from:"Adam36055"

Greg,

I've discovered that many of the "doers" in urban agriculture do not 
necessarily belong to listserves or spend much time corresponding online 
except at grant writing time.  You'll have to contact them directly, or in 
many cases, make site visits - the old fashioned way.

I noticed in your query that you did not specifically include community 
gardens as an urban farming initiative: while generally small in size, in 
aggregate, community gardens produce an extraordinary amount of food for low 
income communities throughout the US and Canada.  Some urban community 
gardens, like the  Eagle Heights Community Garden in Madison, Wisconsin and 
the Floyd Bennett Field, Ryan Visitor's Center Community garden produce 
extraordinary amounts of food.  

Some sites where you can glean which doorbells to ring. Many of them you may 
already know, but I include them here for your use in case there are some you 
may have overlooked in your research: 

The Canadian Urban Farmer website: 

http://www.cityfarmer.org/

Heifer International: 

http://www.heifer.org/ 

Just Food: 

www.justfood.org

You're undoubtedly familiar with Michael Ableman's work in California, but I 
include some old weblinks here, anyway: 

http://www.bioneers.org/rdi/urban02.html

http://www.fairviewgardens.org/

You know about Michael Olson and Metrofarm in the San Francisco Area?

http://www.metrofarm.com/

There is an interesting urban farming conference being given in Florida, next 
month.  If you can't get there, perhaps you can request copies of the 
proceedings: 

http://www.hos.ufl.edu/vegetarian/UrbFarmWS_Apr03.htm

Also, you might find that a mailing to the agricultural extensions of every 
state and province in the US and Canada might get you some intersting leads.

Good luck with your project. Please let us know, on the community garden 
listserv, [EMAIL PROTECTED], how you are progressing with your 
project. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,  http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/";>Clinton 
Community Garden 



<< Subj: [cg] Request for Urban Farming Info
 Date:  3/31/03 9:11:41 AM Eastern Standard Time
 From:  [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sharon Gordon)
 Sender:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 Request from Greg:
 
 
 Hello all.
 
 I have begun in earnest to research working methods of urban 
 agriculture in use in the US and Canada. My intent is to write a 
 book documenting what is currently being done and what dreams and 
 aspirations we have and would like to create. This will include (but 
 not limited to) urban farming, urban orcharding, aquaculture, 
 gleaning programs, neighborhood farms, marketplaces, CSA's, etc.
 
 I am interested in speaking with people that are working in 
 agricultural project primarily in cities and then distributing the 
 fruits of their labor in the same urban area. I plan on visiting 
 some of these organizations this coming summer.
 
 Please forward me any information that you may have on Urban Farm 
 projects that you know of or are involved with. I can be reached at 
 MailTo:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 Sincerely,
 
 
 Greg Peterson
 www.urbanfarm.org
 www.permaculture.net
 
 -- 
 
 The Urban Oasis Center for Sustainable Communities
 Mission
 To generate urban community experience
 through leadership and education
 that creates sustainable living.
 
 Greg Peterson
 602/279-3713
 800/678-8848
 
 
  >>

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[cg] 35,000 Vacant Lots?

In a message dated 3/31/03 3:56:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

<< It's an excellent project, and I would like to see more of this on a few 
of Philadelphia's 35,000 vacant lots. >>

Paco,

That 35,000 vacant lot statistic is pretty amazing - do you know the 
breakdown of ownership (how many are city owned,  how many are held privately?

If that figure is accurate, Philadelphia may be leading the nation  in "empty 
lots".

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman



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[cg] Who's Stepping Up To The Plate?

Where is tribune of the peole, the  demagogue (in the nice sense of the word) 
 who will get herself elected to the city council and say to the massed group 
of legislators, who want to spend as little as possible on social programs, 
and say: 
 'Lookit - If you won't build housing, job producing businesses or anything 
of value on this land, then please let us clear it and feed our hungry. We 
have the backs, some, tools and folks who know how to build the soil up, once 
we've hauled away the rubble and located the lots that aren't superfund toxic 
sites.  We'll do the work, but we need you to help us with connecting water, 
some grantwriting, the sanitation dept trucks to haul away the rubble we dig 
out., and some leases that will allow us to do the work of feeding our city's 
poor. "

Where is that future Mayor of Philadelphia?

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman

<< ubj:  [cg] RE: 35,000 Vacant Lots?
 Date:  3/31/03 4:41:55 PM Eastern Standard Time
 From:  [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Verin)
 Sender:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 Numbers are rounded, but yes, there is an official count that is near 
35,000. There are also some 11,000 building yet to be torn down, thus the 
vacant lot number will only continue to increase.
 
 It takes huge compassion and patience for me to accept this land isn't used 
to grow food, given the amount of poor and malnutrition going on in Philly. 
Then again, it's just a small mirror of our national attitudes towards food, 
farming, nature, etc. and our general lack of awareness about any of them.
 
 So, I watch, and wait and do my best to cast seeds about. When we are truly 
hungry we will grow food.
 
 Paco Verin
 Citywide Project Coordinator - Philadelphia Green
 The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
 100 N. 20th St.
 Philadelphia, PA  19103
 215-988-8885
 http://www.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org 
 
  >>

__
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


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[cg] Back on Point - Who's Stepping Up To The Plate?

Getting back to the brilliant, though flawed (aren't we all?) Thomas
Jefferson, who favored an early American republic of farmers.

Many people in this society believe that their political class is something
separate from themselves. I believe that in this democracy, it is possible
for every voting community gardener to be able to accrue some small political
power for themselves and their community if they are willing to figuratively
hold their noses while stirring the manure into the compost.

There is a piece in the ACGA's 2003 Community Greening Review called, "The
Citizen Gardener: Politics 101 for Folks Who Would Rather Be Turning
Compost," on how nice green-thinking people have empowered themselves in my
Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, and maybe could do the same in yours. If you
send in your ACGA membership ($25 bucks and you get other goodies) http://www.communitygarden.org/";>American Community Gardening
Association soon, you can get this article along with some remarkable
pieces on Green Infrastucture and Research in a really nifty magazine.

Not to undercut the sales of the Greening Review, but I have a version of the
article in lecture form which I'll be delighted to send to anybody who
e-mails me directly ( [EMAIL PROTECTED])

Guaranteed, anyone who reads the article and implements the step-by-step
instructions in it, will be able to "collect markers" and, with practice,
will be able to learn how to use "smoke and mirrors" to the advantage of
their community, the confusion of their enemies, and the surprise and
delight of their friends.

But first, you have to be willing to step up to the plate.

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman, Volunteer http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/";>
Clinton Community Garden and traditional grass roots politician.

Community Gardening is 50% gardening and 100% grassroots political action.

<< Subj: Re: [cg] RE: Who's Stepping Up To The Plate?
Date: 3/31/03 6:16:15 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sender:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Verin)
CC:[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Paco contributed: As it is, many/most Americans don't have values grounded
in
gardening...(snip)...During a Republican convention, I believe for G. Bush
Sr, they had an African American senator boast how he "... a black man,
got off the farm he grew up on to make it in this world, and isn't America
great?" (It was a vulgar racial prop if you asked me). So the farm and
being a farmer is something to reject and get away from...

Patrick counters: Not just politicians, not just right-wingers & not just
Americans
either. After all, didnt Marx promise to release peasant workers from "the
idiocy of rural life"? All of our contemporary world ideologies are
"anti-nurturer" with nurturers defined as caregivers- either childcare;
healthcare or earthcare (farmers being the latter). Thats Wendell Barry's
theory, btw, not mine.

As we speak, ex farmers in Russia & China are deserting the former
Kolkhozi & peoples communes in droves for 60% unemployment in the city
because they think they that life prospects are better there. Ditto for
campesinos in Mexico, felahin in Egypt & multitudes of small farmers in
Africa.

My own home farm (a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem) is actually rented out &
my former partners are all working at off-farm puruits.

When I read my own spiritual sources like the Torah & Talmud, I see
passages like: "If you are planting a tree when the messiah comes, finish
planting the tree & then go greet the messiah". There is similar wisdom in
the holy Koran & in the works of Homer also. We have gotten far, far away
from our wisdom

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[cg] Voice Your Opinion on More Garden Shows on PBS & NPR

2004-03-01 Thread Adam36055


Friends, 

As community gardeners, we need to make our voices heard on the quality of 
the news and other programming on public television and radio stations.  Who 
knows, we might even get a community garden show on PBS or NPR.  But like the 
lotto, you have to be in it to win it.


The skinny:  A Senate committee will soon be holding its own hearing on 
public 
broadcasting, and once again, the members of the committee need to 
hear from you. We have just over a month to gather enough signatures 
on a petition to make the case that we value the hard-hitting 
investigative journalism and other programming on public television 
and radio stations.  Also, we don't want to see funding for PBS and 
NPR jeopardized or its content politicized.  Make sure your voice is 
heard! 

Senate Hearing Broadcast

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden

Re: [cg] Bees in the garden

2004-03-02 Thread Adam36055

Laura, 

The Clinton Community Garden's experience with bee keeping may be of interest 
to you, because we have kept a beehive in excess of 15 years in a heavily 
used, 4,000 + keyholder extremely public community garden in the middle of 
Manhattan. 

 Clinton Community Garden


Here is the Clinton Community Garden's "photo album with still pictures of 
our retired history teacher, Peace corps trained beekeeper, Sid Glazer. The 
stills are from the PBS series "Wild TV" which filmed  both a vermiculture 
segment 
( with Abby Chadwick) as well as a segment on bee keeping and "bee beards" 
with Sid. This particular episode first aired on September 12, 2002.  Scroll 
down to Sid and the bees.

In brief:  As you can see we have one hive  in a third of an acre 150' x75' 
community garden. The hive is located against the brick wall of the tenement 
bordering the furthest west side of the garden - in the midst of the Native 
American Volunteer bed kept by Faser Hardin and Annie Chadwick. 

Our bees, which are tame European honeybees ( Tuscan/Italian, if memory 
serves) have suffered mites, swarmed on occasion and have rarely stung anyone 
other 
than the beekeeper and volunteers like myself who may have disturbed them in 
an adjacent bed while weeding.  The bees, sensible creatures, pollinate our 
entire garden, make our tomatoes grow spectacularly, and produced, in a good 
year, out of one hive, close to 90 pounds of "Hell's Kitchen Honey", about 8 
blocks, as the drunken bee flies, from where the ball drops in Times Square on 
New 
Year's Eve. 

We are extraordinarily fortunate to have Sid Glazer as our bee volunteer. A 
Clinton Community Garden " John Carney Award" recipient, Sid is also the 
advising beekeeper at Wave Hill - a stellar public garden and arts facility in 
Bronx, NY. Wave Hill 

Technically, we keep the garden's beekeeping equipment locked up in a part of 
the shed with the chipper shredder where the smoker and other items are kept 
available for Sid's use. 

I will be seeing Sid this evening at our annual meeting. Should you have any 
further technical inquiries, please contact me so I can get you in touch with 
Sid. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 

> Subj: [cg] Bees in the garden 
>  Date: 3/2/04 10:13:20 AM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Seeking info, opinions about raising bees inside a community garden. It 
> seems that the activity of the area would be disruptive to the bees which 
> could 
> then be a problem for gardeners - but I'm seeking input. Laurie, Chicago
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Laurie Tanenbaum   
> Grounds For Growth
> 773-489-0167

[cg] Bush Puts Giant Sequoias on the Chopping Block

2004-03-02 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

Please realize that this is NOT a partisan statement, because threats to the 
Sequoia National Monument have happened under several administrations.  
However, this latest threat to our national treasure is happening under 
President 
Bush's Administration, and I for one DO NOT want to see the chips fall where 
they lay. 

For the large picture on logging threats to our national forests - Sequoa 
Forestkeeper

You all have US congresspersons and Senators - write, fax and call them 
please, the National Parks and Forest Service as well as your local newsmedia.

Thank you!
Adam Honigman, 
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 


March 2, 2004 | 

Bush Puts Giant Sequoias on the Chopping Block 

Under the guise of forest fire prevention, the Bush Administration's Forest 
Service has proposed logging in California's Sequoia National Monument, home to 
some of the world's tallest and oldest trees, reaching ages of 3,200 years or 
more.[1] Also at risk are the Pacific fisher, the California spotted owl, and 
many other threatened species dependent on ancient forest habitat.[2] 



Established by President Clinton in 2000, the Monument designation was the 
culmination of years of work by environmentalists. But in its draft 
environmental impact statement (EIS) for management of the Monument, the Forest 
Service 
chose the most environmentally destructive of six alternative management plans, 
the one calling for the most intensive logging. 



Under the Forest Service's "preferred alternative," 80,000 acres would be 
opened for logging, including trees up to 30 inches in diameter, a size not 
permitted in most National Forests throughout the Sierra Nevada.[3] The Forest 
Service's proposal calls for 180 clearcuts, producing 10 million board feet a 
year.[4] 



The Forest Service plan is based on the idea that if the ancient Sequoias 
aren't logged, they will be vulnerable to catastrophic fires (despite the fact 
tha
t they have somehow managed to survive for thousands of years on their own). 
But the real motivation may lie in a sentence buried deep in the EIS, which 
says logging in the Monument "might make the difference between continued 
operation and closure of the one mill available to serve the Monument." 



If fire prevention is actually the Forest Service's agenda, experts cite 
better ways to accomplish this, such as thinning the forest near homes and 
businesses, and increasing the number of prescribed burns. 



Logging in the Monument will actually increase the likelihood of severe 
fires, since removal of the large trees reduces the cooling shade of the forest 
canopy, and because highly flammable brush accumulates in open areas where 
logged 
trees once stood.[5] 



In a final insult, the Forest Service plan will actually be subsidized by 
taxpayers, to the tune of $34 million. Much of that will go toward road 
building, 
even though there are already 900 miles of roads in the Monument. And nearly 
$14 million of taxpayer money will be spent for "mechanical thinning of 
conifer" -- otherwise known as logging. [6] 




### 

SOURCES: 
[1] Presidential Proclamation establishing Sequoia National Monument, April 
15, 2000.
[2] "Forest Service Bushwhacks Giant Sequoia National Monument," Sierra Club.
[3] "Forest Service Proposes to Log Sequoia National Monument," The 
Wilderness Society. 
[4] Ibid. 
[5] Action Alert, Sequoia ForestKeeper. 
[6] Ibid.

[cg] Portland Urban Waterway

2004-03-02 Thread Adam36055

Up the creek, with a shovel 
Johnson Creek fans help tidy the banks of urban waterway 
 By JIM REDDEN     Issue date: Tue, Mar 2, 2004 
The Tribune    Hundreds of Portlanders turned out Saturday to clean up and 
rehabilitate acres of land along Johnson Creek.
   Some removed debris, pulled invasive plants such as English ivy, and 
planted native trees and shrubs. Others surveyed fish and vegetation along the 
banks.
   The volunteers included five generations of a family that donated 3.6 
acres of wooded riverside property to the public in 1975. Dozens of relatives 
showed up at the Bundy Wildlife Refuge to clear blackberry bushes, pull ivy and 
plant ash trees.
   "This was a fun place to grow up, and we want to help return it to 
nature," said Karl Lett, 87, whose uncle, Kingsley Bundy, bought the site near 
Southeast 141st Avenue and Foster Road in 1932.
   Other volunteers concentrated on 11 additional sites along the 26-mile 
ribbon of water that runs from its headwaters near the Sandy River in the 
foothills of Mount Hood to its confluence with the Willamette River near 
Milwaukie. 
They included Karl Lee, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, who 
helped plant new foliage at Beggar's Tick, a wetlands area near Southeast 111th 
Avenue and Foster Road.
   "More people are realizing the importance of natural areas in urban 
settings," said Lee, explaining that native vegetation cleans rainwater before 
it 
flows into the river.
   Lee is a member of the Johnson Creek Watershed Council, which coordinated 
the event. The council is a nonprofit organization guided by a 22-member 
volunteer board. Its executive director, Michelle Bussard, said the high 
turnout 
demonstrates the strong commitment to the environment that local residents feel.
   "Many of the people I talk to say they live here because of the quality of 
life," she said. "That includes the environment, and events like this show 
that people are willing to work to improve it."
   Johnson Creek has been the focus of government, business and community 
concerns for many years. It runs through a wide mix of natural, industrial, 
commercial and residential lands. The river frequently overflows its banks 
during 
heavy rains, washing out adjacent properties and sweeping up contaminants.
   Some of the flooding is caused by earlier public projects along the river, 
according to council member Maggie Skenderian, a community relations 
specialist with the city's Bureau of Environmental Services. They included a 
WPA 
project in the 1930s that lined miles of the river's banks with rocks.
   "They thought it would keep the water in the river, but it makes the river 
more likely to flood and hurts the water quality. We've learned a lot more 
about how rivers work since then," Skenderian said.
   
   Helping land helps water
   
   Watersheds have emerged as a focus of environmental concern in recent 
years in large part because of federal laws designed to save endangered species 
such as salmon. Bussard said Johnson Creek is the only remaining free-flowing 
stream in Portland that's home to migrating salmon.
   Saturday's work was intended to improve water quality in the creek by 
enhancing the watershed that feeds it.
   Watersheds are areas of land that drain downward to a lowest point, 
usually to a river system that grows progressively larger as it moves 
downstream. 
Rainwater and melting snow flow through a network of drainage pathways that may 
be underground or on the surface. In some dry regions, watersheds may drain 
into ponds or marshes.
   As water flows downhill it collects loose material, including fertilizer, 
oil and garbage that can harm water quality.
   Local governments are taking steps to protect and enhance watersheds. The 
city's Environmental Services Bureau is drafting plans for managing all 
watersheds in the city limits. Metro, the regional government, is planning to 
adopt 
guidelines governing some development along all waterways in Clackamas, 
Multnomah and Washington counties.
   Some of the ideas are controversial. Last year the Portland Planning 
Bureau withdrew a proposal to regulate development along the city's waterways 
because of opposition from affected property owners. The bureau hopes to unveil 
a 
revised set of regulations later this year.
   C.M. Meyer, the watershed council's financial director, said Saturday's 
event shows people can make a difference in the environment.
   "They know this is something they can actually do to improve the 
watershed," Meyer said. "Sometimes it feels that progress is so slow, but with 
events 
like this, you can actually get something done."
   
   Volunteers take a role
   
   The Johnson Creek council is one of 90 organizations around the state 
dedicated to preserving and restoring watersheds in their areas. Other councils 
in 
the Portland area work to enhance the Columbia Slough in North Portland and 
Tryon Creek in Southwest Portland.
   The councils are part o

[cg] For Oklahoma Community Gardeners

2004-03-03 Thread Adam36055




Event:  Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop

Date:   Saturday, March 27, 2004 – weather permitting
  10:00 a.m. until noon

Location:  Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture’s Office Building,
Poteau, OK
  On Hwy 271, located four miles southwest of junction 59 or two miles
northeast of Wister.  Watch for field day sign.

Registration: Free.  No early registration is required.

Description:  Ted Evicks, Pittsburg County Extension Agriculture Educator
will be here to show the correct way to prune home fruit trees.  Trees will
be pear, plum, peach and apple.  Examples will be one year be four year
plantings.  Fruit tree diseases and edible landscaping tips will also be
discussed.  Participants will also receive informational handouts.

Contact: For more information contact the Kerr Center at 918-647-9123 or
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]




Maura McDermott
Communications Director
Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
PO Box 588
Poteau, OK 74953
918.647.9123
www.kerrcenter.com

"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is
an idea whose time has come." --Victor Hugo

[cg] Tennessee: Son starts communit y garden to honor late father

2004-03-04 Thread Adam36055



Son starts communit y garden to honor late father

2004-03-04
by Thomas Fraser
Maryville Daily Times - Maryville,TN,USA

of The Daily Times Staff

John Weston used to make the rounds around Home Avenue, distributing his 
homegrown vegetables to the poor. 

Now, a year after Weston's death, his son wants to be more like him.

The graded acre at Home Avenue and Haig Street is testimony. 

It's the future site of Maryville's first modern incarnation of a community 
garden.

``My father set such a good example, in living what he believed,'' Tom Weston 
said. ``He was an advocate for the poor. He was always doing things to back 
up what he believed.''

Tom Weston spoke as he stood outside the headquarters of Weston Paving on 
Haig Street.

``I didn't feel like I was living what I believed,'' he said.

His father started the business in the 1960s as a ``shade-tree mechanic,'' 
said Ruth Weston, John Weston's widow.

But he always found time to garden, and share his bounty. Ruth said he gave 
directions for the disposition of onions and lettuce while on his deathbed. He 
died in April 2003.

The John Weston Sr. Memorial Food Garden will be a fitting tribute, Ruth 
said.

``John liked being around people, he'd like being in a community garden,'' 
she said.

The garden will be run as a nonprofit corporation with a three-person board 
of directors that includes Ruth and Tom Weston and his brother, John Weston 
Jr., and feature 49 individual 24-foot-by-32-foot plots, complete with spigots 
and landscaped borders.

Plots will be available to all comers for a requested donation, and the 
stipulation that 20 percent of all produce must be donated to Second Harvest 
Food 
Bank for distribution to area food pantries. Plans call for the garden to join 
the American Community Garden Association.

Not only will the garden allow up to 50 urban dwellers to maintain a food 
plot, one plot will be managed as an educational asset for the child tenants of 
the nearby Maryville Housing Authority 

It will also provide a practical addition to the green space of the city.

``We think it's good for the environment, and that would go along with John's 
conviction,'' said Ruth Weston.

The Maryville City Council Tuesday approved an amendment to the city's Land 
Use Development Regulations to allow for tracts of land to be leased or used 
for nonprofit gardens.

``It has not been simple,'' said John Weston Jr. of the efforts to establish 
a community garden.

The Westons have funded the initial garden creation themselves, at times 
using labor from the paving company.

The clock is ticking on spring sowing, Tom Weston conceded while surveying 
the site early this week.

``I hope gardening season doesn't get here before we get done,'' he said.

[cg] California: Things are Jumping in Calaveras County

2004-03-04 Thread Adam36055

BIG TREES SEMINAR: 10 a.m. to noon at Jack Knight Hall in Calaveras Big Trees 
State Park, the Calaveras Big Trees Association presents Stephen Stocking, a 
retired botanist who will discuss planting and gardening for birds and what 
not to plant for deer or rabbits. The seminar is free and open to the public. 
Call 795-7980 for schedule changes or more information.

Re: [cg] Anyone out there a "gardening addict"?

2004-03-05 Thread Adam36055

Strung out on gardening are you?  No twelve step program needed dear.  Just a 
re-definition..

All of us community gardeners who compost year round, cloche lettuces, read 
garden catalogues in the dead of winter like murder mysteries and girlie 
magazines, start veggies at home during blizzards and never get the dirt our 
from 
under our finger nails are just gardeners. 

Period.  

Community gardeners are folks who create public gardens for their whole 
neighborhoods, providing neighbors with vistas of horticultural beauty and not 
a 
few veggies.  Addicts are hooked on things which are not good for them, their 
neighborhoods or the world; however,  community gardeners try to emulate the 
bees, who help grow community, their gardens and the world, one garden at a 
time 
while getting filled with  the bounty of the sun, air, water and the sweet 
loam.

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman, 
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden

[cg] Meetinghouse Farm, West Barnstable, Massachussets

2004-03-05 Thread Adam36055

Barnstable Mass CG Initiative



The greening of Meetinghouse Farm

By Judy DesrochersSpring is definitely in the air and that means increased 
activity at Meetinghouse Farm. The Farm, located on Route 149, near the 
historic 
First Parish Meetinghouse, is planning its annual Volunteer Clean-Up for 
April 22, 23 and 24.

