Doing it in the City: Growing Urban Agriculture

Hi Everyone!
We're happy to announce our  Farmers' Market on Feb 6th 4-7pm, and Local 301 @7pm.
at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association.

Local 301 presents
Doing it in the City: Growing Urban Agriculture

A roundtable discussion moderated by Kris Vester, President of Slow Food Calgary and local biodynamic farmer


Where: Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association, 1320 5th Avenue N.W. Calgary
When: February 6, 2013 @ 7p.m.
For more information, visit www.farmersmarket.hillhurstsunnyside.org


Does urban agriculture enhance access to healthy, sustainably grown food? What role does urban agriculture play in creating just and sustainable food systems?
What other benefits arise from backyard gardens, community gardens, & spin farming? What are the trade-offs of urban agriculture versus the current systems of production?
How can governments, communities and individual citizens support these initiatives?

These questions and more will be discussed by our panel:

Steph Gagnon: the City of Calgary Office of Sustainability and Calgary Food Committee
Dr. David Swann: MLA for Calgary Mountainview
Chad Kile: Calgary Urban Farmer and co-owner of Leaf and Lyre Urban Farm

Could gray water help to keep landscapes green?

With water resources becoming scarcer, Texas A&M AgriLife Research ornamental horticulturist Dr. Raul Cabrera is working to determine the feasibility of using gray water to irrigate home landscapes. Gray water is the “soapy” water left after tap water has been run through a washing machine or used in a bathtub, bathroom sink or shower and does not contain serious contaminants. Cabrera said irrigating with gray water could reduce household landscape water use by up to 50 percent, depending on the size, type of landscape plants used and geographical location.

Irrigating with gray water has the potential to reduce
household landscape water use by up to 50 percent.

 

Prepare for spring gardening with a soil test

Testing soil every three years helps you accurately apply fertilizers to your lawn and garden and helps avoid over-use of nutrients. Michigan State University Extension says soil testing is an important diagnostic tool to evaluate nutrient imbalances and understand plant growth. Testing enables gardeners to adjust soil pH to the optimum range, allowing for nutrients to be more available for plant growth. Knowing the pH and the nutrients needed helps to avoid allowing contaminants to enter local surface and ground waters by over-application of phosphorous or nitrogen fertilizers. Identifying exactly which nutrients plants need for adequate growth are the basis of deciding how much lime and fertilizer are needed, which can help you save money.

Testing your soil every three years can help you
 accurately apply fertilizers to your lawn and garden.

 

Plants, products receive 2013 Green Thumb Awards

The Direct Gardening Association (formerly called the Mailorder Gardening Association) announced the 10 best new gardening items for 2013 presenting them with Green Thumb Awards. Five new plant varieties and five new gardening products won awards.

Plants, Bulbs and Seeds division
1. On Deck Sweet Corn from Burpee.
2. ‘Heaven Can Wait’ blackberry from Henry Field’s Seed & Nursery Co.
3. Purple Love Grass (Eragrostis spectabilis) from Prairie Moon Nursery.
4. Caramel Cocktail and Sugar Daddy American persimmon from Henry Field’s Seed & Nursery Co.
5. PDQ (“Pretty Darn Quick”) Seed Mix from Prairie Moon Nursery.

Tools, Supplies and Accessories division
1. Digital 3-Way Soil Analyzer from Charley’s Greenhouse & Garden.
2. Hot Potato! from Territorial Seed Co.
3. Garlic Galore! from Territorial Seed Co.
4. Strawberry Pyramid Grow Tub from Gardens Alive!
5. Peel Away Pots from Gardener’s Supply.



Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple Love Grass) from Prairie Moon
 Nurserywon a 2013 Green Thumb Award from the Direct
Gardening Association.

 

Pinterest can help you plan your garden

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board where members can "pin" ideas, by category (or board), that they want to save for a later date. One of National Garden Bureau's goals is to inspire more people to garden, so this online tool is a great place for this non-profit organization to do that. The organization jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon about a year ago and has created almost 60 different boards with over 3,000 pins, divided by gardening subject such as containers, herbs, etc.

Some of the National Garden Bureau's most popular boards are:
New Flowers, (new varieties provided by our members), with 128 pins
Cut Flowers, with 115 pins
Gardening Tips and How-To's, with 112 pins
Herbs, with 163 pins
Patio Pots and Containers, with 184 pins
Recipes from Your Garden, with 139 pins

National Garden Bureau is using Pinterest
to inspire more people to garden. 

 

Plants prove they will perform in the garden

All-America Selections has announced a second batch of winners for the 2013 season. As a sign of the continuing trend in the home garden market, three of the four winners are from the vegetable category and the fourth is a flower. The winners are: 'Pinto Premium White to Rose' geranium, 'Jasper' cherry tomato, 'Melemon' melon and 'Harvest Moon' watermelon. 

Each of these winners was trialed next to two or three similar varieties currently on the market. AAS judges did a side-by-side analysis of characteristics including growth habit, taste and disease resistance to determine if the trial plants were truly better than those already available to home gardeners. Only entries with superior garden performance and taste are granted the honor of an AAS Award.

'Pinto Premium White to Rose' geranium,
a 2013 All-America Selections Winner
Photo courtesy of All-America Selections 

 

Avoid problems with impatiens downy mildew

If garden impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) did not perform particularly well last year in your landscape, hanging baskets or other containers, they may have been infected by a disease pathogen called impatiens downy mildew (Plasmopara obducens). Disease symptoms included leaf yellowing, followed by leaf curling and then leaf drop or a fuzzy white coating on the underside of leaves. This disease only infects garden impatiens. It does not infect New Guinea impatiens or SunPatiens.
 

This disease pathogen can overwinter in the soil. If garden impatiens are placed in the same location this coming spring where diseased plants were located in 2012, the new plants may get the same disease again. You may want to consider alternative shade plants to provide color and texture to landscape beds and/or containers.

Garden impatiens (Impatiens walleriana)
infected with impatiens downy mildew.
Photo by Margery Daughtrey, Cornell University.