Growing A Sustainable City

 
The city that gardens together grows sustainably together.  Gardening is perhaps the greatest tool for building sustainability that we can all share.

Gardens can improve water quality, air quality, access to food, and personal health.  Cities that actively nurture the gardening and urban farming efforts of their citizens reap the benefits of healthy communities.  The nurturing of sustainable cities starts with the roots of the community.  Wherever there is a strong activist gardener population, you will find wonderful green ideas and initiatives sprouting up all over!

Rain gardens capture and filter rainwater run-off, community gardens and urban farms grow healthy food for people, locally grown food requires less trucking which keeps our air cleaner, fruit trees on the boulevard provide habitat for migrating birds and meeting places for neighbors.  
A city full of healthy gardens is a sustainable city full of happy people.  Each city in Minnesota has it’s own unique approach to sustainability.  In this volume of the Seed, we’ll have a look at two cities in the metro area to see some great examples of how local governments work with residents to incorporate all kinds of great gardening into their sustainability plans in order to grow happy, healthy cities.  

 

Minneapolis

Homegrown food, local food, or food security, however you want to look at it, Minneapolitans' taste in food is rapidly evolving.  

According to Gayle Prest, the city’s official Sustainability Director, “Gardening is an integral part of the long term sustainability plan for Minneapolis”

With more then 100 community gardens and 33 farmers markets, this city is obviously hungry for healthy change.  Leading the charge for this change is an official city organization called Homegrown Minneapolis  which is dedicated to nothing less then building a healthy, local food system for all Minneapolis residents. 

Homegrown has recently been hard at work on an Urban Agriculture Policy Plan that will guide city land use decisions related to urban food production and distribution. The plan will help identify where and how land should be used to grow and distribute food through community and commercial gardens and urban farms.  In short, this new ag-plan will help Minneapolis scale up to the next logical step in urban food production.  By defining and allowing for urban farms, and market gardens, and by amending the zoning code to better accommodate urban agriculture this innovative plan will allow Minneapolis residents to have more control over their food choices, and more access to healthy homegrown food.

 

The time to support the Urban Ag Plan is now, call your city council person today!

-Update: Your Support Helped Get This Passed!-

“The key to all of this is to start with deep rich organic soil made from our own compost” 

Gayle reminds me as we talk about the city’s goal for having curbside residential compostable waste pick up by 2014.  This point is especially powerful as it shows yet another great way to improve our environment and our gardening habits at the same time.  When we compost we reduce the amount of garbage going to burners and landfills and we improve our garden soil, that’s the kind of sustainable solution we can all grow from. 

Maplewood

Oakley Biesanz, Naturalist for the City of Maplewood, explained to me some of the gardening strategies that are helping to grow a sustainable future for residents there. 

 Maplewood is a statewide leader in controlling water quality through rain gardening.  With over 620 city installed rain gardens now thriving in residents yards, 60 more growing on city owned land and many more to come Maplewood is proving that rain gardens are an effective and beautiful way to keep waterways clean and healthy.  With the city’s support and promotion rain gardening has become the  standard for dealing with storm water run-off in Maplewood.

At the Nature Center where Oakley works, the mission is to enhance resident’s awareness and understanding of land, water and wildlife resources; to empower the community to become stewards of the environment. This mission is clearly evident in the Demonstration Gardens, which include rainwater gardens, woodland wildflower and prairie butterfly gardens and a small section of no-mow grass.

For lawn enthusiasts, Maplewood has developed the Mow-Hi Pledge This pledge to cut the grass no shorter then 3 inches and leave all the clippings on the lawn will help residents reduce fertilizer and watering costs and environmental impacts.  Of course it doesn’t hurt that there’s a grand prize drawing for folks who are willing to take the pledge. 

Community gardens are sprouting up in Maplewood this spring as part of a multi-city effort to improve access to food growing space.  Working with the Maplwood-North St. Paul Parks and Rec. department, School District 622 and a local church, the two cities will now be able to offer over 650 community garden plots available to the public this spring.

 




In the long run, sustainability is just the only common sense approach to life, and gardening is the simplest approach to sustainability that we have available.  

Whether you’re filtering rain water run off through rain gardens in order to keep the ground water, rivers, and lakes clean or keeping nutrients in your neighborhood by composting in your back yard, or maybe even growing your own food and medicine at home or with neighbors in a community garden, these are all among the most Earth friendly, community building habits humans can all share.  