The Meetinghouse Farm Management Team has completed a comprehensive landscape 
plan for the site. The plan was recently available for review by abutters at 
a coffee hour, held at Whelden Library. The plan will he implemented with the 
support of the Town of Barnstable's Conservation Commission and Natural 
Resources Department. Design for specific gardens and details of plant 
selection and 
installation will be developed during the spring and summer.

The Farm will also participate in a Spring Planting Day to be held at Country 
Garden in Hyannis on April 18. Volunteers will be available to discuss the 
goals of the Farm and offer a variety of small gardening projects for children. 
Information will be available on organic products that enhance the environment 
as well as beautify the landscape.

Last summer's Container Garden Lecture and Sale was a great success and will 
be held this year on Saturday, June 26. Gardeners are asked to plant container 
gardens around Memorial Day and donate them for the June sale. Last year's 
container gardens reflected the personalities and talents of individual 
contributors and provided instant color for many July 4 celebrations. Catherine 
J. 
Paulson, a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist, will be available again to 
discuss plant selection and soil and water recommendations for container 
gardens.

Andy Morris, a resident of Cummaquid and member of the Barnstable County 
Beekeepers Association, continues to maintain two hives for the Farm. He 
reports 
that both hives made it through the winter and "the girls" are doing well.

Composting is always a "hot" topic among gardeners interested in rich soil 
and healthy plants. The Farm is planning to display a variety of composting 
options at the site this summer. AmeriCorps Cape Cod will construct the sample 
bins with the support of Debbie Fitton of the UMass Extension Service. Whether 
you've had great or mixed results with your composting, stop by the Farm this 
summer to see our black gold and compare composting secrets!

And don't forget to watch for the annual display of roadside flowering bulbs 
in April and May. They are a colorful invitation to visit Meetinghouse Farm. 
You might even decide to grab your rake and shovel and join us for a day of 
community gardening!

The wirter is chairperson of the Meetinghouse Farm Management Team.



What is it?

Meetinghouse Farm is a community-based horticultural initiative with a 
mission of fostering community horticultural and agricultural practices.

Some Facts

·Located off Route 149, it is part of the town's 23-acre Meetinghouse Farm 
Conservation Area, which includes a 3,000 sq. ft. greenhouse.

·To support its mission, it will model and teach sustainable farming.

· It will communicate and collaborate with local "green industries."

For more information, write to: Meetinghouse Farm, P.O. Box 330, West 
Barnstable, MA 02668

 

Return to Top

Return to News

[cg] Arkansas: Senior center to host plots for gardening

2004-03-07 Thread Adam36055




By Jessica Graves 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
The Master Gardeners of Pope County, developed by the University of Arkansas 
Cooperative Extension Offices, is supplying garden plots at the Russellville 
Senior Activity Center for spring planting. 
The two are partnering up in a “community garden” to be located just to the 
north of the building. 
Four 20-by-20-foot plots will be used for gardening. The Master Gardener’s 
will have the ground to plant by March 15. It will be fertilized and ready to 
go 
at that time. 
Each group or individual will be solely responsible for their area and can 
plant anything they would like, such as flowers or vegetables. They will be 
responsible for the upkeep of their area for the growing season, and everything 
they harvest will belong to them, according to Tom Casner, Master Gardeners 
member. 
A Master Gardener will be assigned to each area to give technical assistance 
as needed. The technical advisors of the project are Casner, Mike Church, 
Patti and Michelle Ward, Darlene McGuire and Susan Williams, president of 
Master 
Gardener’s. 
Each Master Gardener’s member will be a resource for the group to help them 
on what to plant and in helping them do it. The Master Gardener’s have gotten 
the ground ready to work, and will buy seeds and till the soil, according to 
Casner. 
“All plots are filled at this time. We’ve done really well this year and 
hope to make it bigger next year. We’ve started out small, and now we’ve got an 
inter-generational thing going on,” said Sherry Tidwell, senior activity 
center director. 
Three projects were planned by Casner for the activity center — landscaping, 
a water garden and vegetable gardens. 
Casner said he got the idea from his late father, who liked tomatoes. Casner 
planted his dad a tomato garden, which helped his father to get up each day 
and go out to check on the plants. 
“It’s an ongoing thing, and will hopefully be expanded,” said Casner.  
Copyright © 2004, Russellville Newspapers, Inc

[cg] Berkeley, CA: Saturday March 14th Seed Starting/Gardening Events

Berkeley Daily Planet 

Friiends, 

These  Saturday events may interest you if you're in  Berkeley, CA  area: 

1) Mini-Gardeners: Seeds Learn the plant cycle and see where seeds come from, 
for ages 4-6 accompanied by an adult, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature 
Center. Cost is $3, $4 non-resident. Registration required. 525-2233.

2) Compost Give-Away as part of the National Nutrition month from 10 a.m. to 
3 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-. 
www.ecologycenter.org


3) Seed Saving Workshop Introduction to seed saving for the backyard, school, 
and community gardener. We’ll cover seed saving in detail, including botany 
and pollination, types of seeds, wet and dry seed processing methods, 
equipment, and seed storage. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 
San 
Pablo Ave. Cost is $15 general, $10 EC members. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

4) School Garden Conference Join teachers, school volunteers, and youth 
gardening enthusiasts for a one-day conference on starting or enhancing gardens 
in 
Bay Area Schools. Workshops will will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will 
begin at the Lawrence Hall of Science and move to the UC Botanical Garden. Cost 
is $10. 495-2801.

5) Help Build a Native Plant Nursery and Restore a Marsh Join the effort to 
restore West Stege Marsh, along the south Bayshore of Richmond, for the 
endangered Clapper Rail and other wildlife. We will be building potting tables, 
erecting a shade house, and of course tending our new little plants. From 9 
a.m. 
Pre-registration preferred. 231-5783. [EMAIL PROTECTED]

6) Spring Care and Feeding of Roses with Deb McKay at 10 a.m. at Magic 
Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351.

[cg] Fordham University Memorial Service for a Gardener

Friends, 

As you may know, my wife Allegra Benveniste Honigman, RN died at the age of 
53 on January 9, 2004. Allegra was a great nurse, advocate for the homeless and 
hungry, neighborhood activist, community gardener, Green Market volunteer, 
lover of people, animals and alas cigarettes. 

My son Daniel and I have been supported in our grief by  the hands of 
Allegra's many dear friends, people whom she touched in our larger extended 
family. . 


Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10, 2004, many members of the Fordham community 
wished to commemorate her service and friendship  at Fordham Lincoln Center. 

We've scheduled the service tomorrow from 5:15pm-6pm in the Lowenstein Chapel 
here at Fordham Lincoln Center.  This particular time slot was the most 
convenient both for faculty and staff members, who work at Fordham during the 
day, 
and night class students, who will be arriving to campus early to attend the 
service
The details are listed below.  We'd love to have you join us if you can.

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman 

Memorial Service for Allegra Honigman 
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 
5:15pm-6pm 
Lowenstein Chapel 
LL 221 
Fordham University Lincoln Center 
60th and Columbus 

Take the subway to the 59th St. Station or drive to 60th and Columbus. 
Enter Fordham University, proceed past the security desk (notify them that 
you are attending a memorial service in the Chapel). 
Take the escalator (on your right hand side) to the Plaza level, and the 
elevator to the 2nd floor. 
Make a left out of the elevator, and proceed through the double doors. 
The Chapel will be the 4th door on your left.

[cg] Community Gardens on PBS - A Funny Story

Friends, 

A coupla years ago this guy from Californina says on the American Community 
Gardening Listserve he wants  to film community gardens for a Public 
Broadcasting thing.  Personally, I think he's nuts, but what do I know? But the 
ACGA 
reaches out and gives him what he needs - me too. 

 Funny, it turns out Rick ( that's his name) is  the kid brother of Bob 
Bacigalupi from Manhattan Plaza and Manhattan Community Board 4. And he films 
stuff 
at our summer solstice celebration and in CGs all over the US. 

Allegra, my late wife, even picked up some beers for the film crew from the 
Arab deli on the corner. I've seen this documentary, and it's idiosyncratic, 
inspiring, and sometimes weird - just like real community gardens. 

So if you see "A Lot in Common" on your local PBS affiliate, well you'll know 
how it came to be. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
Clinton Community Garden

> Subj: [cg] Garden Doc Airdates 
>  Date: 3/9/04 8:06:18 PM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Starting in about one month, PBS TV stations will begin broadcasting the 
> video documentary "A Lot in Common," which features a promotional tag for 
> ACGA at 
> the end of each program.  As of today the show has been booked in the 20 
> markets listed below, and at least 15 more stations are seriously 
> considering it, 
> including WNET New York, KCET Los Angeles, and WETA Washington, D.C., which 
> have contacted me for additional viewing copies.  I will update the 
> listserve 
> periodically as more stations book in.
> 
> This is a tremendous step and I want to say thank you so much to all of the 
> ACGA members who have helped convince their PBS stations to broadcast this 
> touching saga of life in one community garden in Berkeley, California (more 
> info 
> at www.ALotinCommon.com).  I hope this good news might persuade those who 
> have 
> been considering contacting their own local PBS stations to express interest 
> 
> in the show, to get off the ol' compost pile and make the call. This is a 
> strategy that has now proven effective, and can be beneficial to local 
> gardening 
> groups as a way to raise publicity about what is going on with gardening in 
> their area.  By popular demand, a satellite re-feed of the program has been 
> scheduled for Friday 3/19, 1200-1300ET/Channel 513, so sooner is better for 
> contacting program managers.
> 
> As ever, please don't hesitate to e-mail or call for contact information at 
> your stations (if you don't see them below!) and for a form letter for you 
> to 
> personalize and send in.  Acting this month will allow programmers to 
> schedule 
> the broadcast for June, when gardens are really coming into their own.  Many 
> 
> thanks again, Rick Bacigalupi  415-282-0340  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ___
> A Lot in Common Airdates-As of 3/9/04
> (listed by market rank, largest to smallest)
> 
> 1.  WNYE Ch. 24 New York City
> Already aired, 8/24/03 2PM
> WNET--pending review
> 
> 3.  WYCC Chicago--has committed to air, date TBA
> 
> 4.  WYBE, Philadelphia
> Saturday, May 8th at 2:30p.m.
> 
> 5.  KQED Ch 9, San Francisco Bay Are
> Sunday, April 4, 2004  at Noon 
> 
> 23. Maryland PTV (Baltimore) 
> Sat. April 17th at 6 p.m.
> 
> 25. WIPB Muncie, IN (Indianapolis) 
> Saturday, April 24th, 9:00 p.m.
> Monday, April 26th, 5:00 a.m.
> 
> 27.  KRMJ Ch 18/CPTV
> has committed to air, date TBA
> 
> 36. KUED Salt Lake City 
> Sunday, April 18th, 4:00 p.m.
> 
> 42.  WKNO Memphis, TN 
> Saturday., April 10th at 2p.m.
> 
> 53. ThinkTV Ch. 14  Dayton, OH
> 4/26 10PM  (aired 1/29)
> 
> 59.  WCVE Richmond, VA
> Thursday, April 29 at 11:00 PM
> 
> 72. WCNY Syracuse, NY
> Tuesday, April 20th  at 10 p.m.
> 
> 81. WILL Urbana, IL
> Friday, April 16, 2004 at 9 p.m.
> 
> 95. WNIN Evansville, IN
> Sunday, February 29th at 10:00am
> 
> 97. WNEO Kent, OH (Youngstown) 
> Thursday, February 12th, 10 p.m.
> 
> 104. WKAR Lansing, MI
> Sunday, April 18 at 3PM
> 
> 118. Reno, NV
> Tuesday, April 13 at 1:00 PM
> 
> 130. KIXE Chico/Redding, CA 
> Thursday, April 22nd at 5 p.m.
> 
> 194.  WHTJ Charlottesville, VA
> Thursdya, April 29 at 11:00 PM
> 
> KRSC Claremore, OK
> Friday, April 23 at 9:00 PM.
> 
> 

--- Begin Message ---
Starting in about one month, PBS TV stations will begin broadcasting the 
video documentary "A Lot in Common," which features a promotional tag for ACGA 
at 
the end of each program.  As of today the show has been booked in the 20 
markets listed below, and at least 15 more stations are seriously considering 
it, 
including WNET New York, KCET Los Angeles, and WETA Washington, D.C., which 
have contacted me for additional viewing copies.  I will update the listserve 
periodically as more stations book in.

This is a tremendous step and I want to say thank you so much to all of the 
ACGA members who have helped convince their PBS stations to broadcast this 
touching saga of life in one community gar

[cg] Fwd: No Quickie Book on LES Community Gardens

In a message dated 3/9/04 10:16:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, DLogg60798 
writes:

> Subj: Re: No Quickie Book on LES Community Gardens 
>  Date: 3/9/04 10:16:58 PM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: DLogg60798
>  To: Adam36055, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> 
> 
> I agree with Adam. I have been at the Liz Christy Garden from 1973 when it 
> was the Bowery Houston Community Farm &Garden and have a large collection of 
> historical material including Liz's seed grenade instruction sheet, and the 
> most complete collection of material related to Liz Christy (the person and 
> garden] to be found.
> 
> There were also several thesis on the subject (I have them as pdf's) and my 
> website has some good historical material. ( lizchristygarden.org ]. I 
> recently did a chapter on Liz Christy (the person) and that took 3 months to 
> write. 
> 
> 
> Doing it right takes time and hard work.
> 
> Don Loggins

--- Begin Message ---
I agree with Adam. I have been at the Liz Christy Garden from 1973 when it 
was the Bowery Houston Community Farm & Garden and have a large collection of 
historical material including Liz's seed grenade instruction sheet, and the 
most 
complete collection of material related to Liz Christy (the person and 
garden] to be found.

There were also several thesis on the subject (I have them as pdf's) and my 
website has some good historical material. ( lizchristygarden.org ]. I recently 
did a chapter on Liz Christy (the person) and that took 3 months to write. 

Doing it right takes time and hard work.

Don Loggins
--- End Message ---

[cg] Fwd: [tb-cyberpark]: Fwd: No Quickie Book on LES Community Gardens

In a message dated 3/9/04 11:52:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

> Subj: Re: [tb-cyberpark]: Fwd: No Quickie Book on LES Community Gardens 
>  Date: 3/9/04 11:52:06 PM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Missed the previous thread on this; who is trying to do a quickie book on 
> LES gardens?Just wondered. It took me forever to write that chapter(s) I did 
> for that Avant Gardening book, so I can attest to how history takes time. But 
> Don, I'd love to see the Liz Christy chapter with the seed grenade instrux. 
> Is 
> that on the website or what was that for?
>  
> 
> best,
>  
> 
> sarah
>  
> 
> p.s. thanks for froggie x-mas card...
> 

--- Begin Message ---
Title: Re: [tb-cyberpark]: Fwd: No Quickie Book on LES
Commun

Missed the previous thread on this; who is trying to do a quickie
book on LES gardens?Just wondered. It took me forever to write that
chapter(s) I did for that Avant Gardening book, so I can attest to how
history takes time. But Don, I'd love to see the Liz Christy chapter
with the seed grenade instrux. Is that on the website or what was that
for?

best,

sarah

p.s. thanks for froggie x-mas card...

In a message
dated 3/9/04 10:16:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, DLogg60798
writes:
Subj: Re:
No Quickie Book on LES Community Gardens
Date: 3/9/04 10:16:58 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:
DLogg60798
To: Adam36055, [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I agree with Adam. I have been at the Liz Christy Garden from 1973
when it was the Bowery Houston Community Farm &Garden and have a
large collection of historical material including Liz's seed grenade
instruction sheet, and the most complete collection of material
related to Liz Christy (the person and garden] to be found.

There were also several thesis on the subject (I have them as pdf's)
and my website has some good historical material. (
lizchristygarden.org ]. I recently did a chapter on Liz Christy (the
person) and that took 3 months to write.

Doing it right takes time and hard work.

Don
Loggins

Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Full-name: DLogg60798
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 22:16:58 EST
Subject: Re:  No Quickie Book on LES Community Gardens
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 46

I agree with Adam. I have been at the Liz Christy Garden from 1973
when it
was the Bowery Houston Community Farm & Garden and have a large
collection of
historical material including Liz's seed grenade instruction sheet,
and the most
complete collection of material related to Liz Christy (the person
and
garden] to be found.

There were also several thesis on the subject (I have them as pdf's)
and my
website has some good historical material. ( lizchristygarden.org ]. I
recently
did a chapter on Liz Christy (the person) and that took 3 months to
write.

Doing it right takes time and hard work.

Don Loggins

--- End Message ---

[cg] Philadelphia Flower Show - Sally McCabe's Baby

2004-03-10 Thread Adam36055


Philly Flower Show

American genius in full flower


By Jacqueline L. Urgo

Inquirer Staff Writer


The everyman spirit of Benjamin Franklin - poet, philosopher, printer, 
author, diplomat, scientist and gardener - can easily inspire those passing 
through 
his "secret garden" at the Philadelphia Flower Show this week.

But the exhibit "Ben Franklin's Secret Garden: Sowing the Seeds of the 
American Paradise," which yesterday won a Philadelphia Horticultural Society 
Award 
of Merit, has actually become more of an influence on the urban youths from the 
Camden City Garden Club and others who created it.

"Imagine how empowering it is for these kids to be at the world's largest 
flower show and winning an award for an exhibit they helped build that is based 
on a American genius who believed in the education and the power of the human 
spirit," said Michael Devlin, executive director of the club. It also operates 
the Camden Children's Garden, adjacent to the New Jersey State Aquarium.

A group of about two dozen Camden youths, including students from a carpentry 
class at Camden County Technical School, built a wooden structure - imagined 
as the conversion of an 18th-century stable - where Franklin himself might 
have been inspired by the view of his garden.

Inside, one of Franklin's own printing presses - on loan from the Franklin 
Institute - is the centerpiece of the primitive room.

Lining shelves and tables are handmade reproductions of printing tools and 
equipment that Franklin would have used in publishing Poor Richard's Almanack. 
The pieces were created by Camden City Garden staff members.

The group also built other antique-looking elements for the exhibit, 
including a printer's cabinet and an 18th-century garden till and wheelbarrow.

But holding true to the theme of the Flower Show - "Destination: Paradise" - 
is the exquisite garden, which draws visitors into the ambitious exhibit with 
its weeping mulberry, Northern red oaks, and hemlock, all buffeted by an 
overflow of pink azaleas, purple rhododendron and astilbe. Also featured are 
deep-green-leafed Franklinia trees - named by Franklin's contemporary, botanist 
John 
Bartram. Topiaries of a turkey and chickens created by youth members of the 
club add a fanciful element.

At the center of the colorful garden is a statue of Franklin, also on loan 
from the Franklin Institute, for which he posed in 1751.

"The jumping-off point for the exhibit is that Franklin was the unofficial 
host of the Constitutional Convention in 1787," Devlin said. "And there is a 
mural in the Capitol depicting Franklin hosting representatives from the 
convention under a mulberry tree in his garden."

Emily Zayas, a garden youth employee and student at Camden County Technical 
School, said the garden had inspired an interest in American history she never 
had before.

Zayas stained and antiqued shingles and helped install the workshop's roof. 
Her sister, Sandrea, was one of the students who created the topiaries and 
other plantings.

"These sisters are examples of the Camden youth who may never have had the 
opportunity to be a part of something like this Philadelphia Flower Show 
exhibit 
without the Camden Children's Garden project," Devlin said. The nonprofit 
organization provides horticultural, recreational and educational opportunities 
such as its community gardening project, and attracts as many as 20,000 
visitors a year.

When the Flower Show is over on Sunday, the Franklin exhibit will be moved 
permanently to the Camden garden.

Other New Jersey winners

The Camden City Garden Club's award was one of five won by major exhibitors 
from New Jersey. The other major exhibit winners from New Jersey were E.P. 
Henry Corp., Woodbury, the Best in Show by Invitation Award; Waldor Orchids, 
Linwood, American Orchid Society Show Awards; Flagg's Garden Center, 
Moorestown, 
Silver Trophy; and J. Cugliotta Landscape/Nursery Inc., Southampton, Special 
Achievement Awards Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania.

[cg] English Herbalist Query

2004-03-12 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

This message was posted to the  Clinton Community Garden  website this 
morning and just arrived in my mailbox.  It is one of the more interesting and 
flattering queries our Hell's Kitchen  based Clinton Community Garden has had 
in a 
long while, akin to  getting a call from a  Herr Haydn in Vienna on the best 
way to begin the writing of a musical composition in sonata form. 

While I've answered Mr. Watson's query in my usual way, I'm sure that 
international crew  brilliant herbalists, master gardeners and dirty fingernail 
community gardeners will have their two pence to throw in the pot.  

Please do!  Kindly send your responses to Mr. Watson at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
copying your response to the American Community Gardening association listserv 
at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 

Thanking you all in advance, 
Adam Honigman
 Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 

> Subj: FW: Guest Book Message 
>  Date: 3/5/04 10:38:01 AM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> any interest in corresponding with this British dude?
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 4:53 AM
> To: SEVERANCE, Nancy
> Subject: Guest Book Message
> 
> 
> *
> **
> name:   Barry(jolly green giant)Watson
> garden: Forest Farm UK
> email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> B1:Submit
> 
> comments:
> 
> Forest Farm is just starting out, in London Borough of Redbridge.an over 
> grown allotment site 16 acres in area.We are setting out a three acre 
> International Medicinal herb garden. Linked to UEL University of East London 
> &college 
> of Phytotherapy.So Please can we exchange Ideas.
> 

Dear Mr. Watson, 

Thank you for your query. As you can see from our website, ( Clinton 
Community Garden) the Clinton Community Garden does have a nice public herb 
garden, 
where neighborhood residents can cut fresh herbs for dinner and a well 
established bed for Native American and endangered plantings tended by 
volunteers Annie 
Chadwick and Faser Hardin.  We are sited on a third of an acre in an area 
adjacent to that might be best desribed as the Manhattan equivalent of both 
London's West End  & the City. The Clinton Community Garden, sited on the 
footprint 
of 5 demolished tenement and their back yards, has 4,000 + keyholders and 
serves a local community board area with 90,000 souls. 

The very idea of  volunteer gardeners having the opportunity to set aside 3 
acres of a pre-existing 16 acre allotment garden in any city is mind-boggling! 

Were I you, I would first come up with a working team of good, hardworking 
and congenial gardeners from your allotment garden. Failing that, congenial and 
harworking will do. We can always learn to garden better, but congeniality is 
a gift. 

Go with these 5 or so souls to a local pub and start to roughly lay out the 
space in which this herb garden should be sited, a plan of how you want to 
start

[cg] Sneak Jets Stadium Rally this Sunday March 14th

2004-03-12 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

I had originally planned to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show this Sunday 
with friends from Pennsylvania - but the Jets decided to put on a sneak pro 
Jets/Olympic Westside Stadium this Sunday, May 14th.  Regretfully, I will have 
to 
put off  to getting  in touch with my warmer, gentler, flower loving side 
until the community gardens bloom later in the spring

The Details: 
The Jets are planning a family-friendly festival in Chelsea this Sunday in 
an attempt to show that West Side residents are excited to have them.  Come 
show the Jets and the press that football fans are welcome, but a West Side 
stadium is not.

The Jets obtained the permit at the last minute, without the usual 
notification of the Community Board.  The Jets web site calls the event 
"the first of many involving the team and the West Side community."  Bring 
your neighbors and kids, put on a "No Stadium" sticker, and 
help show what the community really thinks about a West Side stadium.

