Posts Tagged ‘urban agriculture’
Edible Street Gardens: The Need for Design Guidelines
Posted in Models, Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 12th, 2010
Source: Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
From “Farmers of the urban footpath & the need for design guidelines for street verge gardens“ by Russ Grayson:
Edible Street Verge Gardening is something that has been going on for the past 20 years or so in our cities but is now capturing the public imagination such that the number of plantings is rapidly increasing. For advocates of edible landscaping in our cities, this is good news but for local government the practice can be confusing. What has become apparent during the recent upsurge in the popularity of edible footpath planting is that a set of design and planting guidelines are desperately needed. Most verge plantings to date have been created by gardeners who know what they are doing. The possibility emerging from the current boost in popularity is that those less knowledgeable will create gardens with inappropriate plants and without considering other footpath users.
An established practice
Street verge gardening is the practice of growing ornamental, native or edible plants on the footpath. The rise in popularity of edible gardens has brought the planting of fruits, herbs and vegetables, sometimes mixed with flowers and native plants, to our footpaths. The practice has caught the popular imagination and is another means of returning food production to our cities.
That edible verge gardening is an established practice in Australian cities is revealed by a walk around those suburbs where the immigrants of the 1950s and 1960s made their homes, particularly those suburbs favoured by immigrants from the Mediterranean region. What do you find on the footpaths here? Olive trees, now mature and productive.
Unknowingly, some councils have made their own contribution to edible streetscapes. Take a walk along a certain street in Stanmore, in Sydney’s Inner West, and you encounter the Australian bush food tree, the Illawarra Plum (Podocarpus elatus). This strange, plum red fruit with its seed on the outside can be picked and eaten raw or made into a sauce by those with a little culinary savvy. Walk down a particular street in Windsor, Brisbane, and you encounter another Australian bushfood serving as a verge planting, the macadamia nut. Then there are numerous species of lillypilly, the Syzygiums, that have been established as street trees and that yield edible fruit.
These examples may not be in large number, however they have been noted by urban gleaners.
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The rest of this comprehensive article covers Understanding council concerns, The realities of verge gardens, Design considerations for verge gardens, Functions, and Yields.
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Eat Your Balcony #2, in conjunction with Fossilisin’ Foods
Posted in Events, Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 9th, 2010
Source: Port Philip EcoCentre
Here’s your chance to get totally practical about growing food in small spaces, and experience some yummy tastings as well! Full day, flexible program of edible gardening demonstrations and healthy food experiences. Come for the whole day, or choose a morning or afternoon session. The Eat Your Balcony 2 Program includes practical gardening presentations on worm farming, organic pest & disease control; wicking container gardening & potting mix blending, as well as food-focussed presentations including sprouting, mushroom growing and making ‘green smoothies’ using edible weeds (the latter presented by Very Edible Gardens.) Plus there’s an opportunity to join in an informal Fossilisin’ Foods’ community cooking session, tasting dips and preserves made from neighbourhood surplus.
Between breaks you can also pick up some vegie seeds or worm castings from our EcoShop; browse our displays and and chat to the folks from Green Renters, V.E.G and Transition Town Port Phillip. Plus enjoy a vegie. BBQ lunch and afternoon tea!. Entry cost $4 to $10 by donation (sliding scale entry fees apply).
Sunday 22 August, 11am-4.30pm, Port Phillip EcoCentre, Cnr Blessington & Herbert Streets, St Kilda.
RSVP’s essential as places are limited. Contact Paula: 0417 501 383 / 9525 3102 / gardeners@ecocentre.com
Download the Program.
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Raised Beds Workshop: Merri Corner
Posted in Events, Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 4th, 2010
Source: Merri Corner Community Garden (MCCG)
The Urban Bush Carpenters are coming to the Merri Corner Community Garden to help us learn about and build raised garden beds, wooden planter boxes and compost bins. The fellas use found timber and pellets to make these fantastic additions to any garden and are going to be available all day on Saturday the 7th of August to work alongside volunteers and create some of the structural raised gardens and compost bays for the MCCG. A great day to come down and do some bush carpentry and learn some new skills. Bring some lunch, or something to share and make a day of it! Everyone is welcome!
RSVP (http://www.merricorner.org/get-in-touch/) or phone Bernie on 0401 476 839.
Raised Beds Workshop
August 7, 2010, 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm
PS: Are you coming to the Raised Bed workshop, or just feel like getting your hands dirty? We’ll be onsite from 9:30am on Sat Aug 7 preparing soil for our fruit trees and indigenous plant beds if you’d like to join us. It’d be great to have extra hands for this, and then get stuck into a spot of carpentry. If you’ve got them, bring: drills, sledgehammers, hammers, and chainsaws! We’ll be working as long as the weather holds out and the blisters don’t get the better of us….
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CERES Fruit Tree Workshop
Posted in Events by ceres on July 23rd, 2010
Discover how easy it is to grow a variety of fruit and nut trees in your backyard at this two day workshop!
Learn about:
•Selecting a bare-rooted tree
•Varieties available including heritage
•Pollination
•Pruning (with demonstration).
•Organic maintenance and pest control
•Problem solving and commonly asked questions
About the teacher: Justin Calverley is a landscape designer with 15 years experience. He has taught regular CERES workshops in organic gardening, fruit tree pruning, indigenous plants and permaculture. Justin is also a regular broadcaster on 3RRR`s “Dirty Deeds” and channel 31`s “The Garden Tap”.
