November 5, 2012
Growing Everything but Gardeners “In an ideal situation, we would have gardens with everyone in the community participating,” Ms. McPherson said. “But in fact, a few die-hard people end up carrying the flag.” You’re not the first one to walk by a vacant, overgrown lot and think to yourself, “Why haven’t they turned this into a community garden?!” But while the urban gardening movement may be getting truckloads of press as of late, there’s a kink in the green push that isn’t being addressed: a lack of actual gardeners. I’m not talking about NYBG-certified landscape architects or experienced upstate farmers. Just everyday New Yorkers who are willing to get their hands dirty in cleaning up, planting, and caring for the many spaces in the city that could be supplying food and community to neighborhoods that need it. Or, for that matter, the plots that are already being gardened. This is an interesting read for those who have the aspirations, but maybe not the staying power (yet), to add a true mandate to the gardening movement. If you’re a Bronxite who wants to make a difference, you can check out our Bronx Green-Up initiative, working to help local New Yorkers with technical assistance, horticultural advice, and the gardening training needed to keep that revitalized plot from sinking back into a sea of weeds. —MN (Photo credit: Robert Wright)

Growing Everything but Gardeners

“In an ideal situation, we would have gardens with everyone in the community participating,” Ms. McPherson said. “But in fact, a few die-hard people end up carrying the flag.”

You’re not the first one to walk by a vacant, overgrown lot and think to yourself, “Why haven’t they turned this into a community garden?!” But while the urban gardening movement may be getting truckloads of press as of late, there’s a kink in the green push that isn’t being addressed: a lack of actual gardeners.

I’m not talking about NYBG-certified landscape architects or experienced upstate farmers. Just everyday New Yorkers who are willing to get their hands dirty in cleaning up, planting, and caring for the many spaces in the city that could be supplying food and community to neighborhoods that need it. Or, for that matter, the plots that are already being gardened. This is an interesting read for those who have the aspirations, but maybe not the staying power (yet), to add a true mandate to the gardening movement.

If you’re a Bronxite who wants to make a difference, you can check out our Bronx Green-Up initiative, working to help local New Yorkers with technical assistance, horticultural advice, and the gardening training needed to keep that revitalized plot from sinking back into a sea of weeds. —MN

(Photo credit: Robert Wright)

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(Notes: 49)
  
Filed under: gardening urban gardening urban agriculture Bronx Green-Up NYC New York 
July 28, 2012
In Rooftop Farming, New York City Emerges as a Leader - NYTimes.com

The idea of situating a rooftop farm directly above the Hunts Point vegetable markets is sheer genius. ~AR

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(Notes: 21)
  
Filed under: Rooftop Farms The Bronx Urban Agriculture 
May 14, 2012
Shrinking Violets They Aren’t What speaks to you like a sunflower? There’s a cheerfulness to them that can’t be ignored—original garden kitsch, topping plastic flamingos and gnomes any day. And Brooklyn’s urban farmers know the value of those big, bright faces all too well. “They’re a really iconic way to make people notice that you’re trying to make a change in the community,” says Deborah Greig, coordinator at East New York Farms. Along with her fellow gardeners, she’s using sunflowers to make a vacant lot just a little more friendly. —MN

Shrinking Violets They Aren’t

What speaks to you like a sunflower? There’s a cheerfulness to them that can’t be ignored—original garden kitsch, topping plastic flamingos and gnomes any day. And Brooklyn’s urban farmers know the value of those big, bright faces all too well.

“They’re a really iconic way to make people notice that you’re trying to make a change in the community,” says Deborah Greig, coordinator at East New York Farms. Along with her fellow gardeners, she’s using sunflowers to make a vacant lot just a little more friendly. —MN

11:57am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZV1L5yLTOXLh
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(Notes: 39)
  
Filed under: sunflower urban agriculture gardening Brooklyn New York City NYC 
March 27, 2012
Are These the Tiniest Microfarms of them All? — New York City Artist Grows Food Inside Furniture Jenna Spevack’s home gardening designs fall in range of unconventional. Open a small travel case in her living room and you’ll find yourself staring at a plush crop of parsley, for example. But her ideas on what can make for a miniature “farm plot” of microgreens are changing the outlook of the average apartment agriculturist. No longer is the fire escape the most viable option for the home gardener in the city. With Spevack’s creative sub-irrigation system in place, steamer trunks and bookshelves become functional greenhouses. Now she’s pushing the idea forward not only as a means of spreading the benefits of growing your own food, but of supporting urban ag’ nonprofits in and around New York City. Click through to the full story for info on Jenna’s charitable greens project, as well as the Kickstarter she’s hosting which might land you a growing system of your own. —MN

Are These the Tiniest Microfarms of them All? — New York City Artist Grows Food Inside Furniture

Jenna Spevack’s home gardening designs fall in range of unconventional. Open a small travel case in her living room and you’ll find yourself staring at a plush crop of parsley, for example. But her ideas on what can make for a miniature “farm plot” of microgreens are changing the outlook of the average apartment agriculturist. No longer is the fire escape the most viable option for the home gardener in the city.

