Down On The Urban Farm

I found an interesting article in the Eugene Oregon Register Guard, commenting on the the movement to urban farming. It mentioned a subject that I've seen little discussion of: Urban Farming's learning curve:

While some vegetables, like salad greens, are nearly effortless, others, like celery, present a challenge. New gardeners often don’t what it takes for a plant to survive, said Ryan Schmitt, greenhouse manager at The Flower Bin in Longmont, Colo. “Most people get the water thing, but sun and food, they often forget.”

One of the things I'm urging Farmer Greg to do is to write more articles here in this blog that describe exactly how to grow certain fruits and vegetables.

There areclasses you can attend. Gardener's Eden on Baseline Road here in Phoenix has some great classes. The Phoenix Permaculture Guild offers classes at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market.

Look at this great roftop garden! (Photo Courtesy of Sprouts in the Sidewalk.)

Read more at Sprouts in the Sidewalk.

"One of the reasons I love Boston is the distinct lack of farming that happens here" So says Amy Derjue on a blog called Boston Daily

Let me guess: She idolizes Paris Hilton, recently bought a Chihuahua, and named it Tinkerbell. Get this line:

http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=75962_0_24_0_C

I've been thinking about rainwater harvesting. A rain gutter on each side of the house would catch almost all the runoff from the roof. All I would need is some sort of suitable storage device on each side of the house. My side yards are pretty narrow: only five or so feet between the house and the fence. The problem will be the side that has the gate: no room for a traditional barrel.

I'll have to think about it.

Garden Rant presents this nice instructional video describing how to sharpen your pruning shears:

Willem Van Cotthem on the Container Gardening blog brought his reader's attention to Farmer Greg's AZ Central article the other day.

Thank you, Willem!

This story should motivate us all.

Cuba. A nation that is 80 percent urban. At one time, almost completely dependent upon its subsidized food shipments from the Soviet Union. The collapse of the USSR put a swift end to those food shipments. Imagine what that would be like.

Miladis Bouza suddenly found herself making the equivalent of $3/month at her job as a research biologist. She quit and with her husband began farming a half-acre lot near her home. She sells her excess bounty, and her neighbors once again have affordable vegetables. And she makes several times the average government salary doing it.

Wayne County, Mich. — home to Detroit — has been hit especially hard by the mortgage crisis.

The county has inherited thousands of unwanted properties, leaving plot after plot of vacant land. So a nonprofit group pitched an idea: Take that unused land, and grow food for the needy.

This year, the group — called Urban Farming — will take 20 derelict properties in Wayne County, then pull weeds, lay fresh topsoil, and plant fruits and vegetables.

The gardens aren't fenced off, so anyone can wander through and take their pick — for free. Any leftover produce is donated to food banks.

Click Here to read the entire NPR article.

I found an interesting new online community, Sustainable Suburbia.

It is written by a young lady named Jess who lives in Australia (I think).

She has just recently added forums. Check it out!

What is Hypermiling? Essentially it is driving in such a way as to squeeze every possible mile out of every drop of gasoline.

There’s a guy named Wayne Gerdes who can get 59mpg in a Honda Accord.

No, it doesn’t involve putting one of those magnetic thingamabobs on your fuel line or building a ‘run your car on water’ contraption. It is simply changing the way you drive. Some go to the extreme – drafting 18-wheelers with the engine off and taking death turns at 50mph.

It starts by watching the traffic lights and taking your foot off the gas when you see the light turn yellow. It includes techniques described in Wiliam Beaty’s groundbreaking white paper on Traffic Experiments.

Many are turning to onboard telemetry for help. A new device called ScanGauge is available that works with most newer vehicles to tell you fuel consumption in real time.

Where to start learning about hypermiling? Start here:
http://www.hypermiling.com/
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/king_of_the_hypermilers.html

Google 'hypermiling' and you'll find tons of data.

I found a great article on the Ventnor Permaculture blog about growing lettuce in hanging pots. It is a prettyggod, highly detailed, 'how-to' article.

Check it out!

