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The Community Beautification Grant of the City of Los Angeles, Board of Public Works, Office of Community Beautification has been awarding grants since 1998. The staff has a special knowledge of the people, organizations and neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Grants for Urban Farming Gardens

Urban Farming has a well-known sponsor interested in paying the costs to develop five (5) 20' x 20' (400 square ft) produce-bearing gardens in Los Angeles that can be secured for at least two years, with a goal toward becoming sustainable through initial and ongoing community members and group involvement.

Find the general criteria at CBGrant.blogspot.com

Suggested Garden Locations: Community center grounds; Parks; City lots; University/College campus; Faith-based organization sites that accept other community member involvement and also those that are non-denominational. (this is for community sites, rather than elementary/middle/high school locations)

Please contact: Meg Glasser for further information.
meg.glasser@gmail.com; 646.726.1563; http://www.urbanfarming.org/

There are several reasons why urban gardens using containers are effective:

1. They enable us to practice "intensive" gardening method through maximum utilization of limited space.

2. It is easy to practice "intercropping" (planting a variety of plants in one container) which ensures the health of plants due to diversity.

3. It is possible to "conserve" both soil and water as containers prevent run offs of soil and excessive watering.

4. Urban gardens "make use of urban wasteland" (vacant lots, brown fields, unused parking lots, and roof tops)

5. Urban gardening provides "meaningful employment" for persons with limited skills and formal education.

6. Establishing and maintaining an urban garden are very "inexpensive".

7. Urban gardens provide creative ways to "recycle" old tires and other containers that otherwise would be thrown into landfills.

8. Churches and social service organizations can use urban gardening to "rehabilitate, create income generation projects, and provide therapy."

Technology for the Poor publishes a wonderful website that describes effective, low cost ways of developing container gardens that are highly productive. Using wading pools and tires, among other repurposed "technologies" urban residents can sink their toes into the soil in parking lots, on rooftops, in vacant lots and in their tiny urban backyards.  And the productivity isn't just in food -- as delicious as it might be -- it has far ranging quality of life and skill building results.

The purpose of an intensively grown garden is to harvest the most produce possible from a given space.

The Arizona Master Gardener Manual on Intensive Gardening methods examines several ways to grow in small areas.

The practice of intensive gardening is not just for those with limited garden space; rather, an intensive garden concentrates work efforts to create an ideal plant environment, giving better yields with less labor.

A good intensive garden requires early, thorough planning to make the best use of time and space in the garden. Interrelationships of plants must be considered before planting, including nutrient needs, shade tolerance, above- and below-ground growth patterns, and preferred growing season.

Using the techniques described in The Arizona Master Gardener Manual on Intensive Gardening , anyone can develop a high-yielding intensive garden.

The advantages of portable sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) can encourage  more PONGs (Portable Outreach Neighborhood Garden (PONG) and personal gardens with no need for the backbreaking and costly work of breaking concrete and blacktop.

Back breaking work is simply not necessary.

SIP gardening also avoids the risk of contaminated soil.

InsideUrbanGreen.com is a helpful DIY site to help you make your own planters and planter boxes instead of going gung ho and tearing up concrete, etc.

Add to these innovative storage box planters a few heirloom seeds...and you have your own victory garden on your patio!

It can be done!  One home at a time!  Low impact family gardening makes a huge difference in our climate change strategy...and the health of our families:

Havana relies on 200 urban farms known as organoponicos

Cuba, on the brink of starvation when the Soviet Union collapsed 20 years
ago, now produces 90% of its fruits and vegetable needs, using organic,
low-tech inputs.  The Cuban diet is healthier and uses 1/3 the energy to
produce versus typical western food production.

Some of the plots are small - just a few rows of lettuces and radishes being grown in an old parking space.

Other plots are much larger - the size of several football pitches. Usually they have a stall next to them to sell the produce at relatively low prices to local people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8213617.stm

Growing food almost year round in the mountains of Colorado is a green solution for localized food. It's a bit beyond farming -- this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager.