Where: Chelsea Park, 10th Ave. between 27th and 28th
Meet at: 27th St. and 10th Ave. (access road between park and Chelsea 
Elliott Homes)
When: Sunday, March 14th
10:30 to greet the press
10:30-4:00 stop by and put on a "No Stadium" sticker (we recommend 
10:30-1:00 for the greatest impact)

The festival will go all day, but concerned neighborhood residents are 
gathering by the official starting time of 11:00 to pass out stickers, sign 
up Chelsea residents and explain to the press how we really feel.  Come 
join us!

The down and dirty about the Jet's event: 

One should expect appearances of  bought-off, campaign contribution hungry 
minority legislators like Assemblymen Keith Wright, Darryl Towns and City 
Councilwoman Margarita Lopez at the event talking to the media, along with a 
few 
busloads of out-of -neighorhood minority youth's dazzled by the prospect of 
meeting NFL greats and getting free footballs. 

In case you think I'm being harsh about this, a full rear page,  
advertisement appeared on the rear of the March 11, 2003 "West Side Spirit" 
reading - 
"Minority Legislators Say Yes!  Enorsed Plans for The New York Sports and 
Convention Center. "  Money loves to play the "Race Card" when it is in their 
interest.. Talk about pandering!  Sheesh!!!

Alas, none of those legislators live in Chelsea, Clinton or even asked the 
people of color who live in our communities.  I wonder why? 

Alas, the usual men of the cloth, you know, the self appointed 
"representative of communties" to the far north and from across the East River 
should be 
expected to show, en-masse dazzled by the Jet's promises to "give back to the 
community."  

Reality Check:  Now,  a Jets stadium would be a tremendous boon to the Bronx, 
Queens or even North Manhattan - but the out-of-city, white flight, suburban 
middle class Jets fans might not want to attend a game in a community of 
color. 
That really is the bottom line to why the Jets want to put their stadium in 
Manhattan and why their advertisment in the "NY Spirit" was so disgusting. 

Imagine all the people of color who might be employed in a Harlem, Bronx or 
Brooklyn Jets stadium! The Jets would have to hire local if it didn't want 
picket lines.   

Now that wouldn't that  be really giving to the community?  And not "giving 
back?" 

Real jobs for real people - the hand-up of a real job, instead of a handout 
doled out by the Jets through self-appointed "community leaders." 

Expect personal appearances from  "Close the Firehouses" Billionaire Mayor 
Mike Bloomberg and Hell's Kitchen's darling, Deputy Mayor, "Corporate Sky Boxes 
for the Olympics" Dan Doctoroff. 

 Our neighborhood  can also expect a heavy showing from the   construction 
interests, non-NYC, or certainly not Hell's Kitchen  resident Union workers  
with kids in tow, as well as your usual beery tailgate party Jets fans.

Lovely. 

Best wishes,
Adam "Next Year for the Philadelphia Flower Show" Honigman

[cg] Fwd: [tb-cybergardens]: Emily's Great Adventure

2004-03-14 Thread Adam36055

In a message dated 3/14/04 2:49:12 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
writes:

> Subj: Re: [tb-cybergardens]: Emily's Great Adventure 
>  Date: 3/14/04 2:49:12 PM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm coming into this late, but for what it's worth, I think Adam's 
> suggestions are very valuable.  I wouldn't get hung up on anything but making 
> the book 
> (or anything else) the very best and as ethical as it can be.
> 
> That being said, those of us who have been out there in the trenches 
> gardening and cleaning up communities for a good number of years--quite 
> possibly 
> long before "More Gardens!" was even a thought (not to say it's not a very 
> good 
> thought)--as were both Adam &Allegra &many others..., well, "those of us" 
> have always
> been concerned about individuals and groups who may, albeit perhaps 
> unwittingly, use the gardening "issue" primarily to advance their own 
> agenda/line 
> their own pockets/advance their own careers.  Of course, there is no way to 
> prove that this has happened, or does, or is--but I do think there are those 
> times when people who have pushed themselves to make their communities better 
> places see others who have "jumped on the bandwagon," so to speak, run off 
> with 
> the prize.  I think we all need to examine out motives carefully with any 
> project we undertake.  But, especially when there is a profit to be made 
> directly or indirectly by one or more people, we must be extra honest with 
> ourselves 
> about the real and exact motivation for the project.  Otherwise, we're doing 
> no more or less than what the US of A is doing via its "Project for a New 
> American Century" (fighting &justifying pre-emptive wars with a sort of 
> "whiteman's burden" twist to it, when it's less "democracy" and human life, 
> liberty &
> dignity that's really at stake than "US interests," aka oil, money,  power, 
> ego, fear etc.).  Of course(I think)it's  impossible for any of us to do 
> anything for someone/something else out of pure altruism.  If we're 
> conscious(as 
> opposed to un-) there's going to be some self-interest in anything we do.  
> Doing what I do with Project Harmony makes me happy; so there you have it; 
> I'm 
> acting, to a significant degree, on behalf of my own happiness even though 
> the monetary
> (& other)costs are sometimes disheartening. Still, I wouldn't say that my 
> happiness is the raison d'etre of Project Harmony.  Hardly.  Everything I do 
> and how I do it has something to do with my own happiness, wellbeing, 
> survival, 
> etc., and as such even acts of altruism aren't purely selfless. I think one 
> needs to calculate, honestly, one's reasons for any undertaking, with an 
> awareness of whom one's actions will impact upon and how. I believe someone 
> in 
> this discussion said that "proceeds from the book" would be used for 
> "community 
> gardens."  How? Which ones? Who decides how and what to use it for?
> Maybe you've thought all this out.  Maybe the questioning is irrelevant.  
> Maybe it will just be what it will be.  In any case, it should be the very 
> best 
> it can be, so I'd say carefully consider Adam's suggestions.  He's a very 
> smart and intelligent guy, an excellent &thoughtful writer with loads of 
> experience.  It's unfair and in itself pastronizing to turn his comments into 
> the 
> ...whatever...of his grief.  They are solid, thoughtful, wise considerations
> in and of themselves.
> 
> Peace--
> Cindy
> 
> 

--- Begin Message ---
I'm coming into this late, but for what it's worth, I think Adam's 
suggestions are very valuable.  I wouldn't get hung up on anything but making 
the book 
(or anything else) the very best and as ethical as it can be.

That being said, those of us who have been out there in the trenches 
gardening and cleaning up communities for a good number of years--quite 
possibly long 
before "More Gardens!" was even a thought (not to say it's not a very good 
thought)--as were both Adam & Allegra & many others..., well, "those of us" 
have 
always
been concerned about individuals and groups who may, albeit perhaps 
unwittingly, use the gardening "issue" primarily to advance their own 
agenda/line their 
own pockets/advance their own careers.  Of course, there is no way to prove 
that this has happened, or does, or is--but I do think there are those times 
when people who have pushed themselves to make their communities better places 
see others who have "jumped on the bandwagon," so to speak, run off with the 
prize.  I think we all need to examine out motives carefully with any project 
we 
undertake.  But, especially when there is a profit to be made directly or 
indirectly by one or more people, we must be extra honest with ourselves about 
the real and exact motivation for the project.  Otherwise, we're doing no more 
or less than what the US of A is doing

[cg] Philadelphia Green's Mike Groman needs a gentle re-education

2004-03-15 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

In reference to Dorene Pasekoff's justifiably perturbed post: 

We need to take Philadelphia Green's  head Mr. Mike Groman gently by the hand 
and explain to the dear man that an empty lot planted with some grass and 
trees is nice, but impersonal and really not sustainable in the long run 
without 
a steady source of govenrmental or land trust funds.  And while a grass 
planted lot with a few trees is certainly better than an urban wasteland, is 
really 
the green equivalent of asphalt and a few basketball hoops. 
. A community garden or neighborhood maintained viewing garden or green space 
is filled with the spirit and character of the community it serves.  More 
than a park plunked down in a space, like it was dropped by a UFO overnight, a 
volunteer run community garden, viewing garden or public green space creates a 
ripple effect of positive development and community building and cohesion; this 
space becomes a living,  green, integral and organic part of the community 
which supports it and is nourished by it in turn. 

Mr. Groman, quite frankly,  may be frustrated by some of the not-so-well-kept 
community gardens that he has seen, or those that have run down because the 
original volunteers have "aged-out" or moved away. This is an unfortunate part 
of the life-cycle of community gardens that have not fullfilled their mission 
of community outreach, education and volunteer recruitment.  

The team always needs rookies to bring up in the system. There has to be 
someone to play ball after DiMaggio hangs them up. 

This is a large part of my mission these days as my hair thins, and as I have 
had a strong and clear message of the transitory nature of all volunteers 
with the death of my wife Allegra. We have to all work at hooking the young 
'uns 
and infecting them with community gardening as the mission

Mr. Groman, if he reads books, needs to get his nose out of seed catalogues 
for a few evenings and read "Saint"  Jane Jacobs', "The Death and Life of Great 
American Cities."  Reprinted in the Modern Library series and costing all of 
$18.50  in hardcover ( cheaper on Amazon, obviously). On the front of the dust 
jacket of this edition is Jane Jacobs as I remember her, a white haired old 
dame with a cigarette in her hand in a West Village gin mill, shooting the sh-t 
and hitting the target.  Sometimes Jane's  target was me, and I learned alot 
from her.  I tried to get Jacobs to look at community gardens as a third way 
type of public space management, but I had trouble getting her out of the 
Village bars when she visited from Toronto - so it goes.  So, I wish I had a 
quote 
from Jane  Jacobs on community gardens, but that was one of the great lost 
opportunites - sorry about that kids. 

>From chapter 5  'The Use of Neighborhood Parks' from the "Death and Life..." 
first paragraph, and remember, Jacobs wrote this in 1961 - when I was a little 
kid, 

"Conventionally, neigbhorhood parks or parklike open spaces are considered 
boons, conferred on the deprived populations of cities.  Let us turn this 
thought around, and consider city parks deptrived places that need the boon or 
life 
and appreciation conferred on them.  This is more nearly in accord with 
reality, for people do confer use on the parks and make them successes - or 
else 
withold use and doom parks to rejection and failure." 

Get the book to Mike Groman - and all of us need to read it, and re-read it, 
because it tells us, "In language Cats and Dogs can understand, " our mission 
and what we have to do to live in vibrant, viable cities and have the parks 
and gardens we deserve. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,
 Clinton Community Garden

Re: [cg] Garden plot size

2004-03-16 Thread Adam36055

Dear Mr. Bailey, 

Some friendly advice: 

Don't make the plots larger than your individual gardeners can handle by 
visiting them a few times a week during the growing season.  Also, in your 
planning, create a public viewing garden and gathering place as the site for 
garden 
parties, community outreach, and to create an oasis for neighborhood folks as a 
home grown botanic garden. To see how we do this at the Clinton Community 
Garden ( which is a puny third of an acre in Midtown Manhattan) go here:  
Clinton 
Community Garden.

You must read this ACGA link:  ACGA: Starting a CG 
 

Then  go the the individual community garden links on the American Community 
Gardening Association website:  Community Garden Links . Do yourself a favor 
and read all the individual garden links because the wheel you are looking for 
may have already been invented. 

Put that extra time into having a few beers with your gardeners. Group 
cohesion is the key. 

On Plot size,The average seems to be 10' x10' feet, with room for paths and 
of course the piped in water that you are going to have available to each 
gardener from carefully placed spigots.  Also, there should be a centrally 
available tool shed, and depending on your gardener population, raised beds 
created 
for seniors, limited mobility or wheelchair bound gardeners.   Gardening With 
Seniors and the Disabled 


Now the CCG  Clinton Community Garden  has 4' x 6' plots, and they produce 
alot, but with your proposed acreage, it's kind of small. 

Also, if you expect your project to be sucessfull, you need good Karma.  To 
get good Karma you WILL join the American Community Garden as soon as possible 
to get the goddesses on your side ;) . Joining the ACGA

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden

[cg] Honest Talk About NYC Parks Groups

2004-03-16 Thread Adam36055



I am so sorry you viewed a little honest talk about the Parks Foundation, and 
the recent actions of the commissioner as an attack.  Alas, sometimes the 
Emperor has no clothes. Gardeners,  alas call a spade a spade. We even use 
them, 
instead of sitting in offices and formulating policy castles in the sky, 
expecting the grateful masses of grass roots volunteers who take up the slack 
in 
our dreadfully underfunded Parks, Gardens and Recreation Centers, to say 
"Huzzah!
 
The Parks Foundation, alas, has not been particularly effective at motivating 
rank and file volunteers, and unfortunately that also goes for the 
Partnership for Parks crew as well, who are good at sittig at tables at 
conferences, 
occasionally distributing bulbs paid for by others and passing out t-shirts and 
buttons with your logos on them. 

Parks funding is still at 3 tenths of 1 percent of the NYC budget in this 
city, and I have yet to see either the Parks Foundation or Partnerships do 
anything that has gotten rank and filers, the ones who advocate to get their 
elected 
to allocate more money to parks and to actually hire people to do the work 
that needs to be done in places that are NOT Central Prks.  Now mind you, 
hiring 
blue collar people, who do real work, clean out public restrooms, pass out 
baskeballs, repair benches might be unfashionable non University educated 
persons of color, but would fix our benches, make our parks safer and more 
beautiful. Useful work. 

Reality hurts.  And I'm sorry that my frankness about what you all do, and 
the actions of our commissioner and Parks Dept  upset you. My apologies


Adam Honigman

Re: [cg] Fwd: RE: Your comments in the Inquirer

2004-03-16 Thread Adam36055

The view from New York - which may be entirely wrong. 

The way Mr. Growman's comment reads is: 

Ut oh - community gardeners actually read newspapers!  Gee, I'm sorry.  Don't 
you realize that I had to publicly justify my  new huge contract, the one  
which may keep Penn Hort's  little ship afloat?

However, Mr Growman is in treacherous  waters, because there are  lots of 
non-recurring money for a new set of program guidelines and staff.  Lots of 
balls 
to balance in the air, and a different set of funders to stroke. 

I wish Mr. Groman luck, but I think he may have been scewed by this new 
direction.

To be honest, there IS less fuss without those troublesome Philadelphia 
community gardeners.  However, those troublesome community gardeners are more 
likely to come to his defense if things with his new program direction turn 
sour - 
but he's going to have to let Philadelphia based community gardeners know he 
loves them by making appropriate public statements and not denigrating the real 
backbone of his program - i.e., the community gardeners, in newspapers. 

Gee, did you know that community gardeners actually read the newspapers? 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden

[cg] Bonne Terre, MO: Bonne Terre gets grant for community gardens

2004-03-17 Thread Adam36055



Bonne Terre gets grant for community gardens

By TERESA RESSEL\Daily Journal Staff WriterBONNE TERRE -- The city park will 
soon have a new addition that is geared for senior citizens. The city is 
starting a community garden for seniors and their families.

Residents can start signing up for the city's community garden from 11 a.m. 
to noon Thursday at the Bonne Terre Senior Center, located in the city park. 
After Thursday, residents can sign up at city hall. For more information call 
358-2254.

"It's geared toward seniors," said council member Janet Barton. "And we're 
using a real broad definition of senior citizens."

Barton said anyone 55 years or older can sign up for a garden plot. She said 
they are encouraging grandparents to share it with their grandchildren or 
entire family.

The garden plots, the seeds and even the equipment will be free. The 
community garden project is being funded through a Missouri Department of 
Health 
Cardiovascular grant.

"It was the primary work of Diane Williams, the director of the county health 
department," Barton said.

Because of the high rate of cardiovascular disease in the county, Williams 
was able to obtain this grant and another one for the city's Lakeview Park.

Williams hopes the community garden project will encourage healthy eating -- 
residents will be able to plant vegetables and some fruits. She said it is a 
way to make people aware of the foods they should be eating.

She said gardening is also a way for seniors to get exercise.

The garden will be located in the city park. Garden plots will be four foot 
wide and 10- to 20-foot long.

Barton plans to have some garden beds that are wheelchair-accessible.

"The garden plot will be prepared," Barton said. "We will buy the seeds and 
the tools with the grant money. We will provide water for irrigation. We only 
ask them to care for and maintain the garden plot."

Gardeners can do whatever they want with the food they grow. Barton said they 
can sell it, can it, or donate it to the senior center. She hopes to someday 
have a farmer's market in the city.

"I'm really excited," Barton said. "I think this will be a fun project."

She said there was a lot of space in the city park that was not being used.

"It will give citizens a chance to interact," she said. "It will be nice to 
see that kind of activity going on in the park."

Barton does have some concerns about protecting the garden but added there 
are community gardens in New York City.

Various groups and individuals will help with the community garden.

Williams said it is a community project because people who are experienced in 
gardening can supervise and scouting groups can help with the hard labor.

Jeannie Holmes, the horticulture instructor at Mineral Area College, has been 
working with the city to determine where the best location for the garden is 
and what could be planted there.

"She lives near the park and she is filled with all kinds of ideas," Barton 
said.

Holmes and Joe Stone, the owner of County Way Nursing, will be able to answer 
questions about gardening.


©2003 Bonne Terre "The Daily Journal"

[cg] Rochester, NY: A Great Master Gardener & A Life Lived Well

Friends, 
A ray of sunlight for a March Monday. 

Everbest, 
Adam Honigman

Volunteer delights in the outdoors

Corydon Ireland 
Staff writer 

(March 22, 2004) — If Virginia “Ginny” Wilterdink is an angel, she has the 
white hair for it.She also has heavenly amounts of energy, which she uses to 
promote the beauty, complexity and healing usefulness of nature.

Wilterdink, 81, is a master gardener and certified community forester. Among 
other things, she volunteers on a gardening help line sponsored by the Cornell 
Cooperative Extension of Monroe County.

Answering the phone one day last week, Wilterdink joked with a caller: “You’
ve reached the master volunteer.”

One look at her calendar backs that up. The night before, she had been an 
usher at a performance by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Saturday she was penned in to help give wildlife lessons at GardenScape. This 
Tuesday includes an 8 a.m. stop at Durand-Eastman Park, where about a dozen 
community foresters will spend hours clearing debris from rare trees.

Wednesday, Wilterdink will be at the Seneca Park Zoo helping to identify 
trees. And Thursday, she’ll go to Highland Park to assess a woodland garden 
that 
was built in 1922, the same year she was born.

“Once I can be outdoors, I am healthy,” said Wilterdink, a retired nurse and 
50-year Penfield resident.

“She’s just amazing,” said organic gardener Mary Jo Land, who owns MJ 
Creative Gardens in Irondequoit. “I don’t ever remember attending a meeting she 
was 
not at.”

Wilterdink is also a library volunteer and belongs to the Penfield Friday 
Club, a book group.

“She’s very energetic — I wish I could keep up with her,” said longtime 
friend Jean Benedict of Greece. “And she loves the environment. I treasure what 
she knows about nature.”

The two are members of the Burroughs Audubon Nature Club, where Wilterdink is 
in her second year as president.

“Everybody needs beauty,” said Wilterdink of her decade-plus of volunteer 
work in area parks, trails and gardens. “This morning, I saw a robin in a tree. 
These things nourish me, and the older I get the more they nourish me.”

She got a first and lasting taste of the beauty of nature growing up in 
coastal Maine, on a 200-acre family plot in the town of Calais. Her father took 
her 
fishing and on hikes where he’d identify trees for her. During her girlhood, 
the family could drink from the pure natural hillside springs that today are 
marked with warning signs.

In Rochester, she is one of about 600 volunteers in Community Water Watch, a 
Monroe County program that tracks the health of area streams. Wilterdink, a 
widow with three sons, keeps an eye on Irondequoit Creek, which runs a few 
steps 
from her home.

“I’m a conservationist,” she said. “I believe in taking care of our planet.”


Widely traveled, Wilterdink has what she called “a long and strange history.”
 She’s been to Europe and Asia and lived at various times in San Francisco, 
Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Wilterdink got her registered nurse degree in Portland, Maine; served as an 
Army nurse in the Philippines during World War II with the Boston-based 314th 
General Hospital Unit; after the war earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology 
and psychology; and spent some time as a stewardess for United Airlines, taking 
to the skies in two-engine DC-3s, the workhorse plane of the war. (In those 
days, many stewardesses were nurses, or had to have similar training.)

After raising her sons, she recovered her passion for conservation gradually. 
It came into full bloom after her retirement as an intensive care nurse at 
Rochester General Hospital.

Along with other conservation roles, Wilterdink is steward of Linear Park, a 
kind of volunteer watchdog.

And it’s often dogs Wilterdink watches for, or dog owners who let their 
charges relieve themselves freely (and illegally) on public land. For her 
enforcement enthusiasm, she said, “pretty soon I’m going to be called the witch 
of 
Linear Park.”

With so many years behind her, Wilterdink is shy about telling her age. “I don
’t want to get old,” she said. “I don’t mind dying, but I don’t want to get 
sick.”

To avoid that, just get outdoors, and learn what you’re looking at, said 
Wilterdink. “Nature is a very healing thing to be working in.”

Being a volunteer helps, too, even for those still in mid-career and 
relatively young, she said. “There’s a special need for people to be busy and 
working 
and doing useful things every day on this earth.”

By cultivating her interests, “my (life) has gone uphill,” said Wilterdink. “
As long as I don’t get too tired, life is wonderful.”

Some anti-aging strategies she recommends: eat thoughtfully, have passions 
(hers are gardening and studying nature), socialize with people younger than 
you 
are and exercise.

“Before people skied, I skied,” starting at age 10, said Wilterdink, who 
still clears brush off Penfield’s Honey Creek Trail, which she helped build. “
Even my sons say: I ho

[cg] Iowa: Creating a Rainforest "From the Ground Up"

Friends, 

I thought this might  those of us in the American Commuity Gardening 
association who "build community from the ground up" in our community gardens 
across 
the US & Canada. This project looks interesting (and expensive! - 46 million 
plus). Amazing, a whole rainforest ecosystem under a bubble in the Midwest! 

However, for that amount of dough, I'd love to compare it with the work done 
by the  Des Moines, IA Botanical Center, Des Moines Botanical Center , in 
building communities from the ground up in that city's community gardens, I 
suspect, for a lot less money and value added to that community. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 




Monday, March 22, 2004

Creating a rain forest from the ground up

Design aim to capture the wild

Five-foot leaves rustle as monkeys swing from tree to tree over the quiet 
waters 80 feet below. Butterflies and bees flit from blossom to blossom, 
devouring the nectar and distributing pollen in return. A sloth drapes itself 
across a 
branch, oblivious to the snow and single-digit temperatures outside of this 
tropical microcosm.


That is what project leaders envision and hope to have by 2008: three 
layers of high-tech material separating an Amazonian rain forest from the 
American Midwest. 



Will it be an entirely natural system? No. But designers and developers of 
the indoor rain forest officially known as the Iowa Environmental/Education 
Project hope it will be hard to tell the difference. 

Despite unresolved questions about plant propagation and cultivation, the 
role of animals and financing, project proponents see a budding opportunity for 
economic and educational growth. Project chief administrator David Oman said 
the design team will zero in on the unknowns and unresolved issues in the next 
few months as it looks to formalize plans and work toward a fall 
groundbreaking.

Town meeting 
The Press-Citizen is hosting a public forum about the Iowa 
Environmental/Education Project.
• When: 7 to 8:30 p.m. today.
• Where: Northwest Junior High School auditorium, Coralville. 
• Panelists: David Oman, IEEP chief administrator; former Gov. Robert D. Ray, 
IEEP chairman; Peter Sollogub, Sergio Modigliani, IEEP design team; Chris 
Rohret, Iowa City School District; Robert Yager, University of Iowa; and Kelly 
Hayworth, Coralville city administrator. 
• Format: First half features presentations from panelists; during second 
half, audience may ask the panelists questions. 