It takes a village to raise a garden and no one should be left out of the process.  From youth to elders, from city council members to dirt gardeners, we all have a stake in helping to grow a sustainable city right where we live and we all need to work hard and connect with our community if we are going to see success.

Gardeners, take the opportunity this spring to think globally, garden locally and start to grow a sustainable city!

Click here to read this article in its original newsletter format!

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Photo contest winner!

This ant visiting a forsythia picture took a second place in the Men's Garden Club of Minneapolis Photo Show!

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Magnolia in the Breeze

Best in Show!  This picture I snapped last spring of a magnolia in the breeze was awarded a prize by The Men's Garden Club of Minneapolis. 

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Gardeners Get Involved

An optimist looking over their own garden fence might be inclined to say something like “Wow, the vegetable patch is half full.”  A  pessimist looking at the same plot would say, “shucks, the vegetable patch is half empty.” but when a giving person comes upon that same garden they say “Look at all those vegetables, I’m going to go find some hungry people.”

Gardeners are natural givers, because the garden teaches us the importance of giving.  When we give our plants compost, they thrive and produce.  When we give our bodies home grown foods, we thrive and are productive.  When we share all this productive health by giving the gift of access to gardening to folks who wouldn’t otherwise have it, we share one of the most profoundly transformative gifts imaginable.  For many a gardener there’s almost no greater feeling then to share a skill, tool, piece of land, or even just a nice conversation that will help another gardener grow.  Minneapolis is a giving and green city.  As a gardener and volunteer, there’s never a shortage of great organizations here that I can get involved with in order to share the gifts gardening can give. 

Gardening Matters, a Minneapolis based non-profit agency has been busy organizing several social service providers city-wide in order to help them work together in the garden.  Many local agencies such as Waite House, Sabathani Community Center, and Youth Farm and  Market Project have been working to increase Minneapolis residents’ access to gardening for decades.  Gardening Matters plan is to link up all these great organizations along with local gardening volunteers and businesses to create Garden Resource Hubs that residents in need can access for garden classes and information, planting space and gardening resources. 

Gardening Matters is working with activists, businesses, and neighbors from across the city in order to have the resource hubs up and running by the spring of 2011.  In the meantime, this month’s issue of The Seed will introduce you to a few of the grand gardening groups getting together to give their green gifts through the gardening resource hubs.  If you’re a gardener with some time to give, you may consider a donation of your expertise and elbow grease to some of these great organizations.  Click here to find out more!

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Willie Nelson Peace Institute publishes Russ Henry

Willie Nelson has been my hero since I was a little cowboy.  Now I'm all grown up and I still look up to the red headed stranger.  Willie has spent his whole career standing up for family farmers who have become powerless in our country.

Willie knows that medical marijuana and industrial hemp have the growing power to save American family farmers from going belly up, and he's fought to show us all that Marijuana is medicine given from god, not a dangerous drug as owners of the alcohol, paper, and cotton industries in America would like us to believe.
Willie's strength, determination, and grace have inspired me in my own career, and shown me how to be strong enough to stand up for what I believe in.
I believe that medical marijuana's time has come in Minnesota, I believe that we can't afford to let our politicians drag their heels on this one.  Willie Nelson apparently agrees and he's published a blog post  that I submitted just in time for this election season, demanding an end to the prohibition of this our magic medicine.  Click here to read how medical marijuana can strengthen and grow Minnesota's locally grown food movement!
God Bless Willie Nelson, and God Bless Our Family Farmers!

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Breaking The Rules

Most of my heroes are outlaws. 

My heroes are folks that are not afraid to stand up and defend what’s right, no matter the cost.  My heroes are folks who are brave enough to live a life full of meaning and passion even when the rule-makers of the day demand banality and submission.  

Rachel Corrie stood in front of those bulldozers with a force of will no army can stop.  John Trudell still works for peace and justice even after his mother in-law, wife, and children were taken in a fire that was set to silence him.  And good old Willie Nelson, no matter how many times the authorities bust him down for his choice in medicine, he keeps on touring ‘round the world raising money for struggling family farmers that the government has priced off the land.  If they can do that, if they can all be so brave and free, then so can we.  

We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.

~Rachel Corrie

Right now the world could use some garden outlaws.  Gardens hold the potential to heal what ails us in so many ways, from reducing global carbon emissions, to providing people with affordable healthy meals, to securing local economies, to growing community health and cultural wealth.  With all this potential at our fingertips, we can’t let the rules hold back or working hands any longer.  We need to stand in the way of the march of industry, plant our plants, and sing our songs, and cultivate our culture so that we can grow a healthy planet once again. Read below to find out how you can be a garden rebel, and a outlaw hero in your own back yard!

