In Dorchester, where the clatter of a passing train gives way to the scrape of a rake, the Greenwood Street Community Garden is thriving. It’s one of roughly 175 community gardens scattered like jewels through the city of Boston. And at this time of pandemic and social upheaval, these gardens are being treasured. On a recent sunny day, retired teacher Barry Lawton...
Photos: Gary Kessler Camp Washington is a little rough around the edges. That’s obvious from a casual drive-by perspective. But what if this disenfranchised, low-income neighborhood isn’t as “poor” as it seems? The neighborhood is gritty and quirky. And the running themes throughout Camp Washington are opportunity and productivity. Residents who are willing...
Urban gardening advocates are supporting this policy which would make access to water for their community gardens more affordable. “Community gardens and urban farms might have an easier time getting the water they need after the city changed its fire hydrant policy. The mid-summer changes reduce some of the barriers that have prevented many urban growers from...
BOISE, ID (CBS2) — “Now more than ever it is especially important to know where your food comes from, the importance of environmental education is huge,” explains Executive Director of Boise Urban Garden, Lisa Duplessie. “Getting outside of that traditional classroom where they get to put their hands in the dirt.” Boise’s Urban Garden...
OLEAN — A group of Olean residents are enjoying the “fruits of their labor” this summer as they work in two community gardens sponsored by Healthy Families Allegany-Cattaraugus and Rural Revitalization Corporation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in the self-reliance of communities to provide for their own food needs. In collaboration,...
Urban gardening has become a trend that an increasing number of San Diego residents are pursuing, especially during the pandemic. And the City is helping out, having just debuted a new website, sandiego.gov/urban-farming, that provides information and assistance for those wishing to become successful urban farmers. As more people are spending time at home due to...
By: Kelly Broderick For Warren and Lavette Blue, they’ve always had volunteers and trainees at their farm. They’re the owners and operators of Greener Garden Urban Farm In previous years they would get an abundant amount of help with anything they needed. The volunteers would come any time they needed literally anything done. But when the pandemic hit,...
Trenton, a city of nearly 85,000 people, contains only one full-service supermarket. It is one New Jersey’s several food deserts, where access to groceries — let alone fresh produce — is scarce. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic has provided some with more free time and plunged many more into poverty, local community groups and residents are getting their hands...
Quinton Amundson, Canadian Catholic News Growing fruit and vegetables at a 30-acre urban farm has provided Kamo Zandinen sustenance for her family and a window into her past. Preparing the soil, planting seeds, adding water, and fertilizing transfers her mind and soul back to Sinjar, Iraq, to the days when she cultivated vegetables alongside her husband and seven...
Photo: Bilal and Breonna Walker NEWARK, NJ — For the past 15 years, Lot 50 on Grafton Avenue in the city’s North Ward has been a wasteland of syringes and garbage, bringing down the community’s morale. Those days are coming to an end, according to Bilal and Breonna Walker, two educators who are transforming the lot into a community project unlike any other...
On March 13, Gov. Ralph Northam ordered schools closed in the interest of public safety. With the schoolhouse shuttered, many high school seniors are saying goodbye to their public school legacy without many commemorations. But one Norfolk Collegiate senior got to end the abrupt school year by celebrating pollinators and the native plants that support them. Just...
According to a class draft, the two-year course, called “Living with the Land”, will combine “traditional building, cooking and craft skills with aspects of ecology, sustainability and community.” The three modules will be “shelter, food and craft.” “By stripping things back to these basic necessities, we aim to equip students with the skills and understanding...
CINCINNATI — Domonique Peebles grew up in Louisville, Kentucky growing food in his backyard, taking what he and his family couldn’t eat themselves and giving to his neighbors and family friends. “We would always grow more than we could actually eat,” he said. “I asked my dad one time, ‘Why do we do this?’ and he said, you know,...
Our children live in a fast-paced society, and their life has become much easier than the one we were used to. I know countless applications that can do their tasks and assignments instead of them, and they can type just a few words on their computers and find everything they need, without having to jog their memory or use their knowledge. Yet, many fear that in...
We’ve all passed a formerly vacant lot, only to see it’s been seized and taken over by gardeners. There are rows of vegetables, maybe a few flowers and a sculpture of some sort. The sculpture in San Francisco’s Alemany Farm is a full-sized windmill. That should tell you everything you need to know about its agricultural girth. The farm, flanked at all sides...
Tobias Fox watches a grey cat slink behind a raised garden bed. In a blink, the furry feline nearly pounces on a squirrel digging through garlic cloves. “It’s like the nature channel,” Fox says with a laugh. “The cats keep us rodent-free.” Situated next to an abandoned home and in the shadow of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Fox’s urban farm...
There’s a push to make urban farming in Philadelphia more sustainable, and the city is asking residents to help them map out a plan. Before the city puts out an urban farming plan, they’re getting feedback on people’s gardening habits. “Let us know where they’re gardening, where they’re urban farming, where are their projects....
When countries run short of food, they need to find solutions fast, and one answer can be urban farming. That was the remedy Cuba seized with both hands 30 years ago when it was confronted with the dilemma of an end to its vital food imports. And what worked then for Cuba could have lessons today for the wider world, as it faces growing hunger in the face of the...
Monycka Snowbird, of Ojibwe descent, is one of the main Haseya advocates and leaders in the organization. She had the idea and implemented the healing garden as a space for victims of violence to connect with another in a comfortable space. COLORADO SPRINGS — Every year, during powwow season, Monycka Snowbird prints fliers with tear-off tabs for Haseya Advocate...
For the first three years Babar Qadri worked as a physician assistant at the HUDA Clinic in Detroit, he says he was “just following everything I learned in medical school.” “You see a patient with high blood pressure and you give them high blood pressure medication,” says Qadri, known as “Q,” who is now attending physician at HUDA....
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