Dan Perlman, a biology professor in the Brandeis University environmental 
studies program in Waltham, Mass., said he is a huge fan of getting people into 
nature - and if that doesn't work, bring nature to them. But like many others, 
Perlman is anxious about the project.

"Potentially, this could be a wonderful thing," he said. "There is a great 
deal of potential."

Still, "I'm worried about the feasibility of the scientific side," he said.

Horticulturalist Robert Halpern sees endless educational and ecological 
possibilities inside the Iowa Environmental/Education Project.

"It is my hope," he said, "people will leave this space all excited about 
this resource that is nature."

Big changes ahead

The landscape southeast of Interstate 80, just off exit 242, is slated to 
undergo drastic changes in the next four years. Instead of steel-sided 
warehouses, rusty waste bins and 18-wheelers, an 18-story transparent dome 
stretching 
three football fields in length will dominate the parcel.

"I don't know about easy," Halpern said about creating the rain forest and 
establishing the plants and animals indoors, "but it's absolutely doable."

The giant dome will house three 6,000-square-foot educational galleries, 
possible research facilities and trails over, around and through acres of 
Amazonian flora.

Halpern, of New York-based Zoo Horticulture Consulting & Design, is working 
with architectural firm Chermayeff, Sollogub & Poole, Inc., of Boston, on the 
development along the Iowa River. Experts in finance, engineering, plant 
nurseries and botanical gardens are other players on the team charged with 
bringing 
a 4.5-acre tropical system to life in what used to be a sprawling industrial 
park.

Halpern, who formerly worked with the Cincinnati and Bronx zoos, said trees 
and plants likely will come from botanical gardens and Florida nurseries and 
planted in nutritionally balanced manufactured soil. Southern Florida is where 
officials with Omaha's Lied Jungle found the bulk of their tropical trees and 
plants in the early 1990s. They dealt with commercial growers but also drove 
the area themselves, scouring the rural roadsides and buying items out of 
residents' yards.

"We started out with very large trees," said Lee Simmons, director of the 
Henry Doorly Zoo in which the 1.5-acre Lied Jungle enclosed rain forest is 
located. "We managed to do it with pure serendipity and blind luck, and we 
managed 
to do it before the big hurricane (Andrew

[cg] Big Win for Pier 84 & the Manhattan Botanic Garden- Come Celebrate March 25,2004

Piers and Gardens! 

Pier 84 is being rebuilt and the Manhattan Botanic Garden Will Return.  A 
huge Win for the Friends of Pier 84 and the Manhattan Botanic Garden, a pier 
based community garden. . Kudos to Barbara Feldt, who in addtion to being a 
long 
time Clinton Community Gardener has also been key to the rennaisance of DeWitt 
Clinton Park as well.

Hat's off!
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,  Clinton Community Garden  

> Subj: Special Interest to Pier 84 Mavens - 25 March 2004 
>  Date: 3/22/04 12:39:56 PM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> To all...
>  The Hudson River park Trust will be announcing the contract for the 
> rebuilding of Pier 84 at their board meeting on Thursday 25 March 2004 at 
> 4PM. The 
> meeting is open to the public and we are told the new President/CEO of the 
> Trust (Connie Fishman) will be recognizing Friends of Pier 84. We, in turn, 
> will 
> present her with a framed photo-collage of past events on the pier. Barbara 
> Feldt &Guy Sliker will do the honors (as I have a commitment elsewhere that I 
> can't break).
>   
> Following, a note from Barbara Feldt:
>   
> Hello Fellow FRIENDS OF PIER 84:
>   
> The Board of Directors (of the Trust) has some fantastic news to report.  
> Hope that you will be able to attend the official awarding of the marine-work 
> contracts for PIER 84.
>   
> Was all our work (we formed over ten years ago) worth it?
>   
> YOU BET IT WAS!  Come hear the great news!
>   
> If you have time, and are cutting through City Hall Park walking east, look 
> to the plantings once you've past the fountain - yes, we're back - that's the 
> gold Manhattan Botanical Garden stake among native plants! 
>   
> Barbara
>   
> 
>  
> Following is the announcement and a map
>   
> HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUSTBOARD MEETING
>  
> >> When:  March 25, 2004
>> 
>>  Where: Pace University, The Schimmel Center for the Arts: Multi - 
>> Purpose Room; Enter on Spruce Street
>> 
>>  Time:4:00 P. M.
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 

--- Begin Message ---
To all...
The Hudson River park Trust will be announcing the contract for the
rebuilding of Pier 84 at their board meeting on Thursday 25 March 2004 at
4PM. The meeting is open to the public and we are told the new President/CEO
of the Trust (Connie Fishman) will be recognizing Friends of Pier 84. We, in
turn, will present her with a framed photo-collage of past events on the
pier. Barbara Feldt & Guy Sliker will do the honors (as I have a commitment
elsewhere that I can't break).

Following, a note from Barbara Feldt:

Hello Fellow FRIENDS OF PIER 84:

The Board of Directors (of the Trust) has some fantastic news to report.
Hope that you will be able to attend the official awarding of the
marine-work contracts for PIER 84.

Was all our work (we formed over ten years ago) worth it?

YOU BET IT WAS!  Come hear the great news!

If you have time, and are cutting through City Hall Park walking east, look
to the plantings once you've past the fountain - yes, we're back - that's
the gold Manhattan Botanical Garden stake among native plants!

Barbara


Following is the announcement and a map

HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUSTBOARD MEETING
  When:   March 25, 2004

  Where:  Pace University, The Schimmel Center for the Arts: Multi -
Purpose Room; Enter on Spruce Street

  Time: 4:00 P. M.



--- End Message ---

Re: [cg] Bees in the Garden

Don't know nothin' bout no bears, Ms. Scarlet.  They are strong, smart and 
love honey.  

Good luck, 
Adam Honigman

> Subj: [cg] Bees in the Garden 
>  Date: 3/22/04 2:14:46 PM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you, all, for your stories about raising bees in your gardens.  I 
> asked the question for my gardening daughter in Northampton, Ma., and she 
> sent 
> your experiences to her community garden committee and they ok'd her request. 
>  
> 
> However. her friendly bee keeper reminded her that bears love honey and 
> that bears do make their way thru the Northampton garden periodically, so 
> will she surround her hives with electrical fencing?  Will she give it up?  
> Anyone have thoughts on bears in the garden loving up the honey?  Thank to 
> all - have a great spring, and how about 1 million people in Rome protesting 
> the war in Iraq!?  
> 
> Laurie, Chicago

Re: [cg] Garden Images - Garden Words

Subj: [cg] Garden Images 
 Date: 3/22/04 5:04:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent from the Internet 

Greetings --
  As we prepare to put together flyers and newsletters for the season I'm 
wondering if anyone can suggest good sources for digital gardening graphics -- 
esp. images that reflect the full diversity of people involved in community 
gardening-- black &white are preferred -- but we can work with color...

thanks-- michael

Friend, 

There are a wealth of graphic images out there - clip art, etc., that can 
express diversity, all one needs to do is open ones eyes.  An immediate image 
is 
a piece of Indian corn, with it's crazy quilt variagation of color, for 
example. Or a crazy quilt made up of fabrics from all over the world for that 
matter.  You will do well with that. 

 But as someone who has community gardened in NYC, one of the most diverse 
places in the world, there is one practice that I very strongly encourage, 
please,  that you follow.  

It is the use of the word "please".  

Always, consistently, and in all communications with community gardeners. The 
use of the word, "please."  In your missive below, you threw "Thank You" in 
at the end, but that doesn't really communicate your respect for other people 
as well as the word please. In fact, the use of the "Thank You", without the 
word please is easily construed as an insult by many people who come from more 
formal societies, from our American South, and from all over the World. 

Like most things civil in our Western Culture, the origins are French - 

S'il vous plait - If you please. 

Merci boucoups - Thank you. 

The idea is when one says please, one is asking for a favor or action of the 
other person which it is in the power or property of the other to grant.  One 
doesn't say please to slaves, peasants, or those who OWE YOU the service. One 
says PLEASE to free men and women.  There service to you is that of a FREE 
PERSON not a SLAVE.  To say "Thank You" without saying please in this exchange 
is 
downright rude, unless a SERVICE HAS BEEN PROVIDED TO YOU IN AN UNSOLICITED 
FASHION, i.e., you have been presented with a gift, or stuck in a john without 
toilet paper, the person in the other cubicle throws over a roll of Charmin, 
unasked. 

Both my parents were Holocaust survivors and had numbers on their arms. As 
inmates in those camps they were literally slaves under the pain of death.  
These two, a German and an Austrian, had grown up in a "bitte" "danke" 
linquistic 
environment.  My mother said that she wept uncontrollably, our of joy,  when 
someone used the word "please" to her after the war.

Why?  Because after two years in a concentration camp,  it meant she was once 
again acknowledged to be a HUMAN BEING WORTH OF RESPECT AND PERSONAL DIGNITY; 
THAT HER FAVOR ( WORK, SEXUAL, THE ACCESS TO THE BUFFET TABLE) HAD VALUE AND 
WAS IN HER POWER TO GIVE.. 

The use of the word "please" is key in all human interactions and should 
never be forgotten, even in the smallest human excange. 

As a community gardener in a very diverse place -  NYC  - with over eight 
million people,  and in a garden with close to 5,000 keys, where we have our 
garden rules in three languages,  we pay close  attention to nuance and 
cultural 
sensitivity.  

We may get the pronunciations of each others names wrong,  but our personal 
sincerity and respect for each other  is essential to making our garden grow. 

The use of words, "please" with "thank you" are the basis for which respect 
for all human diversity stems. 

Best wishes, 

Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 

> 
>

[cg] (no subject)

2004-03-23 Thread Adam36055

from the March 24, 2004 edition -LA Gardens /ACGA 

Seeds of change in East L.A.

By Danna Harman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 

LOS ANGELES - There are no yoga classes on this side of town. No gourmet 
grocery stores, or bevies of wannabe actresses sipping low-fat chais. Instead, 
Mexican pop music wafts out into the streets. Massive, colorful murals - of the 
Virgin Mary or of strapping farmers harvesting green, faraway fields - adorn 
the walls. And down the main avenues, neon lights seduce passersby with: "Four 
bacon and three egg breakfast specials for $3.55."

Such offers seem especially attractive here in East Los Angeles, where most 
of the 125,000-odd residents are first- and second-generation Latino 
immigrants, working hard in low-paying jobs. Fast, calorie-laden food is 
abundant and 
cheap, and more than 20 percent of local children are obese. Obesity, a problem 
across the United States, is worse, according to studies, in low-income and 
immigrant communities such as this one, where fresh produce is unavailable or 
too expensive.

But one local doctor has taken an innovative approach to the problem. He 
started a half-acre community garden, and has watched the site - and the 
residents 
- blossom.

"I was working in the hospital, and in 10-minute visits was seeing many obese 
children whose real problem was overexposure to junk food and lack of 
physical activity," says Robert Krochmal, a physician at White Memorial Medical 
Center. "I felt very limited in my response, and wanted to find a way to make a 
bigger difference to the health of the community."

His solution wasn't far away. In fact, it was right outside his window. Dr. 
Krochmal - working with hospital colleagues, community leaders, some city 
charities, and several neighborhood families - turned a vacant lot owned by the 
hospital into a community garden - Proyecto Jardin - one of the first of its 
kind 
in this part of town.

Its gate is always unlocked, its seeds and tools are free to all, its produce 
is for the taking - and the garden is, in its own small way, helping change 
the way East L.A eats - all within the community's Latino context.

Today, four years after its inception, the garden has really grown. There are 
bananas and sugar cane, rosemary, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and 
some basil left over from last summer. There is also more traditional Latino 
fare 
- nopal cactus leaves, herbs, and, in the proper season, different varieties 
of Mexican corn.

A play area has been created in which harvest celebrations take place, a 
colorful wall of tile mosaics has gone up, and an herb garden - designed with 
geometrical spirals of ancient Aztec society - has been planted.

"My grandfather grew corn, pumpkins, and squash, like everyone else we knew 
did," says Graciela Morales, who lives around the block from the garden, in a 
cramped apartment on Cesar Chavez Avenue. Here, in her adopted home, her 
husband works as an elevator operator in a factory and the only fields her five 
children know are the ones in the murals.

Krochmal can imagine what diet Mrs. Morales grew up on: Corn tortillas with 
no added fat and a high prevalence of fruits and vegetables. And he knows well 
what her kids could be eating today: "The first generation of immigrants 
switches to flour tortillas, and the second generation is eating double 
cheeseburgers with fries."

The garden, he explains, is a step toward introducing, or reintroducing, the 
idea of more nutritious options and then providing those more nutritious 
foods.

Morales passed by the garden a dozen times, on her way to pick up the 
children at school, before peeping in one breezy afternoon. These days, she 
shows up 
for committee meetings - giving her opinion about what should be planted and 
when - and picks all her seasonings from the herb patches.

A few months ago a visiting friend brought her some fava beans from Mexico to 
plant there.

"It's not an overnight thing," admits Krochmal, who is as likely to find 
himself alone in the garden as he is surrounded by a group of neighbors. "But I 
feel something powerful is going on."

Indeed, neighborhood schools are beginning to bring in classes, kids are 
signing up to take seeds home, and hundreds of people have been showing up for 
traditional harvest festivities.

Community gardens in urban areas exist, in one form or another, around the 
world. The American Community Gardening Association estimates there are close 
to 
10,000 community gardens throughout the US and Canada.

There are 65 in Los Angeles alone, growing fruits and vegetables year-round, 
says Al Renner, president of the community garden council in the city. They 
range from small plots on back streets to one that covers 14 acres.

The goals of these gardens are diverse: They bring together neighbors to 
plant and sow, create community pride, improve the physical environment, 
encourage 
more active lifestyles, promote organic farming, re

[cg] LA CG Article in 03-24-04 Christian Science Monitor

2004-03-24 Thread Adam36055

Seeds of change in East L.A.

By Danna Harman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 

LOS ANGELES - There are no yoga classes on this side of town. No gourmet 
grocery stores, or bevies of wannabe actresses sipping low-fat chais. Instead, 
Mexican pop music wafts out into the streets. Massive, colorful murals - of the 
Virgin Mary or of strapping farmers harvesting green, faraway fields - adorn 
the walls. And down the main avenues, neon lights seduce passersby with: "Four 
bacon and three egg breakfast specials for $3.55."

Such offers seem especially attractive here in East Los Angeles, where most 
of the 125,000-odd residents are first- and second-generation Latino 
immigrants, working hard in low-paying jobs. Fast, calorie-laden food is 
abundant and 
cheap, and more than 20 percent of local children are obese. Obesity, a problem 
across the United States, is worse, according to studies, in low-income and 
immigrant communities such as this one, where fresh produce is unavailable or 
too expensive.

But one local doctor has taken an innovative approach to the problem. He 
started a half-acre community garden, and has watched the site - and the 
residents 
- blossom.

"I was working in the hospital, and in 10-minute visits was seeing many obese 
children whose real problem was overexposure to junk food and lack of 
physical activity," says Robert Krochmal, a physician at White Memorial Medical 
Center. "I felt very limited in my response, and wanted to find a way to make a 
bigger difference to the health of the community."

His solution wasn't far away. In fact, it was right outside his window. Dr. 
Krochmal - working with hospital colleagues, community leaders, some city 
charities, and several neighborhood families - turned a vacant lot owned by the 
hospital into a community garden - Proyecto Jardin - one of the first of its 
kind 
in this part of town.

Its gate is always unlocked, its seeds and tools are free to all, its produce 
is for the taking - and the garden is, in its own small way, helping change 
the way East L.A eats - all within the community's Latino context.

Today, four years after its inception, the garden has really grown. There are 
bananas and sugar cane, rosemary, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and 
some basil left over from last summer. There is also more traditional Latino 
fare 
- nopal cactus leaves, herbs, and, in the proper season, different varieties 
of Mexican corn.

A play area has been created in which harvest celebrations take place, a 
colorful wall of tile mosaics has gone up, and an herb garden - designed with 
geometrical spirals of ancient Aztec society - has been planted.

"My grandfather grew corn, pumpkins, and squash, like everyone else we knew 
did," says Graciela Morales, who lives around the block from the garden, in a 
cramped apartment on Cesar Chavez Avenue. Here, in her adopted home, her 
husband works as an elevator operator in a factory and the only fields her five 
children know are the ones in the murals.

Krochmal can imagine what diet Mrs. Morales grew up on: Corn tortillas with 
no added fat and a high prevalence of fruits and vegetables. And he knows well 
what her kids could be eating today: "The first generation of immigrants 
switches to flour tortillas, and the second generation is eating double 
cheeseburgers with fries."

The garden, he explains, is a step toward introducing, or reintroducing, the 
idea of more nutritious options and then providing those more nutritious 
foods.

Morales passed by the garden a dozen times, on her way to pick up the 
children at school, before peeping in one breezy afternoon. These days, she 
shows up 
for committee meetings - giving her opinion about what should be planted and 
when - and picks all her seasonings from the herb patches.

A few months ago a visiting friend brought her some fava beans from Mexico to 
plant there.

"It's not an overnight thing," admits Krochmal, who is as likely to find 
himself alone in the garden as he is surrounded by a group of neighbors. "But I 
feel something powerful is going on."

Indeed, neighborhood schools are beginning to bring in classes, kids are 
signing up to take seeds home, and hundreds of people have been showing up for 
traditional harvest festivities.

Community gardens in urban areas exist, in one form or another, around the 
world. The American Community Gardening Association estimates there are close 
to 
10,000 community gardens throughout the US and Canada.

There are 65 in Los Angeles alone, growing fruits and vegetables year-round, 
says Al Renner, president of the community garden council in the city. They 
range from small plots on back streets to one that covers 14 acres.

The goals of these gardens are diverse: They bring together neighbors to 
plant and sow, create community pride, improve the physical environment, 
encourage 
more active lifestyles, promote organic farming, reduce family food budgets, 
and give people from all

[cg] Wisc: Faith Based Community Garden

2004-03-24 Thread Adam36055

Garden at Wis. church provides object lessons for community
Mar 24, 2004


GREENFIELD, Wis. (BP)--“A good theology inevitably produces a good garden,” 
reads a sign in the garden of the Old St. Mary's Church in London.

Perhaps so, but Don Axt of Layton Avenue Baptist Church in Wisconsin thinks 
that just the opposite may be true as well. He hopes the garden he tends on the 
church's property helps to shape and inform the theology of the youth he 
teaches.

Some four years ago Axt had a moment of inspiration that led him to develop 
the garden as an ongoing object lesson for his class and as an outreach 
opportunity into the neighborhood surrounding the church. He encouraged youth 
to be 
involved in all aspects of the garden -- cultivating, planting, watering, 
weeding, and, finally, harvesting.

Following the first harvest, Axt and the teenagers went door-to-door to the 
houses nearby, offering neighborly greetings, free produce, and words of 
encouragement and witness as opportunities were presented.

“It was a great way to get to know the people in those houses," he said, 
referring to the numerous homes immediately adjacent to the church. "I found 
myself on people’s porches praying with them." 

Among the first lessons he taught was that ministry, like gardening, is hard, 
ongoing work requiring personal commitment, patience and perseverance. 

Shortly after seeds and tender young plants were put into the garden in early 
spring, Axt asked the youth what they saw when they looked at the rectangular 
plot of soil. Most just saw dirt, but one young man said he saw beans, 
squash, and tomatoes, offering the teacher a segue for explaining how God sees 
each 
of them -- not simply as they are, but as what they can become under His 
guidance and care.

Axt is quick to give others credit for their contributions to the garden with 
its bountiful yield of object lessons, but around the Layton Avenue church 
people know that he is the driving force behind the venture. They also benefit 
from the fruits of his and others' labors, selecting a few fresh tomatoes or an 
oversized zucchini as they depart following Sunday worship.
--30--
Keith Cogburn is director of missions for Lakeland Baptist Association. This 
story and photo first appeared in that association's October 2003 newsletter. 
(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo 
title: SPIRITUAL LESSONS

Re: [cg] New community garden for hobbyists

2004-03-25 Thread Adam36055

Friend, 

5 x 8  is about the smallest you want to go with, trust me.  4 x 10 is 
doable, but you want wider to help folks garden as intensively as they can in a 
raised bed. Most here like a 10 x 10.  Here's the link to our set-up in NYC 
where 
we've put an awful lot into a third of an acre space.  Clinton Community 
Garden . If you have more land than we do in the middle of Manhattan, please 
consider a 5' x10' or a 10' x 10' plot size - and make sure that you put in 
plenty 
of space for paths ( at least two people walking across, with easy access to a 
hose for all plots,  if you're planning to have piped in water) - best is a 
wheelbarrow going one way and another going the other on your path. 

Please go the ACGA website,  American Community Gardening Association , the 
how to start ACGA how to start a garden links: ACGA Starting a garden and 
please go the garden links page, because there is a wealth of information on 
governance, lay out and everyday best community garden practice in cgs in 
Canada, 
the USA and beyond, 
 ACGA Garden Links. 

Most imporant, please consider you and/or your garden joining the ACGA which 
provides this free listserv, the website and connects you to thousands of 
community gardeners, world wide - it's $25 bucks, the price of a pizza and a 
sixpack. ACGA membership

Everbest, 

Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 

> Subj: [cg] New community garden for hobbyists 
>  Date: 3/25/04 11:52:54 AM Eastern Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm working with a parks org. to develop a garden for hobbyists in a middle
> to upper-middle neighborhood. Organic. I've been following the discussion
> about plot sizes and think the smaller 4X10 is about right for a hobbyist.
> Someone else suggested that people wanting more than one plot must wait two
> years before being assigned multiples, and I find that a worthy suggestion.
> 
> I'm suggesting that all the plots  are accessible at this size so there's no
> juggling. Can anyone give me an idea of what percentage would be best for
> kids' plots? I like the 3X3 size and was thinking of requiring an adult
> sponsor have a site in the garden, too.
> 
> No footprint for the garden yet. At first they wanted such a small size I
> didn't think it was worth it. But, they want a demo place, space for
> compost, shed and seating space for artists, students and people in nearby
> assisted living. Can anyone suggest sources for information about minimum
> size?
> 
> This list is a great resource. I watch it eagerly.
>

Re: [cg] stats on garden as the #1 pastime in U.S.?

2004-03-25 Thread Adam36055

Amanda, 

You may have to talk to the NGA folks directly, because the only place where 
I remember seeing gardening as the #1 pastime has been in USA Today type 
articles which don't cite any "studies."

Great luck with your quest. 

Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden

[cg] Off Topic: Adam Honigman - Gardener, Jets Fan, Against the Stadium

2004-03-26 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

This is off topic for community gardens, and parks,  but not really - because 
the more you get involved in gardens, city planning and the just use of 
precious land resources in your municipality, you can't keep from getting 
involved 
when the powers that be are engaged in an act of gross stupidity and social 
inequity in the use of the people's resources. 

The Cliff Notes Version:  

The Jacob Javits convention center in Manhattan's  West 30's and 40s (Javits 
Center)  needs to be modernized and extended to make jobs. Originally our 
local geniuses sited it in midtown Manhattan instead of by the airports, like 
smart cities like Chicago, so it has not been as sucessful as most of the 
convention centers in the USA. 

But that's water under the bridge. 

So it has to be enlarged - and it's a good idea.  But as NYC government loves 
to shoot itself in the foot, it has decided to go after the fool's gold of an 
Olympics and a largely publicly funded sports stadium - the kind that doesn't 
pay back any kind of real dividends to the taxpayers who have to fund the 
capital funding via bond issues - for more details read this from the Hell's 
Kitchen/Hudson Yards Alliance (Why the Jets Stadium is Dumb).

