Urban-style organic gardening blog about growing your own food with limited space and creative resources.
When you join Urban Organic Gardener (UOG) you will be assigned a dedicated Garden Guru. Each month he/she will ship you a customized package for your garden.
We include everything you need. Your seeds and garden supplies are delivered to you at just the right time of the year to plant the seeds. Your package is customized based on your USDA Hardiness Grow Zone – growing medium – location – sunlight specs – and more.
Ready to JOIN? https://urbanorganicgardener.cratejoy.com
“Urban gardening is a growing trend throughout Europe. In the Croatian capital Zagreb, Marijan Butkovic grows microgreens like cress, arugula and cilantro in a highrise. He even delivers his produce to 20 restaurants.”
“The trees had waited a whole year for this. First potted as seedlings last spring, hundreds of them on Saturday got shucked from their small homes and upgraded to roomier accommodations thanks to the efforts of some 25 volunteers celebrating Earth Day. The effort was only the next step, however, in preparing those trees to reforest an overused Delaware campground — they’ll wait out summer in those new pots before getting into the ground in September.”
“I love doing Earth Day activities, and I especially love getting my hands in the soil and working with plants,” said Kristy Northrup, an agriculture graduate student at the University of Delaware.
Read the whole story at: “DelawareOnline.com“
“Urban farming, the name alone may sound a little strange but this unique way of cultivating produce may be the way of the future. Using warehouses and artificial light instead of farmland and the sun an urban farm allows the farmer to control the environment. This can result lower water usage, eliminate the need for herbicides or pesticides and increase the crop yield per square foot.”
Read the original article at: “WTSP.com“
“One hundred miles, give or take, from farm to table, is the ideal maximum distance for produce to be considered local. But there are some companies that are greatly improving on that goal — instead of triple-digit mileage, they’re offering produce that’s grown within just a few miles. Even better, when there’s a short distance involved, delivery happens by bicycle or on foot, eliminating any reliance on fossil fuels.
Traditionally, this type of urban farming takes place in abandoned lots, backyards or parks. But two new East Bay companies are changing up that paradigm.”
Read the rest of the article at: “BerkeleySide.com“
“It started with a lemon tree. Kelly Carlisle didn’t grow up gardening. She didn’t have a windowsill herb garden. She knew about farming, of course, but in her mind there was a disconnect: food just sort of showed up at the grocery store. She worked a corporate job, wearing fancy clothes and heels to work. But she had gotten laid off during the recession, and one day a few years ago, she ended up at a Bay Area nursery with her daughter. They bought a lemon tree, and as it slowly started to flourish, so did Carlisle’s interest in gardening.”
Read the REST of the ARTICLE at: “WWW.KQED.org“
“Meet Brian Blum, a busy dad with a full time corporate job, who still makes time to create a sustainable paradise in San Diego. He has a small house on a small lot, but manages to do a lot with it. He grows healthy, organic food for his family and has planted close to 20 fruit trees, which are part of his permaculture food forest. In his aquaponics system, he raises fish and plants in a symbiotic relationship. Southern California suffers from drought, so he uses water wisely by harvesting rainwater, and reuses it by sending the water from his washing machine and sinks to his garden. His house is run 100% by the solar panels on his roof, and he composts everything he can to increase the fertility of his land and keep waste from the landfill. Almost everything he makes is out of reused materials. There’s even an off grid tiny house made from mostly recycled materials, and an outdoor compost toilet to turn his own waste into nutritious soil. He wants a world where his daughter can grow up and experience the same beauty he has, and he’s leading the way towards a happy, healthy earth through his simple daily actions.”
To learn more about Brian Blum go to:
https://www.facebook.com/OceanBeachPe…
“It’s therapeutic in a way,” Sioco explained. “Psychiatrists recommend this type of hobby to depressed patients, kasi looking at green things make you more calm.”
“…maintaining even just a small garden for people with more hectic schedules. Watering and sunlight, he said, are the usual problems. “Usually they don’t have time to water every day.”
Read the FULL STORY at: “GMANetwork.com“
“At first glance, the urban Atlanta neighborhood of Washington Park doesn’t seem a likely place for an organic farm. But at the corner of Lawton Street and Westview Drive in west Atlanta, the non-profit organization Truly Living Well’snew Collegetown Garden brims with organic cabbages, kale, turnips, beets, carrots and more, all thriving in tidy rows of planter boxes. Pear, plum and apple trees blossom radiantly in the early spring sun, and a busy hive of honeybees buzzes away nearby.”
“This can really be a lighthouse for nutrition for this neighborhood,” says Mario Cambardella, the City of Atlanta’s first director of urban agriculture. Some might zero in on the signs of urban neglect and decay just outside the garden gates, but Cambardella is quick to point out the historic homes, the nearby elementary school and, on a street-facing the end of Truly Living Well’s new garden, the site of a future farmers’ market for the food being grown there.
