Archive for April, 2010

Some interesting perspectives on the environmental movement over the last 40 years.  It seems to me that this process of “rediscovery” of urban agriculture is actually a movement pack to what has worked in the past so successfully.  As we look back over time, I think that the past 50 years of living will be seen as merely a blip – a bad experiment – in how we organize our cities in terms of agriculture, housing, transportation, etc. Los Angeles Times Washington Post Muncie Star Press Star Ledger

I know that posts have been inconsistent these past 2 weeks – I’ve been traveling for work and putting in long days.  I did have one day back in DC to check out my garden before heading out on my current trip.  The garden was doing great, and I harvested my first batch of lettuce.  We enjoyed it on some black bean tacos.  I’m sure there will be more to harvest when I return to DC!

I’m pleased to welcome Pat Doyle as contributor to Grown in the City.  Pat is a professional journalist from the Denver area who writes about pressing urban planning issues such as the growing water crisis in the western United States.  He’s an avid biker, urban gardener, and the country boy that educated this city boy on how to shoot a potato gun, enjoy venison steak, and tie a proper knot. Pat will be writing about a variety of issues for Grown in the City, including small plot planting gardening, Do It Yourself projects, and home-brewing.  You can read Pat’s work from 5280, Men’s Journal, American Cowboy, and others at www.patrickcdoyle.com.

If you’re living in the city, you’re well aware of its joys: loads of restaurants, bars, theaters, sports teams, jobs, and people crammed together into a creative, vibrant urban ecosystem. The vitality, though, created by having all those amenities so close together means that space is at a premium. (In Manhattan, where real estate is still going for more than $1,000 per square feet, post-recession, there’s a crazy high premium.) So, you’re not going to be planting an orchard or enough crops to feed in the city. (Unless you’re these folks: http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/) That being said, you can still coax a load of produce out of a few pots on your rooftop or your backyard—John, for example, has 3 pots on his D.C. deck, while I have nine large pots tucked next to my fencepost in my postage-stamp-sized yard in Denver. With that little space, planning is essential. Tossing seeds around

I recieved this email from rom Stephanie Chiorean, a classmate and collaborator of mine at Penn, and thought I’d help spread the word for a really good cause: Hello Friends, As many of you may know, I am on the board of the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP). The Philadelphia Orchard Project plants orchards in the city of Philadelphia that grow healthy food, green spaces and community food security.  Since 2007,  we have planted 17 orchards and have 8 planting events planned for this spring.  Check out our website for more information. POP has been picked as one of five finalists for our category in the Green Heroes Grant Program (sponsored by Green Works). The first place grant is for $15,000 and runners-up will receive $5,000. We are currently in First Place!  Please help us stay there. We need your help to fund new orchards in the city of Philadelphia: please,

I apologize for the lack of posts lately – I’ve been in New Orleans for the 2010 National Planning Conference, and I’d rather be attending great sessions and touring projects than in the hotel room updating the blog!  I’ll have a few days to digest all the information, but expect some great posts on a Sustainable Schoolyard in City Park; a freedom garden in Donaldsonville, Louisiana; and a report from a session on urban agriculture that featured Heather Wooten and Joanne Berkenkamp.

George Ballser writes an article about how a new Binghamton, New York non-profit is turning two vacant lots into urban farms, and selling shares in a Community Supported Agriculture project.  The article in itself is promising, but it was a comment that really got me thinking: Commenter realjournalism wrote: OMG! You have got to be kidding me. Don’t these people know that just outside the city limits, about 5 minutes away, there is thousands of acres available for farming.. why would anyone take city property to grow a garden? I sure hope this isn’t some non-profit group and they better be collecting and paying sales tax on those tomatoes!! Initially, I didn’t really know how to react to this statement.  Perhaps the commenter had some good points – there IS land outside the city boundaries that could probably be used for farming.  And what about the sales tax question?  Urban