So why, in NYC,  where we are trying to rebuild the World Trade Center after 
9/11, trying come back from a recession that is lingering here longer than in 
the rest of the country, where we are closing firehouses because we are broke, 
where many of our school children still read from text books that say that 
Gorbachev and the Communists are still in power in the USSR, is Mayor Bloomberg 
being so stupid, and  NY State Governor Pataki going along with the joke?

This is too funny -  NYC Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, is having a mid-life 
crisis. 

Yes, Deputy Mayor Doctoroff is a rich, smart, guy who is a dollar a year man 
for Mayor Bloomberg and has done a few really bright things for the city has a 
dream. He has brought the city's real extate community into his dream, which 
is to extend the Javits center - a good idea, but to add a Jets/Olympic 
stadium, and the equivalient of SEVEN WORLD TRADE CENTERS IN OFFICE SPACE.

Friends, as one who worked in the WTC in the 90s, I can tell you that it was 
largely filled with NY State offices for a long time - think of the NY State 
Lottery on the 95th floor with 100 mile views - because they couldn't fully 
rent it until the end.  Now they want to build Seven of them in Midtown 
Manhattan. 

Pure Greed and Stupidity. Like Lemmings running off of a cliff

Now on Davidoff's dream. 

An Olympic dream called, NY2012 - (NYC2012) 

You see, is having a mid-life crisis. Most men who have mid-life crises go 
after inappropriately young male or female romantic partners, dye their hair, 
buy a racy car or a boat if they have the dough. OK - you only get to be a 
middle aged fool once. If they spend their own dough, what harm is there in 
that?

But NYC Deputy Dan Mayor Doctoroff is DIFFERENT.  NYC Deputy Dan Mayor 
Doctoroff wants and OLYMPICS to ring his bell and to make his appendage 
tumescent, 
AND EXPECTS US TO PAY FOR IT!

Sorry Dan - get yourself a boy, girl, car, yacht or tropical fish collection 
- and pay for it yourself, but don't expect the people of NYC, who have 
suffered cuts in fire protection, and whose public schools are a disaster to 
fit the 
bill for your mid-life crisis. 

Now: It is possible to be a Jets football fan and to be against the proposed, 
ruinous  West Side Stadium.   Our neighborhood does want a Javit's expansion 
for jobs and business, but the stadium is ludicrous in Midtown - Where can you 
tailgate?

Here is a picture of a Jets fan who is against the stadium. 

Aviso: This large man is wearing the Jets Jersey over his winter coat, so 
he's not quite that big. 
No Jets Stadium

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Vounteer,  Clinton Community Garden

[cg] Looks Like they Want to Take Money from Tessa to Build the Jets Stadium

2004-03-26 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

That got your attention didn't it? 

 ACGA board member Tessa Huxley and her crew do amazing work with the Battery 
Park City Parks Conservancy (Battery Parks City Parks Conservancy) 

FYI - The Battery Park City Parks Authority operates nearly 32 acres of open 
space on the southern tip of Manhattan, including parks and gardens, playing 
fields, playgrounds, piazzas and walkways; all of this land is permanently 
protected and open to the public. The Liberty Community Garden is sited on this 
land as well, the closet community garden to ground zero. 

The Battery City Parks Authority is funded in large part by Battery Parks 
City Authority, an autonomous semi-governmental agency that manages all the 
properties on the 92 Acres of i Battery Parks City (Battery Parks City 
Authority), 
including the World Financial Center.  The Battery City Parks Authority 
reports to NY State Governor George Pataki. 

Stay with me, because this gets interesting - the funding for Tessa Huxley's 
group, The Battery Park City Parks Conservancy (Battery Parks City Parks 
Conservancy)  comes from, in almost in its entirety,  from the Battery Parks 
City 
Authority. 

Now NY State Governor Pataki wants to take $300, 000, 000 from the Battery 
Parks Authority to fund the state's contribution to the great, unloved West 
Side 
Jets Stadium. This would almost certainly mean cutbacks in Tessa's program in 
the short and long term. The other $300,000,000 would come out of NYC capital 
funds that are desperately needed to rebuild the World Trade Center area, and 
to help build affordable housing units, schools, etc.  This does not include 
the billions that are part of Deputy Mayor Doctoroff's plan to build the 
equivalent of 7 World Trade Center's worth of office space in Midtown 
Manhattan. 

Battle has been engaged on a new level this morning. 



Jets Stadium

Amidst rising opposition, the city presented its plan yesterday for a $2.8
billion development for Manhattan's Far West Side centered on a 75,000-seat
stadium for the New York Jets. The project's supporters hope that the
stadium, an integral part of the city's bid for the Olympics in 2012, will
be finished by 2010. But with opponents threatening lawsuits and the plan
still needing the approval of the state legislature, it is not yet a sure
thing. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver dealt the plan a blow yesterday
by criticizing the proposal to use tax revenue from Battery Park City to
contribute $350 million to the stadium development. Silver said that Battery
Park City money shouldn't be used for anything but the revitalization of
lower Manhattan.

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden

Re: [cg] setting up a garden

2004-03-30 Thread Adam36055

Dear Ms. Mavins, 

I've been playing a lot of judo lately after a 35 year hiatus, so outside of 
a gradually receeding gut and lot of sore muscles,  I've been getting a little 
more zen  in my thinking about community gardening - perhaps the benefit of 
getting my brains shaken when I'm thrown by the merciless young. 

I'll be interspersing my [bracketed] comments throughout  your original 
e-mail. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 

Subj: [cg] setting up a garden 
 Date: 3/30/04 2:14:06 PM Eastern Standard Time
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent from the Internet 



Hello,

I'm new to this list and new to community gardening.

[Welcome to this listserv, a free service of the American Community Gardening 
Association.  American Community Gardening Association .Please read more 
about our organization on our website, taking your time, and printing out 
whatever 
sections interest you.]

I'm setting up a community garden in Baltimore. 



[1) Community Gardening is never an "I" proposal, even when you have set up 
alot of the project and maybe have done the lion's share of the work.  It will 
only be a "community" garden when it is invested with life and effort by the 
community it serves.

2) These Maryland links should be helpful to you:  The University of Marland 
Agricultural Extension. ; University of Maryland College of Agriculture.; 
Brigs Chaney Community Garden ; Carol Park Community Garden , Baltimore ; Power 
of 
Hope Community Garden / 

3) There was just a great ACGA Community Garden seminar in Baltimore earlier 
this month - to read more about it, Baltimore ACGA Conference 03/04/04 . A 
contact person you need to speak with is, For more information or directions: 
contact Mary Cox, Urban Resources
Initiative Program Manager Parks & People, 410-448-5663 x107 or 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

The website for Parks and People is, http://www.parksandpeople.org/ . 



 We're planning to garden cooperatively this first season, and we're not 
clear what fee to 
charge ($20?), or how many work hours per week to require.  Any suggestions, 
resources for reading other gardens' rules?  Thanks.

[ To help you in your decision making process, there is a marvelous link on 
the ACGA list serve called, "Starting a Community Garden"  ACGA: Starting a CG 
. Please read it carefully to find wheels that have already been invented. If 
any look that they might fit on your "wagon", please steal them with our 
permission.  Also, I know you are a polite person, but most community gardeners 
have learned the lesson of using the word "please".  I know you said "thank 
you," 
but the word "please" is essential to all volunteer community garden efforts 
and should never be assumed because you just said "thank you." ]

Also, we just got our lead test results back, and I need detailed info 
on how much lead contamination is a problem, and what if anything to do 
about it.  Where can I look?

[Please contact this listserv with your results so we can discuss your 
figures, and proposed usage.  Lead is DEADLY to the nervous systems of very 
young 
children and is not to be played with.  This is serious!  While lead risks can 
be handled, you need to talk to your local agriculture agent about what the 
best way of dealing with your heavy metal concentrations are. Read your soil 
carefully.  You may want to create raised beds in moderate areas and compost & 
soil amend extensively. But this is an area where you need to proceed with 
caution.]

Again much luck, 
Adam Honigman
 Clinton Community Garden 
































Thank you so much,

Miriam Avins

[cg] Oakland, CA "OBUGS" CG Group Looking for Van

2004-03-31 Thread Adam36055

Alameda Times-Star
Program needs car for little gardeners
Nonprofit in West Oakland still without vehicle after van fire
By STAFF WRITER 
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - OAKLAND -- A children's gardening program is 
seeking donations to buy a reliable vehicle after its van caught fire earlier 
this 
month. 
The Oakland Butterfly Urban Gardens program, a West Oakland nonprofit that 
educates kids about nutrition and gardening, hopes to buy another van to 
transport students. The program created four community gardens in West Oakland 
and 
plans to open more in the area. 
The program's van, which was its main source of transportation, caught fire 
after its electrical wires started smoking under the dashboard, said Nana 
Robinson, OBUGS youth coordinator. The van was used to take kids home and on 
field 
trips. 
The program also holds a six-week summer camp to teach kids how to recycle, 
garden and cook vegetables. 
For more information on donations, contact OBUGS at 676-7072. The office is 
at 1724 Mandela Parkway, Suite 5, Oakland, CA 94608.

[cg] South African RN /Gardener Gets Recognized

2004-03-31 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 

I was particularly touched by the story of Sister Miriam Modiakgotla (54) of 
the Republic of South Africa, because  her AIDS, food security ( community 
gardening!), poverty alleviation and collections  to bury the epidemic's dead  
were so  similar in scope to that of my late wife, Allegra Benveniste Honigman, 
RN,(53)  in Hell's Kitchen. 

There is something special about professional registered nurses. 


Unlike most physicians ( albeit, the Bach playing Dr. Albert Schweitzers DO 
come by once a hundred years)  nurses regularly manage to look beyond their 
clinics and hospitals and see their duty in service to the patient and her 
community as a whole. 

In salute to nurses, who "get" community gardening as part of the unbroken 
fabric of caring for community. 

Adam Honigman, 
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden  

Olifantsfontein Nurse Gets Recognition 

BuaNews (Pretoria) 
NEWS
March 31, 2004 
Posted to the web March 31, 2004 

By Jabulani Tshindane
Pretoria 
Hard work and dedication to community development has earned a professional 
nurse recognition by those she has been serving throughout her career since 
1969. 
Sister Miriam Modiakgotla (54) has been a pillar of strength to the community 
of Olifantsfontein, on the East Rand. 
In her career, she has introduced support groups for people living with HIV 
and AIDS, ensured that people benefit from poverty alleviation programmes such 
as gardening, feeding schemes and ensured that people too poor to bury their 
loved one's do so in dignity. 
"I do this for the love of my people and would continue to serve those in 
need of my help, during my spare time I would move around the community to make 
sure that people in the neighbourhood go to bed with something to eat," she 
explained. 
Sister Modiakgotla is a nurse at Olifantsfontein clinic and specialises in 
treating TB patients, making sure that patients complete their course to avoid 
developing multi-drug resistant TB which is hard and much more expensive to 
treat. 
For these and other reasons, the Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa honoured 
her at a fully packed community hall yesterday. 
Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Ramokgopa said the Gauteng government was trying 
to establish partnerships with NGOs to provide primary health care to the 
people. 
She mentioned that Sasko Bakery had also recognised Sister Modiakgotla and 
offered to provide bread daily to support her feeding scheme. 
The MEC said by honouring the health worker the provincial government was 
showing it would honour the exceptional services done by other health workers 
as 
well. 
"The Gauteng government would continue to congratulate the health workers, so 
to inspire them to achieve marvelous work and attract more people to the 
health workers field." 
Dr Ramokgopa urged nurses to work together with government and be serious 
like Sister Madiakgotla. 
Sister Modiakgotla received the Cecilia Makiwane Nursing Award last year and 
today, she will walk away with prize money as part of the Gauteng health 
department's ten years of freedom celebrations.

[cg] ACGA Board Memeber Honored

2005-03-01 Thread Adam36055

SACRAMENTO RESIDENT NAMED

ONE OF NATIONbS TOP HOMETOWN HEROES

B 

B Bill Maynard a finalist in 3rd Annual Volvo for Life Awards; for growing
gardens to beautify his community and feed low-income residents;

B 

Celebrity Judges b Including Hank Aaron and Paul Newman B,B,b Will Select
and
Announce Winners at March 24 Volvo for Life Awards Ceremony in Times Square;
One Hero Will Receive a Volvo Car for Life

B 

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (Feb. 23, 2005) b Bill Maynard, a Sacramento resident who
volunteers to help those in low-income areas enjoy gardening as a way to
beautify their urban landscape while supplementing their diets with the fresh
produce they grow, has been named a finalist in a hero recognition program
called
the Volvo for Life Awards. He now has the chance to win $50,000 in charitable
contributions and a car for life.

B 

Now in its third year, the Volvo for Life Awards is the largest-ever national
search and celebration of everyday heroes, with Volvo Cars of North America
providing $1 million annually in awards and contributions.

B 

A distinguished panel of judges who are experts on care, conscience and
character b Hank Aaron, Bill Bradley, Caroline Kennedy, Maya Lin, Paul
Newman, Dr.
Sally Ride, Eunice Kennedy ShriverB  b will now review Maynard and the eight
other finalistsb nominations to select the programbs top three winners in
the
categories of safety, environment and quality of life.

B 

This yearbs program, launched June 2004, called for individuals nationwide
to
nominate a hometown hero they know at www.volvoforlifeawards.com in the
categories of safety, quality of life or environment. Volvo received 4,272
nominations representing all 50 states.

B 

Civil engineer Maynard has been a long-time community gardening activist in
Sacramento. In 2004, he helped design, plan and plant a food-producing
landscape initiative within an existing low-income housing project. The
initiative
introduced 80 citrus and fruit trees, as well as various herbs, into the
existing
project landscaping.B  The projectbs success is igniting interest from other
low-income housing projects around Sacramento.

B 

In addition, Maynard volunteers for the Sacramento City Unified School
District and Grant High School, giving high school students hands-on
experiences in
designing and creating school gardens. He helps create school gardens for b
garden-based learning,b as Maynard says virtually all school subjects can be
taught in the garden. Students have researched native plants, designed native
plant areas, installed drip irrigation, and even painted murals as backdrops
for
the gardens. He also helps organize farmerbs market experiences for
elementary
schoolchildren, educating them about healthy eating habits and introducing
them to a variety of fresh produce.

B 

Maynard also has helped the Hmong immigrant community relocate their gardens
from toxic drainage sites to four specially designated community gardens.
Hmong residents now have safe gardening areas on which elders can teach
farming
techniques to future generations. He now is helping Hmong families organize a
farmerbs market in their neighborhood where they can sell the produce they
grow.


B 

Finally, Maynard is working to rewrite Sacramentobs front yard landscaping
code to allow for food-producing gardens of trees, shrubs, vegetables and
flowers to beautify and help nourish hard-pressed neighborhoods.

B 

This is just a few of the greening projects that Maynard is involved with.

B 

Volvo will fly the three winners and six remaining finalists to New York to
be honored at Times Square Studios, Ltd., at the Volvo for Life Awards
ceremony
on March 24, 2005. At the event, Volvo and program judges will present each
winner with a $50,000 contribution to the charity of his or her choice. In
addition, they will announce the programbs grand winner, who will receive a
new
Volvo car every three years for the rest of his or her life and the
distinction
of bAmericabs Greatest Hometown Hero.b The six remaining finalists will
each
receive a donation of $25,000 to the charities of their choice.

B 

Further details of Maynardbs story can be viewed at
www.volvoforlifeawards.com. The other finalists in the third annual Volvo for
Life Awards are:

B 

Safety:

b"B B B B  Monica Caison, a Wilmington, N.C., woman who embodies the spirit
of TVb
s bCold Caseb by helping search for missing loved ones when others have
given up.

b"B B B B  Abdul Hafiz, a Staten Island, N.Y., junior high student lobbying
politicians to pass a new law requiring special safety gates for fire
escapes.

b"B B B B  Paula Lucas, a domestic abuse survivor in Portland, Ore., helping
American women escape abusive relationships while living abroad.

Quality of Life:

b"B B B B  Hope Bevilhymer, a West Jordan, Utah, amputee who is working to
change
U.S. laws that prohibit recycling of prosthetic limbs while at the same time
donating limbs to amputees overseas.

b"B B B B  Jose Morales

[cg] Bronx Community Gardener Passes

2005-03-01 Thread Adam36055

Friends,

We lose another fine community gardener - this time in the Bronx. I met
Yolanda late last year, during the garden move/consolidation in the Melrose
section, a great lady, gardener, giver to the community - a great heart for
everyone,
but not enough to sustain her longer.

They say that God lends us people like Yolanda for a short time, only. 
Another great one passes.  Yoland Garcia will be much missed.

Adam Honigman
Volunteer
Clinton Community Garden

> bj: [MG] Yolanda Garcia Nos Quedamos/We Stay - Passes Away
> Date: 2/18/05 9:05:02 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent from the Internet
>
>
>
> Wednesday February 16th 1pm, outside of Nos Quedamos, South Bronx.
>
> Yolanda just coming out of her car most likely from another long
> meeting,
> She welcomes Cindy our new college intern.
> Yolanda kindly turns down my offer of a hug, "I have the stomach flu".
>
> We chat for a bit and I mention the meeting More Gardens! had with
> Rincsn Criollo  would she write a letter of support for Rincon
> Criollo's bid to move to 156th street and Brook to create a Cultural
> Center and Community Garden? She said, "Thats' what should have
> happened since last year when HPD teased Rincsn with their offer. Can
> you send me the info so I can write the letter to HPD?"
> I was so enthralled knowing that the long contentions between these two
> power houses of Melrose was coming around in such a healing circle.
>
> After talking more business of how to bring in grant money for the
> community gardens,
> she changes the topic and I notice the tone of voice she uses
> especially when she asks me about my nieces or her own grandchildren.
>
> "Have you seen my son?" she buoyantly asks me.
> I was a bit confused, since I was sure she did not have a son.
> She repeated the question with even more enthusiasm.
> Then motioned me to come to the corner of  Courtlandt and 158th Street.
> I was  convinced that I was about to see this amazing person in the
> middle of some magical act.
>
> She proudly points into the sky, " They just took off the
> scaffolding...!"
>
> Her son/sun was emanating from the largest building about 3 blocks away.
> Brickwork embedded rays bursting from the tallest section of the mostly
> completed building Palacio del Sol.
> Her smile was contagious.
>
>
> Thursday  February 17th, 11:30 AM, inside of Nos Quedamos, South Bronx :
>
> Yolanda Garcia suffers a massive heart attack.
> Her friends and family rush to get help.  This is out of nowhere. 
> Everyone is shocked.
> The medics work on her for a long time at 811 Courtlandt.
> She was brought to Lincoln Hospital.
>
> On her deathbed, Yolanda gives instructions to her daughter and staff
> that the struggle must go on.
> The work must continue...
>
>
>
> My heart goes out to one of the hardest working and caring people I
> have had the blessings to share our earth with.
> Now high in the Melrose sky I will always see her smile, shining come
> hail, rain or snow.
>
> aresh javadi
>
>
> Viewing will be held on March 1, 2,
> Service will be on the March 3.
> More Info call Nos Quedamos 718-585-2323


-
Forwarded Message:
Subj:   [MG] Yolanda Garcia Nos Quedamos/We Stay - Passes Away 
Date:   2/18/05 9:05:02 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
From:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent from the Internet (Details)


Wednesday February 16th 1pm, outside of Nos Quedamos, South Bronx.

Yolanda just coming out of her car most likely from another long
meeting,
She welcomes Cindy our new college intern.
Yolanda kindly turns down my offer of a hug, "I have the stomach flu".

We chat for a bit and I mention the meeting More Gardens! had with
Rincsn Criollo  would she write a letter of support for Rincon
Criollo's bid to move to 156th street and Brook to create a Cultural
Center and Community Garden? She said, "Thats' what should have
happened since last year when HPD teased Rincsn with their offer. Can
you send me the info so I can write the letter to HPD?"
I was so enthralled knowing that the long contentions between these two
power houses of Melrose was coming around in such a healing circle.

After talking more business of how to bring in grant money for the
community gardens,
she changes the topic and I notice the tone of voice she uses
especially when she asks me about my nieces or her own grandchildren.

  "Have you seen my son?" she buoyantly asks me.
I was a bit confused, since I was sure she did not have a son.

She repeated the question with even more enthusiasm.
Then motioned me to come to the corner of  Courtlandt and 158th Street.
I was  convinced that I was about to see this amazing person in the
middle of some magical act.

She proudly points into the sky, " They just took off the
scaffolding...!"

Her son/sun was emanating from the largest building about 3 blocks away.
Brickwork embedded rays bursting from the tallest section of the mostly
completed building Palacio de

[cg] Fwd: [tb-cybergardens]: FYI Village Voice Artice

2005-03-01 Thread Adam36055

In a message dated 3/2/05 1:14:33 AM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

> Subj: [tb-cybergardens]: FYI Village Voice Artice 
>  Date: 3/2/05 1:14:33 AM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> News from the tb-cybergardens mailing  list
> -
> 
> The Voice did a group of articles on the changing Bowery
> 
> An Elegy for the Bowery
> The Endangered Garden
> AvalonBay makes concessions, but will Liz Christy's trees and plants 
> survive?
> 
> 
> by Danial Adkison
> March 1st, 2005 1:28 PM  write to use-mail story
>  printer friendly 
> 
> 
> Liz Christy garden
> photo: Shiho Fukada
> 
> An Elegy for the Bowery: 
> *   The Last Days of Loserville 
> Once home to hustlers, drunks, and bohemians, America's slummiest street has 
> 
> turned into a new millionaire's row 
> By Joy Press
> *   Noise on Music Central 
> From minstrelsy to vaudeville and Monk to punk, never under-estimate urban 
> ugliness 
> By Robert Christgau
> *   Mose Is Back in Town 
> By Toni Schlesinger
> *   The Last of the Mohicans 
> Searching for a place to flop on what was once skid row 
> By Darren Reidy
> For the last 31 years the Liz Christy Garden, at the corner of East Houston 
> Street and the Bowery, has faced drugs, crime, and passersby treating it 
> like a 
> urinal. But no threat has loomed larger than the construction of the Avalon 
> Chrystie Place project, a giant residential-commercial complex springing up 
> next door. In the bad old days, junkies used to come to the rubble-filled 
> lot to 
> score their fix. That changed in 1973 when the activist Liz Christy and a 
> group of friends transformed the blighted corner into the first community 
> garden 
> in New York. They planted trees, flowers, and vegetables and opened their 
> experiment in urban agriculture to the public. Since then the garden has 
> flourished, spawning copycats across the city. Visitors flock to the 
> downtown oasis to 
> sit in the shade of the cherry blossom tree, watch the turtles in the pond, 
> or 
> meditate on the ivy backdrop. 
> 
> The 22 active volunteer gardeners, of which I am one, started planning for 
> the construction of Chrystie Place about three years ago. Now AvalonBay 
> stands 
> poised to demolish the crumbling buildings adjacent to the garden, and the 
> volunteers are struggling to deal with the inevitable: The iconic ivy wall 
> must 
> come down and a nine-story facade will rise in its place. 
> 
> For the moment, the gardeners are just trying to keep bulldozers out of Liz 
> Christy. AvalonBay claims the land disposition agreement it signed with the 
> city in June 2003 allows it to excavate three feet into the garden for the 
> foundation and parking garage. Arborists say that digging into this crucial 
> space 
> may kill decades-old trees, including the blue atlas cedar and flowering 
> cherry. 
> The turtle pond will also be destroyed.   
> 
> AvalonBay counters that respecting the property line would cost the building 
> 
> 700 square feet of retail space and one row of parking, in other words about 
> 
> $3.1 million. But when the gardeners asked an architect to come up with an 
> alternative design, he showed how a tweak to construction plans could keep 
> shovels 
> out of the garden for an added cost of just over $130,000. 
> 
> As other issues have come up, both sides have had to adjust. The volunteers 
> have agreed to close the garden for two years. AvalonBay, in turn, has 
> agreed 
> to use netting instead of a 20-foot sidewalk shed to protect the garden 
> during 
> construction, allowing light and water to reach the plants below. It has 
> also 
> promised to pay for trees and plants damaged during construction (though 
> good 
> luck putting a price tag on a 30-year-old tree). 
> 
> AvalonBay stands to make millions from its 564 market-rate rental units, 
> 150,000 square feet of commercial space, and parking garage. Given these 
> figures, 
> $130,000 doesn't seem like too much to ask to preserve this beloved speck of 
> 
> neighborhood beauty.
> -
> To add or remove yourself from this list, please send a message to 
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> the BODY of the message. To receive a reference guide to this mailing list, 
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  (8.1

[cg] WHYY - You Bet Your Garden - CG Show.