Saturday 7th & Saturday 14th August 2010
10.00am – 3.30pm
CERES Community Environment Park
Cnr. Stewart St & Roberts St, East Brunswick, Vic. 3057
$190 or $180 concession – includes coffee and bushfood mini muffin
To enrol:
Tel: 03 9387 4403
Email: nursery@ceres.org.au
or
CERES Reception on 9387 2609
Email: reception@ceres.org.au
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Burnley Gardens Open Day
Posted in Events, Research by land-environment on July 1st, 2010
Burnley students of the 1950s show off their pruning style.
Burnley Gardens Open Day offers a stellar program for the whole family in sustainable gardening and horticultural practice, at the heritage-listed Burnley Gardens.
Delivered in partnership by the University of Melbourne’s School of Land and Environment and Friends of Burnley Gardens, horticultural experts will present you with free lectures and paid workshops, kids’ activities, forums and seminars on leading sustainable gardening practice, including pruning, pest and disease control, watering and fertilisers, and setting up a veggie plot. There will be tours taking you back in time through the lush and historic gardens, and University course advice for budding horticulturists.
So come along with your gardening friends and family and winter woolies, and learn about gardening to your heart’s content!
For further information, visit www.land-environment.unimelb.edu.au.
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Merri Corner Community Garden: Dig Day Out
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 28th, 2010
http://www.merricorner.org/
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Eat Your Balcony: Edible Gardening Event
Posted in Events, Movements by Kate Archdeacon on June 14th, 2010
Source: Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
Eat Your Balcony: an Edible Gardening Event with the Port Phillip Urban Fresh Food Network (PPUFFN).
At this event we’ll be exploring the theme of growing food in small spaces – think container growing in courtyards and balconies and intensive fruit tree plantings in small urban yards. You will hear from local horticulturalist and apartment resident Elspeth Ferguson, who will talk you through the ins and outs of setting up an edible, container garden on your balcony (move aside that Weber!). In the spirit of combining knowledge with practical know-how, there’ll be a demonstration on converting recycled materials into container gardens and creating your own potting mix. Don’t worry if you don’t have a DIY approach as there’ll be ready-made container garden kits available for sale on the day!
If you thought that pots were just for herbs then think again. This forum will introduce you to a couple whose Balaclava garden is home to potted avocados, strawberries, beans and bok choi. And that’s just the start. Their intensively managed small suburban yard boasts a collection of citrus, stone fruit and berries, including pepino, currants, Kiwi fruit, pomelo and tangelo. As well as sharing their experiences of fruit growing at the event, they’ll generously be opening up their garden for a group visit at the end of the forum.
To top of the afternoon, expect some warming soup, home baked bread and entry into the draw for a nursery voucher door prize (gold coin donation appreciated).
Saturday 26 June, 12.30-2.30pm.
Port Phillip EcoCentre, St Kilda.
Gold coin donation appreciated.
Bookings/Information: Paula 03 9525 3102 / 0417 501 383. gardeners@ecocentre.com
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Gardens in Germany: Schrebergärten Exhibition
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 7th, 2010
Source: Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
When travelling through Germany by train, they can be seen everywhere in the vicinity of large cities: ‘Schrebergärten’, groups of small fenced allotment gardens, all in perfect alignment to each other. The first allotment gardens in Germany, the ‘Schrebergärten’ originated in Leipzig. They were established as school gardens by Dr. Karl Gsell, who named them after his physician father in law, however it was Ernst Innocent Hauschild, a school principal, whose interest led to the founding of the first Schrebergarten Association in 1864.
These small recreational islands were intended to provide better nutrition, contact with nature and fresh air – a real benefit for the people, especially the city children of the industrial era. Garden allotments could alleviate the longing for life in the country and the freedom of working, relaxing and playing outdoors. And for people living in cities they played an important role in the growing of food supplies during times of crisis, war and post-war famine.
SGA Food Swaps
Posted in Events by fga on May 14th, 2010
One gardener’s glut is another gardener’s lunch!
Sustainable Gardening Australia, a not-for-profit, non-government organisation, has kicked off a series of fruit and vegie “swap meets”, an opportunity for the gardeners of Melbourne to meet once a month, share their extra produce with people who will appreciate it, and swap their bounty of broccoli for another grower’s excess of eggplants!
The swap meets are run in conjunction with the Abbotsford Convent Slow Food Markets on the fourth Saturday of each month, with the next coming up on the 22nd of May. From 9.30am, gardeners from Melbourne and surrounds are invited to bring any edible excess along, be it fruit, vegies, nuts, seedlings or seeds and swap it with others. Not only can gardeners fill their larders in exchange for excess vegies, the SGA Fruit and Vegie Swaps are an exercise in sustainability, waste reduction, and, most importantly, community connectivity.
WHERE: Abbotsford Convent Slow Food Market. 1 St. Heliers Street, Abbotsford VIC
WHEN : Saturday May 22 2010 from 9.30am till 11.00am. Then 4th Saturday of every month.
For more information contact lachlan@sgaonline.org.au
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Health benefits of ‘grow your own’ food in urban areas: Research paper
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 21st, 2010
Source: SustainWeb
Research Paper: The health benefits of ‘grow your own’ food in urban areas: implications for contaminated land risk assessment and risk management? by Jonathan R Leake, Andrew Adam-Bradford, Janette E Rigby
This paper, by researchers from University of Sheffield, demonstrates that although urban environments are more contaminated by heavy metals, arsenic, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins than most rural agricultural areas, evidence is lacking for adverse health outcomes of growing your own (GYO) in UK urban areas. By contrast, the health benefits of GYO are a direct counterpoint to the escalating public health crisis of ‘obesity and sloth’ caused by eating an excess of saturated fats, inadequate consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables combined with a lack of exercise.