Urban-style organic gardening blog about growing your own food with limited space and creative resources.
What is Vermicomposting?
Vermicomposting is the process of transforming organic waste into fertilizers with the help of nature’s gardeners- composting worms!
Spring will officially be here on March 20th and whether there’s still snow out where you are, or it’s already feeling like summer… Spring is a great time of year to start working on a few things in the gardening department.
In March, in addition to starting seeds indoors, gardeners with cold frames (see season extension techniques) may use them either to start an early crop of greens (especially spinach) or to start plants like broccoli that will later get transplanted outside the cold frame.
Each grow zone will be a little bit different when Spring finally does roll around, so we encourage you to do what you can and what the weather is permitting in your unique location.
Below is a list of chores that we’ve compiled to help give you some things to start thinking about this time of year.
During the partial federal shutdown in December and January, news reports showed furloughed government workers standing in line for donated meals. These images were reminders that for an estimated one out of eight Americans, food insecurity is a near-term risk.
In California, where I teach, 80 percent of the population lives in cities. Feeding the cities of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, with a total population of some 7 million, involves importing 2.5 to 3 million tons of food per day over an average distance of 500 to 1,000 miles (PDF).
This system requires enormous amounts of energy and generates significant greenhouse gas emissions. It also is extremely vulnerable to large-scale disruptions, such as major earthquakes.
And the food it delivers fails to reach one out of every eight people in the region who live under the poverty line — mostly senior citizens, children and minorities. Access to quality food is limited both by poverty and the fact that on average, California’s low-income communities have 32.7 percent fewer supermarkets than high-income areas (PDF) within the same cities.
READ THE STORY https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-urban-agriculture-could-improve-food-security-us-cities
Family-owned farms are decreasing as community gardens and urban agriculture find their footing in a world of food ethics.
In Arizona, it is not atypical to see farmland sold for urban development. Arcadia, a neighborhood located 10 miles from ASU’s downtown Phoenix campus, was originally known for its citrus groves before the land was sold for development.
Similarly, the ASU Polytechnic campus hosts the Morrison School of Agribusiness, which was given its name to honor ASU alumni Marvin and June Morrison, who donated farmland to the school in 1998.
David King, an assistant professor in the School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning, said larger farms may be suffering from a shifting economy that relies less on citrus and more on housing.
READ THE STORY http://www.statepress.com/article/2019/02/spcommunity-urban-agriculture-may-uproot-traditional-farms-in-world-of-food-ethics
Home-grown vegetables are only as good as their soil and environment. For urban gardeners, that can be a challenge.
“In food deserts and other areas where people don’t have access to food, they take matters into their own hands through urban gardening,” said Ahkinyala Cobb-Abdullah, an associate professor of environmental science and ecology at Virginia Union University.
“We encourage people to get out and get into the soil to grow their own food, but there can possibly be metal toxicity in plants grown in urban gardens,” said Cobb-Abdullah, whose doctorate is in environmental science.
Duron Chavis, the manager of community engagement at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, echoed Cobb-Abdullah’s concerns.
“Many Richmond homes that were built in the 1920s and ’30s were torn down,” Chavis said. “They were hauled away, but they may have already leached asbestos and lead into the soil.”
READ THE STORY https://www.richmond.com/life/home-garden/urban-gardens-healthy-or-harmful/article_134cba9d-31fa-514f-ba53-843baf864c9c.html
TEMECULA – City dwellers may once have thought that gardening was a hobby for suburbanites or those living in rural areas. But urban gardening has grown in popularity as more and more city folk have looked for ways to increase their access to healthy, low-cost produce.
Urban agriculture may seem like a relatively new idea, but according to National Geographic, it actually dates back to the 19th century, when former Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree devised a plan to help the city’s unemployed laborers during a period of economic crisis. Pingree developed an idea to use acres of vacant and idle lands throughout the city to create subsistence gardens. Begun in 1894, the program would peak in 1897 with the participation of more than 1,500 families. The program would taper by 1901 as the economy improved, but there’s no denying the relative success of the mayor’s program.
The Elizabeth Street Garden’s paved paths meander around a granite balustrade from the early 20th century, limestone lion statues, benches and beds of roses and daffodils.
For years, the half-acre of green grass and leafy trees, tucked in between Spring and Prince Streets in Manhattan, has been a lush backdrop for fashion shows, photo shoots, games of hopscotch and quiet afternoons.
But the city plans to sell the land soon to build a seven-story, 123-apartment elevator building for low-income seniors.
The plans have spurred a clash in the neighborhood, turning the garden in Little Italy into a quintessential New York City power struggle that pits two of the city’s scarcest resources — affordable housing and green spaces — against each other.
READ THE STORY https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/nyregion/garden-little-italy-senior-housing.html
1. If it’s getting cold and you have tomatoes still ripening on the vine — save your tomatoes! Pull the plants up and bring them inside to a warm dry place. Hang them up, and the tomatoes will ripen on the vine.
2. Companion planting is an excellent way to improve your garden. Some plants replenish nutrients lost by another one, and some combinations effectively keep pests away.