“This is really building the local food economy. Urban agriculture can really transform a community.”
Read the FULL STORY at: “MyAJC.com“
“Finley is nationally renowned for his efforts to cultivate sustainable food gardens in underserved neighborhoods. He’s traveled the country helping other communities replicate his successes, and this week he’s sharing his experiences with Pensacola-area students, service providers and citizens.”
“The same problems you guys have been having, with health problems and food insecurity, are all over the United States,” Finley told a group of service providers Tuesday at the United Way of Escambia County.
To read the FULL STORY, visit: “PNJ.com“
“Freight Farms started in 2010 with the goal of bringing viable, space-efficient farming techniques to all climates and skill levels year-round. It recently expanded to Arizona.
The cars are not cheap. Each container — the kind commonly seen on trains, trucks or ships — costs $85,000, not including shipping. Freight Farms calculates annual profit for each container to be an average of $39,000 annually.”
To read the entire story, visit: “USAToday.com“
“The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) announced today that it would be transforming a blighted home into a 16,000 gallon water cistern. The home was torn down to reveal the foundation, which will be used to capture rain water.
According to a press release, “it will prevent water run-off into Detroit’s sewer system, reduce the reliance on the grid, and irrigate MUFI’s adjacent two-acre urban farm.”
Read the WHOLE STORY at: “MetroTimes.com“
“Meet Hilary Kearney of Girl Next Door Honey, a local hero for the struggling honeybees across the USA. Bee populations have been on the decline for decades due to pesticides, loss of habitat, and climate change. Hilary is working to raise San Diego’s bee population and spread awareness among her community. She rescues bees, teaches about them, photographs, and manages 90 colonies of bees! When bees make a hive or swarm where they are unwanted, a pest control company usually exterminates them. But not if Hilary has anything to do with it! She rescues the bees and relocates them to a place where they can lead happy, healthy lives. Most of the bees she rescues are put into a bee friendly backyard as part of her Host-A-Hive program, so people can benefit from bees in their own backyard while Hilary does the maintenance and work. She’s created a network of over 30 backyard hives all over San Diego, and sells the backyard honey locally so she can rescue more bees and teach more people! She teaches hundreds of new beekeepers each year with classes and workshops on sustainable, natural beekeeping.”
Inspired to be a part of the solution to help the honeybees in your community? Here’s what you can do:
-Plant a variety of bee friendly flowers in your yard
-Don’t use any pesticides in your garden, lawn, or house
-Buy real, local honey from a bee keeper
-Don’t exterminate bees, Have them rescued instead
video via: Rob Greenfield, You-tube
“The College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs is embarking on a project to demonstrate one of UTA’s Strategic Plan 2020 themes — Sustainable Urban Communities.
The Urban Farming Project consists of three components: Urban Farm, Farm-to-Table Café and Urban Farming Certificate.
The project was a result of gathering input from students, architecture dean Nan Ellin said. The No. 1 request was for a café where students can meet, eat and study, she said.”
Read more about this project at: “TheShortHorn.com“
“They’ve been, in my view, over-taxed as long as they’ve been farming,” Hucker said. “They are not taxed as a farm, which they are. They’re taxed as a single-family home. They’re not eligible for the agricultural tax credit because of an arbitrary rule of state law that says farms have to be over five acres.”
The bill applies to properties ranging in size from one-half acre to less than three acres that are also located in or within 1,000 feet of a Metro Station Policy Area.
Read more about this new TAX Break at: “SourceOfTheSpring.com“
Happy Spring! It’s FINALLY HERE! Time to start planting your spring and summer gardens, regardless of where you live or what type of space you have to work with.When you join the UOG Seed & Garden Club, you are joining a community dedicated to helping you grow organic food all-year-round.
“Urban agriculture – the cultivation of crops and animals in an urban environment – is known to increase access to healthy food. It is particularly important for poorer people in cities where food is mainly accessed through cash purchases. Healthy fresh fruit and vegetables are more expensive per kilogramme than many of the processed foods. But these are low in fibre and high in artificial flavouring.
In many African cities, urban agriculture is one of the main ways that fresh produce is supplied to local markets. For example in Dakar, Kinshasa and Accra almost all the leafy greens you can buy are grown in the city itself.
While urban agriculture in Cape Town, South Africa, might not play as significant a role in the city’s food system overall, the 6,000 urban farmers who are growing their own food and selling surplus on Cape Town’s Cape Flats find it an irreplaceable part of their livelihoods.”
Read the FULL ARTICLE at: “FruitNet.com“
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