Posts Tagged ‘urban agriculture’
The World’s Biggest Eva Vegie Swap
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on March 10th, 2010
Image: woodleywonderworks via flickr CC
Got too many lemons? Over-run with parsley but no sweet basil in sight? If only you could swap all those olives for tomatoes! Well now you can!
As part of this year’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, CERES Urban Orchard, Yarra Neighbourhood Orchard and Cultivating Community are hosting what we’ve called “The World’s Biggest Eva Vegie Swap” with the hope that veggie gardeners from across this wide, brown city will bring along an abundance of gorgeous backyard produce and show Melbourne town what veggie swapping is all about!
This phenomenon has been sweeping Victoria, Australia and the world as folks realise the galaxy of potential that’s in our backyards and how easy and fun it is to get together and swap food – So bring along your vegies, herbs, seeds, seedlings, cuttings, preserves, recipes etc and see how it’s done – you might even get one going in your community!
When and where? Saturday 13th March
City Square, corner Collins & Swanston Street 10am – 2pm
Tags: community, local action, Melbourne, urban agriculture
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Out of the Scientist’s Garden: Australian Urban Agriculture
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on February 22nd, 2010
Source: Cleanfood, the Future Climate newsletter
Out of the Scientist’s Garden — a story of water and food by Richard Stirzaker
From the Book Review by Andrew Campbell
There are few more fundamental issues facing humanity than how best to feed ourselves in an increasingly crowded world, and — in Australia especially — what that means for scarce water resources. Richard Stirzaker has written a fascinating exploration of the realities of turning water, sunlight and nutrients into food. Out of the Scientist’s Garden — a story of water and food is published by CSIRO Publishing.
This elegant, lucid book starts in the Stirzaker family garden on a 877m2 block in suburban O’Connor, ACT. It works from that very local scale through large-scale industrial agriculture to national and global food security issues and back again, always grounded in a profound understanding of the challenges facing food producers at all levels. In our quest for more sustainable options, the Stirzaker garden should stimulate the Australian consciousness as Walden Pond did for Americans — an evocative lens through which to examine and better understand big issues of our time.
In his day job, Dr Richard Stirzaker is a Principal Research Scientist with the CSIRO. He has an outstanding track record in science and innovation as the inventor of a uniquely simple irrigation wetting front detector and CSIRO’s ‘Clever Clover’ kit for vegetable gardens. First and foremost, Richard Stirzaker is a gardener with a lifelong passion for growing food. This book unites the scientist and the gardener beautifully, blending the rigour of the scientific method with the sensuality of planting in rich soil and tasting perfectly ripe fruit and fresh vegetables. When Stirzaker suggests that the best way to experience an apricot at its most perfect is to lie under the tree with your mouth open, it is easy to imagine him doing just that.
Tags: consumption, soil, urban agriculture, water
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Guerilla Gardens & forward-thinking councils
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on December 7th, 2009
Source: Friends of the Earth Melbourne
From “Guerilla Gardeners Get a Green Light“, by Sue Jackson
At its regular monthly meeting in August, Melbourne’s Yarra Council won itself a green star for forward thinking. Instead of razing local unauthorised street gardens as it had threatened to shortly before the meeting, it did a complete about-face, voting unanimously to become a champion of such initiatives instead. Yarra, like quite a few other municipalities, is increasingly becoming dotted with community-initiated gardens. These include registered, secure community gardens that councils approve and support, but there are also others — guerilla gardens located in places like planter boxes in the street or on abandoned public land, which are established without prior council approval. As their survival relies on councils turning a blind eye, the future of each individual garden of this type is always precarious.
Guerilla gardeners live with this knowledge, but tend to push it to the back of their minds. At least that had been the case for me and my fellow renegades at Windmill Foodgarden @ Tramstop 22 in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill — right up until the axe fell in early August. The story of what happened next — the spontaneous campaign which overturned a silly decision so successfully that enemies of guerrilla gardens are now its friends — might be useful to anyone else out there trying to bring change on this issue at a local level.
Tags: community, guerilla gardens, local action, urban agriculture
1 Comment » |
Email This Post
Kitchen Garden Workshop: Kinglake Temporary Village
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on October 26th, 2009
Source: Climate Action Calendar
Image: K. Archdeacon CC_attribution_share-alike
Get your garden plants sowing, for when the house and garden get going! Come and learn about growing in limited spaces such as planter boxes, tubs and wine barrels. You can have a garden, even in the midst of a construction site!
There will be a range of information and different varieties of herb and vegetable seed packets and seedling giveaways. Local gardeners will present on gardening tips to start your spring food garden incl. hands on demo. Come & share your experiences too!
When: Fri 30 Oct 6.00 – 8.00pm
Where: Kinglake Temporary Village Communal Kitchen
Who: For residents of the temporary village and others in the Kinglake community. This is a family friendly event – kids most welcome!
Cost: FREE Dinner will be provided
RSVP: timnanna@iprimus.com.au by Wed 28 Oct
Proudly supported by Permaculture Kinglake Ranges and the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA)
Tags: community, kinglake, urban agriculture
Comments Off |
Email This Post
Sprout Community Market: November & December
Posted in Movements by Zanni on October 21st, 2009
Sprout holds a diverse and vibrant local Community Market on the first Thursday of each month (except winter & Jan) at Sprout Community Gardens – corner of Clapham and Watt Sts, Thornbury (Mel ref 30 F4) from 3pm-7pm.