"In Los Angeles, the South Central Farm built a community of 350 families, a refuge for children at risk from gangs, and a haven of hundreds of species of plants. It was destroyed when the Los Angeles City Council ceded its rights to a developer." -Raj Patel

With the Gateway Arch behind her and a stream of cars below, Mary Fitz studies a small patch of dirt and calls it her salvation. Fitz showed up at St. Patrick Center about two years ago, alcoholic and homeless, asking for help. "I was tired. I was depressed. I wanted a life, "she remerbers. " I was scared of dying like that"

Ream More

http://www.optibike.com

The Vancouver Sun is publishing a blog by Nicholas Read as he learns about urban farming:

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/urbanfarmer/default.aspx

No, Really. Growing Mushrooms. To eat.

Here is a great article about growing them.

There are kits available that make the job easier

I've been reading some of the hypermiling forms and blogs lately and have been paying more attention to my driving habits in an effort to see what kind of mileage I can get without going to extremes.

I have one of those new 2008 V6 HOnda Accords that shuts down three cylinders under light loads. I can get almost 27mpg in mostly city driving just by taking it easy on the accelerator and coasting up to stop lights.

SOme tactics are just not reasonable. It's 110 degrees outside in the afternon: I'm not shutting the engine off while waiting for the light to turn green. (perhaps this winter though). And with power steering and power brakes, shutting the engine down while coasting doesn't seem like a good idea.

Face it. It is HOT here in Arizona right now. It feels like it is about 167F in the shade today. Take advantage of it by using a solar oven. Here is a page of plans for a solar oven:

http://solarcooking.org/plans/

Lot's of people grow things for lots of different reasons. One ones I revere the most are the urban farmers who dot it to feed the less fortunate.

Artichokes and Pink Martini published a great article today about 'Paul' in Tacoma who urban farms with the mission of feeding Tacoma's hungry.

The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, today expanded its long-term commitment to the environment and sustainability by launching a national in-store, consumer compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb recycling program at all 1,973 The Home Depot locations. This free service is the first such offering made so widely available by a retailer in the United States and offers customers additional options for making environmentally conscious decisions from purchase to disposal. The Home Depot Canada launched a CFL recycling program in November, 2007.

At each The Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.

In addition to the CFL recycling program, The Home Depot has also launched an in store
energy conservation program to switch Light Fixture Showrooms in U.S. stores from incandescent bulbs to CFLs by Fall 2008 and save $16 million annually in energy costs.

The CFL recycling program is an extension of The Home Depot’s Eco Options program. Eco Options, launched in April 2007, is a classification that allows customers to easily identify products that have less of an impact on the environment.

"The CFL recycling program is another example of how The Home Depot is empowering customers to help make a difference in their own homes, and have less of an impact on the environment," said Ron Jarvis, senior vice president, Environmental Innovation. "With more than 75 percent of households located within 10 miles of a Home Depot store, this program is the first national solution to providing Americans with a convenient way to recycle CFLs."

Switching from traditional light bulbs to CFLs is an easy change consumers can make to reduce energy use at home. According to the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program, if every American switched out one incandescent bulb to a CFL, it would prevent more than 600 million in annual energy costs and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from 800,000 cars. As the largest retailer of light bulbs in the country, The Home Depot sold over 75 million CFL’s in 2007, which saved Americans approximately $4.8 billion in energy costs and 51.8 billon pounds in CO2 greenhouse gases over the life of the bulbs.

Other environmental initiatives The Home Depot has implemented since the launch of Eco Options in April 2007 include:

• Store recycling program in the U.S. of shrink wrap and mixed plastics, which will result in 50 million pounds of waste diverted from landfills each year.
• Internal recycling initiative at corporate headquarters that is projected to increase the amount of recycled materials from 30 percent to at least 65 percent.
• Renewed commitment to use transportation partners registered in SmartWay program and ensuring The Home Depot distribution facilities and stores further promote emission reduction.

For more information on the CFL Recycling Program or Eco Options, please visit

http://www.homedepot.com/ecooptions .