FREE SPEECH ZONE | Growing A Sustainable City

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The city that gardens together grows sustainably together.  Gardening is perhaps the greatest tool for building sustainability that we can all share. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Gardens can improve water quality, air quality, access to food, and personal health.  Cities that actively nurture the gardening and urban farming efforts of their citizens reap the benefits of healthy communities.  The nurturing of sustainable cities starts with the roots of the community.  Wherever there is a strong activist gardener population, you will find wonderful green ideas and initiatives sprouting up all over!Rain gardens capture and filter rainwater run-off, community gardens and urban farms grow healthy food for people, locally grown food requires less trucking which keeps our air cleaner, fruit trees on the boulevard provide habitat for migrating birds and meeting places for neighbors.  A city full of healthy gardens is a sustainable city full of happy people.  Each city in Minnesota has it’s own unique approach to sustainability.  In this volume of the Seed, we’ll have a look at two cities in the metro area to see some great examples of how local governments work with residents to incorporate all kinds of great gardening into their sustainability plans in order to grow happy, healthy cities.MinneapolisHomegrown food, local food, or food security, however you want to look at it, Minneapolitans’ taste in food is rapidly evolving.   According to Gayle Prest, the city’s official Sustainability Director, “Gardening is an integral part of the long term sustainability plan for Minneapolis”With more then 100 community gardens and 33 farmers markets, this city is obviously hungry for healthy change.  Leading the charge for this change is an official city organization called Homegrown Minneapolis  which is dedicated to nothing less then building a healthy, local food system for all Minneapolis residents.  Homegrown has recently been hard at work on an Urban Agriculture Policy Plan that will guide city land use decisions related to urban food production and distribution. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | Gardeners Get Involved

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An optimist looking over their own garden fence might be inclined to say something like “Wow, the vegetable patch is half full.”  A pessimist looking at the same plot would say, “shucks, the vegetable patch is half empty.” but when a givingperson comes upon that same garden they say “Look at all those vegetables, I’m going to go find some hungry people.” Gardeners are natural givers, because the garden teaches us the importance of giving.  When we give our plants compost, they thrive and produce.  When we give our bodies home grown foods, we thrive and are productive.  When we share all this productive health by giving the gift of access to gardening to folks who wouldn’t otherwise have it, we share one of the most profoundly transformative gifts imaginable.  For many a gardener there’s almost no greater feeling then to share a skill, tool, piece of land, or even just a nice conversation that will help another gardener grow.  Minneapolis is a giving and green city.  As a gardener and volunteer, there’s never a shortage of great organizations here that I can get involved with in order to share the gifts gardening can give.Gardening Matters a Minneapolis based non-profit agency that exists at the center of the Minneapolis community gardening scene.  These smart gardeners have been busy organizing social service providers citywide in order to help them work together in the garden.  Many local agencies such as Waite House, Sabathani Community Center and Youth Farm and Market Project have already been working to increase Minneapolis residents’ access to gardening for decades.  Gardening Matters plan is to link up all these great organizations along with local gardening volunteers and businesses to create Garden Resource Hubs that residents in need can access for garden classes and information, planting space and gardening resources.  Hoping to have these hubs up and running by the spring of 2011, Gardening Matters is working with activists, businesses, and neighbors from across the city in this grand effort. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Continue Reading