Green Options » victory_garden

My Farm Grows From San Francisco Backyards

Keith Rockmael — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:15:04 +0000

If Old MacDonald had his farm in San Francisco and wanted to be more sustainable he would definitely be interested in My Farm. This highly spirited group sprang from the good SF soil on a few months ago but already has people talking (and eating).

The San Francisco-based My Farm combines the local CSA produce with landscaping and gardening skills. San Franciscans (such as one of Green Zebra owners) pay a initial installation fee (usually in the $600-$2000 range) to have a crew set up irrigation, soil content and what ever else they deem necessary to start a backyard victory garden. From that point, they install a variety of vegetables, fruits, and even edible flowers (such as borage which benefits bees). And we have to be especially nice to the fast disappearing bees. We would love to salad-up in the Green Zebra garden with Jerusalem artichokes, tree collards, escorale, tomatillos, kohlrabi, corn and radishes.

The service costs about $35 per week but depending on the yard size and the bounty it produces that amount can be less. The more food that a yard produces the less the yard owner pays for the CSA box. The fee includes landscaping, gardening and a weekly CSA box. Such a deal. In this city it costs more for just a gardener to cut a lawn.

The workers utilize permaculture principles (or permanent culture) which to us looks like a serving of practical, functional and sustainable methods.

The My Farm model has spread to Marin and the East Bay faster than wild mushrooms and may soon come to an urban jungle near you.

San Francisco Victory Garden

Keith Rockmael — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:17:34 +0000

Originally posted in EcoLocalizer

The area in front of San Francisco’s city hall doesn’t exactly represent lush farmland but that doesn’t prevent it from being a viable SF food source. For the first time since 1943,
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Slow Food Nation founder Alice Waters and more than 100 volunteers planted the first edible garden in the City’s Civic Center. This victory garden, which takes its name from from 20th Century wartime efforts, helps to address food shortages
by encouraging citizens to plant gardens on public and private land.

Victory gardens continue to spring up in and around the City as food prices continue to rise and food sustainability becomes more of an issue. This Civic Center venture found its funding through various organizations including Slow Food Nation, CMG Landscape Architecture, City Slicker Farms, The Presidio Native Plant Nursery, Alemany Farms, Friends of the Urban Forest, Ploughshares Nursery, Urban Permaculture Guild, Coevolution Institute and many others.

San Francisco Victory Garden

Keith Rockmael — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:15:57 +0000

The area in front of San Francisco’s city hall doesn’t exactly represent lush farmland but that doesn’t prevent it from being a viable SF food source. For the first time since 1943,
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Slow Food Nation founder Alice Waters and more than 100 volunteers planted the first edible garden in the City’s Civic Center. This victory garden, which takes its name from from 20th Century wartime efforts, helps to address food shortages by encouraging citizens to plant gardens on public and private land.

Our salad bowl spins with the thought of the many crops being grown Amaranth, Snap Bean, Pole Bean, Dry Bean, Broccoli Raab, Ground Cherry, Chicory, Chinese Cabbage, Collards, Cowpea, Cress, Leeks, Okra, Bunching Onion, as well as Calendula, May Flowers, Sunflowers and many others. Being realists, we thought that in this City that how will these crops survive with all the pesky homeless and veggie thieves but the city provides on-site security to guard against theft.