farms along with the MSU’s Michigan Agriculture Experiment Station and MSU Extension to develop a productive outreach and engagement program as part of the proposal,” said Jeffry D. Armstrong, Dean of the Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “This is a challenging and exciting opportunity.”

Heading up Hantz Farms LLC, will be Matt Allen, a Detroit resident and advocate for Hantz’s vision.

“The combination of land consolidation, blight removal, conservation of city services and the beautification of the city itself are just some of the byproducts that will come from our commitment to urban farming,” Allen said. “We’re very excited to be able to make strides in helping to make Detroit a progressive, world-class leader in providing fresh, locally grown food that’s safe and purely Detroit.”

Once the project is approved by Detroit city officials, work would begin immediately and the farm would be operating within six months.

See Hantz Farms website here.

Also see: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive - Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. In the Telegraph. June 12, 2009 here.

Vancouverites dig into city hall plots

By Jon Woodward
CTV British Columbia
Saturday June 20, 2009

Eager gardeners were given the green light to dig into a number of plots in a community garden on city hall land on Saturday.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the decision to convert part of the park north of city hall into fertile ground would stand as a symbol for Vancouverites to grow their own food.

“Community gardens are a big part of being a green city,” said Robertson. “We need to grow more food locally, because it will help with food security.”

There are 30 plots in the community garden, which is one of some 45 community gardens across the city.

Each gardener has to pay a small fee to lease the plot from the city, but they can grow vegetables — often within walking distance of their own house.

Some of these new community gardens have been created with a mixture of new policies and tax breaks that have turned otherwise stalled development sites into farmland.

And the city is in good company — both the White House and Buckingham Palace have recently started growing food in gardens on the state grounds.

Their gardens may have been in place earlier, but the decision to grow food at Vancouver city hall was made first, said Robertson.

The urban agriculture movement began right here in a Vancouver garden 30 years ago, when people including Michael Levenston had the idea that people could reconnect with their food by growing it themselves.

“There are so many reasons to look into growing your own food,” he said, adding that the move at city hall and around the world “really validates what we have worked so hard for.”

See video and photos of the garden opening here.

By Marian Burros
New York Times. June 16, 2009

This summer, Tony Tomelden hopes to be making bloody marys at the Pug in Washington, D.C., with tomatoes and chilies grown above the bar, thanks to the city’s incentives for green roofs.

Mr. Tomelden, the Pug’s principal owner, says he’s planting a garden to take advantage of tax subsidies the city offers in his neighborhood if he covers his roof with plants.

“If I can do something in my corner for the environment, that seemed a reasonable thing to do,” he said. “Plus I can save money on the tomatoes.”

There won’t be bloody marys at P.S. 6 on New York’s Upper East Side, but one-third of its roof will be planted with vegetables and herbs next spring for the cafeteria. The school is using about $950,000 in city funds that it has put aside, and parents and alumni are providing almost a half-million dollars more.

“For the children, it’s exciting when you grow something edible,” said the school’s principal, Lauren Fontana.

Aeries are cropping up on America’s skylines, filled with the promise of juicy tomatoes, tiny Alpine strawberries and the heady perfume of basil and lavender. High above the noise and grime of urban streets, gardeners are raising fruits and vegetables. Some are simply finding the joys of backyard gardens several stories up, others are doing it for the environment and some because they know local food sells well.

City dwellers have long cultivated pots of tomatoes on top of their buildings. But farming in the sky is a fairly recent development in the green roof movement, in which owners have been encouraged to replace blacktop with plants, often just carpets of succulents, to cut down on storm runoff, insulate buildings and moderate urban heat.

A survey by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which represents companies that create green roofs, found the number of projects its members had worked on in the United States grew by more than 35 percent last year. In total, the green roofs installed last year cover 6 million to 10 million square feet, the group said.

Steven Peck, its president, said he had no figures for how many of the projects involved fruits and vegetables, but interest is growing. “When we had a session on urban agriculture,” he said of a meeting of the group in Atlanta last month, “it was standing room only.” Mr. Peck said the association is forming a committee on rooftop agriculture.

Tax incentives have accelerated the plantings of green roofs, particularly in Chicago, which has encouraged green roofs for almost a decade. The Chicago chef Rick Bayless uses tomatoes and chilies he grows atop his restaurant Frontera Grill to make Rooftop Salsa.

New York State has subsidies both for roofs with succulents spread out over a thin layer of soil and for edible plants covering a smaller area. A proposed amendment to New York City’s tax abatement for some roof projects would include green roofs. Most roof gardeners aren’t in it for the money, though.

Complete article and more photos here.

Session 1 - Food and flower production in/for the cities: urban horticulture in developing and developed countries, for food and flower production.

The proceedings of the conference will be published at Acta Horticulturae, the website of International Society for Horticultural Science. I’ve been told that abstracts of the conference papers will be free, but a fee will be charged for downloading the papers themselves.

See International Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture website here.

Go to Acta Horticulturae Home Page here.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (also spelled Arcimboldi; 1527 - July 11, 1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books — that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a recognisable likeness of the portrait subject.