Plants in our cities are as environmentally important as those in our wild areas. They provide oxygen, homes to wildlife, and cooling without burning fossil fuels. Plants clean our air and water, prevent erosion, and reduce glare and noise pollution. On the most basic level our landscapes are a green urban ecosystem mitigating the effects of intensive urban and suburban living. As California grows, the environmental challenges will increase. Plants are our most important assets for protecting and enhancing our environment.

Urban plants provide many benefits such as:

Clean Air

Natural Cooling

Clean Water

Wildlife in our Communities

Quieting the City

Healing

The California Green Industry Council (CGIC) is a multi-billion dollar industry that not only provides a large percentage of jobs in California and contributes to the state's GNP but provides a more beautiful and healthy environment for California. The California Green Industry Council's member organizations all contribute to make California the beautiful and thriving state that it is today.

California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA)

California Assn. of Nurseries & Garden Centers (CANGC)

California Golf Course Superintendants Assn. (CGCSA)

California Landscape Contractors Assn. (CLCA)

California Landscape & Irrigation Council (CLIC)

Western Plant Health Association (WPHA)

California Sod Producers Association (CSPA)

Irrigation Association (IA)

Pesticide Applicators Professional Assn. (PAPA)

The professionals in the 'Green Industry' include sod producers, nurserymen, pest control advisers, pesticide applicators, landscape contractors, irrigation specialists, landscape architects, golf course superintendents, fertilizer and compost manufacturers and many others. Many of the professionals in the 'green industry' are required to have state licensing and certification and/or have professionally managed certification programs.

By working together in trade associations and councils of diverse trade associations, information about standards, issues of mutual interest or that cross multiple professions and multi-disciplinary working teams can be created.  And the more diverse the communications, the more likely our natural resources such as fresh water, native habitat, wildlife, and human communities can be understood and managed for sustainability.

California Green Industry Council

The environmental, economic and societal benefits of plants in our communities are profound. We need them to make it possible to live together in dense urban and suburban communities. As California's population continues to grow, we must increase the amount of plants making our human habitat habitable.

On Lincoln's 200th birthday, Feb. 12, 2009, the new Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "broke pavement" on The People's Garden during a ceremony on the grounds of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) commemorating Lincoln's birthday.

Green for Watershed Protection

Secretary Vilsack declared the stretch of pavement permanently closed and returned back to green, and encouraged other Administration officials and the general public to join in to protect the Chesapeake watershed.

"It is essential for the federal government to lead the way in enhancing and conserving our land and water resources," said Vilsack. "President Obama has expressed his commitment to responsible stewardship of our land, water and other natural resources, and one way of restoring the land to its natural condition is what we are doing here today - "breaking pavement" for The People's Garden."

The dedication comes on the 200th anniversary of the birth of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln founded the Department of Agriculture in 1862 and referred to it as "The People's Department" in his last annual message to Congress.

Green for Beneficial Gardening Promotion

Secretary Vilsack announced a goal of creating a community garden at each USDA facility worldwide. The USDA community garden project will include a wide variety of garden activities including Embassy window boxes, tree planting, and field office plots.

The gardens will be designed to promote "going green" concepts, including landscaping and building design to retain water and reduce runoff; roof gardens for energy efficiency; utilizing native plantings and using sound conservation practices.

Green Space for Runoff Reduction

The USDA People's Garden will eliminate 1,250 square feet of unnecessary paved surface at the USDA headquarters and return the landscape to grass. The changes signal a removal of impervious surfaces and improvement in water management that is needed throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Demonstration Habitat for Backyard and Green Space Applications

The new garden will add 612 square feet of planted space to showcase conservation practices that all Americans can implement in their own backyards and green spaces.

As a component of the garden, pollinator-friendly plantings will not only provide important habitat for bees and butterflies, but can serve as an educational opportunity to help people understand the vital role pollinators play in our food, forage and all agriculture. The garden plot is adjacent to the site of the USDA Farmer's Market.

Watershed Protection of the Chesapeake Watershed

About 100,000 streams and rivers thread through the Chesapeake's 64,000-square-mile watershed, which is home to almost 17 million people in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, New York and the District of Columbia. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in North America, with a length of 200 miles and 11,684 miles of tidal shoreline, more than the entire U.S. West Coast.