2005-03-07 Thread Adam36055

Hi guys - 

I don't get this radio show on my local NYC public radio station here in NYC, 
but from the hits we've been getting on the Clinton Community Garden website, 
the community garden message went through, loud and clear. The way radio 
waves go, the Martians will eventually hear it. 

http://www.whyy.org/91FM/ybyg/

Here's the link - It's supposed to be playing all over the Midwest and South 
in the coming weeks - I'm the guy with the NY accent. 

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 


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services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


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Re: [cg] Community Garden in Newtown

2005-03-07 Thread Adam36055

Friend, 

I don't know of a community garden, per se in Newtown, PA, but I think there 
may be volunteer gardening opportunities at the Tyler Garden's restoration at 
Newtown's Buck's Community College.  http://www.bucks.edu/tylergardens/ . I do 
believe that the community college also offers a "gardening certificate," as 
one of their degree programs, so this may be a good place to find out if there 
are any "traditional," community gardens in Newtown, or Buck's County. 

Now the region does have many garden club and privately maintained public 
gardens, so there may be volunteer gardening opportunites under your nose. 

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
Clinton Community Garden, NYC. 


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The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


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To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  
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Re: [cg] Calling Adam! CG'ing in NYC

2005-03-08 Thread Adam36055

Hmmm...

Well, it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon - I'm home with the flu and it's 
snowing heavily outside, grateful to have a roof over my head, drinking tea and 
coughing up nasty mung. My fingers seem to be the only part of my body, NOT 
aching, so I may as well type until the dogs have to be walked.  

Finding a Community Garden in NYC:

1)  If you know where you will be living, you can locate local gardens 
through Lenny Librizzi's Oasis community garden locator: 

http://www.oasisnyc.net/gardens/cenycmapsearch.asp

2) If you're going to be in town on March 19th, get thee to the Bronx! This 
is a large networking opportunity, where alas, I won't be this year because I'm 
working. All of the major community gardening/greening groups will be there 
and you can collect phone numbers and e-mails. 

Saturday, Mar 19th, 2005
GreenThumb GrowTogether
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Bronx  
Join a thousand community gardeners form all over New York City for a day of 
learning, networking and greening inspiration at the 21st Annual GreenThumb 
GrowTogether.  There will be a full day of workshops on horticulture, as well 
as 
arts and crafts.  Check-in begins at 9 AM, and breakfast will be served from 
9 AM to 9:45 AM.

Those who pre-register are guaranteed a free lunch and t-shirt.  If you do 
not pre-register you will not receive a lunch or t-shirt. Please call the 
GreenThumb office by March 2nd at (212) 788-8070 if you would like to register 
for 
this event. 
 
 Location:
Hostos Community College - 149th Street & Grand Concourse. Take the 2,4,5 
trains to the 149th Street stop, or the Bx1or Bx19 buses to Grand Concourse
 

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/upcoming_events/events.php?id=21641

3) Please feel free to visit the Clinton Community Garden, on West 48th 
Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues. There are always volunteers around on  the 
weekends, when we keep the gates open, but whenever you come by, if there is a 
keyholder inside the garden, they are obliged to let you in. The Clinton 
Community Garden's gate protects, but does not exclude. If you are going to 
live or 
work within our catchment area - 59th -34th, from the West Side of 8th Avenue 
to 
the Hudson River, you can get a key to the garden. 

Our website :http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/ . 

4) Here is the website of the Green Guerillas - you can try hooking up with 
some local gardens through them: http://www.greenguerillas.org/

5) This is the NY Restoration Project that manages a number of Community 
Gardens: 
http://www.nyrp.org/

6) The Trust for Public Land manages a number of community gardens, 
transferring a large number to a land trust. Please contact Joane Morse at the 
Trust 
for Public Land for more details: 
http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cdl.cfm?content_item_id=12685&folder_id=1805

7) In addition to our community gardens, there are a plethora of volunteer 
gardening opportunities throughout the city, largely because NYC only funds 
it's 
park system at 3/10ths of one percent of it's total budget. Comparing "apples 
to apples," as it were, Chicago funds it's Park System through Cook County at 
4% of the total budget. New Yorkers for Parks ( formerly the Parks Council) 
is working to organize neighborhood activists to push our city's  elected 
officials to fund our parks at a minimum of 1% of our budget.  The Parks budget 
having been cut to the bone, welfare recipient are put to work doing cleaning, 
raking, and performing rountine park tasks in the place of a vastly depleted 
work force. Understand, this is for a Parks Dept that serves over eight million 
people.  

So - We have a defacto three tier parks system in NYC: 
1) The splendid revival of Central, Bryant and Madison Square Parks has been 
funded in large part by private conservancies, and business improvement 
districts. There are great volunteer gardening opportunities through the 
Central 
Park Conservancy and you might consider working with them in lieu of community 
gardening. You can find out more about these opportunites through the Central 
Parks Conservancy: http://www.centralparknyc.org/
You'll see a silly piece on the "Gates", the Cristo "art work" on the site - 
go past that to "job and volunteer opportunites. 

2) There are neighborhood parks throughout the Parks system that are 
maintained by neighborhood volunteers who, through political action, get extra 
funding 
through their local politicians and use the Partnerships for Parks for 
organizing tips: http://www.itsmypark.org/ 

3) Then there are the NYC Parks that haven't been touched, really, since 
Robert Moses' workmen left them 50 years ago. Unfortunately, these parks are in 
some of the most financially depressed areas of the city, where residents are 
more involved in subsistance. If you move into one of these areas, and you have 
the energy and will, setting up a local group to clean up and beautify the 
park will be hard, but very, very rewarding. 

NOTE: This is not the park's dept's fault, but

[cg] Fwd: [MG] Fire night before Nowrouz Invitation - Tuesday March 15th

Parsis, the Zoroastrians of India, do not celebrate Noruz at the
spring equinox. Though Parsis are of Iranian origin, their Zoroastrian
calendar has shifted during the millennium of their Indian residence,
so that they celebrate the New Year much later in the year than the
Iranians. Recently the Parsi New Year has been in the late summer. Now
that both Parsis and Iranian Zoroastrians are scattered throughout the
world, both holidays are held in the diaspora communities, and both
Iranians and Parsis are invited to celebrate at each others' festivals.

RELEVANT READINGS:

Bundahishn, Foundation of Creation, two translations exist in English.
The shorter one, the Indian Bundahishn, is by W. West 1901, reprinted
in 1965. This translation is out of date. B.T. Anklesaria, Bombay 1956,
translated the longer Iranian into English. The latest translation from
Pahlavi into Modern Persian by Farnabagh Dadege 1992, by Tous
Publication is the best translation into Persian so far.

The Yashts, Yasna and the Gathas are available in English, However all
translations are out of date. There are very good translations into
Modern Persian by Mr. Pourdavood and
Mr. Jalil Doustkhah. All are easily obtainable from Iranian bookstores.

Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians, their religious beliefs and practices.
Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1979, London, UK.

Mary Boyce, A Persian stronghold of Zoroastrianism, Oxford University
Press, 1977.

John R Hinnells, Persian Mythology, Library of the Worlds Myths and
Legends. Peter Bedrick Books, New York, 1985.
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[cg] Re: Bumblebees in Community Gardens

Friends, 

Mr. Craig Tufts, Chief Naturalist and Director of Citizen Science Programs at 
the
National Wildlife Federation in Reston, VA  sent me this attached query. As 
I'm just a participant on this listserve, I'm passing it on to you all, and to 
get the ball rolling, throwing in my two cents. 

"Adam:
  
I am on the listserv and likely met you years ago.Since then we may have 
communicated once or twice. Question..
  
Would it be appropriate for me to put a query out to those on the list trying 
to find out how many community gardens in urban areas have bumblebees as part 
of the pollinator mix in their garden? 
 
We're considering doing an urban bumblebee project and I am trying to get an 
idea if there are bumblebees in city gardens, if community gardeners attempt 
to encourage them and if city gardeners know the difference between bumblebees, 
honey bees and perhaps carpenter bees. I do recall the bee hive in Liz 
Christy years ago and think you might have had one in Clinton, too."
 
Dear Craig, 

The  first beehive was started at the Clinton Community Garden by Phil Tietz, 
former ACGA board member and director of Green Guerillas. Phil was also 
deeply involved with Liz Christy Garden where he also had a hive, that they no 
longer keep. Phil now works as a landscaper/rooftop garden designer for Chelsea 
Gardens. There are a few small, commercial beekeepers on the lower east side, 
whose hives are in back yards, roof-tops, and who sell their honey at some 
Greenmarkets, and privately. 

However, for the last 15 or so years, Sid Glaser a retired NYC public school 
history teacher, has been our beekeeper and bee volunteer coordinator.  Some 
photographs from the 2002 PBS "Wild TV" science program segment on vermiculture 
and beekeeping in the Clinton Garden can be viewed on this link from our 
website: 
http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/garden_photo_album.htm

Unlike composting or other garden skills, which can be learned fairly quickly 
and be done by anyone, including sensible children, beekeeping requires a 
certain amount of technical skill, smokers, protective clothing and headgear, 
calmness around bees, understanding of bee biology, care and treatment of honey 
supers, hive diseases/mites, attention to the details of the honey harvest and 
a willingness to be stung at times, even by the tame European/Tuscan bees with 
which we stock our hive. 

And all bees swarm, sometimes once or twice in a season - and the volunteer 
beekeeper has to make him/herself available to deal with this natural 
occurance. Bees sometimes  attach themselves to a tree, forming a new 
community,  and 
have to be smoked out and encouraged to either return or disperse - and we know 
that many folks are allergic to bee stings, so having an beekeeper on tap 
when they swarm is essential. 

You need to have a beekeeper/volunteer who really takes on the hive as 
his/her major project and a garden that cooperates with the beekeeper, from the 
siting of the hive, to funding the expenses this activity entails.  We have 
been 
fortunate to have Sid Glaser to do this (he's also the beekeeper for "Wave 
Hill", the great Riverdale Garden and Cultural facility) and a number of us 
have 
been learning from him.

Bees are amazing pollinators and really make an organic garden bloom - 
enhancing other natural practices like using other beneficial insects for 
blight 
control, composting, and attracting song birds who eat "blight" insects while 
chasing after the bees. And honey sales are part of our garden's fundraising 
mix. 


So, what I'm saying is that keeping a successful hive is work, requires care 
and organization, an eye to safety in a densely populated urban area,  but  
can be a real boon to any urban community garden that does it properly. 

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer
Clinton Community Garden
http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/












> Subj: Bumblebees in Community Gardens 
>  Date: 3/9/05 5:37:11 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Adam:
>   
> I am on the listserv and likely met you years ago.Since then we may have 
> communicated once or twice. Question..
>   
> Would it be appropriate for me to put a query out to those on the list 
> trying to find out how many community gardens in urban areas have bumblebees 
> as 
> part of the pollinator mix in their garden? 
>  
> We're considering doing an urban bumblebee project and I am trying to get an 
> idea if there are bumblebees in city gardens, if community gardeners attempt 
> to encourage them and if city gardeners know the difference between 
> bumblebees, honey bees and perhaps carpenter bees. I do recall the bee hive 
> in Liz 
> Christy years ago and think you might have had one in Clinton, too.
>   
> Thanks.
>   
> Craig 
>  
>  
>  
> Craig Tufts
> Chief Naturalist
> Director of Citizen Science Programs
> National Wildlife Federation
> 11100 Wildlife Center D

[cg] Fwd: Bumblebees in Community Gardens

Hmmm

Right or wrong,  bumblebees are often considered a stinging nuisance in 
cities, like wasps and yellow-jackets. But of course their pollination would be 
quite beneficial. 

The problem in cities, with any kind of bee or livestock is the neighbors.  
So you would have to look at your site, and make sure that the bees would not 
be close to open window, alight on people's food, etc.  We've sited our beehive 
next to a six storey high bare brick wall, so we've avoided that nuisance 
problem.  

When you are thinking of re-introducing any species into a city, you should 
think about why it disappeared. 

It's been an  educational process to get our 5,000 garden key-holders to feel 
comfortable with mutally co-exist with the bees.  Great luck with your 
project, 
Adam Honigamn

> Subj: Re: Bumblebees in Community Gardens 
>  Date: 3/9/05 7:23:39 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time
>  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Adam:
>   
> Thanks very much for your quick response and the information and experience 
> you've had with honey bees. Honey bees do require a lot of care and people 
> often worry about stings, etc.
>   
> What I am especially curious about is whether any community gardens support 
> bumblebees. These native bees, unlike the Old World honey bees, won't provide 
> people with honey. They are however excellent crop pollinators and require 
> no real care although they can be encouraged by providing nest boxes.  Their 
> colonies are annual and rarely ever reach more than a few hundred bees. In 
> many parts of the US their numbers are decreasing. Certain species (unlike 
> honeybees which area s ingle species, there are perhaps 40 species or more of 
> bumblebees)are disappearing. They may be much less prevalent in cities due to 
> rodent predation although they often affiliate with native mice, using their 
> old 
> nests as their prime nesting areas. 
>  
> It will be interesting to see what community gardeners say. If they contact 
> me off-line, I'll try to share with the entire community when appropriate. 
>  
> Craig
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Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2005 16:22:35 -0500
From: "Craig Tufts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Bumblebees in Community Gardens
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Adam:
 
Thanks very much for your quick response and the information and
experience you've had with honey bees. Honey bees do require a lot of
care and people often worry about stings, etc.
 
What I am especially curious about is whether any community gardens
support bumblebees. These native bees, unlike the Old World honey bees,
won't provide people with honey. They are however excellent crop
pollinators and require no real care although they can be encouraged by
providing nest boxes.  Their colonies are annual and rarely ever reach
more than a few hundred bees. In many parts of the US their numbers are
decreasing. Certain species (unlike honeybees which area s ingle
species, there are perhaps 40 species or more of bumblebees)are
disappearing. They may be much less prevalent in cities due to rodent
predation although they often affiliate with native mice, using their
old nests as their prime nesting areas. 
 
It will be interesting to see what community gardeners say. If they
contact me off-line, I'll try to share with the entire community when
appropriate. 
 
Craig



Friends, 

Mr. Craig Tufts, Chief Naturalist and Director of Citizen Science
Programs at the
National Wildlife Federation in Reston, VA  sent me this attached
query. As I'm just a participant on this listserve, I'm passing it on to
you all, and to get the ball rolling, throwing in my two cents. 

"Adam:
  
I am on the listserv and likely met you years ago.Since then we may
have communicated once or twice. Question..
  
Would it be appropriate for me to put a query out to those on the list
trying to find out how many community gardens in urban areas have
bumblebees as part of the pollinator mix in their garden? 

We're considering doing an urban bumblebee project and I am trying to
get an idea if there are bumblebees in city gardens, if community
gardeners attempt to encourage them and if city gardeners know the
diff

[cg] Fwd: bumblebees

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Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 13:31:35 -0800
Subject: bumblebees
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Cc: vicky carthew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Here in New Zealand bumblebees are always wild, live the countryside as 
well as in city gardens (in this one anyway), and never bother human 
beings in any way.  Their sole interest in life is flowers, though they 
bumble inside by mistake at times and immediately regret it and do their 
best to get back outside.  It is impossible to mistake a bumblebee for 
any other form of life.  Regards, Vicky

On Wednesday, March 9, 2005, at 01:11 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Friends,
>
> Mr. Craig Tufts, Chief Naturalist and Director of Citizen Science 
> Programs at
> the
> National Wildlife Federation in Reston, VA  sent me this attached 
> query. As
> I'm just a participant on this listserve, I'm passing it on to you all, 
> and to
> get the ball rolling, throwing in my two cents.
>
> "Adam:
>
> I am on the listserv and likely met you years ago.Since then we may have
> communicated once or twice. Question..
>
> Would it be appropriate for me to put a query out to those on the list 
> trying
> to find out how many community gardens in urban areas have bumblebees 
> as part
> of the pollinator mix in their garden?
>
> We're considering doing an urban bumblebee project and I am trying to 
> get an
> idea if there are bumblebees in city gardens, if community gardeners 
> attempt
> to encourage them and if city gardeners know the difference between 
> bumblebees,
> honey bees and perhaps carpenter bees. I do recall the bee hive in Liz
> Christy years ago and think you might have had one in Clinton, too."
>
> Dear Craig,
>
> The  first beehive was started at the Clinton Community Garden by Phil 
> Tietz,
> former ACGA board member and director of Green Guerillas. Phil was also
> deeply involved with Liz Christy Garden where he also had a hive, that 
> they no
> longer keep. Phil now works as a landscaper/rooftop garden designer for 
> Chelsea
> Gardens. There are a few small, commercial beekeepers on the lower east 
> side,
> whose hives are in back yards, roof-tops, and who sell their honey at 
> some
> Greenmarkets, and privately.
>
> However, for the last 15 or so years, Sid Glaser a retired NYC public 
> school
> history teacher, has been our beekeeper and bee volunteer coordinator.  
> Some
> photographs from the 2002 PBS "Wild TV" science program segment on 
> vermiculture
> and beekeeping in the Clinton Garden can be viewed on this link from our
> website:
> http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/garden_photo_album.htm
>
> Unlike composting or other garden skills, which can be learned fairly 
> quickly
> and be done by anyone, including sensible children, beekeeping 
> requires a
> certain amount of technical skill, smokers, protective clothing and 
> headgear,
> calmness around bees, understanding of bee biology, care and treatment 
> of honey
> supers, hive diseases/mites, attention to the details of the honey 
> harvest and
> a willingness to be stung at times, even by the tame European/Tuscan 
> bees with
> which we stock our hive.
>
> And all bees swarm, sometimes once or twice in a season - and the 
> volunteer
> beekeeper has to make him/herself available to deal with this natural
> occurance. Bees sometimes  attach themselves to a tree, forming a new 
> community,  and
> have to be smoked out and encouraged to either return or disperse - and 
> we know
> that many folks are allergic to bee stings, so having an beekeeper on 
> tap
> when they swarm is essential.
>
> You need to have a beekeeper/volunteer who really takes on the hive as
> his/her major project and a garden that cooperates with the beekeeper, 
> from the
> siting of the hive, to funding the expenses this activity entails.  We 
> have been
> fortunate to have Sid Glaser to do this (he's also the beekeeper for

[cg] Portland, Or: Public gardens are not on firm ground in budget

2005-03-10 Thread Adam36055

Public gardens are not on firm ground in budget 
Portland's Parks Bureau would like the program to be self-sufficient, but 
gardeners say they need public support to survive 
Thursday, March 10, 2005
ANNA GRIFFIN 
The Oregonian 
>From her corner office on the 13th floor of The Portland Building, Parks 
Bureau director Zary Santner sees a sweeping view of north and east Portland -- 
and a way for the city's public gardeners to enjoy their pastime without 
long-term financial help from taxpayers. 

>From his rented plots at the Brentwood Community Garden in Southeast 
Portland, gardener William Cepurna sees a cell phone tower, an unassuming 
middle-class 
neighborhood -- and sure death for the program without further taxpayer help. 


"I just don't see how you can say we will survive," he said. "I just don't 
know how you can really make that statement." 

Although the garden program accounts for less than 1 percent of the Portland 
Bureau of Parks & Recreation budget, it has become the cause celebre of this 
year's spending debate, and a prime example of the challenges facing city 
leaders and their constituents. 

Santner needs to cut costs. For next year's budget, the Portland City Council 
is looking to trim $8 million from the general fund -- the $300 million pot 
that is used to pay for basic services -- and the city's parks are competing 
for that money against the police and fire bureaus, among others. 

Beyond the $8 million, more trims are coming. The city is currently operating 
in the black, but economists predict Portland may need to cut as much as $19 
million over the next five years. Revenues are rising, but costs are rising 
faster. 

For her part, Santner proposes phasing out city funding for smaller programs 
and facilities that are relatively costly to run, attract relatively few users 
or seem as if they could win private support. Among the facilities that could 
lose city funding under the proposal are the Pittock Mansion, the Multnomah 
Arts Center, Camp Ky-o-wa near Sandy and the Hillside, Sellwood and Fulton 
community centers. Taken separately, each amounts to a tiny percentage of the 
Parks Bureau's annual budget. But as a whole, they offer hundreds of thousands 
of 
dollars in potential savings, and a chance to refocus the department on 
services that pay for themselves or can survive through partnerships with the 
private sector. 

Santner bristles at the suggestion that she's recommending killing any 
program. Rather, she says the city needs to work with participants to find 
other 
sources of money and management. 

"The well is drying up, and we have got to be very, very innovative in how we 
continue to provide services," she said. "But the question is not eliminating 
services. It's 'How can we continue the services by doing them differently?' 
" 

30 years old 

Portland's Community Gardens program celebrates its 30th anniversary this 
year. Today, 2,800 people garden at about 980 plots across the city, according 
to 
the Parks Bureau. The city spends about $115,000 annually providing gardeners 
with water, compost, basic maintenance, garbage pickup and one full-time 
staff position to help set up educational programs and manage plot rentals. The 
city, which self-insures, also covers insurance costs on the gardens. 

The Parks Bureau charges $45 a year rent on a 20-by-20-foot piece of land, 
$23 for a 10-by-20-foot plot and $15 for a 4-by-8-foot bed. To cover costs, the 
city would need to charge at least $115 for the largest plots, according to 
the bureau's proposed budget. 

"I'm afraid that cities are increasingly turning their backs on community 
gardens, but Portland has been one of the models for a long time," said Betsy 
Johnson, executive director of the American Community Gardening Association, 
based in New York. 

The city could keep raising rents to make the gardens self-sufficient. But 
that would price out many gardeners, Santner says. Instead, she's recommending 
giving the gardens another year of money and city assistance to either find 
private benefactors or form volunteer-led nonprofits to oversee the gardens. 
And 
she's open to the possibility of continuing city support beyond next year if 
necessary. 

"It's not like we're going to walk away after one year and let them loose," 
Santner said. "We'll continue to help until they're able to do everything. We 
will make sure they succeed, and we want to work with them to make sure they 
succeed." 

Gardners say they need aid 

Cepurna and other gardeners say they don't see another way for the program to 
survive outside of city support. There's too much work involved in managing 
the gardens for volunteers to handle it all and some of the costs -- most 
notably insurance at the gardens -- could be substantially higher for a private 
group than city government. 

So far, Community Gardens activists haven't wanted or needed to work with the 
Parks Bureau on alternatives to city funding. Instead, they've bee

[cg] Whitmore, Hawaii: Drug dealing overcomes land intended for community

Hint: This might be a community for the ACGA Board to reach out to, and
advocate for. At the very least, the membership should be able to show these
seniors that we care.

