Showing posts with label Urban Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urban Agriculture. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

The City We Need...



The City We Need...

1. The city we need is inclusive. It provides spaces and opportunities for all populations to engage in the social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of city life.

2. The city we need is well planned, walkable and transit-friendly. It has ample, accessible basic and social services, especially water, sanitation, solid waste disposal and utilities; educational and health care facilities; fire and police protection;efficient, affordable, integrated public transit and non-motorized transportation systems; and public space. It is composed of mixed-use neighborhoods with the majority of these services within walking distance.

3. The city we need is equitable and has affordable housing. Land use,infrastructure, and basic services are planned to facilitate the construction of financially accessible housing. Public services are planned together with the communities they serve and consciously include the needs of women, youth and vulnerable populations.

4. The city we need is a regenerative city. It is energy efficient, low-carbon and increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources, by replenishing the resources it consumes, and by recycling, re-using, and reducing waste. The regenerative city uses water, land and energy in a coordinated manner and in harmony with its surrounding hinterland, contributing to resilience.

5. The city we need is economically vibrant. It encourages and fosters local economic development from the smallest entrepreneur to the largest corporations. It addresses the specific needs of the informal sector of the economy in its economic development policies and strategies.

6. The city we need has a unique identity and sense of place. It recognizes cultural diversity and actively protects cultural heritage as key to human dignity and to sustainability, unlocking the creative potential of all. 

7. The city we need is a safe city. The city is welcoming night and day, enabling all people to use the streets, parks and transit without fear. Public officials neighborhood residents, and community groups communicate frequently and
productively.

8. The city we need is a healthy city.. All public and private entities providing public services (water, waste, energy, transport, open space, recreational facilities)work together with the city’s residents to promote public and environmental
health, while protecting biodiversity.

9. The city we need is coherently governed and managed at multiple scales. It coordinates sectoral policies and actions (economy, mobility, biodiversity, energy, water and waste) within a comprehensive and coherent political and administrative framework. Communities are active participants in decision making. Roles and responsibilities among all stakeholders are clearly defined around a shared agenda, with resources allocated strategically and equitably.

10. The city we need is the site of knowledge production and dissemination. It fosters the generation of knowledge through efficient communication and accessible and relevant sources of information. 

11. The city we need is made for and by people. It recognizes the centrality of human beings Emphasize that the city we need will require the implementation of good policies based on trans-disciplinary, evidence-based research. Promote the enabling environment that will produce and communicate the necessary research. Emphasize that the city we need will require the implementation of good policies based on trans-disciplinary, evidence-based research.

LINK: http://www.wfsf.org/resources/pedagogical-resources/reports-by-un-and-other-international-organisations/22-un-habitat-2013-the-city-we-need-urban-habitat/file

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

About Our History


Our Background


The Windsor & Essex County Community Garden Collective is a network of Community Garden and Urban Agriculture projects in Windsor and Essex County. Most of the community gardens were developed at grass roots level. Two of the gardens were developed by agencies in partnership with the community and received United Way funding to start. Many of our gardens were a direct result of the City of Windsor’sSeed & Feed’ one time program that gave out start up monies for the community gardens to get established. The majority of the community gardens rely on donations of time and labour from the community to continue. These public spaces are managed by teams of dedicated and highly committed members of each community garden. Thousands of pounds of food are shared with the community informally and through food rescue programs. Each community garden can be congratulated for the hard work they put in all year round to maintain, plan, harvest, and share their bounty with children, parents, individuals, community groups and neighbourhoods. The Windsor and Essex County Community Garden Collective is not run by any local organization- but cooperates with many. It is grateful for all those businesses and agencies that partner with the gardens to make this happen. We could not do it without your support. The WECCGC is also grateful for the Ontario Trillium Foundation for supporting the role of a Network Coordinator to assist in the growth of the movement. If you have any questions, please feel free to email the Network Coordinator.
 

 

 

 

 

  

  



Thursday, 24 July 2014

Public Consultation - City of Windsor - Community Gardens


 PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON 
COMMUNITY GARDEN POLICY
CITY OF WINDSOR

28 August 2014
6-8 PM
New Song Church (Cafe Room)
 999 Drouillard Road
Windsor Ontario

30 August 2014
8-1 PM
Downtown Windsor Farmers Market
Charles Clark Square
Windsor Ontario


The NEW date for City Consultation on 
Community Garden Policy.

 This date was moved due to a delay in the 
administrative process.
Feel free to sign up on Facebook to let us know you are attending the meeting!




Friday, 28 March 2014

Spring into Winter? Give us back our Spring!!

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!


Good Day Community Gardeners:

Well, if you are like me, you're ready to check into a secure room at a hospital for the chronically sick of cold and winter. I've had enough. I'd probably sell my soul to the devil right now just to get rid of the snow, wind, and ice.

