Edible Plants for the Prairies

Urban Farmer has posted a useful list of “Edible Plants for the Prairies”. This includes various berries, fruit trees & vines, perennial vegetables, herbs, tea plants, edible ground covers, and even edible flowers.

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

How to Re-Pot a Plant that is Root Bound

Great tips from Jeralyn, available on her blog, here. 

How to Start a Family Garden When You Live in the City

This is a great article, with some nice new ideas on how to tackle the challenge of gardening in the city:

"Gardening as a family cannot only help you reduce your carbon footprint, pass along the ideals of sustainable living to your children, and save money at the grocery store, it can also help you forge even stronger bonds with your family through your shared goals. When you live in an urban setting, however, starting a family garden requires a bit more creativity than it would in a rural area."

Read more

An interesting idea

The Guerrilla Grafters are a group of botanical dissidents who are covertly grafting branches of fruit trees onto ornamental trees in SF.

"There’s a group of gardeners in San Francisco that are spreading organic graffiti across the city. How? By grafting branches from fruit trees onto ornamental trees that have been planted along sidewalks and in parks.

They are using a very simple tongue in groove splice that’s held together with annotated electrical tape. Good luck to them."

Info from BoingBoing: http://boingboing.net/2012/09/25/guerrilla-grafters-covertly-ad.html

Western Canada Permaculture Convergence

Western Canada Permaculture Convergence, 2012 is billed as “A three day (August 24,25,26) coming together of permaculture enthusiasts, to share information, inspiration and learn a few new skills.”

In May, they're also hosting a week of workshops, May 16-20, at the Woodland West retreat centre in Millarville, Alberta.

The New Farmer School

The New Farmer School is a local educational resource for non-industrial farming.