What I love about this “Hen House of the Month” page located on thecitychicken.com is that it demonstrates inexpensive, highly-creative, functional coops that people have made out of recycled and reclaimed materials. The coop with the green nesting boxes was made for about $60.00; and the other attractive coop was a repurposed mini storage shed to which the owners attached an inexpensively built run. Nicely done!

These aren't the best photos in the world, but I’ve always wanted a nice piece of land surrounded by beauty; but not far from the resources, culture and amenities of the city. Beautiful, large house; cute mini barn with pasture…..sounds great to me. Unfortunately, this one is located in the outskirts of Nebraska! A girl can dream….

Here’s a nice little resource that might help you in your gardens. Mason Bee Houses specifically attract small, non-stinging Mason bees, who are total work horses when it comes to pollination. Each one visits as many as 1,000 blooms per day – 20 times more than honeybees. I purchased mine from an online gardening site. You just hang them from a sunny tree or fence, and off you go!

Also, please check growinggoinggone.com for information regarding the Edible City Movie about the local food movement, and to view photos of the beautiful Berkeley Hills backyard farm that I toured on Saturday.

Inspirational. Beautiful. Productive.

Wow. I have so much to say about my weekend adventures! On Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending a fundraiser for the directors of the movie Edible City, hosted by a Berkeley couple who graciously opened up their beautiful home and stunning backyard farm. Their yard was a beautiful backdrop for the event, as it doubled as a demonstration garden that illustrated the possibilities of productive farming in a dense, urban environment. The garden was developed by Willow Rosenthal, founder of City Slicker Farms, who I had the pleasure of meeting, and with whom I’d love to work.

I was pleasantly surprised that award-winning author, Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, The Botany of Desire), made an appearance, and spoke about the many encouraging developments taking place in the food movement; and also the strong opposition and challenges that lie ahead.

By the way, I encourage you read more about the Edible City project, and watch a short of the film on their website. It’s about the many facets, people, politics and programs involved in the food movement – focusing on the Bay Area. Just a quick note regarding the photos: Clearly, not everyone will have the resources to create such a beautifully landscaped urban farm, but that’s not the point. Take a corner of your yard, apartment deck, window box, or whatever - and plant what you can. If nothing else, get inspiration from  this home, and apply some of the ideas found here to your own situation.

Happy Harvesting!

Remi

*Notice that the 20+ chickens are kept under the house in a custom coop. Great idea! Thanks, Lindsey for the invite!

I’ve been researching examples of different food producing gardens that have some style and “flavor” (no pun intended), and came across this lovely dense, yet, orderly, garden located in either Chelsea, New York or England, I’m not sure. My raised beds don’t look nearly as cool as these, but I think it’s a beautiful example of urban form and function. I actually saw these woven borders in an online catalog last week, and put them on my list to purchase as an exterior border for my vegetable garden. I think that using them as the raised beds, themselves, is much more interesting, and aesthetically pleasing, so I’ve decided to bite off of this idea. You know what they say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery….”

Photo courtesy of Treehugger.com

Okay, this is it, I promise.  I love architecture and I have chickens on the brain (looking forward to starting my flock!), so I keep researching cool chicken coops. Could it be the Avian flu? In any case, I found two more that I like. If you know of more; feel free to add a link to the comments section. Some of these are so outlandishly expensive, that you and your ten family members would have to eat eggs every day until your last breaths, in  order to justify the expense; because even then, you’re not breaking even on the cost.

I’m totally into chicken coops these days; and have been critiquing cool coop architecture, as if the research was going into the construction of my own home. In any case, I just came across these cute chicken coops built for our fine, feathered friends. The coop in the large photo below, was manufactured by a family-owned company called http://www.winecountrycoops.com. Although, I’m pretty sold on the coops built by another builder; I might co-opt some of their design ideas, and have a skilled wood-worker friend of mine, build one for me. Custom coops are expensive, and the shipping fees are usually very high.

The other photos are example of home built coops. Enjoy!

More examples of taking open, urban space and making it a beautiful, useful place for urban community gardening.

I think that this concept of eliminating grass front lawns, in place of edible gardens, is a great one. An architect/artist by the name of Fitz Haeg, came up with the concept of documenting the change from grass lawns to food producing urban land, in several prototype properties in cities across the United States. The transformative effect of these gardens on the home owners and the community, are part of the beauty of the project.

I think it’s fascinating, that there are people who think that growing your own food is somehow unnatural or unsightly. One year my neighbor created a huge, productive garden, on what was an otherwise uninspiring front yard; void of landscaping and filled with crab grass and dirt patches. Once I saw the numerous, rowed plants sprouting up defiantly through the ground; I was immediately drawn to the garden, and sucked into its daily developments. I would take slower, more frequent walks past my neighbor’s home. Even though, my elder neighbor spoke no English; we managed to understand each other and forge a relationship using their garden as a bridge between us. We might not have been able to say more than “hello” and “goodbye” to each other; but I could always lean over his small white fence; gesture to the kale, onions, cabbage or tomatoes; and smile at him with a thumbs up. He always smiled back with a certain pride and happiness that only a gardener possesses. Sometime last year, my elder neighbor moved out of the home that he shared with his daughter and her family; and my neighbors stopped planting their formerly beautiful, abundant garden. It’s too bad. I never see the family outside anymore; and I don’t slow down to peek or marvel at the beauty of their yard.

Below, is an excerpt from Fritz Haeg’s book:

Our Neighbors

What happens when an Edible Estate garden is not welcomed by the neighbors? Why do some people feel threatened by it? Anarchy, rodents, plummeting property values, willful self-expression, wild untamed nature, ugly decaying plants, and winter dormancy are some of the reasons that have been given. More to the point is a general sense that Edible Estate gardeners have broken some unspoken law of decency. Public tastes still favor conformity when it comes to the front yard, and any sort of deviation from the norm signals a social, if not moral, lapse. The abrupt appearance of such a garden on a street of endless lawns can be surprisingly shocking, but after the neighbors watch it grow in, they often come around. Perhaps the threats evoked by this wild intrusion into the neighborhood will eventually be a catalyst for questions. How far have we come from our the core of our humanity that the act of growing our own food might be considered impolite, unseemly, threatening, radical, or even hostile?

From Edible Estates: Attack on The Front Lawn, Fritz Haeg