Posted: March 10, 2005 6:00 PM

Drug dealing overcomes land intended for community
Leslie Wilcox. KHON-TV, Hawaii



Drug dealers have virtually taken over land that was made available for
neighborhood gardening in Wahiawa. The land is at the edge of housing in
Whitmore
Village, and residents are fearful of what they see at close range.

Everybody likes the idea of a room with a view, but not this kind. Day and
night, there's traffic -- customers in search of an illegal product they can't
wait to use. Residents can see the flare of fire under glass pipes.

"Sometimes the buyers don't get out of their car anymore," a witness told
KHON2 on condition on anonymity. "They just stop by. I see them exchanging the
drugs and the money."

Neighbors notice other bad business going on as well -- trading in stolen
goods, prostitution.

A concerned citizen who lives elsewhere, Carroll Cox, took pictures. They
bring out what Whitmore residents shrink from saying publicly.

"Even though they can see it's bad, they're afraid," the witness said.

Crystal meth business is being conducted on Uwalu Circle, across the street
from federally subsidized apartments for the elderly and near older houses,
many occupied by retirees.

As a courtesy, the landowner -- Dole Hawaii -- offered strips of land here
for gardening. That was nice for a while. Then other people came and set up
makeshift offices, carrying bolo knives, not necessarily for plants, but for
keeping handy while serving ice addicts.

Dole tells us the hobbyists have its permission to go in and knock down
unauthorized structures. But the elderly gardeners say they can't go up
against
what's being cultivated here now -- the drug trade.

"They are scared because of retaliation, revenge," the witness said.

Dole says police have an open-letter to enter its property as needed. And
it'll step up its own security patrols.

But elderly residents still feel like sitting ducks, because if they have a
view of the lawbreakers, the lawbreakers know where they live.


 


__
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


To post an e-mail to the list:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  
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[cg] Community Gardening Taught in TN Model School

Friends, 

I thought you might find this article interesting - a US  Museum Magnet 
School which includes "community gardnening," as a study area. 

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
Clinton Community Garden, NYC

Normal Park Museum Magnet Serves As School Model
posted March 10, 2005

Normal Park Museum Magnet is hosting a series of national and international 
school visitors in March, all coming to the school to learn more about its 
unique partnerships with multiple area museums, its "Understanding by Design" 
learning concepts, and its exhibit-building curriculum techniques.

School administrators and teachers from Quebec, Canada will be at Normal Park 
on Monday and Tuesday, March 14 and 15. A similar group from Miami, Fla. will 
visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 15 and 16. Both sets of visitors will 
also tour Chattanooga Middle School. 

The school hosted visitors from Springfield, Ma. and Catoosa County, Ga. 
school systems earlier this month.

  

"As one of only a few K-5 museum magnet schools in the county, Normal Park is 
quickly becoming a national model of success, and our concepts and curriculum 
techniques are being noticed and emulated by other school systems," said 
Principal Jill Levine. 

Like the Massachusetts visitors before them, the Miami visitors to Normal 
Park will be here to learn more about the museum magnet concept and the unique, 
multiple-museum partnerships that Normal Park has made, said Ms. Levine. The 
Miami school system has qualified for a federal grant with which to develop 
their own museum magnet school, and they are hoping to learn from what Normal 
Park 
has done so successfully.

"While some museum magnet schools are affiliated with only one museum -- and 
may even be co-located with that museum -- we partner with multiple museums 
that act as satellite classrooms for our specific curriculum topics during each 
nine weeks of study," said Ms. Levine. "We're pleased to see other school 
systems - like those in Miami and Massachusetts -- take note of the success of 
this model, and want to learn how to make it a part of their own school 
systems."

The Canadian visitors are also seeking to learn from the success of the 
Normal Park model, and are specifically interested in the school's 
"Understanding 
by Design" teaching techniques. The program emphasizes modular teaching 
techniques incorporating hands-on learning and exhibit-building by students as 
a way 
for teachers to assess and measure the students' understanding of core 
concepts.

"Normal Park teaches science and social studies for all grade levels through 
modules designed and implemented using Understanding by Design (UbD) 
concepts," said Joyce Tatum, Normal Park's Museum Liaison and a national 
Understanding 
by Design consultant. "After Normal Park teachers made presentations at the 
national Understanding by Design conference this past summer in San Diego, 
several school systems have sent teams to observe at our school in order to 
improve 
their own programs or to make a decision about using Understanding by Design 
concepts."

While visiting Normal Park, the visitors from both Florida and Canada will 
attend the school's scheduled "Worlds of Wonder" Exhibit Night on March 15, at 
which students' work from the past nine weeks of study will be displayed and 
presented. Both will also create their own exhibits about Normal Park based on 
what they learn about the school. The exhibits they build will be shipped back 
to their home cities for others to see and learn from.

"Our school is just in its third year of operation, so having representatives 
from these other school systems from across the continent want to use us as a 
model for their own schools and curriculum plans is a great honor," said Ms. 
Levine. "It speaks so well of the strong national reputation that Normal Park 
has built, and for that, I thank our teachers and administrators, our parents, 
and our partnering museums."

Normal Park Museum Magnet partners with seven area museums to bring a fresh, 
dynamic approach to learning. The school's museum partners include Tennessee 
Aquarium, Chattanooga African American Museum, Hunter Museum of American Art, 
Chattanooga Regional History Museum, Creative Discovery Museum, Chattanooga 
Nature Center and Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Curriculum focuses on 
multi-disciplinary approach and offers related arts programs in visual and 
performing 
arts, Spanish, music, science, community gardening and physical education. 

The school, in its third year as a museum magnet, serves neighborhood 
children and a growing number of students from throughout the Chattanooga area. 
The 
school has historic roots in the community. It was originally a prestigious 
private college at the turn of the century, and it has as alumni many notable 
area civic and business leaders.


__
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one o

[cg] Portland, OR: GROW's Problems

Grow Portland's Community Gardens


Monday, March 07, 2005HEIDI NICHOLS
The Oregonian
P ortland Parks Bureau has recently proposed cuts to the budget of Portland
Community Gardens, which would result in the elimination this year of the
children's gardening program, educational outreach and coordination for the
Produce
for People program. Cuts proposed for the 2006-2007 year will eliminate the
Community Gardens program entirely.

These proposals trouble me. As an Oregon State University master gardener who
has gardened at the Reed Community Garden for the past 10 years, including
the last five as a volunteer garden manager, I know the city needs more
community gardens, not budget cuts that will eliminate them.

For many Portlanders, having a community garden plot means the difference
between eating and going hungry. Some families raise the majority of the food
they consume. Needy non-gardeners benefit from community gardens by receiving
organically raised produce donated to food banks by our gardeners. Sharing
with
those who are less fortunate increases citizen involvement in the well-being
of
our city and is a very positive aspect of the community garden program.

A city that advocates increased housing density would do well to provide
garden space for those living in homes without that space. Community gardens
give
gardeners a chance to meet neighbors they might otherwise not know and to
experience cultural and ethnic diversity. A sense of community is something we
should be encouraging in the residents of Portland, not discouraging.

Community gardens provide an opportunity to educate the public and encourage
stewardship of the land. I have spent countless hours educating other
gardeners on developing healthy soil, sustainable gardening practices and
integrated
pest management. One of our Reed gardeners, a middle school special education
teacher, uses his garden as a teaching resource and brings his entire class to
the garden one day a week. Many of our gardeners bring their children to the
garden, thereby passing on the love of the land to the next generation.
Including children in gardening is a positive deterrent to involvement in
gangs,
drugs and other undesirable activities.

On an individual basis, gardening relieves stress, encourages exercise and
provides a connection to the land we live on and the people with whom we live.
I
find the time I spend in the garden to be the most stress-free portion of my
day. It is my primary exercise. Over the years, I have met a great many people
who are just wandering through the gardens because it gives them moments of
tranquility in their otherwise hectic lives. Many of these visitors have been
from out of the area and have commented positively on what a pleasure it must
be to have a community garden program.

Portland Community Gardens program is an integral part of what makes Portland
a highly livable city. I encourage Mayor Tom Potter and the City Council to
support the Community Garden Program and restore the funds that the Parks
Bureau is proposing be cut. The money involved is minimal compared to the
rewards
returned and represents a tiny fraction of the parks and city budgets as a
whole.

Heidi Nichols lives in Southeast Portland.




)2005 The Oregonian


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[cg] Australian Community Gardens Link

This Australiian link is pretty amazing - A great link for the ACGA website. 

http://terracircle.org.au/garden/

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman, 
Volunteer, 
 Clinton Community Garden 


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Re: [cg] FRom community garden to farmers market?

Urban farming is an old, old story.  Usually it starts to be restricted when 
the first ordinances about banning ruminant farm animals begins. Once there is 
a surplus, community gardeners share it or sell it. My garden sells honey one 
or twice a year, other sell produce of all kinds. 

Now, it is hard for a volunteer community garden to compete with a truck 
farrm, but if the offerings are specialized - a particular kind of pepper, 
heirloom tomato, preserves made by a communtiy gardener, then there's an 
interesting 
niche market - But to expect a community gardener to be able to support 
herslef from her garden plot? Not particulalry wise. 

Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteen, 
Clinton Community Garden


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[cg] Boston Globe: Community Gardeners offer Tips on Contaminants

2005-03-14 Thread Adam36055

BOSTON GLOBE MISSION HILL


NU conference offers advice on contaminants

By Christine MacDonald, Globe Correspondent  |  March 13, 2005

Sunflowers, salad greens, and sweet peppers transformed a bedraggled stretch
of Parker Street into the Mission Hill Community Garden back in 1979, about
the time similar urban gardens were replacing vacant lots in blighted
neighborhoods across Boston and the country.

''It was a weedy lot. I thought, 'Gee, it would be kind of nice to garden
here,' " said Pat Grady, who helped establish the Mission Hill landmark 26
years
ago and said last week that it has generally lived up to her expectations.

''It's just a pleasant place to come after work and garden and hang out,"
said Grady, one of hundreds of Boston residents expected to kick off a rite of
spring next weekend at the 30th Annual Gardeners Gathering.

The city has changed dramatically since Grady planted that first crop. So
have the recommended techniques for gardening in urban soil. Next Saturday's
gathering at Northeastern University's Curry Student Center will focus on the
latter.

Boston University public health professor Pat Hynes plans to share scientific
data about contaminants such as coal ash, heating oil, and other
petrochemical residue that linger in soil where houses and businesses once
stood.

Hynes noted that it was once commonplace to burn garbage in backyards,
leaving remnants behind. But she said the drawbacks are minimal compared to
the
advantages of urban gardens.

''There has really been a sort of growing knowledge base" about how to
minimize health risks, said Hynes, who has developed urban gardening
guidelines and
plans to continue her research this spring with two BU colleagues and help
from a US Environmental Protection Agency laboratory.

''The nutrition, exercise, and social benefits of gardening greatly outweigh
exposure to these substances, especially if people take these precautions,"
Hynes said.

She plans to share tips such as the importance of using gloves when working
the soil and scrubbing hands thoroughly after gardening and vegetables well
before eating. She also recommends adding compost to literally ''build up"
plots
instead of digging down into contaminated soil for planting.

Once considered temporary measures to combat urban blight, the gardens have
become permanent landmarks, said Valerie Burns, president of the Boston
Natural
Areas Network. The network is sponsoring the gathering, which is expected to
draw hundreds of gardeners from dozens of community gardens around the city.

''Community gardens started as a way to hold the tide of disinvestments that
was happening in the neighborhoods -- a way to take the land back and have it
serve a community purpose," Burns said. In the last two decades ''as economies
improved, the city began to come back and residents came back to the city,
community gardens went from temporary uses and became an end in themselves,"
Burns said.

Burns said her group hoped to spread knowledge of the new research and
gardening techniques to gardeners like Grady, who said she had never seen
evidence
of soil contamination in Mission Hill but was eager to learn more about how to
minimize exposure to unseen toxins.

''It's a relatively new concern," Grady said. ''We'll be learning more about
it." 





) Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company


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[cg] Memoral for CCG Gardener, Marian Taylor Williams, Saturday, March 19th 2005

2005-03-15 Thread Adam36055

Friends, 
Please join us in remembering 
Ms. Marian Taylor Williams,  
Saturday, March 19, 2005
3:00 pm
 at the 
Unitarian Church, 
40 East 35th Street 
( Between Park and Madison Avenues) 

Ms. Marian Taylor Williams was a founding Clinton Community Gardener, former 
CCG steering committee member and dear frien.  Marian Tayor Williams succumbed 
this week to a long illness, which she faced with guts, determination to 
"beat it," grace and real good humor. 
Marian was one of the thousands who physically survived the attack on the 
World Trade Center on 9/11, but it took her a year to go back to her job in a 
shop in the plaza of the World Financial Center, largely due to her memories of 
cascading broken glass, jumping and falling people, and the sheer horror of the 
day. A senstitive human being, she managed to get back on sheer guts and 
determination. 

Please help us remember Marian Taylor Williams this Saturday afternoon. 

Thank you, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer, 
Clinton Community Garden


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Re: [cg] Re: community_garden digest, Vol 1 #2079 - 1 msg

2005-03-18 Thread adam36055

This has to be cultural - or generational, or whatever. Maybe I didn't get the 
memo that excluded the word, "please," from requests or queries, but I can't be 
alone in disbelief that a Doctoral candidate for a reputable university can 
write a query, for other people to give her input, and footnotes for her 
dissertation WITHOUT USING THE WORD "PLEASE."

Has a memo gone out that has removed this word from our language? I know that I 
hear it an awful lot often than the work [EMAIL PROTECTED] therse days. 

 Please advise - I believe that I may have missed this change cultural 
phenomena, interaction along the Internet, and mass media. along with "American 
idol.

Puzzled, 
Adam Honigman

-Original Message-
From: BHATTARYA,SHEFALI <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:00:07 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [cg] Re: community_garden digest, Vol 1 #2079 - 1 msg

Hello Everyone, 

I am Shefali Bhattarya, a doctoral student at University of Florida. I had 
introduced myself to listserver once earlier sometime back. Currently I am 
working on my dissertation which focuses on developing a strategy for 
integrating Urban Agriculture (community gardens) in the city masterplan. I am 
right now interviewing the local gardeners to find out the benefits of 
gardening to them. From speaking to many gardeners now, I have come to know 
that they all feel that benefits from community gardening are vast and diverse. 

Another component of my research deals with proposing some more (new) suitable 
sites in Gainesville for community gardens. But before this I have to identify 
some preconditions to community gardening for the City of Gainesville and 
therefore have to define a criteria for proposing new garden sites. I am using 
GIS for this. I would like to seek your suggestions for this component of my 
research. 

I am looking for various criteria (both formal research based and non research 
based are OK with me) for proposing new garden sites in a city (e.g. nearness 
to a neighborhood or nearness to bus route etc). I would appreciate if you all 
can provide some input in this. I am eager to see what the criteria are and if 
they differ from city to city depending upon city characteristics e.g. city 
size etc. or they are more or less the same. 

Hope to hear from you. 

Thanks much. 

Shefali 

On Tue Mar 15 13:00:16 EST 2005, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 

> Send community_garden mailing list submissions to 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the web, visit 
> https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden 
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> You can reach the person managing the list at 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more > specific than 
> "Re: Contents of community_garden digest..." 
> > > Today's Topics: 
> > 1. Boston Globe: Community Gardeners offer Tips on Contaminants > ([EMAIL 
> > PROTECTED]) 
> > __ 
> The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only > one of 
> ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more > about the ACGA and to 
> find out how to join, please go to > http://www.communitygarden.org 
> > To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: > 
> > https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden 
> >  

-- 
BHATTARYA,SHEFALI 

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Re: [cg] RE: pleases and thank you's

2005-03-21 Thread adam36055

Friends,
 
That message hit me when I was pissed off and grouchy.  And I'm not in a better 
mood now. But I certainly will try to be civil. And to put my response in 
language, to quote T.S. Elliot, "That Cats and Dogs Can Understand." 
 
As a long time working class American, volunteer and do-gooder... as someone 
who shows up to actually get his hands dirty and do something at the drop of a 
hat, I tend to get ticked at breathless folks, at the end of their academic 
tether, as due dates become closer, who make informational requests for lots of 
quotable/footnotable material, without saying, "please." 
 
We say "please," in our community garden, because it shows mutual respect - we 
KNOW the person doesn't have to do ANYTHING, but we request it as a favor from 
them, as someone who surely doesn't have to get off their rear end to do 
anything. 
 
We say "please," in our soup kitchens, both to the folks who do the cooking, as 
well as those we feed, because it re-inforces our common humanity. 
 
We certainly said, "please," at Ground Zero or Fresh Kills Dump after 9/11, 
when we were asking someone to hold open a specimen bag, or pass a tool to 
extricate a  body part, or lift a girder off of a blackened torso. 
 
It always seems to be twenty-somethings - maybe they didn't do a segment on it 
during "Sesame Street," when they were coming up, or junior members or interns 
at professional do-gooder organizations. 
 
Damned if I can figure it out. Maybe they  didn't include it in the "ways to 
show basic common decency, civility and respect people who do stuff for free, 
without which our not-for-profit agency would founder," course at a 
"not-for-profit.org."
 
As someone who worked restaurants for years, you'd get a long order from 
someone who didn't look at you, and they never said please.  But you can be 
damned sure that in the kitchen, or at the bar the "pleases" and "por favors" 
were de rigeur. 
 
The idea is when you ask a free person to do something  you respect their 
freedom by saying, :if you please, if you would, please." And community 
gardeners say the words please and thank you an awful lot - it's essential to 
our culture - or at least the NYC community garden culture I've been part of 
for over 30 years.  
 
My final words on this: When I did an oral history project with my one 
surviving Nazi Death Camp parent and  other tattooed armed friends, I 
asked,"How did you know, when your were in a Displaced Person camp after the 
war, with guards, barbed wire, the works, that you were safe, and there was 
hope?"
 
The answer was, "I cried when the soldiers asked us to PLEASE feel free to go 
by the mess tent for breakfast - the word in German was "bitte," one that we 
had not heard for over four years. We were acknowledged to be human beings by 
the simple use of that word - PLEASE"
 
Best wishes, 
Adam Honigman 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
-Original Message-
From: Tom Dietrich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 13:07:41 -0500
Subject: [cg] RE: pleases and thank you's


Adam:

My brow furrowed a little as I read how strongly you've reacted to Ms.
Shefali's posting.  I agree a "please" would be nice, advisable even,
but the overall tone of the message wasn't as "entitled" or
disrespectful as your reaction seems to portray. She did use the phrases
"would appreciate your input" and "would like to seek your suggestions."
I am not involved with post-graduate work, so maybe I am off-base here.


Other reactions, please?

Thank you.

Tom
 
Tom Dietrich
Grow With Your Neighbors
Dayton, OH  

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 21:29:27 -0500
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [cg] Re: community_garden digest, Vol 1 #2079 - 1 msg
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]

This has to be cultural - or generational, or whatever. Maybe I didn't
get the memo that excluded the word, "please," from requests or queries,
but I can't be alone in disbelief that a Doctoral candidate for a
reputable university can write a query, for other people to give her
input, and footnotes for her dissertation WITHOUT USING THE WORD
"PLEASE."
 
Has a memo gone out that has removed this word from our language? I know
that I hear it an awful lot often than the work [EMAIL PROTECTED] therse days. 
 
 Please advise - I believe that I may have missed this change cultural
phenomena, interaction along the Internet, and mass media. along with
"American idol.
 
Puzzled,
Adam Honigman
 
-Original Message-
From: BHATTARYA,SHEFALI <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:00:07 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [cg] Re: community_garden digest, Vol 1 #2079 - 1 msg


Hello Everyone, 
 
I am Shefali Bhattarya, a doctoral student at University of Florida. I
had introduced myself to listserver once earlier sometime back.
Currently I am working on my dissertation which focuses on developing a
strategy for integrating Urban Agriculture (community gardens) in the
city masterplan. I am righ

[cg] (no subject)

2005-03-22 Thread adam36055

 Friends, 
 
First for Ms. Shefali, who undoubted learned to use the word "please," in her 
native language and picked up the slovenliness with which the word is ingnored 
or omitted in our current American non-culture from her American peers, I 
apologize. 
 
It ain't her fault - we have a culture of ungratefulness here in America - 
we're all "entitled." 
 
Again, Ms. Shefali - it ain't your fault that you can write a request letter 
without using the word please, you've learned that all you need do is ask - 
without respecting the giver.  It's part of our culture, now. 
 
We here in America are ungrateful for much of what we are given, our air, land, 
water, the fecundity of the earth, and prosperity - so much of it comes to us 
without asking. 
 
Our culture of volunteerism is almost unique, so much so that Western Europeans 
who tour the Clinton Community Garden or walk through any of our volunteer 
projects marvel that it's not our govenrment that does it - with paid 
functionaries - but people taking their non-money-making time to make the world 
better.  You mean you Americans don't have six week long vacations? 
 
Again, Ms. Shefali - it ain't your fault, and I apologize - our culture is 
ungrateful. 
 
More than anything else, community gardens depend on volunteers not 
coordinators, the rank-and-file, the people who decide it's better to garden on 
a Sunday afternoon, teaching kids to weed and garden, instead of staying in a 
cool bar, watching the ball game, and checking out the "jiggle." 
 
Again, Ms. Shefali - it ain't your fault, and I apologize - our culture is 
ungrateful
 
As an old community gardener, I'm cited in alot of footnotes, shared alot of 
information with an open hand, advocated for lots of gardens, and have spent 
YEARS with anthropologists, city planners, documentarians, social workers,  who 
think we're "cool", and have arranged filming of an awful lot of what we do - 
making an awful lot of "nice."
 
These are the same folks who NEVER get their hands dirty in a garden feeding 
hungry folks and once their project is finished EXPECT US to be grateful that 
they gave us their attention. 
 
Again, Ms. Shefali - it ain't your fault, and I apologize - our culture is 
ungrateful. 
 
I'm sorry that I made the mistake of reminding you that community gardening is 
based on mutual respect - that we say please and thank you to each others - 
part of our respect for the value that we give and share with each other, with 
an open hand. 
 
But we community gardeners will keep giving, keep building community from the 
ground up, and keep giving with an open hand. It's our nature, and our culture. 
 
But again, to Ms. Shefali and those were offended the prickliness of this old 
volunteer community gardener, I apologize. 
 
Everbest, 
Adam Honigman
Volunteer
Clinton Community Garden
 
 
 
 
 
But I'm still very old fashioned - and I don't like the turn our culture has 
made towards those who give with an open hand, who figure our labor, knowledge, 
and caring doesn't deserve the word, and the meaning of the  
 
 
 
It will make everyone, especially the politically correct, feel much better.
 
 
 
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 09:50:49 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: [cg] Attn:Puzzled Adam and Moderator


I too can see both sides of this. Those of us who have been on this list a
while are familiar with Adam's "virtual" personality. He is indeed a very
valuable participant and I'm always grateful for his news postings and
wide-ranging curiosity and knowledge. But he's often sort of touchy, and
for people new to the list, that may not come off very well.

I made an off-list request to Adam and -- though I was surprised when I
reread it -- neglected to say please. And he took me to task for it. I
have no issue with that -- in fact, it made me more conscious of that
going forward so I was thankful for the reminder. But it's much different
to do that on-list.

I too found the student's request to contain the concept of "please" even
though it didn't say the word. In fact, in re-reading it (unlike when I
reread my own in the case above) I didn't really see where the word please
would go, and I found the wording pleasant and polite. I have corresponded
off-list with her a few times and had the same impression.

However, it's clear to me that she struggles with the English language a
little, and it seems that her second e-mail reflects that much more than
her first. It also, to me, reflects someone who was, as Ms. Tiger says,
hurt. So it seems to me that we all need to think about how what we say
will be received, and err on the side of understanding and compassion.