Vegetables in a Bowl. by Giuseppe Arcimbold

Arcimboldo’s conventional work, on traditional religious subjects, has fallen into oblivion, but his portraits of human heads made up of vegetables, fruit, sea creatures and tree roots, were greatly admired by his contemporaries and remain a source of fascination today. Art critics debate whether these paintings were whimsical or the product of a deranged mind. A majority of scholars hold to the view, however, that given the Renaissance fascination with riddles, puzzles, and the bizarre (see, for example, the grotesque heads of Leonardo da Vinci), Arcimboldo, far from being mentally imbalanced, catered to the taste of his times.

See more about Giuseppe Arcimboldo here.

The Queen has joined the “grow your own” revolution after creating a vegetable plot at Buckingham Palace.

By Andrew Alderson,
The Telegraph, 14 Jun 2009

For the first time since the Second World War vegetables are being grown in the Palace’s grounds alongside ornamental plants.

The move comes amid a surge in demand from people up and down the country to have their own allotment to grow their own food during the recession.

The Queen’s organic vegetable patch is about 10 yards by eight yards in size. It is at the rear of the garden in an area which is called the Yard Bed. (article continues on next page after the video.)

Gardeners deal with a bumper crop of turnips in the gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Guests attending the Queen’s garden parties will be able to see her new allotment over the summer.

“The Queen is very keen on gardens in general and she is always willing to try out new things,” said a royal source.

“She attends the Chelsea Flower Show each year and has always been fond of Kew Gardens.”

Claire Midgley, the Deputy Gardens Manager, last week showed the Queen a variety of vegetables that are being grown, including runner beans, “Stuttgarter” onions, “Musselburgh” leeks, sweetcorn, “Red Ace” beetroot, “Fly Away” carrots and an endangered variety of climbing French beans called “Blue Queen”.

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh talk to Claire Midgley, the Deputy Gardens Manager of Buckingham Palace, as they study the new vegetable garden in the grounds of the Royal residence Photo: PA

No chemicals have been used to cultivate the allotment sites. Liquid sea-weed has been used to feed the plants and forms of garlic are being used to deter aphids.

Like the rest of the garden, water from the palace borehole is used to irrigate the plants. Mulch from the palace’s compost heap has been used to bed the vegetables in.

In 1918, there was a vegetable patch at Buckingham Palace which was used to grow turnips. There is a short film of the turnips being harvested on the Royal Channel on YouTube.

During the Second World War, vegetables were also grown at Windsor Castle.
A photograph of The Queen, when she was Princess Elizabeth, was taken in the grounds of the Castle to support the Second World War “Dig for Victory” campaign.

Buckingham Palace’s garden covers 40 acres, and it includes a helicopter landing area, a four-acre lake, and a tennis court where King George VI often played tennis with Fred Perry, three three-time Wimbledon champion.
It is home to 30 different species of bird and more than 350 different wild flowers, some extremely rare.

The gardens can comfortably accommodate 7,000 guests at each of the Queen’s annual garden parties.

Allotments were introduced by the philanthropic Victorians to provide a healthy diet and lifestyle for factory workers.

Today, when their appeal has crossed the class divide, they still offer the same benefits.

Over the years, the popularity of the allotment has risen and fallen in relation to the nation’s feeling of wellbeing.

In times of hardship, the public has been keen to turn to the soil - most notably during the Second World War, when millions became vegetable gardeners.

It was revealed in February that the National Trust is converting some of its land into about 1,000 allotments to meet soaring demand.

See the Telegraph article here.

“What if one block in Texas became the sustainable model for the world?

XERO Project, a proposal for an “X” of greenways and zero-energy building design in downtown Dallas, earned one of three first-place prizes in the Re:Vision Dallas design competition on May 28, 2009.

Urban Agriculture

As a complement to neighboring arts and historic areas, the XERO District is focused on urban agriculture and food. Public orchards, community gardens, private planter boxes, food stalls, and locally supplied restaurants contribute to the district character and buzz.

To bring food grown within the greenways and courtyards to market, the street level of the new residential buildings is lined with an array of micro-retail spaces–small, inexpensive stores and stalls where the district’s urban farmers will sell and serve what they produce. In addition to the large agricultural areas at street level, a range of common spaces on the south face of the tower will provide planting boxes for individual use.

Click here for large high-res image.
 
The integration of agriculture with daily life provides a unique educational opportunity for children within the district, who would be able to attend after-school programs focused on teaching them how to grow their own food.

See more about the Xero Project here.

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

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

The Davie Village community gardener interviewed, Ann Marie Fleming, is an award-winning independent filmmaker, writer, and artist. I am a huge fan of her illustrated memoir, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam.

The book: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam here.

The film: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam here.

Sleepy Dog Films here.

October 2008 - Davie Village Garden

Davie Village Community Garden from Michael Levenston on Vimeo.

Lithograph by Kenneth Hartwell

George Kenneth Hartwell (1891-1949) was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He was a painter, illustrator and printmaker. He studied at the Art Studies League of New York under George Bellows, Edward Hooper and others. Hartwell was an American Realist who rose to prominence during the Depression.

In the early decades of the 20th century American Realism reflected the actual conditions of life. Realists portrayed activities in cities, people in states of decay, individual loneliness and isolation, social injustices and raised the imagery of poverty to almost a virtue.

Kenneth Hartwell exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America, the Library of Congress and the Carnegie Institute. His works are included in many collections including the Brooklyn, Toronto and Philadelphia Museums as well as the Library of Congress.