Good Guys Break Bad Rules

They keep makin’ ‘em, and we keep breakin’ ‘em!

When one of us stands up and breaks a bad rule alone, that person becomes an example to us all, a hero.

When all of us stand up and break bad rules together, those bad rules change! 

The eagle is a living symbol of freedom.This eagle survives in the same habitat that we all share and live from, the eagle is also a symbol of our own well being. The fight for freedom and health in America is far from over, my friends.  Complying with rules and rule makers that persuade us to destroy habitat, sells the foundation of freedom out from under our feet.  Without the freedom to live in a healthy environment, we have no freedom at all!

 

Freedom isn't a gift handed down from the king, freedom is a jewel stolen by the peasants!

Rise up, break the rules and steal back your freedom!
 

Bad rules hold back our creative spirits, bad rules keep us from our true nature.  Bad rules are made to be broken by good people, so let’s all prove our honor for this Earth that made us, let all good people band together now and break the rules till the rules are good once again.

We don't run, We don't compromise, We don't quit, We never do. We look for love, We find it in the eyes, The eyes of me, the eyes of you.

~Willie Nelson

These Rotten Rules Have GOT TO GO!

Rotten Rule 1.- No Weeds:

 

Weeds are free food and medicine.  Dandelion, purslane, lamb’s quarters, creeping charlie, nettle, and plantain are just a few examples of the weeds that the rule makers tell us are bad plants while in reality these plants provide us with the most nutritious and abundant source of locally produced food.  This is a simple matter of access to health.  Why pay doctors and food companies, if we have free healthy food and medicine at home?    When I look at the shelves of any big box grocery store, I can tell that the rule-makers of today don’t care for our health as much as they care for their profit. 

We can’t eat the grass they tell us to grow in our yards, but we can eat the weeds they tell us to kill.  Now does that make sense to you?

“Let them eat grass” ring a bell for anyone?

Rotten Rule 2.

Yards Should Be Tidy:

Ever been to the jungle?  How ‘bout the woods, prairie, or meadow?  You really don’t see row plantings in nature.  Rows are for folks who don’t believe in abundance.  The natural world preaches abundance at every turn.  Mother Nature eschews boring old rows in favor of filling every square inch of  land with an ever-shifting variety of plants uniquely suited for their home environs.  To plant the exact same corn or tomato in the exact same spot year after year is one practice nature never intended, it’s just too draining on the soils.  We need to let our gardens grow us as much as we grow them, and have a long loving look at what the environment is trying to grow in our yards before we go tearing out everything that didn’t come with a price tag.

 

Rotten Rule 3.

Gardens Cost Money:

 

Really this rule is much more sinister then first glance would reveal.  Gardening is a human tool by which we gain access to food, health, and beauty.  Gardening also connects us with our earthen nature.  If we go around telling ourselves that this amazing, connective, life supporting activity is only for the wealthy, we might as well go ahead and sign away our entire life’s labors in the pursuit of someone else’s happiness.  As long as we’re working for the man, we’re not working for ourselves. 

Join a garden club, connect with Comgar, talk with neighbors, friends, or family who garden, there’s no shortage of ways to connect yourself to a garden.  Find some place that you can start getting your hands dirty in the pursuit of health. 

One of the easiest ways to break this rule is to start composting!  Compost is wealth pulled from waste, and you’ll never find a bigger return on investment in health then your time spent composting!

Gardens don't need to cost the farm! Let your friends help, collect seeds, grow your compost pile from garbage, and throw a garden party to share the fun!

Rotten Rule 4.

 Illegal Animals:

This rooster's on the lam.  While chickens are allowed in the city, Johny Law finds roosters to be a feather too foul.

I live in a city that has a rich heritage of back yard farming.  One of the most common man-made objects I come across while excavating city soils are horse shoes.  This city used to have cows, pigs, sheep, horses, goats and chickens as common in back yards as lawnmowers are today.  We used to gather our own fresh milk and eggs every morning from the barn out back and saddle up the horse to go to work.  This city is no different then any other in America in this aspect.  Animal husbandry is a rich and important part of the cultural heritage of a majority of the folks now living here.  Unfortunately, we are now denied the freedom to practice our heritage by the City of Minneapolis, Animal Control Department.  