3. Paint the handles of your gardens tools a bright, color other than green to help you find them amongst your plants. You can also keep a mailbox in your garden for easy tool storage.
4. Compost needs time to integrate and stabilize in the soil. Apply two to three weeks prior to planting.
5. There is an easy way to mix compost into your soil without a lot of back-breaking work: Spread the compost over your garden in the late fall, after all the harvesting is done. Cover with a winter mulch such as hay or chopped leaves and let nature take its course. By spring, the melting snow and soil organisms will have worked the compost in for you.
READ THE OTHER 20 TIPS HERE: https://www.planetnatural.com/vegetable-gardening-guru/tips/
I am jumping on the companion gardening bandwagon with both feet this year. I have experimented with companion planting in small ways in my gardens over the last several seasons and I am 100 percent convinced that the system is the way to go.
The basic idea behind companion planting is as simple as it is sensible: many plants grow better near some comrades than they do near other plants or when alone. By itself companion planting your garden will not work miracles but applied in a well-maintained garden, it can produce startling results. It sure has for me. It can drastically improve the use of space, reduce the number of weeds and garden pests, and provide protection from both heat and wind, two problems I run into every year. So, as far as I am concerned, in my vegetable garden, this all adds up to getting me what I really want: increased yield.
I will be employing companion planting in my vegetable gardens, but it can also be used when flower gardening and in full-scale farm fields. In fact, some of the most familiar examples come from farming, where it’s a long-standing practice to sow vetch or some other legume in the fall after the harvest. This cover crop provides erosion control through storms and supplies both nitrogen and organic material to the soil when it is plowed under in spring. Most such crops themselves need a helper, known as a nurse crop, usually, a grain that is sown along with the legume. The grain provides weed control while the legume gets established, and helps protect the legume from both wind and the weight of snow.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/features/growth-gardening-companion-gardening
Houseplants make a wonderful addition to our home’s décor and improve the indoor air quality. Those with pets, however, may struggle with keeping plants safe from curious pets and the pets safe from indoor greenery.
The good news is you can grow an indoor garden even when you own pets. Yes, some do love to dig in the soil or even eat our favorite houseplants, but with proper plant selection and planning, you can keep your pets safe while enjoying an indoor garden.
Start by selecting plants that are safe for your pets. Consult the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals website for a list of pet-safe plants to grow and toxic plants you should avoid. This will reduce your anxiety by helping you create an indoor green space safe for your pets.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/belmar-slash-lake-como/articles/pet-friendly-indoor-gardening-477c2881-e5be-4de5-bace-0397f405593c
COIMBATORE: A piece of open space reserved (OSR) land near a busy residential area at Thudiyalur, which was overgrown with thorny bushes and stinking of garbage, is now producing organic vegetables, thanks to a city-based NGO.
Local residents, who used to avoid the place at any cost, now find a stroll through the vegetable garden refreshing.
NGO Helping Hearts had signed a memorandum of understanding with the city corporation to convert the 50-cent land at VKL Nagar into a vegetable garden one-and-a-half-year ago.
READ THE FULL STORY: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/ngo-turns-urban-wasteland-into-flourishing-vegetable-garden/articleshow/68143208.cms
If you’ve always wanted to start your own herb or vegetable garden but don’t have the yard space or the “green thumb” to pull it off, there’s now another option. The OGarden Smart is an indoor gardening system that grows up to 90 plants at one time—20 of which are edible.
Strawberries, celery, kale, bok choy, green beans, cayenne pepper, green onion, and cherry tomatoes are just a few of the fruits and veggies the OGarden can grow. Up to 30 growing cups can be placed in a lower cabinet, where the seeds are allowed to germinate. Once they sprout, the plants can then be transferred to the rotating wheel up above, which holds up to 60 plants at a time. It takes about 30 to 40 days to harvest the produce, depending on the type of plant grown.
The system is self-watering and uses automatic LED lights to provide the right amount of sunlight, no matter what season it is. The only work that’s required is planting the seeds and refilling the water tank once a week.
LEARN MORE: http://mentalfloss.com/article/574691/grow-90-fruits-and-vegetables-your-house-auto-watering-indoor-garden
Milwaukee’s past is often seen through the lens of industry and big factories, but “Growing Place: A Visual Study of Urban Farming,” now at MSOE’s Grohmann Museum, shows there were more ways to grow a city. Milwaukee was a frontrunner in gardening dating back to the late 1800s, laying the groundwork for the urban farm visionaries of today.
Guest curators Michael Carriere, assistant professor at MSOE’s Humanities, Social Science and Communications Department, and David Schalliol, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at St. Olaf College, gathered a collection of photographs, documents, signs, posters and farm tools to tell Milwaukee’s agricultural story. Items were acquired from UW-Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Library, the Milwaukee County Historical Society and individuals.
“Growing Place” was born out of a broader project Carriere had been involved with, which studied placemaking (a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design, and management of public spaces) following the Great Recession, and how cities try to bounce back from severe financial crisis.
