Urban Farming in Mexico City
We love a good example of urban farming around here! Urban farms are such a wonderful way to transform unused or blighted spaces in big cities into lush, food-producing patches of land (or rooftop, or wall!).
growing food
Edible Landscapes Transform a Town
Pam Warhurst calls it “propaganda gardening.” Warhurst co-founded the group Incredible Edible in the little English town of Todmorden to promote eating healthy fruits and vegetables and growing food locally.
Why are my cucumbers falling off of the vine?
What I’ve always loved about growing cucumbers is that it’s so easy to do. Usually, my cucumbers thrive with regular watering and no other maintenance to speak of. That totally rocks until a crop of cucumbers decides that it doesn’t want to cooperate.
Documentary Short Looks at Monsanto’s Hold on Hawaii
Monsanto and other biotech firms have used Hawai’i as a seed laboratory for decades. In fact, a majority of the GMO seed corn sold to farmers in the midwest comes from Hawai’i. As oil prices continue to rise and the cost of importing fresh food from 2500 miles away goes with it, Hawai’i is reconsidering the wisdom of plantation crops that don’t feed its people.
Real Food in the Mainstream: Will Allen on the Colbert Report
Urban farming advocates like Will Allen and the nonprofit he works with called Growing Power are looking to change that by building farms in cities that grow lots of food in sometimes not a lot of space. Allen wrote a book on his urban farming efforts: The Good Food Revolution, and on Tuesday night he talked to Stephen Colbert about urban farming, food deserts, and kohlrabi. Check it out!
More Food Garden Eye Candy
It’s been warm and rainy here in Atlanta, and our food garden is blowing UP! I headed out to the garden with my camera the other day to take some shots of our food-growing progress, and I’d love to hear what’s growing in your gardens! Tell me about what you’re planting or planning to plant in the comments. If you have photos, feel free to share links, too.
Poison Hemlock: Dangerous Garden Invader
Container gardeners don’t need to worry as much about weeds and pests, but if you’re growing your food in the ground sometimes things pop up in the old garden that are not so welcome. That’s not always bad, right? Sometimes you get delicious volunteers from the compost bin. If the uninvited garden guests are weeds, you just pull them out and move on. But there’s one weed that pops up in food gardens that’s a little bit tricky and can be dangerous: poison hemlock.
Grow Strawberries for More Flavor
Have you noticed that those big, bright, beautiful strawberries at the grocery store stop being so impressive when you bite into them? Here’s why, and it’s all the more reason to grow strawberries yourself!
Patricia Larenas Talks Edible Gardening at Earth911
Patricia Larenas–aka Urban Artichoke–is our resident edible gardening expert, and she got a chance to sit down with Alexis Petru at Earth911 earlier this week to chat about growing food. She talked about gardening for beginners and shared some rock-solid tips on how to get started gardening no matter what your situation. Whether you have a house with a big yard or an apartment with a small balcony or windowsill to work with, she’s got you covered. Here’s an excerpt:
Easy Edible Garden Tip: Growing Green Onions
Growing green onions is easy as pie. All you need to do is save the bottoms from a bunch of green onions that you bought for cooking! Here’s how to do it.
Reader Question: Vegan Citrus Fertilizer
After a lot of digging, I’m discovering that vegan citrus fertilizer is tough to find!
Growing My Plate: How can we eat healthier food if we aren’t growing enough?
USDA’s new MyPlate dietary guidelines recommend that fruits and vegetables make up 50 percent of our daily food intake, but how can we meet those standards when we’re not growing enough of either?
Community Garden Tour: Fordham Bedford Lot-Busters Community Garden, Bronx, NY
I ran across some gorgeous photos and the fascinating history of a community garden in the Bronx and thought that you guys would enjoy them, too!