A few updates...
www.wegarden.ca is our WEBSITE. It is updated daily with our news, calendar events, helpful documents. Big thanks to our IT extra-ordinary, Rob Ross. Please send info to him and he will collect it and put it in the appropriate locations.

I was fortunate to attend a SNOWY conference in Niagara Falls this February. As a conference attendee, they granted me access to ALL the presentations at the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Association conference. I've picked out some very good presentations on Pest Control, Disease Identification, Nematodes, and a few other things. Rob has put them in the Big Ol' Document Garden. Also, I received a free ebook on Cooperative Farming that I have made available. 

Importance of Pollinators: Ecological Keystone
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9hzDZ9eI76FcDFrcnBHZ3VpZUE

Plant Disease Diagnosis

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9hzDZ9eI76FTVlWMzI4TzR0TWc

Vegetable Disease Diagnostic Workshop

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9hzDZ9eI76FTGszSmJFMXBzaE0

Cooperative Farming Handbook
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9hzDZ9eI76FQmpQNWJsdTVsLVE


I had some questions about CONTAINER GARDENING. 
Here's a great video that sums up a number of points I was sharing. CONTAINER GARDENING VIDEO

Keep in mind some KEY DATES:

April 7th/2014 - Change The World - Youth Challenge 2014 kicks off our 20 Garden Visits by Windsor Essex High School kids! What a time that will be! Our press release and first day is at Ford City Community Garden.

April 27th/2014 - Earth Day - Malden Park
We'll have a WEC Community Garden Table there. Bring money for yummy food and other goodies. We'll be doing a seed exchange as well.

May 31st/2013 the Downtown Windsor Farmers Market opens and we have vendors that sell potted plants, flowers, herbs and seeds. Come down to Charles Clark Square from 8 am to 1 pm, Saturdays, till Thanksgiving. Ford City Farmers Market opens later in June.

Our Windsor Essex County Community Garden Trolley Tour will be on Sunday, July 13th/2014. Schedule TBA later. Tickets will be limited.

Also, we have a number of new gardens looking for members. Please contact us on the website if you want to join a new or existing community garden in Windsor Essex.

If you hear of any good gardening news, let us know!

Steve Green






Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Future Commons: Planning Our Sustainable Communities




Future Commons: 

Planning Our Sustainable Communities


February 27th, 2014




 @ Walkerville Brewery

525 Aryle Road, Windsor, Ontario

830 AM - 330 PM

(LUNCH PROVIDED)

Join us for a day of presentations and discussions

 around the future of our communities and schools in

 Windsor & Essex County!



OUR GUEST SPEAKERS

Dan Pitera, FAIA, ACD

Executive Director: Detroit Collaborative Design Center

University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

& Detroit Future City

and

Sunday Harrison, Program Director

Green Thumbs, Growing Kids (Toronto)

Environmental Education in Schools

…And Local Special Guest Speakers

Registered Full Day guests will receive a full lunch provided by Carrots N Dates

This is a FREE EVENT!

Catering provided by


Friday, 19 July 2013

Stone’s Throw Urban Farm

Leasing Abandoned City Lots, Six Young Farmers Cobble Together a Sustainable Urban Farming Enterprise

