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

The group blog that I created for members of my community is moving right along. Hurray! Who knew that people had so much to share, and such a willingness to do so, asking nothing in return? I might have to add some local community groups quickly, because there are more givers than takers, so far. No one should go hungry or worry about how they’re going to put food on the table, when there’s this much wonderful, fresh food to go around. Making a change in society always starts small and local.

A few weeks ago, a church around the corner from my home was giving away bags of food, to people, whom I imagine, had lost their jobs or were having a difficult time making ends meet. I saw a lot of cans leaving the building, which is all fine and good, but people need fresh produce more than anything.

How great would it be if we could have a group “farmers market” for those families who are collecting their groceries next time at the church? We could place food stands on the premises, so that people could shop like they would at a traditional farmers market. Ah, man…..I’m just dreaming this up as I write, but this is the idea to pursue next. Nice thing is that it takes nothing more than a blog post to the group and a phone call to a church to make this happen.

Okay, I’m now plotting and planning. Gotta go.

Remi

I’m sure that there are many people reading this who would vehemently disagree, but I’ve researched chicken coops for weeks, and have seen everything from kits and homemade coops, to professionally constructed ones; and nothing really compares to these. They’re reasonable priced, constructed from recycled wood, and aesthetically pleasing for those of us who raise chickens in our backyards - not in open, rural areas. You can purchase the cute cottage-style hen houses in two sizes, and the large, metal enclosed one with the built-in run. The hen houses have both long and A-frame runs that you can purchase for an additional cost.

Just thought I’d share. Let me know if you like them, too.

I went to an beautiful Easter dinner in Cotati today, hosted by my good friend, Meredith Norton, and met a fellow vegetable gardener by the name of John Campbell. He casually mentioned that he had in his possession, some wonderful heirloom tomatoes, and then generously offered me a plant to take home. He drove a mile or so to his house, and then to my surprise, gave me about six varieties of fabulous tomatoes to plant this season. I already have four other unique, heirloom tomato plants in the ground, so I’ll have more than enough to share with all of you! That’s the beauty of this community project.

You know, you really can’t beat talking to your friends and neighbors to get a good sense of whether you might be on to a good idea. Our neighbors, the Schneiders, hosted another one of their wonderful gatherings for the children who attend “Out Came The Sun,” and their families; so I had the opportunity to tell people about the concept of sharing our backyard bounty with each other. I learned that my friends and neighbors were not only very interested, but also had more diverse backyard offerings than I had originally thought. I knew for a fact that we’d have lots of orange and lemon tree growers, but I was delighted to learn that there was more backyard bio-diversity in the ‘hood than I had originally expected. Here are some of the wonderful fruits and vegetables growing largely unaided in our gardens:

• Persimmons
• Blueberries
• Apples
• Honey
• Organic free-range eggs
• Plums
•  Pears
•  Lemons
•  Oranges
•  Blackberries
• Figs

This doesn’t include any of the more seasonable fruits and vegetables that many of us have planted and will harvest later this summer, like tomatoes, peas, etc…I’ll collect a little database of what we have growing in our yards, and instructions on how to post your bounty online for others to see.

Thanks, and happy harvesting

Remi