Lets go down the list, Horses, Cows, Pigs, Sheep, Goats and Roosters…. All Illeagal.

Chickens, Ducks, Turkeys, and Bees…. Legal but unreasonable and cost prohibitive licensing required, less rule breakers face up to $2,000 in fines. Why do they have these bad rules in place?  If I had my guess it’s so that wealthier folks in mixed income neighborhoods can spare their eyes and noses from the real life sights and smells of people living as people should.  

 

Why should we pay fees to the city just so we can care for our own basic needs?  Seems to me like the sheriff of Nottingham no longer wishes to be paid off in eggs and mead, but would like our silver instead.  Avast ye scoundrels!  Let the good people be free!!

Until recently beekeeping was illegal in Minneapolis, and even today the tax man wants a cut just for a resident to get a beekeeping permit.  Ask old Friar Tuck, no one should come between a man and his mead! Free The Bees!

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?"

~Willie Nelson

Rotten Rule 5. Illegal Plants:

Marijuana is medicine and it’s legal for use in 14 states. 

Marijuana is also an easy to grow plant that can be sold for between one and four thousand dollars per pound depending on the variety and quality.

Now if you’re an urban Minneapolis farmer who is really trying to make a go of it selling tomatoes for a dollar and a quarter per pound or potatoes for sixtynine cents per pound while rent is already too expensive and taxes are on the rise, you might just look over the fence at your compatriot urban farming friends in Denver or Detroit and deduce that medicinal Mary Jane is an urban farmers best friend.  
 

Medicinal marijuana in Minnesota is a must if we are to keep urban farmers from going bust.  The only reason they keep this weed illegal anywhere is to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies instead of farmers.  That’s the kind of BS that I’d like to see turned into compost! 

Imagine a city filled with farms and gardens that provided affordable organic food and medicine for its citizens.  Legalizing medicinal marijuana is the only way we are going to make this wonderful pipe dream a green reality. 

To all the rulebreakers, to all the rebels, to all tomorrows heros, I tell you, you are not alone. 

Dare to dream, dare to live, and inspire those near you to dare to be free!

"No matter what they ever do to us, we must always act for the love of our people and the earth. We must not react out of hatred against those who have no sense."

~ John Trudell

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An Introduction To Health, The Seed #42

Did ya ever get catch a cold and think “maybe I should have eaten more then just chips and ice cream for the last few days?”  Do you ever pick up something heavy in the morning and think not long afterward how a good stretch would have prevented you from the daylong backache you’re about to endure?  Maybe I’m forgetful, or maybe I’m just getting older, but I need a little help from a healing heart every now and then.

After growing up in a family that relied on regular old take-a-pill-if-you’re-sic western medicine, I wasn’t ready till just a few years ago to start seeing healers that practiced anything other than standard U.S. medical school procedures.  Sometimes I figure I’m one lucky guy.  I think I’d still be going to the take-a-pill doc for my various ailments if it weren’t for the very lucky fact that so many years ago I was blessed to meet Katherine Krumwiede.  I knew right away that Katherine would be a lifelong friend, but it wasn’t until after I made the leap of faith and called her for help, that I would come to know her as a trusted healer. 

I remember calling her office for the first time a few years ago when I was suffering from a back pain that was keeping me from moving.  I had mostly had bad luck with western doctors, spotty luck with non-western doctors and this time I wanted to talk to someone I could trust.  While I knew she’d been in practice for a couple of years, I don’t get sick a whole lot and hadn’t yet visited so I still had no idea what was in store for me. 

Now at this point I’m used to seeing the doctors who want to have me take a pain pill and go see a specialist, or tell me something less then reassuring like “I’m not sure what it is, but it will probably go away.”  Looking back, it’s silly to think that I’d pay to go to a doctor and not expect healing, but that’s the space I was in.  So when I visited Katherine and the pain in my body went from stifling to entirely manageable in one treatment, then entirely gone in two treatments without chemical drugs or side effects, I was sold, hooked, and permanently changed. I’d seen the light, and I wasn’t going back.

 

Since that first magical treatment I’ve gone to Katherine for every ache I can’t shake. Not only is she an ace with the acupuncture, but Katherine’s understanding of the plant world and use of the healing power of plants never ceases to amaze this gardener. 

This special edition of The Seed is dedicated to the health of our readers and their loved ones.  Click below to hear from the healer herself, Katherine Krumwiede, proprietor of Diamond Stone Oriental Medicine. 

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