“There’s a lot of interest in urban agriculture right now, in coming outside and reconnecting with the earth and it just seems like there are a lot of people who are hungry for that.” - Emily Hanson, Stone’s Throw Urban Farm
Alex Leibman, Emily Hanson, Eric Larsen, Klaus Zimmerman-Mayo, Robin Major and John Seitz ofStone’s Throw Urban Farm are making a sustainable name for themselves by leasing empty lots throughout the inner city areas of Saint Paul and Minneapolis to grow food. The sustainable grown produce is in turn sold to the local community. It’s hard work for this six-farmer partnership, but so far the business model has borne fruit.
The founders of Stone’s Throw Urban Farm all have experience farming in the real world as well as education in sustainable agriculture. To launch Stone’s Throw they created a limited liability partnership comprised of numerous city lots that could produce a healthy sustainable diet for the local community.
In finding the lots to support their urban farming enterprise, the team sought to combat one of the main downfalls to starting an urban farm business: the high cost of land within the city limits. Hanson explains that rather than paying exorbitant rents for prime lots, the farmers drive around the city searching for empty space.
“Often times we see vacant lots in our neighborhood especially, and here in Ramsey County we have a tax look up system and you can look up a property’s tax information online and then find the owner. Often it has their contact information listed, or you can find it in the White Pages and that’s kind of how we come by a lot of lots,” shares Hanson. “You know, cold calling people and saying, ‘hey here’s where we are, here’s what we do, we’d love to use your lot.’ You basically offer maintenance of the lot. They don’t have to mow or take care of it during the growing season in exchange for use of the land.”
Farmers planting tomatoes on one of Stone's Throw Urban Farm's plots. Photo Credit: Stone's Throw Urban Farm.
Farmers planting tomatoes on one of Stone’s Throw Urban Farm’s plots. Photo Credit: Stone’s Throw Urban Farm.
For some plots, the farm does pay a small rent, but none of the leases amount to more than a few hundred dollars a season. The largest lease payment is for Stone’s Throw’s seed farm. For the 2013 growing season, which lasts for eight months, Stone’s Throw will utilize 13 plots. Stone’s Throw tests each farm plot site for safe levels of trace minerals before planting begins.
For labor, Stone’s Throw relies on a bevy of volunteers, who spend their time in the plots, weeding, planting and placing tomato cages alongside the farmers. Hanson explains that 30 volunteers in one day aren’t unusual. “We have a lot of volunteer help. That’s a huge advantage for us being in the city. We’re so easy for people to come, stop by and help out,” explains Hanson. “We get emails every week people asking ‘please can I be on your volunteer list?’ You know we live in a big metropolitan area so there’s a lot of people that don’t get to see that every day,” states Hanson.
Stone’s Throw has achieved some success and according to Hanson, it’s all about diversity and hard work.  “I would say that the best source of profit in running a small urban farm like we do is diversity of market,” states Hanson. “We run a CSA and that’s really wonderful for us to get up front investment. We have a committed place that the majority of our produce is going every week that we know we have a market for. The farmer’s market that we sell at is also great. The Mill City market is one of the few markets in town where we feel that farmers are actually able to make a reasonable income. Restaurants are great because they’re flexible and they have chefs who are creative about how to use food. If we were to lose anyone of those pieces we would be very much less able to farm,” explains Hanson.
Hanson views Stone’s Throw’s mission as political as well as practical. “We’d like to see more farming everywhere, in the city and outside the city. We’re working towards making a model of our farm where we have a rural arm and an urban arm. Where we grow perishable produce right in the city and market it to people and do a lot of education. We really believe that agriculture is a tool for reconnecting with our neighbors, for teaching people about the ecological systems that affect our lives so much and being right in the city enables us to do that.”
“We want to see more small farms growing real food for people, more people back on the land means more ownership of the land and more control over what’s going on. The countryside has really been depopulated and the urban masses are more and more disconnected from where food comes from and we believe we have the power to take agriculture back into our own hands,” concludes Hanson.

Thursday, 20 June 2013

New Urban Farm?

New Urban Farm?



I was out yesterday with Chelsie and Hugo from YMCA and a group of men and women from Thailand who want to start their urban farm here in Windsor. What a great job I have! We're half way there! Just got to secure some permissions. The best part? This is only ONE of THREE cultural groups who have asked for help finding and getting started with their urban agriculture project.




Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Out and About Like A Good Canadian Gardener!

Garden Collective Network Coordinator Travels 

Here's a few pictures from around the county over the last week.

 MILL STREET INITIATIVE - LEAMINGTON


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


YFRN COMMUNITY GARDEN - KINGSVILLE


Monday, 10 June 2013

So much going on!

Windsor Essex County 

Community Garden Collective

MEETING
TUESDAY JUNE 11th, 2013
YFRN Community Garden
Kingsville
530 PM

It was good to see a number of families out at the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority open house. They have officially started their community garden and have been invited to attend the collective. 


You can see how they have started. They have the tires and mulch on pallets. The old railroad ties are loose right now but will be put in with steel posts. I showed Lina from Together We Flourish how you need to pack the sides of the tires firmly with dirt. If not, the water displaces the VERY DRY compost (which you must pre-soak before planting) and the roots lay bare for the plants. Plus, its not advisable to simply use pure compost. Everyone is on a learning curve, though, and Heather will meet with me later to talk about improving the success factor of the garden.


There could be some softening of the City of Windsor position on Hens in the City limits. Fulvio spoke with Philippa about trialing our Chicken Cluck-tive at the Ford City Community Garden. We're developing our strategy and putting the plan together to present to him so he can take it to the next stage.


On Friday I attended a City sponsored Walk-able Communities workshop with lots of city planners and community architects. Community gardening, agriculture, horticulture was at the front of every great community. Of course, we knew that!!! The conference was about improving your city and keeping the Pedestrian at the heart of every City policy and bylaw decision. Autos should be last.


Many of us have been sharing our plants and seedlings. Hope everyone survived the late frost with some of our more sensitive plants. I lost a couple tomato plants, but that was all.


I can't pick my lettuce fast enough at Ford City Community Garden. Its great to have fresh grown leaf lettuce. I really really love it.


Chef Dave from The Willistead did the first Live Chef demo at the #DowntownWindsorFarmersMarket June 1 2013. It was great to see him go around and get all the fresh produce from our local farmers and cook it up fresh for the patrons!

Hope to see everyone soon!