Finally the city is catching on: Mayor Mike McGinn, Richard Conlin and other council members announced that 2010 is officially The Year on Urban Agriculture! They plan to "promote urban agriculture efforts and increase community access to locally grown food". They will be supporting the expansion of city P-patch programs, giving away fruit trees, helping to create community gardens, along with opening up the zoning for parking strip gardening. Check out the Seattle City Council Announcement and thank them! I hope to be building gardens at the Spring into Bed event to build garden beds all over Seattle in one day! It will be held one week before the second Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale, so everything will be ready for those plants you buy, and hopefully you will know how much you have room for, and where in the garden they go! There is an early sale this year to benefit Seattle Tilth: March 20th at Magnison Park from 9-2. Volunteer if you can and you will get first dibs on plants without waiting in line- there are always cool people volunteering, so you might just meet a new friend!
*On Tuesday's Weekday show on www.KUOW.org, Steve was talking to a woman about the fact that the city is promoting both Urban Ag and density with the new Mother-in-Law apartment ruling. It sounds like he wanted to have a good debate with her - I would say that people should consider roof top gardens to lower their energy loss through the roof, and to warm up the beds a little? I hope this show happens, I think a lot of gardeners will be happy to see that there are some green builders who embrace this solution. Write to the station and request the show!
peace-
Jayne
Isn't this exciting news? I am so happy to live in a city like Seattle, with a government that usually supports my interests, and a citizenry full of creative people who love to grow food! Thanks for sharing.
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