In the zone

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Firehouse 13 last night for Green Zones: From the War Garden to Your Garden and the first-ever Urban Ag Spring Start Party.

The talks and discussion went over really well, and the seed-swapping table was hopping.  I got a chance to connect with gardeners, historians, and gardening historians from all over.

A spring party was a great outlet for gardeners with seeds, plants, and stories to share. As RI’s food gardening network continues to grow, imagine another garden event this fall?!?!?!?!

Today: Urban Agriculture Revival!

All the vegetables are ready to rumble at Firehouse 13 (41 Central Street, Providence).

Start at 5:30pm with Green Zones: From the War Garden to Your Garden. Check out 3 presentations on past and present gardening movements, and join the discussion.

Then at 7:30pm, it’s the first-ever Urban Ag Spring Start Party. Seed-swapping, plant-swapping, sharing info about garden and green groups, meeting other gardeners, etc. It’s a potluck, so bring a dish…as well as your seeds and plants to share.

Let’s start the spring together!

Container gardening-or-Yoohoo, UAU

The UAU (that’s Urban Agricultural Unit) recently moved to a new home on the grounds of Wolcott Eco-Office on Wolcott Street in Providence. Part large-scale recycling effort and part science fair project, the UAU is a mobile greenhouse constructed from a discarded shipping container. You may remember it from its appearances at ProvFlux or from its long-time residency at the Steelyard.

Plans are forming for the growing season at UAU’s new home. Perhaps some hops climbing up its corrugated metal walls and some native landscaping plants and some veggies and herbs growing inside.  Word is that its hydroponic set-up allows you to grow basil from a seed to a plant the size of a kindergartner in four weeks.

I get a kick out of the fact that this giant shipping container–duly labeled, see below–is now the ultimate container garden.

If you would like to learn more about the UAU or would like to be part of the team that is planning its rebirth, contact Anna or stop by the Urban Ag Spring Start Party that’s part two of the Green Zones event on May 5.  Thanks to the UAU crew for helping out with posters, posting, music, and more.

Day job

On Saturday (April 25), the RI Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission will host the Annual RI Statewide Historic Preservation Conference at the University of Rhode Island. This year’s event, “Preservation Steps Out,” will focus on preserving historic outdoor spaces, like farms, woodlands, conservation land, seashores, riverfronts, parks, village crossroads, and the like.

A lot of the day is devoted to issues relating to historic farms, from agritourism to farmers’ markets to barn preservation. I’m especially looking forward to the keynote speech by Steve Taylor, a dairy farmer and writer who formerly served as the Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets & Food for New Hampshire. His talk is called “Cows, Countryside, and Community: Can the Working Landscape of Rural New England Be Saved?“  Today’s Providence Journal features Bill Van Siclen’s conversation with Taylor.

And many other local agriculture people and places will participate: farmer and Senator V. Susan Sosnowski, Ken Ayars (RI-DEM), Stu Nunnery (RICAPE), Pat McNiff (Casey Farm), Nancy Parker Wilson (Greenvale Vineyards), Jeffrey Farrell (Sunset Farm), and Jim Crothers (South County Museum), to name a few.

Through Green Zone and at RIHPHC, I’ve spent the past year learning about the local food/farm/garden/land communities. The historic preservation perspective is complementary but different; preservationists often see farms as historic places with historic buildings and outbuildings, fields, ponds, woodlots, and stone walls. Preserving a sense of place while working the landscape is the particular challenge of the New England farmer.

See you for tours, sessions, talks, and networking at URI on Saturday. The conference costs $40, and registration is available on-site.  >>more info<<

Hope gardens: it’s time (again)

Hats off to Providence Journal Business editor John Kostrzewa for today’s column on “A seed of hope and easy to plant.” Kostrzewa suggests that in this time of economic crisis, hope is in short supply. While we work on the big-picture, long-term, structural fixes, why not engage in a more immediate way to improve Rhode Island: “Dedicate plots of land throughout the state for community gardens.”

His column puts forward a number of initiatives that may seem groundbreaking, but they all have precedents in Rhode Island’s recent history. For instance:

“How about using some of the highly visible sloping land that runs away from the State House. Or what about the 4.5 acres across the street from the Amtrak station.”
Done: Around 1920-21, the Rhode Island Normal School had a demonstration school garden on its grounds southwest of the State House–where Providence Place Mall stands today (see photo above).

“Make community gardens a statewide project. Make it a competition among each of the cities and towns to design and plant their own plots.”
Done: In 1916, Governor R. Livingston Beeckman initiated an annual garden contest among mill towns. Prizes were awarded for best vegetable garden, garden, and village appearance.

“Pick the sites from available public land.”
Done. In 1908, the city installed school gardens at Roger Williams Park. In 1943, the RI Senate passed a resolution “to formulate and promulgate a plan and program of procedure for the state of Rhode Island victory gardens upon state-owned land.”

