Green Options

With spring bringing out the gardener in many of us — veteran, rookie and in between — my household has been expanding our growing. Last year, we had a couple of small vegetable plots that maybe totalled 15-20 square feet. Plus, we created a wildflower and native grass section that stretches to a slim 40 square feet.

This year, we have turned nearly half of our backyard — tiny as it is — into a vegetable garden, adding 125 square feet, or so. I built a wooden-pallet compost bin. And our front yard — yes, tiny front yard — is quickly becoming garden space, too (more flowers, native grasses and such). We’ll soon have a rain barrel. I’ve torn up a 50-foot stretch of sidewalk, and will replace it with a more drainage-friendly, more attractive solution. My wife also has started dozens of vegetable seedlings, which she is giving away for others’ gardens.

For a glimpse into the future of urban farming, take a look inside a Hell’s Kitchen high school campus, a former public school in the Bronx, or even a nearby prison on Rikers Island.  Either way, you’ll see the hand of Cornell University horticulture specialist Philson Warner at work.  Warner has spent the past 20 years

[...]

A small organic flower grower was cited in late December 2008 by the Los Angeles Local Enforcement Agency for composting violations.  Yes, you read that right, composting violations.

Tara Kolla of Silver Lake Farms in Los Angeles, California, was cited because of a law on the books that states that “composting material must be generated on-site unless it is placed in a vessel that controls airborne emissions”.  What this means is that legally you can only compost what you produce on your property unless your compost bin is a “commercially approved” device.

Kolla had established a relationship with a local restaurant to fill a garbage can she provided each week with their vegetable scraps, which she would then haul to her half acre urban farm and add to her own compost bin.  This is a perfect example of local food networks working as they should, operating in a closed loop, reducing carbon emissions by keeping everything local, and reducing the amount of waste sent to local landfills.  But the current letter of the law in Los Angeles states that if you take grass clippings, orange peels, or fallen fruit from a neighbor, you are in violation of the law and could be cited and fined.

Will Allen, former pro basketball player, founded Growing Power to help low-income people in Milwaukee  and Chicago grow their own food locally.

He will now have an extra $500,000 to help his efforts.