Raise The Roof

"It's like a grocery store in your backyard."

I love this. So simple and elegant and obvious.

Via Grist: Even city chickens want rooftop gardens on their coops

Photo and official site: Traci Fontyn - Kippen House

How Seattle Does Urban Farming

Via Grist: Seattle’s new urban-ag models are sprouting in friendly soil

Curbside Composting

Bay Area Recycling for Charities received a grant to bring curbside composting to Traverse City.

And earlier this year I heard a story on NPR about how restaurants are cutting costs with curbside composting: Compost Startup Helps Restaurants Cut Costs

3P has more on this topic: Curbside Composting Programs – Why We Need Them and Where to Start

I look forward to seeing BARC start this soon. What I hear is the compost will be used at The Commons community garden.

Urban Farm Magazine

Here's a magazine that may appeal to northern Michiganders: Urban Farm

Urban Farm™ magazine’s mission is to promote the benefits of self sustainability and to provide the tools with which to do it on any size property. Urban Farm™ reaches out to those in the city and suburbs, those who are inspired by the local food movement and who want to start raising chickens and growing food for themselves, supporting local agriculture and living more sustainably.

The Cook's House Tries A Guerrilla Garden

[7/2/2009 Update. The garden is allowed: Calling all gardeners!!!]

And gets smacked down for no good reason.

But this is the underlying issue in Traverse City. Residents who want things to stay the way they have been for the last 50 years versus residents who want to bring back the old ideas that worked (e.g., city gardens and chickens, granny flats) and new ideas that will work.

Read the account at Chef Eric's blog 'from behind the stove': Terroist [sic] Gardeners Unite!!!

...so we thought it would be nice to put in a community garden. I tried calling the city a couple times to get the OK but after giving them ample time to call me back, a month or so, I decided to take action on my own and began to build. We put together two 5 foot by 10 foot raised beds and got some good planting dirt donated. It was not more than 30 minutes after the dirt was unloaded that the police showed up. The police!! Apparently someone in our building, someone who's life is so pathetic, so lonely and without meaning, called the police because they wanted to make sure we have all the proper governmental OKs.

...So to that miserable bastard who called the police, f%$k off. We're planting our garden, and we are going to make our part of Traverse City a much nicer place to be, even with you being here. The only thing we'll have to change is to plant more so we can cover up your self righteousness.

Another Reason Chickens Are Good For The Gardener

Via Homegrown Evolution: Chickens and Compost; A Match Made in Heaven

Square Foot Gardening

Wired - Build a Square Foot Garden

Seattle's Example

Seattle Tilth

Seattle Tilth inspires and educates people to garden organically, conserve natural resources and support local food systems in order to cultivate a healthy urban environment and community.