“The seeds and plants can be donated.”
Done: In 1908, Congressman Daniel Granger secured donations of seeds for the Roger Williams Park school gardens. In 1932, RI Congressmen arranged for the US Dept. of Agriculture to distribute seeds to RI gardeners.

“Once the gardens have been planted, turn over the maintenance to service organizations, such as the scouts or fraternal groups.”
Done: During World War I, local organizations that participated in the War Garden movement included: RI Horticultural Society, Providence Housewives League, RI Boy Scouts (who guarded the gardens), and the League of Improvement Societies–not to mention dozens of factories and schools.

“And with so many unemployed people, let them work in a garden until they find a job.”
Done: During the Great Depression, state and local governments organized a statewide subsistence garden program of “private backyard gardens, vacant lot gardens, community plots divided into individual gardens, industrial gardens, industrial gardens for part-time workers, and community gardens not divided into individual plots but worked by unemployed men in return for food orders.”

As Kostrzewa notes, we’re on our way, thanks to the work of groups like Southside Community Land Trust and the Children’s Garden Network. I’ll add my two cents: just look to the past to learn how green Rhode Island can be.

Bibliographic note: The photograph of the demonstration garden at the RI Normal School comes from the League of Improvement Societies in RI Year Book for 1920-21. All other historical information derived from articles in the Providence Journal, 1906-1943.

Green thoughts on garden plots

Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies not only hosts a community garden for staff, students, and neighbors, but it also supports scholarship on gardening. Two Environmental Studies grad students are studying the impact of local food gardening. They are defending their masters theses next week, and the public is invited to attend.

Monday, April 13th at noon
Marie-Laure Couët on “Strengthening Providence with Community Gardens”

Tuesday, April 14 at 10am
Nora Buckman on “The Grass isn’t Greener: Exploring the Motivations and Barriers to Home Gardening in Rhode Island”

Both presentations take place at the Urban Environmental Lab, 135 Angell Street.  Visit the garden if you stop by.

Green Zones Event…and Urban Ag Spring Start?

Check out the updated page for Green Zones: From the War Garden to Your Garden, a presentation on Victory Gardens, the Women’s Land Army of America, and how/why gardeners are growing their own food today. The event takes place on Tues., May 5, starting at 5:30pm at Firehouse 13, 41 Central St. in Providence.

A plan is stirring to hold an Urban Agriculture Spring Start Party afterwards. This will include seed/plant swapping, exchanging ideas, food, music, and kicking off the garden season together.

Community gardeners, backyard gardeners, local foodies, green folks, farmers, teachers, kids. . .can you help out with this emerging event?  Contact me at szurier at wesleyan dot edu or leave a comment, and I’ll be in touch.

Tires, paint, soil, and lettuce

The front page of Thursday’s New York Times Home section features a story titled “Slow, Easy, Cheap and Green.” It profiles Felder Rushing and what he calls “Slow Gardening.”  It’s a gimmicky name that means going with the flow of the seasons, rather than rushing to transform your garden all at once.

Whatever.  What I liked about the article was the photo of Mr. Slow Garden tending a bunch of lettuce planted in a pile of tires.

Slow? if that’s the trendy word to use…
Easy? yes
Cheap? definitely
Green? you betcha, but in case you didn’t get it, paint your tires green.

Oh, now I get it.  Green tires.  Guess I’m a slow gardener.

Kingston squares

In 1943-45 (at least), a bunch of Kingston neighbors organized a victory garden with the help of a local RI State College (now University of Rhode Island) professor and several local property owners.

The group collaborated on the purchase of fertilizer, seeds, and rototilling. Each family could sign up for 4000- or 2000-square foot plots.

The same pattern of neighbors organizing community garden spaces together was repeated throughout Rhode Island and throughout the country. What was unique about the Kingston Victory Gardens was that the neighbors gardened side-by-side with professors from the the RI State College Extension Service. What the professors learned from their experience on the ground in Kingston, they could share with gardeners throughout the state through the outreach of the Extension Service. This program continues today as URI Cooperative Extension.

You can find correspondence, plot plans, gardener rosters, and other materials relating to the Kingston Victory Gardens at the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society in Kingston Village.

Eat your vegetables, Sasha and Malia

You heard it here second (maybe first?), the Obamas will plant a vegetable garden on the White House grounds.  Maybe that’s why the fountain perhaps predicted this new development by spouting green water earlier this week.

You can read all about it in the upcoming O, The Oprah Magazine:

Michelle Obama: We’re also working on a wonderful new garden project.

Oprah: Will kids get to visit the garden?

Michelle Obama: We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet. You know, the tomato that’s from your garden tastes very different from one that isn’t. And peas – what is it like to eat peas in season? So we want the White House to be a place of education and awareness. And hopefully kids will be interested because there are kids living here.

Just keep repeating, O, The Oprah Magazine.  O, The Oprah Magazine. O, The O…

Got a little distracted.  Congratulations to the “Eat the View” campaign. And best wishes to the Obamas, our First Gardeners.