Urban-style organic gardening blog about growing your own food with limited space and creative resources.
“NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – A Germantown couple’s legacy will grow forever, thanks to an agreement that will always protect their urban garden.
When Ernest and Berdelle Campbell left their Belle Meade home and moved to Germantown, they knew an urban garden would be a part of their retired life.
Now, more than 30 years later, that garden is still thriving and thanks to the Land Trust for Tennessee, its future is forever.”
READ THE FULL STORY at: “WKRN.com“
“The homestead is a family project where each member does their part. Blas Herrera, husband to Chan and father of their two young girls, puts on his beekeeper suit one foggy morning to smoke and subdue the bees before extracting them for an upcoming garden tour. The Chan-Herrera family opens their backyard oasis to the community regularly, and on this particular day, students from S.F. State were due for a visit.”
Read the full article at: “SFChronicle.com“
“Urban homesteaders Chanowk and Judith Yisrael, along with their nine children, have converted their yard and a neighboring lot into a half-acre farm consisting of a chicken coop, a small orchard producing everything from plums to goji berries, and gardens bursting with crops like Ethiopian kale, Swiss chard and collard greens. They’ve also taught themselves how to compost, cultivate seeds and make jams and soaps.”
Their mission began in 2008 when the family decided they wanted to improve their eating habits. They now source up to 90% of their diet from their own yard and their focus is to support the nearby 300,000 residents who are living in a food desert. “Urban farming is not just for food production,” Chanowk says. “It’s a community-building tool.”
Read the entire story at: “SacTownMag.com“
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“By the end of the 20th century, nearly 80% of Americans lived in urban areas. And they no longer knew who grew their food. Then something happened. Across America, an urban farming movement has begun. Whether it’s on city rooftops, beside freeway off-ramps, in vacant lots, and even in their front yards, when people like Novella Carpenter in Oakland, California grow food in cities it reconnects them to where their food comes from.”
Paris has passed a new law stating that ANYONE is allowed to plant and grow food in urban areas within city limits. After applying for a permit, gardeners will be able to grow wherever they want! Flower boxes, rooftops, under trees, on walls or even on fences. Gardeners can choose from flowers, vegetables or fruit. The mayor’s goal was to create more green areas and living walls by the year 2020 and more space dedicated to urban agriculture.
To read the entire article, visit: “InHabitat.com“
“They knew they had to maximize greenhouse space so they decided to grow vertical and to grow differently. They experimented with hydroponics and finally settled on aeroponics. “So aeroponics is similar to hydroponics using water rather than soil, but it’s mist,” explains Benjamin. “It’s a mist that comes on inside the growing chamber, and it comes on every 3 minutes for 10 seconds, it’s a really high oxygen water that’s hitting that root. The method was actually developed and is being used by NASA because it uses so much less water and the speed of growth is much faster.”
“Sheila Cassani began farming her rental home while a college student. She started with a small vegetable patch, but it soon spread to keeping chickens and bees and planting produce on nearly every available patch of the small yard not dedicated to the poultry.
Cassani and her partner Matthew wake up at the crack of dawn to let the chickens go free-range, but she says the garden isn’t a lot of work once you’ve put in the initial investment. Since they’re renting they’ve trying to keep their investments low. They focused on reusing found materials, such as old fence to make raised beds, bamboo that grows on the property for trellises and chicken fencing (even indoors, their furniture was mostly found, including a pallet wood sofa).
They’ve dubbed their East Oakland (California) homestead the “Kansas Street Farm” and they try to keep things as closed loop as possible by catching rainwater, composting, using the chickens to prepare the veggie beds and fermenting leftover produce.”
25 percent of the population fled Detroit between 2000 and 2010. Large amounts of the downtown retail area are vacant as well. Meanwhile, urban homesteaders are flocking to the area in search of great deals on housing and neighborhoods with a “hipster” type vibe.
“Former landscaper and University of Michigan social psychology student Tyson Gersh, now 26, headed to Detroit in 2011, hoping to establish an urban farming initiative to address the city’s very real food insecurities. At a tax auction, he and a fellow Michigan alum paid $5,025 for a six-unit apartment complex in the city’s blighted North End, to act as the center of operations as they converted a nearby, 1.5-acre plot of land into an urban farm. While Gersh originally envisioned a straightforward urban ag initiative centered on growing food and distributing it to the community, he quickly realized that any meaningful project would have to take Detroit’s unique situation into account.”