Cynthia Price
Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council

> for what its worth, adam has long been a valuable member of the cg list
> and
> a stalwart friend of community gardens. he is prone - from time to time -
> to
> outbursts.
>
> adam

[cg] Knoxville, TN: On the "Community" part of Community Gardening

2005-03-24 Thread Adam36055

Friends,

More than the work of planners, who try to explain the "from the roots up,"
phenomenon of community gardens in cities with markings on maps, when they
aren't dealing with traffic flows, and making them more congested,  community
gardens are really about volunteers and gardeners, even more than plants.

Space and land is key to community gardens, but as urbanist Jane Jacobs said,
about parks and urban plazas, public spaces like community gardens have to be
graced by the patronage of neighbhorhood residents

Plants are the medium for building community in community gardens - which is
really why the community garden movement is much more than than urban
agriculture - it's a movement of social integration of atomized city residents
from
all strata of society, on  common ground.

Community gardens that think that "being green, and being there" is enough
justifies their existance have it half right - comparable to singing in a room
alone. The idea is to sing first to others, then with others creating a
self-perpetuating chorus.

What many urban planners and garden preservationists haven't gotten is that
it's the social organization of gardens and their ability to self-perpetuate
volunteers that is key to their survival.

The Clinton Community Garden in Manhattan lives on a block with two social
service agencies, "Fountain House," (http://www.fountainhouse.org/history.html
)
and "Project Return," (http://www.projectrenewal.org/housing.html#clinton),
which has integrated their mentally ill and homeless residents into our garden
community through membership and active participation. They're an integral
part of our community.

Re the attached article: I don't know if  Knoxville, TN  Friendship House
program director Lisa Higginbotham ever interned/trained  at either of these
institutions, or attended one of our "ACGA" seminars, but she sure has the
game
plan down.

It's nice to see that our community gardening "truisms" are true - that  the
basic idea of building community from the ground up replicates itself where
there are plants, soil and most important, people who want to use them to
give.

Everbest,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer
Clinton Community Garden





Fertile Grounds
Friendship Garden sows seeds of community

by Mike Gibson

Gardening, to some of us, seems little more than a preoccupation of finicky
suburbanites and the bored elite, an excuse for people with too much time on
their hands to plant things in their backyard that don't really belong there.

But one might just as well speculate that the act of gardening squares with
our most deeply ingrained instincts for self-reliance and survival, perhaps as
some atavistic byproduct of the hunter-gatherer impulse, encompassing at once
our needs for sustenance, community, and independence.

"Regardless of where I've lived, even when I was living in urban areas, I've
always liked the idea of gardening," explains Russ Marek, one of eight
residents of the Fourth and Gill neighborhood with a plot in the Friendship
Community
Garden off Morgan Street. "I think it appeals to me because there's a sense
of value. It gives me the feeling I'm doing something at least
semi-self-sufficient."

How else can we explain the enthusiasm with which Friendship gardeners tend
their tiny plots of mustard greens and zucchini and Asian yard-long beans,
despite their stone's-throw proximity to mean, unsightly Broadway? A
four-year-old
program overseen by the Friendship House Drop-In Center-a local outreach for
the mentally ill-Friendship Community Garden affords area residents and
Friendship House members alike the opportunity to partake in the joys of the
harvest, even while entrenched in one of the least elegant sectors of the
city.

"Our purpose is to build community-to grow community, really," says
Friendship House program director Lisa Higginbotham. "And this is the
Friendship House
members' chance to get out and make friends in the community, maybe alleviate
some of the stigma of mental illness."

According to Higginbotham, urban gardening enthusiasts first tilled soil at
Friendship Garden about four years ago, when Beardsley Farms began operating
the program after local businessman Jim Cortese provided the land and gave the
project his blessing.

But Beardsley Farms dropped out after only a couple of growing seasons, and
the garden lay dormant for a year until the nearby Friendship House Drop-In
Center decided to renew the program as part of its own mental health
outreach.

To participate, would-be gardeners need only sign a release form at the
Drop-In Center on Lamar Street. Each gardener is assigned his or her own small
plot
in the roughly 1,700-square-foot space set aside in the backyard of an old,
weather-worn house on Morgan. "The plots are free of charge, and we just divvy
them out with our eyes and some guesswork," Higginbotham says. "We're kinda
laid back in the way we do things here."

The growing season is a long one for the Friendship folks; they begin
tilling, b

[cg] Texas Agricultural Extension - Garden Volunteers and Health

2005-03-24 Thread Adam36055

March 16, 2005
Volunteers Use Plants and Flowers That Are Just What the Doctor Ordered
Writer: Lorri Jones, (281) 855-5620,[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Photos and Graphics


Video Script 
 

HOUSTON - "Pick two daisies and call me in the morning!" 

>From early recordings of civilization, man has pulled roots and leaves from 
the earth to help him feel better. However, it is not simply what is ingested 
that brings healing. Working in dirt or even viewing a landscape has proven to 
assist healing. 

Dr. Roger Ulrich, Texas A&M University professor of architectural landscape 
and urban development, studied patients recovering from gall bladder surgery. 
He reported shorter recovery periods, the need for fewer potent pain drugs and 
fewer negative staff evaluations for patients whose rooms had a view of trees 
instead of walls. 

Three gardening programs conducted in the Greater Houston area by Texas 
Cooperative Extension Master Gardener volunteers help patients feel better. The 
Master Gardener program offers advanced education and training in horticulture. 
After classroom training, participants contribute 60 hours of community service 
to receive the Master Gardener designation. For more information, visit 
http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/mastergd/index.html. 

The Flower Lady 

For more than 30 years, Audrey Chadwick, a registered nurse and horticulture 
therapist, has studied and practiced the therapeutic benefits of horticulture 
and floriculture. For the past 10 years, her gentle and consistent work with 
stroke patients at Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital has earned her the 
nickname, "The Flower Lady." 

Once a week, Chadwick, a Master Gardener since 1981, is joined by other 
volunteers who help patients recovering from strokes select flowers and cut 
stems 
to make floral arrangements or do other gardening crafts. 

"I particularly like to work with herbs, because it stimulates memory," 
Chadwick said. "For example, we made paper; we made crowns out of rosemary; we 
dyed 
eggs for Easter with natural dyes." 

The creativity that patients use in designing stimulates their brains. The 
use of fine motor skills in cutting stems and arranging flowers is an exercise 
in coordination that can reinforce other types of therapy. In addition, plants 
and flowers have a calming effect that improves the patient's overall sense of 
well-being. 

Chadwick told the story of one of her favorite patients, a 41-year-old stroke 
victim and NASA engineer whom the nurses had asked her to work with 
one-on-one. She said when he first came in, he was angry from his debilitating 
condition and told her that he wasn't going to do anything. Chadwick went to 
work 
breaking off pieces of eucalyptus for potpourri, and before long the patient 
joined in. 

"When he got ready to leave (that day), he turned to me and said, 'I feel 
like I've had a walk in the forest. Thank you,'" Chadwick said. "I didn't cure 
him. I didn't cure him at all, but I certainly made his moments better." 

Chadwick was honored with the Special Award of Merit in 2002 by the Texas 
Master Gardener Association for the Galveston County Horticulture Therapy 
Project. 

On the Wings of Butterflies 

In 1994, Chris LaChance, Extension program coordinator for the WaterSmart 
Landscaping Program in Houston, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Following 
two 
surgeries and two rounds of chemotherapy, this cancer survivor said she wanted 
to share with staff and future M.D. Anderson Cancer Center patients her 
gardening experience and how her relationship with nature helped her during 
treatment. 

"My own healing began when my spirit was renewed as well as my body," she 
said. "It was nature, through its life-affirming promise, that gave me this 
gift." 

LaChance, who is also a volunteer Master Gardener, asked for help from her 
daughter and fellow Master Gardeners in Galveston. M.D. Anderson designated 
several existing plant beds in front of the R. Lee Clark Clinic, 1515 Holcombe 
in 
Houston, to convert into nurturing habitats for butterflies. 

"So many of our patients, like Chris, find comfort with the outdoors, and 
this garden provides a way to be surrounded by nature for a while instead of 
being confined to the clinic," said Stephanie Young, associate director for 
development at M.D. Anderson. "Places like this garden are so important to the 
overall well-being of the patient." 

Because of her work with the WaterSmart Landscaping Program, LaChance said 
she chose native and non-invasive adapted plants that would attract 
butterflies, 
yet require less water and not need fertilizer or other chemicals to thrive. 
This gardening method reduces run-off pollution, which is WaterSmart 
Landscaping's goal. 

"Volunteers named the garden the Chrysalis Project as a play on words, 
referring to the emerging butterfly - whole and healed - and my first name," 
LaChance said. 

She added that the garden is thriving, despite the ongoing construction 
surrounding the cl

[cg] Citizen Gardening.

2005-03-24 Thread Adam36055

President Molinaribs
Staten Island bikeway plan.

The state allocated federal transportation funding covering 80 percent of
the trailbs construction and the city approved its 20 percent
contribution. In 2001, the parks department released detailed drawings and
specifications; by 2003 all the required reviews were completed and
permits obtained. It was to be the first section of the Greenbelt trail
system built.

Instead, the parks department now plans to construct another portion of
the Greenbelt trail system first, a loop circling La Tourette Park. A new
section is being added to complete the loop, using funding originally
allocated to the Amundsen Trailway. "We are eager to get any portion of
this now, because right now it is very difficult to do any kind of biking
on the road in Staten Island anymore," said Borough Commissioner Paulo.

Questions have been raised, however, about the feasibility of the
additional section because it would go through steep terrain unsuitable
for bicycling, as well as wetlands. The new trail also does not provide
the long-desired recreational link between the Greenbelt and the
waterfront.

Neighborhood residents who have spent years cleaning up the right-of-way
and trying to make the trail a reality are discouraged, but have not given
up their dream. Chuck Perry is a retired teacher who lives across the
street from the right of way and has long been active in the effort. He
said, "Look at communities like in Long Island b they have these
amenities. This is recreation for the average family, for the average
citizen."

Anne Schwartz is a freelance writer specializing in environmental issues.
Previously, she was the editor of the Audubon Activist, a news journal for
environmental action published by the National Audubon Society, and an
editor at The New York Botanical Garden.
Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Full-name: Adam36055
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Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 07:24:44 EST
Subject: Citizen Gardening. 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Friends,

This story was forwarded to the NYC "Cyberpark" listserve by Lenny Librizzi -
former ACGA board member, and Council of the Environment stalwart here in
NYC.

The lesson here is that all of the hard work of gardeners and volunteers can
be for naught, unless we remember we're citizen gardeners, and get formal
acknowledgement of our garden and green space through mapping and zoning
changes.

It ain't enough to be patted on the head by the powers that be - we have to
be part of the political process that makes our greening projects zoned land
uses.

Everbest,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,
Clinton Community Garden


This was in Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/parks/20050315/14/1350

--and the politicians keep saying demapping isn't necessary!

Politics Kills A Greenway

by Anne Schwartz
March, 2005
B  B 

The parks department has quietly shelved a fully funded and planned $1.2B 
million Staten Island greenway that local residents have worked for manyB 
years to get built. Borough President James P. Molinaro, who wieldsB 
tremendous political power on the island and whose support Mayor MichaelB 
Bloomberg needs for reelection, is blocking the project because ofB 
concerns that it would limit future road-building options.

The route, which goes through residential neighborhoods, would provide aB 
recreational corridor between the waterfront and the islandbs woodedB 
interior Greenbelt, and would also link to a greenway system being piecedB 
together in the borough and throughout the city.

The planned path, called the Amundsen Trailway, mostly follows a woodedB 
strip of land that was set aside by Robert Moses for the construction ofB 
the Willowbrook Parkway, which was never built. Three studies conductedB 
over the last two decades determined that building the Willowbrook andB 
another proposed highway, the Richmond Parkway, would not alleviateB 
traffic problems in the borough. The rights-of-way for the two unbuiltB 
parkways make a large "X" that intersects in the heart of the Greenbelt.

The land is still mapped for the roadways, however. Local civic andB 
environmental groups have been trying to get the state legislature toB 
"demap" the rights-of-way and turn them over to the parks department, butB 
these efforts have been opposed by Borough President Molinaro.

Although the Amundsen Trailway has been in the works for years andB 
received all the necessary funding and approvals, Molinaro has put aB 
moratorium on construction in the right-of-way until traffic concerns areB 
resolved. "Right now webre being asked to hold off until this is looked a

[cg] Florida and Vermont Community Gardens

Wanted: Neighbors to embrace new garden 

By ANNE GEGGIS 
Staff Writer 

Last update: March 26, 2005 


Go a few dozen yards west of U.S. 1's grime and roaring traffic and find an 
oasis that's worlds apart. 
Rows of seedling squash, beans, banana peppers, scallions, marigolds and herbs 
are silently taking root here inside a rectangle of dirt bordered by a wire 
mesh fence. But this is no ordinary vegetable patch. 
A state grant paid for the materials through the Front Porch Florida. The 
Bethune Center provided the land and the first group of weeders and waterers. 
The Volusia County Health Department nutritionists oversaw the effort's 
coordination. The city of Daytona Beach tilled the soil. Members of the Central 
City Kiwanis built the fence. And the University of Florida Extension Service 
sent a master gardener to lend his expertise. 
"We want kids to see where food comes from and increase the number of fruits 
and vegetables in everyone's diet," said Barbara Harrison, director of the 
Volusia County Health Department's nutrition services. "We want to get the 
community involved in the project." 
Whether this garden will grow into a community effort its organizers envision, 
however, is as hard to predict as hurricane season. 
Without the sustained interest and effort of the neighbors surrounding this 
central city oasis, this community garden could wither and die. 
Betsy Johnson, executive director of the American Community Garden Association, 
based in New York City, said that her organization has watched many community 
gardens sprout -- and then lie fallow. The usual pattern is one group gets it 
started, but then they move away. 
"You really have to create a small, new little organization and like any 
organization, it won't keep going unless there are people who are interested in 
doing more than just gardening," said Johnson, whose organization supports 
about 1,000 groups that oversee about 8,000 to 12,000 gardens. "They need to be 
committed to working to form a group." 
A group of five to seven teenagers are the advance party in the effort to bring 
the community into the 22-foot by 22-foot plot behind the Bethune Center. They 
call themselves the Young Golden Achievers. 
"I've asked the Young Achievers to get fliers together," said Francis Mobley, 
chairperson of Central City Front Porch Florida. "We want to pull the community 
in." 
Before handing the project over to the achievers to weed and water, the 
organizers gathered last week to plant the roots of the project. Master 
Gardener Jim McKenzie of Port Orange was advising them on how far apart the 
seedlings ought to be planted and how deep to go. 
"You ready to get your hands dirty?" he asked. 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
VERMONT 'FRIENDS' JOIN HANDS TO SAVE GARDENS 
The 400 garden plots flourishing with the oversight of the Friends of 
Burlington Gardens in Burlington, Vt., make it hard to believe that in the 
mid-1980s it looked as though an effort that started in 1972 could be going 
dormant. 
A nonprofit that previously oversaw the gardens, called Hope Gardens for All, 
disbanded and many of the original gardens went untilled. 
"It was down to 200 plots when I started in the late '80s," said Jim Flint, now 
the executive director for Friends of Burlington Gardens. 
City government adopted the project and became a sponsor. And a new, nonprofit 
was founded. "We really latched onto the idea that gardens are for all people, 
that everyone should have the ability to grow their own food," said Flint, 
whose two children, Alison, 16, and Jon, 14, have taken prizes at the area's 
regional fair in the "longest green bean" category. 
In the last 12 years, the Friends of Burlington Gardens have raised $50,000 in 
grants to pay for tilling, topsoil and other materials in addition to running 
educational programs. 
On April 15, the project's first book, "Patchwork, Stories of Gardening and 
Community" is coming out. 
-- Anne Geggis 
GET INVOLVED 
An organizational meeting for the community garden at the Bethune Center, 740 
S. Ridgewood Ave., Daytona Beach, will be at 5 p.m. April 19. If you want to 
join the garden effort right away, contact Barbara Harrison, director of 
nutrition at the Volusia County Health Department, (386) 274-0670.   


__
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


To post an e-mail to the list:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  
https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden

[cg] Community Gardens: Florida and Vermont

Wanted: Neighbors to embrace new garden 

By ANNE GEGGIS 
Staff Writer 

Last update: March 26, 2005 


Go a few dozen yards west of U.S. 1's grime and roaring traffic and find an 
oasis that's worlds apart. 
Rows of seedling squash, beans, banana peppers, scallions, marigolds and herbs 
are silently taking root here inside a rectangle of dirt bordered by a wire 
mesh fence. But this is no ordinary vegetable patch. 
A state grant paid for the materials through the Front Porch Florida. The 
Bethune Center provided the land and the first group of weeders and waterers. 
The Volusia County Health Department nutritionists oversaw the effort's 
coordination. The city of Daytona Beach tilled the soil. Members of the Central 
City Kiwanis built the fence. And the University of Florida Extension Service 
sent a master gardener to lend his expertise. 
"We want kids to see where food comes from and increase the number of fruits 
and vegetables in everyone's diet," said Barbara Harrison, director of the 
Volusia County Health Department's nutrition services. "We want to get the 
community involved in the project." 
Whether this garden will grow into a community effort its organizers envision, 
however, is as hard to predict as hurricane season. 
Without the sustained interest and effort of the neighbors surrounding this 
central city oasis, this community garden could wither and die. 
Betsy Johnson, executive director of the American Community Garden Association, 
based in New York City, said that her organization has watched many community 
gardens sprout -- and then lie fallow. The usual pattern is one group gets it 
started, but then they move away. 
"You really have to create a small, new little organization and like any 
organization, it won't keep going unless there are people who are interested in 
doing more than just gardening," said Johnson, whose organization supports 
about 1,000 groups that oversee about 8,000 to 12,000 gardens. "They need to be 
committed to working to form a group." 
A group of five to seven teenagers are the advance party in the effort to bring 
the community into the 22-foot by 22-foot plot behind the Bethune Center. They 
call themselves the Young Golden Achievers. 
"I've asked the Young Achievers to get fliers together," said Francis Mobley, 
chairperson of Central City Front Porch Florida. "We want to pull the community 
in." 
Before handing the project over to the achievers to weed and water, the 
organizers gathered last week to plant the roots of the project. Master 
Gardener Jim McKenzie of Port Orange was advising them on how far apart the 
seedlings ought to be planted and how deep to go. 
"You ready to get your hands dirty?" he asked. 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
VERMONT 'FRIENDS' JOIN HANDS TO SAVE GARDENS 
The 400 garden plots flourishing with the oversight of the Friends of 
Burlington Gardens in Burlington, Vt., make it hard to believe that in the 
mid-1980s it looked as though an effort that started in 1972 could be going 
dormant. 
A nonprofit that previously oversaw the gardens, called Hope Gardens for All, 
disbanded and many of the original gardens went untilled. 
"It was down to 200 plots when I started in the late '80s," said Jim Flint, now 
the executive director for Friends of Burlington Gardens. 
City government adopted the project and became a sponsor. And a new, nonprofit 
was founded. "We really latched onto the idea that gardens are for all people, 
that everyone should have the ability to grow their own food," said Flint, 
whose two children, Alison, 16, and Jon, 14, have taken prizes at the area's 
regional fair in the "longest green bean" category. 
In the last 12 years, the Friends of Burlington Gardens have raised $50,000 in 
grants to pay for tilling, topsoil and other materials in addition to running 
educational programs. 
On April 15, the project's first book, "Patchwork, Stories of Gardening and 
Community" is coming out. 
-- Anne Geggis 
GET INVOLVED 
An organizational meeting for the community garden at the Bethune Center, 740 
S. Ridgewood Ave., Daytona Beach, will be at 5 p.m. April 19. If you want to 
join the garden effort right away, contact Barbara Harrison, director of 
nutrition at the Volusia County Health Department, (386) 274-0670. 


__
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


To post an e-mail to the list:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  
https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden

[cg] Alabama Communtiy Gardening

Good Friday good day for community gardening
East Avondale neighbors till soil, sow seeds 
Saturday, March 26, 2005 
HANNAH WOLFSON
News staff writer 
Every Good Friday down in Marengo County, Adam Thrash's grandparents would 
start their garden, just as generations of Southerners before them. 
Now, Thrash is following the tradition. But rather than sowing a rural acreage, 
Thrash, 67, spent this Good Friday helping his neighbors plant vegetables at a 
community garden near his home in Birmingham's East Avondale neighborhood. 
"My daddy did it and my wife's daddy did it," he said, although he doesn't know 
why. "It's just a tradition to plant on Good Friday." 
Explanations for the custom range from Scripture to science to plain old 
superstition. But one thing's certain: People across central Alabama spent a 
warm, sunny day sowing seeds and planting flowers. 
"A lot of my customers plant on Good Friday," said Jason Powell, owner of 
Petals From the Past, a Jemison nursery specializing in old-fashioned plants. 
He said it's one of many long-standing beliefs, such as pruning roses on 
Valentine's Day. 
"Gardeners are superstitious," he said. "If something works once, they're going 
to keep doing it that way." 
The initial selection of the day may have had something to do with the phases 
of the moon, which guide the dates for Easter and directed agricultural 
calendars, said Sally Lee, a horticultural agent for the Alabama Cooperative 
Extensive Service in Jefferson County. There also are biblical references to 
Jesus planting seeds, she said. 
It's not just a Southern tradition. English farmers traditionally planted 
potatoes on Good Friday and the Pennsylvania Dutch believe seeds sown on that 
day will result in bountiful produce. 
`Probably safe': 
In Alabama's warm climate, Easter usually arrives after the soil has warmed and 
frost danger is past. The holiday comes early this year, but temperatures 
should stay above 32 degrees in the coming week. 
"We're probably pretty safe," said Rocky Bare, hydrometeorologist for the 
National Weather Service in Birmingham. 
All those factors have helped convert some new Southern gardeners, such as John 
Vanover, who moved to Birmingham last year and learned about the Good Friday 
tradition from colleagues. The California native took the day off to work on 
his vegetable garden. 
"You hear these little Southern traditions and it kind of sweeps you away in 
it," Vanover said as he took a break from planting. "It seems like it may bring 
some luck to plant on Good Friday." 
It can also help keep idle hands busy, said Maggie Jenkins, vice president of 
the East Avondale Neighborhood Association and one of the organizers of the 
planting party. 
"My grandparents, my great-grandparents all said that's the day," she said. 
"It's just a way of keeping you working." 
Award-winning garden: 
East Avondale has scheduled its planting on Good Friday since it started the 
garden in 2003. The organic garden, which turned a vacant lot into a sort of 
outdoor community center, won a national award last year from Neighborhoods 
USA. 
As the temperature warmed Friday, neighborhood kids attacked the garden with 
rakes and shovels, clearing around the remains of an abandoned foundation and 
pulling out clods of clay. As they worked, police sirens roared by on the main 
street that borders the small neighborhood. 
Thrash, a tall thin man in denim overalls and a blue-striped engineer's cap, 
guided a motorized tiller through the still-damp earth. Then he turned to 
old-fashioned tools, tying a string between two stakes and tracing its line 
with a small plow to make furrows. The first bed will hold turnip greens and 
then, after an early harvest, collards, okra and tomatoes. Other crops include 
beans, melons and herbs. 
"It's a renewal," said Thrash. "It just does something good to have your 
friends and neighbors come out. I really can't explain it. It does something to 
the inner part of you and it more or less brings people together." 
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 


Copyright 2005 al.com. All Rights Reserved.



__
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's 
services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out 
how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org


To post an e-mail to the list:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  
https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden

[cg] Community Gardening: Florida and Vermont Gardens