Archive for March, 2010

Garden Organic, a UK charity, is challenging UK residents to grow something edible for the first time through their One Pot Pledge® program.   The organization, which started in 1958, is “Dedicated to promoting organic gardening in homes, communities and schools,” and “uses innovation and inspiration to get more people growing in the most sustainable way.” They offer support through “gardening gurus” to help first timers have a positive experience.  They also partner with schools on educational projects for children.  Does anyone know if we have something similar in the United States?  I think this is a fantastic idea.

In an earlier post, I touched on urban greening and gardening as a key component of a livable community strategy.  From the urban planning perspective (by nature a comprehensive one) any sort of “sustainability strategy” should focus on the triple bottom line of economics, environment, and equity (social justice).  However, it should come as no surprise that in our country we often place the most weight on the first “e” – economics.  And some “down-and-out” communities are using urban greening as an economic development opportunity. In the current economic downturn, and certainly, during the economic restructuring of the past decades, Flint, Michigan has certainly been hard hit.  Beata Mostafi from the Flint Journal tells the tale of the synergy between urban greening and economic development in an article entitled “Project envisions turning urban lot into greenhouse for Hoffman’s deli”. The University of Michigan-Flint is incorporating food systems planning into their revitalization of an historic

The American Planning Association’s March 2010 issue of Zoning Practice deals with zoning for urban agriculture.  If you are an APA member, and serious about urban agriculture, you must check it out.  Written by Nina Mukherji and Alfonso Morales, and edited by my colleagues Jim Schwab, AICP and David Morley, AICP, its one of the most accessible documents out there on how to put many of these ideas into practice through zoning. While I can’t post the document here in its entirety, I’ll be unpacking some of the ideas contained within over the next few weeks.

The past fifty years have seen the transition from a manufacturing economy to an information and service economy.  Concurrently, market preferences, policy decisions, and economic growth led to the expansion of the suburbs – then exurbs – and the decline of central cities.  Only recently have we again learned to value central cities and urban living. As concepts such has smart growth gained traction in the 1990s, planners, economists, and community organizers developed a variety of revitalization strategies.  Organizations like Smart Growth America and the National Vacant Properties Campaign have been promoting and researching smart growth concepts, and the benefits have been paying off: the Obama Administration’s Interagency Partnership for Livable Communities incorporates many of the concepts of sustainability, walkability, economic opportunity, affordable housing, and transportation choice.  But what role does urban gardening, food systems planning, and public health have in this promising initiative? It seems for now, the partnership is focused mainly

If you’ve never gardened before, you might be intimidated by all of the supplies at your local supermarket or garden shop.  You really only need a few things to start seeds.  A container, soil, water, and the seeds.  That said, to increase your chances of success, there are several things you can do.  Here’s a step by step guide to starting seeds in a way that has proven successful for me in the past. I usually start with coconut coir.  It’s a fiber extracted from the shell of a coconut, and they compress it into tiny pellets that expand when you soak them in water.  It comes in a variety of sizes, and while I usually like to get a brick of the stuff, unfortunately my local gardening store only had these pellets.  You can plant directly in the pellet, but as you will see, I removed the netting so

Like many cities have been recently doing, Detroit is looking to urban agriculture in it’s toolbox of revitalization and economic development strategies.  Nancy Kaffer of Crain’s Business Journal does an excellent job of boiling down the issues and opportunities for the post-industrial city. “Detroit doesn’t have agricultural zoning, and so far urban agriculture projects have operated under the radar, according to an Urban Agriculture Working Group draft report delivered to the Detroit City Council last week by the City Planning Commission. Policy measures in the working group’s draft report include the creation of an agricultural zoning designation and a reduced tax rate for urban farms or gardens.” How will the plan be actually implemented?  As mentioned in APA’s Zoning Practice, there are various intensities of urban agriculture.  Planners in Detroit are savvy enough to recognize the need for a multi-pronged approach.  Kathryn Lynch Underwood of the planning commission is quoted

It may be cool and rainy in DC, but this photo by Grown in the City flickr group member BardickMusic is a reminder that summer is just around the corner. I love the rowhouses in the background!