To read the entire article visit: “Munchies.Vice.com“
“Urban living situates you in areas are that are highly developed and fast-paced. Most probably you are surrounded with a density of human structures such as buildings, houses, railways, bridges, and roads. The big difference between urban and country life is that living in the city depends on almost entirely upon money.”
To read the original article, visit: “http://gwyl.io/build-360-grow-box/“
Urban agriculture is rare in West Virginia, and a newly proposed urban agriculture ordinance combined with the Hopecrest Chicken lawsuit has sparked a prolonged debate between neighbors about who can garden what and where.
“More cities in the U.S. are experimenting with urban agriculture, by growing crops on roofs or indoors with the help of LED lighting. The USDA’s push for urban agriculture isn’t only fueled by aesthetic and environmental concerns, but by a sustainable one too. As the country’s population grows, there’s less land on which to grow food to feed them.”
“There are six million dollars in food that has to be brought into West Virginia every year that could be grown here in West Virginia,” he said. “It’s imported from other states or countries. And, that’s one of the things the Commissioner of Agriculture is very concerned about – how can we create more of those crops at home?”
“To read the entire article, visit: “WVPublic.org.“
To read more about these 6 different hyroponic systems, visit: “Fix.com”
Gardening in raised beds has long been a tradition among gardeners both in urban and suburban neighborhoods. For decades now, people have been turning to their creative side to come up with lovely ways to construct raised beds that are not only purposeful but easy on the eyes. Here’s just a few of our favorites!
To see the other 9 Unique and Fun Raised Garden Bed Ideas, visit: “SiteForEverything.com“
Penny spends her time growing fruits, vegetables, herbs and gorgeous flowers all in her backyard garden. She’s mastered the art of “raised bed gardening”, and her tidy and well kept garden will have you green with envy after just one look. After enjoying her posts and lovely images on Instagram for quite some time, we decided to ask Penny a few questions in regard to her lifestyle and love of gardening.
What inspired you to start your own urban garden? My love of good quality, organic food – I am food obsessed, and nothing tastes better than home grown. I think gardening has always been in my genes. My Greek grandparents have always grown their own since I can remember. I recall being very young and walking around their garden, basket in hand picking and harvesting anything in site, I then pretended I was cooking them something from it . As you can see the obsession started from a young age.
What are your favorite things to grow, and why? Don’t make me choose! Haha it changes all the time as I discover or rediscover something depending on the season we are in. At the moment it has got to be my lush salad bed or maybe these fat, crunchy, extra-terrestrial looking purple kohlrabi or in summer, my garden had an aptitude for growing eggplant so maybe that… I just can’t choose. I am so grateful for every single thing I harvest.
We can see that you do a lot of “raised bed” gardening. How do you amend your soil to keep your boxes producing? My soil is literally sand – so raised beds where my only option. Amending my soil is key and I have discovered sheep manure this season and the results are unlike any I have had before. Every Spring and Autumn I will replenish my beds with high quality compost, sheep manure, cow manure, organic pelletised fertiliser and rock minerals. I also meticulously check the pH of the soil with a testing kit I picked up from the garden centre.
What do your friends and neighbors think about your gardening efforts? Have you ever had anyone dis-regard your lifestyle? Gardening isn’t an obsession you would envisage someone of my age of having but my friends happily accept flowers, fresh greens and any excess veg I have. I have also inspired many of my close friends to start gardens of their own – something which makes me so incredibly happy.
What tips/tricks do you have for gardeners who are just starting out? I will try and summarise my top three, as I am learning tips and tricks every season.
1. Soil health is key if you don’t put the time and effort into your soil, prepare to be disappointed. I have had dismal results from using cheap compost and not incorporating animal manure into my soil mix.
2. I am a big believer in ensuring an urban garden can be as productive as it is gorgeous. My garden is a place for entertaining, not only for harvesting. Gardens can get messy and cluttered so spend some time and effort thinking of a design.
3. When I first started gardening I would become so disheartened if a crop didn’t work out as it imagined it would – and guess what this happens to everyone, even the experienced. Sometimes the season, your garden and location have a preference for growing something. Make sure you don’t give up.
