By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Throughout my community garden project, I noticed a unique trend that I could not explain until recently.

My group consists of a majority of people who are under 30 years of age.

How wonderful I felt and still feel that the youth was getting involved in gardening.

I thought economics was a big factor and the organic food movement pushed these individuals to the community garden. But while my uneducated analysis of the situation was partly correct, it took a little research to find the “roots” of my community gardeners.

Personally, I am on the very backend of the baby-boomer generation. I was raised in an environment that I could do anything without any boundaries. For years, I have felt that I was raised this way because I was an only child but to my dismay that was not necessarily the case.

Baby-boomers were raised to think Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

It is amazing how much can get done when one has a vision.

One vision I have had for years is for every community to have gardens.

No, I am not talking about those showy, non-native flowering gardens that every community has down their main street but instead gardens that tell the story of their individual roots.

These individual roots grow out from the concepts and ideas that each community has been built upon.

My community has seen Jonathan Jennings, Lewis and Clark and many other famous people that came before me and established the framework that we all can add to but choose not to.

We all wait until that right person steps up and does it. If it works, it was a great idea but if it does not then no one claims it. But being a person who takes pride in “thinking outside the box” and having no problem “sticking my neck out,” I decided to start a community garden. Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

When you think of urban cities, you may think of skyscrapers, traffic jams, and pavement everywhere.

However, the urban garden revolution continues to spread.

The Daily Green has created a wonderful article about the top 10 US urban cities when it comes to the number of community gardens.

Top of the list is Seattle, Washington. Our friends the Shibaguyz are right there in the trenches, growing their own food thanks, in part, to the city’s fabulous P-Patch program. I hope I can visit this lovely city soon and see all the good work for myself.

My internship landed me in the city of McMinnville, Oregon for a summer. I enjoyed being so close to Portland (number 2 on the list) – just 35 miles northeast. Known as the “City of Roses”, there are gardens everywhere. It’s natural, then, that they would also have a significant number of community gardens.

I was glad to see Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

There is good news for residents of Michigan.

On Wednesday, Governor Jennifer Granholm announced the new “State of Michigan Land Bank Garden for Growth Program.”

In an effort to encourage urban gardening, participants will be able to lease tax-reverted property for only $50 a year, no matter what the size of the lot may be.

They will be able to do any sort of gardening or agriculture, as long as it is legal (sorry, no marijuana farms!) and adheres to the local zoning laws. Temporary fences are allowed – a fence permit may be required.

The advantage to leasing out the land is that Read the rest of this entry »