Sprout Market has a variety of stalls (organically grown produce, dried herbs and plants; food & drink; kids activities/ workshops; local crafts, arts and designs), music and sells produce that has been produced on site as well as offering stalls to vendors from the wider community, encouraging local community strength, connection and community enterprise with a focus on sustainability.
Sprout Open Gate – Each Thursday from 1-4pm (or 3-7pm on the first Thursday of the month) Sprout Opens the Gate for people to buy organically grown seedlings, dried and fresh herbs, plants, fresh produce from the site and other items produced on site or just to have a look around.
If you are interested in having a stall, volunteering or looking to sell local surplus produce, or just want general information about Open Gate or the Market, please contact us on 9484-5565 or email zwaldstein@mindaustralia.org.au
Dates for the rest of 2009 are: Nov 5th and Dec 3rd.
Tags: community, local action, market, urban agriculture
Comments Off |
Email This Post
The Backyard EcoSystem
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 6th, 2009
Source: Climate Action Calendar
Image: nellee100 via flickr
Very Edible Gardens presents:
The Backyard Ecosystem: Organic Pest Control And Adventures In The Microcosmos
There are an estimated 10 quadrillion microorganisms living in a suburban organic backyard. Be introduced to common insects in your backyard and learn to identify them. What strange creatures live in the soil and why are they important? Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? How do we facilitate the good guys for natural pest control? Behold the beauty of the ladybird, and opalescent butterfly pupae. Be awed by the tiny lerp building a beautiful sugar temple. See the ferocious lacewing larvae in an aphid feeding frenzy. And learn about the fantastical life of the soil.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Come at 6:15 for a cuppa
Yarraville Community Centre, 114 Blackwood Street, Yarraville
Tags: education, organic, urban agriculture, yarraville
Comments Off |
Email This Post
Sprout Community Garden: Open Gate
Posted in Movements by Zanni on July 20th, 2009
Sprout Community Garden – Open Gate each Thursday 1-4pm
Sprout Community Garden is a recovery focused program of Mind for people recovering from mental illness, drug and alcohol issues or at risk of homelessness that promotes well-being and community strengthening.
Each Thursday from 1-4pm Sprout has an Open Gate for people to come and have a look around and buy organically grown seedlings, produce and other items produced on site.
Tags: community, sprout, urban agriculture
2 Comments » |
Email This Post
Cultivating Community is seeking a new Chief Executive Officer
Posted in Seeking by Virginia on May 12th, 2009
Cultivating Community is Victoria’s leading supplier of community garden and urban agriculture services. Over the last 19 years it has grown from a volunteer based organisation to a fully funded agency with a reputation for delivering high quality, engaging and ground breaking programs.They are now seeking a new Chief Executive Officer to continue this great work and grow this groundbreaking organisation.
Contact ben@ cultivatingcommunity.com.au for more details.
Tags: Cultivating Community, environmental jobs, green collar jobs, job vacancy, urban agriculture
Comments Off |
Email This Post
Collingwood Children’s Farm – Bringing the Country to the City
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on May 5th, 2009
The Collingwood Children’s Farm is a not-for-profit community resource providing country experiences for city people. It was established in 1979 when a community committee, with support from the former Collingwood City Council, leased a small area of the convent for a Children’s Farm.
The Committee hoped children living in an urban environment, often without backyards, could learn to care for animals and nature and also have fun outdoors. Local schools and other groups helped with fencing, gardening and animal care. Members of the Greek Elderly Citizens and the Turkish Welfare Group helped clear weeds and carve out the community plots.
Since the 1980s, state and local governments have funded some of the Farm’s costs. State and Federal Labour governments supported the successful bid for a much larger area of land. Now the Collingwood Children’s Farm Committee of Management manages this Crown land site. Service clubs and philanthropic trusts help, but always the largest part of our operational costs comes from entry fees, donations and through the work of volunteers.
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems”, case studies by Ferne Edwards.
Tags: animal care, farm, Food, sustainable food, urban agriculture, urban food project, Volunteer
Comments Off |
Email This Post
Cultivating Community – Developing community gardening
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on April 30th, 2009
Cultivating Community is a not-for-profit organisation that has grown out of support for community garden projects in inner-city public housing estates.
It has evolved into an organisation to promote and support the development of community garden projects, community fresh food markets and school gardens across Melbourne. Cultivating community consists of a management committee, paid workers and volunteers. Their work is based around encouraging the development of sustainable agricultural practices in urban areas and promoting the cultural richness of food, plants and people through community gardens. Due to their extensive expertise in urban agriculture, Cultivating Community are often employed to work with other projects as consultants such as the Brotherhood of Saint Laurence’s Food
PAD project and the Yarra Community Food System Project. To find out more about Cultivating Community visit http://cultivatingcommunity.org.au/cc
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems”, case studies by Ferne Edwards.
Tags: community garden, Food, grassroots activism, urban agriculture, urban food production, urban sustainablility
Comments Off |
Email This Post