Follow Penny on Instagram via her account @sunandseed!
CLEVELAND – In a neighborhood where there’s more check cashing places then grocery stores, there’s the Acy family and their garden.
“This is a food desert where the average corner store sells nothing but junk food,” said the father, Stephen Acy.
His wife, Erika Acy, started the idea of a community urban garden after tending to dozens of fresh pots in their backyard.
“It’s just something that’s been in me, it was passed down from my grandmother. It’s great, I love it,” she said.
Read the entire article at: “NewsNet5.com“
In Sacramento California, Zone 9b, Kyle Hagerty is inspiring Urban Gardeners around the world. They started growing just enough food for themselves, but now they have opened up a farm stand in their front yard where they share their homegrown goodness with their entire community.
Tell us more about your amazing little farm stand and how it makes you feel being able to share your harvests with your local community. Just over two years ago when I bought the house, the yard was completely empty but full of sunshine. I designed, planted, and built the urban farm with a focus on sustainability and it has grown into a wonderful place for sharing produce and inspiration with our community. The farm stand is wheeled out into the driveway full of anything that’s growing in the back yard and we give it all away to everyone who stops by. I also invite visitors to take a walk in the back yard to see where the magic is happening, and to hopefully inspire them to start their own garden or share some gardening tips with other gardeners. Being able to connect with my community through sustainable food and re-establishing the relationship between people and the food that they eat brings me immense joy. I am extremely grateful for all of the support I receive from my community here in the Farm-to-Fork Capital of America, and the social media community on Instagram who continue to encourage and inspire me every day.
What’s your favorite part of your amazing backyard garden? My favorite feature in my garden is my tunnel trellis entryway into the raised bed area of the garden. I used two 16’x4’ galvanized livestock panels bent into and arch and held in place by T-posts. The trellis spans the pathway between two raised beds and supports a wide variety of fruits and vegetables year round. I originally designed it with tomatoes in mind but through crop rotation it has hosted and supported gourds, pumpkins, zucchini, pole beans, peas, tomatillos, blackberries, cucumbers, butternut squash and more. I have recently noticed a few people re-create this trellis in their gardens and I hope to inspire everyone who has the space, to do the same. It is an easy, inexpensive, attractive, and highly effective trellising system!
Any plans or projects you’re working on currently for your garden? The projects are never ending. I am currently working on a design to build a vertical growing system for my zucchini and summer squash. With my limited space I am constantly experimenting with and developing ways to take advantage of vertical space by encouraging plants to grow up rather than out.
I am also in the planning stages of incorporating chickens into the urban farm. Stay tuned for that this summer!
Follow @Urbanfarmstead on Instagram!
Don’t wait, join the new Urban Organic Gardener’s Monthly Seed Club now! MUST JOIN BEFORE JULY 4th at 11:59pm PST to receive the next shipment. Sign up now at: https://urbanorganicgardener.cratejoy.com
For $10/month our garden experts will build a custom curated collection of seeds & garden supplies designed around you – your grow zone – garden space – and your preferences.
Includes everything you need to grow 5 new edible plant varieties every month – varieties can include herbs, vegetables, flowers, sprouts, micro-greens, bulbs, and more!
Join the rest of the UOG community and get growing now! We promise to make this a great experience for you and your family.
Don’t wait, join the new Urban Organic Gardener’s Monthly Seed Club now! Must join before July 4th at 11:59pm PST to receive the next shipment.
Sign up now at: https://urbanorganicgardener.cratejoy.com
For $10/month our garden experts will build a custom curated collection of seeds & garden supplies designed around you – your grow zone – garden space – and your preferences.
Includes everything you need to grow 5 new edible plant varieties every month – varieties can include herbs, vegetables, flowers, sprouts, micro-greens, bulbs, and more!
Join the rest of the UOG community and get growing now! We promise to make this a great experience for you and your family.
Owner of Brook Landscape in Brooklyn, N.Y., knows all about urban gardening and how to design the perfect “small space” edible landscape.
“The goal is to fabricate an alternative to the reality,” says Mr. Klausing. When you step into a space, “it should offer a sense of transition and change.”
Read all of Mr. Klausing’s urban gardening tips & tricks at: “WSJ.com“
