Category: Frontpage

When Timothy Hammond decided to document his gardening adventures on Instagram, he thought he might attract a few like-minded people who shared his passion for growing food.

Over the past two years, the urban gardener has gradually established a loyal fan base that’s exceeded his expectations for what he considered a hobby account.

But it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that he saw engagement increase at an overwhelming pace.  Hammond has gained more than 10,000 new followers in just the last six weeks, as more people have started thinking about growing their own food.

“People are being forced to take a step back and look at their food system,” he says.

READ THE WHOLE STORY: https://modernfarmer.com/2020/05/growing-mainstream-how-gardeners-are-becoming-the-new-influencers/

The city and the countryside haven’t always seen eye to eye. In fact, the world’s greatest cities define themselves as everything rural areas can’t – vibrant, dynamic, bursting with energy and forward-thinking. But now, millions of urbanites are reconsidering. Greening the city has become an obsession for planners and apartment dwellers alike. But what does it mean for your life? Let’s take a look.

How cities are launching a green revolution

The last year or two have seen an acceleration in the greening of cities, with authorities, companies and individuals all making their mark.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2020/05/25/its-hot-to-be-green-how-urban-gardening-is-taking-over/

Urban gardening is nothing new in Mexico. Lack of space and a growing population led to the invention of chinampas, artificial islands in the lake waters of ancient Mexico City. Today, some of the islands still exist as productive farmland.

The modern concept of reclaiming urban space for agriculture has become popular in Mexico for many of the same reasons as other parts of the world – concerns about the environment, food quality and food availability. It started in the United States, with the victory gardens of World War II, but by the 1980s had spread worldwide.

Mexican urban agricultural organizations are also involved in issues related to genetically modified food, organic farming, food labeling and community building. More recently, Mexico has seen an upsurge of interest in gardening because of Covid-19.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexicolife/urban-gardening-in-mexico/

In Costello Park, the lonely farmer works his fields under the sun.

Thomas Paulsen, of Andover, holds the rototiller’s wide handlebars and plows the dark earth at the urban farm, the largest in a network of community gardens operated by Groundwork Lawrence.

Paulsen then rakes the beds, mounding rows for vegetable seedlings that will become food for Lawrence soup kitchens, pantries and farmers markets.

Ambulance and police sirens wail and cars rumble past, but the farmer hardly hears them. His attention is on readying fields.

In a typical year, schools, children and adults on professional service days would already have volunteered hundreds of hours readying this garden for the growing season.

READ THE FULL STORY: https://www.andovertownsman.com/news/local_news/andover-farmer-works-to-feed-many-at-urban-garden/article_e868683c-4d73-52b0-8103-f78c3f3eb075.html

Agrihood–it sounds like a trendy buzzword from the coffee bars of New York or San Francisco. In fact, that is where it’s from. The term ‘agrihood’ was copyrighted by Rancho Mission Viejo, a Southern California real estate brand. While their agrihood, and others like it are for the super-rich, there’s a new game in town. In 2016, the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative introduced the first urban ‘agrihood’–in a Detroit neighborhood where average home prices are less than $25,000.

If you’re fortunate enough to have your own yard or garden area, you may want to start spending more time in it.

New research from the United Kingdom has found that having access to — and using — a personal patch of greenery is associated with better physical and psychological well-being.

In fact, the increased health benefits from spending time gardening are similar to those seen among people who live in wealthy neighborhoods when compared with those who live in poor ones, the study reports.

Plenty of previous research has suggested that living near urban parks or other public green spaces is associated with improved health. As I’ve noted here before, those potential benefits include a reduced risk of type II diabetes, heart disease and premature death. People living nearer to nature also tend to sleep longer and to have lower levels of stress.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2020/05/having-your-own-garden-and-spending-time-in-it-improves-health-and-well-being-study-suggests/

For New Yorkers looking to plant spring flowers, shrubs, or vegetable seedlings, figuring out which garden centers and nurseries are open — let alone what’s in stock — can be a chore. So to help you navigate the complicated task of buying seeds, plants, pots, soil, and compost in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown, we talked to five NYC plant experts about their favorite local nurseries that are still open, delivering, or offering curbside pickup.

Because they sell edible plants like vegetables and herbs, many of these small businesses have been deemed essential and allowed to stay open. If you do make a trip to buy something in person, remember to follow the same basic rules of social distancing and mask-wearing as you would at the grocery store. To keep your visit quick, George Pisegna, deputy director and chief of horticulture at the Horticulture Society of New York, suggests calling ahead to make sure they have what you are looking for. And if you are having plants delivered, don’t forget to tip generously.

READ THE FULL STORY: https://nymag.com/strategist/2020/05/nyc-garden-nurseries-coronavirus.html

The war gardens of WWI (1914-1918) and victory gardens of WWII (1941-1945) were government initiatives requesting civilians to become “soldiers of the soil” and grow their own fruits and vegetables. European and American farmers were enlisted in the military leaving a void in homeland food production labor. Also transport of food supply across the country or abroad was too costly. Growing one’s own food to support the war effort was deemed as a way to boost morale during a stressful time for families.

In the U.S., millions of rural, urban, and suburban residents turned parks, vacant lots, backyards, rooftops, and schoolyards into food gardens. Government booklets were distributed to citizens detailing how to grow a victory garden with diagrams of four essential kinds of home gardens with square footage and rows of crops—farm, subsistence, backyard or vacant lot, and kitchen garden. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt oversaw a Victory Garden on the front lawn of the White House.

Since school gardens were commonplace in the United States as far back as 1890, especially in large cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the U.S. Bureau of Education enlisted 2.5 million schoolchildren into the U.S. School Garden Army in WWI, producing 48 million dollars worth of wartime food. In WWII, 18- 20 million family and community victory gardens produced 40 percent of the vegetables in the U.S.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.thecolumbiastar.com/articles/victory-gardens-gardening-for-the-homeland/