With Spevack’s creative sub-irrigation system in place, steamer trunks and bookshelves become functional greenhouses. Now she’s pushing the idea forward not only as a means of spreading the benefits of growing your own food, but of supporting urban ag’ nonprofits in and around New York City. Click through to the full story for info on Jenna’s charitable greens project, as well as the Kickstarter she’s hosting which might land you a growing system of your own. —MN

12:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZV1L5yIembP1
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(Notes: 1,651)
  
Filed under: urban agriculture gardening 
March 4, 2012

Goats come up as a topic of conversation more often than is reasonable here in the office. I’m not sure why that is. [Ed. note: It’s because your boss is obsessed with goats ~ AR] But some sprinkling of serendipity on today’s Tumblr trolling has rendered unto us this hybrid of both goat and garden—prime reblog fodder if I say so myself.

If you can’t handle business jargon and the ongoing psychoanalysis of a Portland population exposed to its own unwitting biophilia, there are at least a lot of pictures of goats eating weeds to stare at. —MN

knowurbanis:

GOAT-DRIVEN MAINTENANCE // ARTICLE 1 / 2 / 3  

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Filed under: goats urban agriculture so many goats 
January 9, 2012
Todmorden Takes Its Food Into Its Own Hands I’m big on urban gardening (as you’ve probably guessed from my endless posts on the subject). There’s something so incredibly gratifying about the first bite of a fruit or vegetable you grew from seed. For me it’s heirloom peppers—anything terrifyingly spicy that you only eat whole on a dare. But one town in the U.K. is taking the idea of the urban garden and punching it into the stratosphere. In Todmorden, landscaping has launched beyond aesthetic and into the realm of the functional, meaning they’ve planted potatoes at the police station. And broccoli at the train station, greens near the waterway, and fennel alongside the old house on the hill. The best part—it’s all free. Click through for a story on edible self-sufficiency that might have you rethinking the pitiful flower bed outside your apartment building. — MN

Todmorden Takes Its Food Into Its Own Hands

I’m big on urban gardening (as you’ve probably guessed from my endless posts on the subject). There’s something so incredibly gratifying about the first bite of a fruit or vegetable you grew from seed. For me it’s heirloom peppers—anything terrifyingly spicy that you only eat whole on a dare.

But one town in the U.K. is taking the idea of the urban garden and punching it into the stratosphere. In Todmorden, landscaping has launched beyond aesthetic and into the realm of the functional, meaning they’ve planted potatoes at the police station. And broccoli at the train station, greens near the waterway, and fennel alongside the old house on the hill. The best part—it’s all free.

Click through for a story on edible self-sufficiency that might have you rethinking the pitiful flower bed outside your apartment building. — MN

12:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZV1L5yEW5yyu
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(Notes: 11)
  
Filed under: Todmorden urban agriculture gardening 
December 22, 2011
China's Growing Urban Population Sprouts Urban Farms

New Yorkers aren’t the only ones taking advantage of rooftops and balconies! This Urban Gardens article shows that urban agriculture is springing up around the world as lifelong farmers and ambitious amateurs bring a greener touch to city life.

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(Notes: 32)
  
Filed under: urban agriculture gardens gardening China 
December 12, 2011
The New Agtivist: Edith Floyd is making a Detroit urban farm, empty lot by empty lot

Edith's Greens

“Well, I’m not doing this just to make money! I’m doing this because I love it. I love to see things grow from seeds.”

Edith Floyd is a part of Detroit’s growing urban agriculture scene, reclaiming the Motor City one vacant lot at a time. Grist’s candid interview with the resourceful resident of 37 years details a movement challenged not only by the land, but by the red tape surrounding it.

Check out this article from NPR for more info on “blotting” in Detroit.

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(Notes: 8)
  
Filed under: urban agriculture urban garden Detroit 
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