The Chesapeake Bay supports more than 3,600 species of plants, fish and animals.

Reduce Pollution on Wildlife Habitat, Forests and Water Resources...and Improve Community Natural Resources

USDA leads efforts on public and private lands to help reduce the impact of nutrient and sediment pollution on wildlife habitat, forest lands and water quality, as well as supporting community involvement in managing natural resources, urban green space and land stewardship. For more information about USDA, the People's Garden, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and other conservation and agriculture related programs available in local communities, visit a USDA Service Center or go to the USDA Web page at www.usda.gov.

Complementary education materials such as the distance-learning project MonarchLIVE and partnerships with schools and the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign which will extend the impact and reach of the USDA garden initiative are available at na.fs.fed.us. Backyard conservation and other materials also can be obtained by dialing 1-888-LANDCARE.

Sounds surround us.  If it's not the rural sounds of birds and locusts, its the urban sounds of traffic, airplanes and people chatting it up.

This onslaught of sound is why people are looking for quiet spots in which sound is sculpted and shaped for relaxation.  Some people are more sensitive to "noise" than others -- some aren't bothered by traffic sounds or airplanes and other are super sensitive to these sounds.  I'm one of those!

Windchimes are a delight to me, especially natural materials such as shells or wood and metal.  The tuned musical chimes are borderline because they are too loud, too pronounced.

Fountains offer soothing sounds of moving water and splashes on hard surfaces.  Again, this roaring sound is tranquil to some, and irritating to others.  Drips and drabs are heavenly for some, rushing waves for others.

Designing a sound garden must take into consideration these personal hearing profiles.

Japanese gardens are noted for their sound elements -- a gentle dripping, a paddle wheel, water falling on stones, and the natural sounds of mating frogs in a secluded grotto or pond.

The natural sounds of nature -- birds chirping and singing and calling,  singing insects, rushing water, rustling leaves, and all the human sounds that you hear at dinner time form a musical mosaic that can bring delight and relaxation if you take the time to enjoy the sounds in your very own neighborhood.  Sound sculpting...one tone at a time! 

"Locovores" eat foods from their local foodshed or a self-determined radius from their home (commonly either 100 or 250 miles, depending on location). By eating locally, most locavores hope to create a greater connection between themselves and their food sources, resist industrialized and processed foods, and support their local economy.

In trying to live a more sustainable, logical lifestyle, many locavores give themselves exceptions to a strict local diet. Commonly excluded items include coffee, chocolate, salt, and/or spices. To keep a local focus, they often try to find local coffee roasters, chocolate producers, and spice importers.

There is a growing interest in regional native foods and ethnic foods such as the Southwest's historic Mexican influence with herbs and peppers.  But there are additional native foods such as dried beans, squash, corn and nuts.

Locovores find tremendous challenge and adventure in discovering what grows in their own neighborhood and nearby communities.  They learn more about their ecosystems and how their use of water, their waste management choices and their choice of housing size, materials and styles all affect the natural food production capability in their region.  Everything is connected ... weather patterns, soil nutrients, drainage, insect infestations...and even those humble gardeners, migrating birds!

Locovores have much to learn from their wild neighbors -- both plants and animals.   What a great challenge to give your family -- trying to eat foods from driving distance from where you live!


"Leslie Allen has always been enthusiastic in her support of northern Nevada's local food lifestyle. As commercial horticulture program coordinator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension (UNCE), it's part of her job ... yet her passion for this increasingly important field goes far beyond the norm. So much so, in fact, that Allen's love of what she does has found a new description."  She's a "Locavore" ... and proud of it.

A local eating study, known as "Locavore Nation," in which participants attempted to eat 80%  of their food from local, organic and sustainable sources. "Locavore Nation" was sponsored by America Public Media's radio show, "The Splendid Table."

After voluntarily subjecting themselves to eating 80% locally produced foods for a year, the 15 participants in the Splendid Table's "Locavore Nation" have been released from captivity and are free to go back to eating Corn Nuts and powdered mini donuts.

You can retrace their steps on the "Splendid Table" site, where the entire year's worth of blogs are still archived.

Learn more about Locovores at www.Locavore.ws