READ THE FULL STORY: https://shepherdexpress.com/food/eat-drink/growing-place-sheds-light-on-history-of-growing-food-in-milw/
East Side youth nonprofit Urban Roots will spend 2019 celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The urban agriculture organization will kick off celebrations with an event at Summit Brewing Company, 910 Montreal Circle in St. Paul, on Wednesday, March 6, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
The organization has grown substantially over the past half-century, starting with one small garden and expanding to include not only gardening but conservation and wellness to its programming.
Today, Urban Roots has three main programs for high school students: the Market Garden program, where students grow and sell produce; conservation, which involves students working on a number of natural resources projects on the East Side; and Cook Fresh, a healthy eating and wellness program.
With each program, not only are students getting job experience, they’re also learning leadership skills, self-development and about possible future careers, said Patsy Noble, executive director of the organization.
READ MORE: http://www.lillienews.com/articles/2019/02/25/urban-roots-celebrating-50th-anniversary
Gardening can seem like a daunting task. When do you plant? What should you plant in your area? How can you effectively grow produce? When you start asking the questions, it may become too overwhelming to tackle. But don’t walk away from the idea of a balcony overflowing with greenery just yet, because the team at The Green Conspiracy understands your angst.
The template allows the user to list what was planted and then chart the plant growth in order to keep a record of problems, timelines, and harvests. The goal is not only to identify problems early but also to produce a record that will provide information for successful subsequent planting seasons. Another section of the planner actually includes a planting calendar, so you can organize when seeds or plants should go into the ground.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS: https://inhabitat.com/this-garden-planner-makes-urban-gardening-easy/
As part of its growing support for urban agriculture, the Recreation and Park Department plans to launch a new garden resource center in the southeast part of San Francisco to provide supplies, plant starters, and advice for community gardeners.
The site would include a fruit tree nursery, orchard space, and space for managed beehives.
Mei Ling Hui, Rec and Park’s program manager of community gardens and urban agriculture, told the Recreation and Parks Commission about the plans for the center Thursday when presenting an annual report on the department’s Urban Agriculture Program.
The center would have demonstration plant beds, a greenhouse to grow plant starts to give away to gardeners and a station for experienced gardeners to give all sorts of gardening advice.
READ THE FULL STORY: http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-plans-launch-urban-agriculture-resource-center-community-gardeners/
In a world faced with the conundrum of mountains of waste and obesity for some and dire shortages and malnutrition for others, the future of food is the main dish on today’s global menu.
A key ingredient is a trend in ever more imaginative forms towards urban agriculture, a multi-faceted recipe already being pored over by some 800 million people globally, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
The trend takes many forms—from collective market gardens in even the most run-down of urban districts to connected vertical farms using indoor farming techniques to meet spiraling food demand in areas largely bereft of arable land.
The FAO wants to see the trend prosper and become durable and sustainably embedded within public policy.
Yves Christol, of French cooperative In Vivo, has identified six models of the genre.
They include a key European variant, electronically managed without recourse to pesticide—or even soil or sunshine.
Read more: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-urban-agriculture-viable-durable.html
Some children garden at the knee of their parents or grandparents, and by the time they are young adults and ready to start their own plant adventures, a lot of the horticulture comes naturally.
But such lucky people are thinner on the ground than in previous generations, I suspect, even though there has never been a more urgent time to introduce younger folks to the power of the plant kingdom, given the issues of climate change.
Insects are important wildlife often overlooked in urban habitats. What we do notice are the cockroaches, ants, and mosquitoes in and around our homes. All too often we reach for the insect spray.
But not all insects are pests – a wide variety of them help keep our cities healthy. They pollinate plants, feed other wildlife, recycle our rubbish, and eat other insect pests. Insects are vital to our well-being.
Unfortunately, like many other wild animals, insects are under threat. A recent study warned that 40% of the world’s insect species face the prospect of extinction, amid threats such as climate change, habitat loss, and humanity’s overenthusiastic use of synthetic chemicals.
Australians use large amounts of pesticides to tackle creepy crawlies in their homes and gardens. But our fondness for fly spray has potentially serious impacts on urban ecosystems and public health.
READ MORE AT: https://phys.org/news/2019-02-bugs-chemical-warfare.html
“The biggest risks for soil contamination are in urban areas, and former industrial sites,” writes Lauren Svejcar, a researcher at Murdoch University. “Common contaminants in urban soils include pesticides, petroleum products, radon, asbestos, lead, chromated copper arsenate, and creosote.”
Svejcar has specific tips for gardeners. “Urban gardens are usually a good idea, but it’s best to know your soil. Many vegetables and herbs can absorb contaminants as they grow. That puts you at risk if you eat them. Also, vegetables and herbs can have dust on them coming from contaminated soil. If not properly washed, you could ingest the contaminants. Some garden beds may also be lined with chemically treated wood. If you did not build your garden beds yourself, it’s best to test your soil because the chemicals can leach into the garden soil.”
READ THE ARTICLE: https://www.newswise.com/articles/what-are-soil-contaminants-and-how-did-soil-get-contaminated