Bellingham Urban Garden Syndicate

Comment

Comment by David MacLeod on September 7, 2009 at 2:41pm

Chris wrote: "I am hoping to have an online garden share set up soon."

Chris, doing garden sharing here on this TW site has been an idea I've wanted to see implemented. It could be as simple as starting another group here for that purpose. One discussion thread could be people offering gardening space, another thread for people looking for gardening space, another thread for people wanting to share or borrow tools.

There's a nationally oriented site that uses this Ning format doing this, at hyperlocavore.com:
http://hyperlocavore.ning.com/group/bellinghamwaseekingyardshares

Comment by Cindi Landreth on September 7, 2009 at 11:08am

Hi Everyone
I would like to encourage a Transition Birchwood as it will then spread to other areas of interest as well as gardening! Me or one of the other Transition Whatcom Initiating Group members would love to come to talk with your group (Neighborhood Association or not) about TW - just let me know. Much of our focus is to get small Transition Initiatives started all over Whatcom County.
http://www.transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/12Steps
Will get you the 12 steps toward becoming a TI.
http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionPrimer
Will get you the Transition Primer on line (Transition US site - you might want to join that ning site...it is full of information and tools, too.
My business is in your neighborhood and I would like to offer whatever support I can to help you get going.

I love where you guys are going with the hub in every neighborhood idea!
Brilliant!
Cindi

Comment by Juliet Thompson on September 7, 2009 at 10:10am

Hi Chris,
I love your thought about having a neighborhood hub for produce as well as a weekly meeting time for produce sharing and distribution. I will talk to Mark to see if we could be a hub for Birchwood. I appreciate your practical approach, as many of us are now dealing with lots of produce, and who in their right mind is going to eat all the giant rutabagas we've grown?

Would you recommend starting a Transition Birchwood group to see if we could get a group together of Birchwood gardeners? I can work through our neighborhood mailing list, and see if I can get other Birchwooders to join Transition Whatcom. Mark and I can be the liasons to BUGS.

Comment by Rob Olason on September 7, 2009 at 10:04am

I like the "gardeners' ground zero" idea. If each neighborhood had a gardening focal point for produce/information exchange, this would create a synergy that could really elevate the visibility of "community gardening" and get broader participation. On the Southside, the Caretakers House project in Fairhaven Park offers a lot of potential for this concept. But it would seem natural that each neighborhood already has some gathering place, church, park, school, that would lend itself to becoming that neighborhood's gardening hub.

Internet communities are wonderful opportunities to share info and ideas, but do not reach everyone in a neighborhood. Physical sites would help "grow" the community garden concept and help expose Transition concepts to our neighbors who are still living in a pre-peak oil world.

Comment by Chris Elder on September 7, 2009 at 7:48am

The question of distribution is a big one. I think the answer lies somewhere in each neighborhood having some gardeners' ground zero. Some relative hub where information can be posted, produce could be distributed, and maybe to keep such a location well kept and safe, each neighborhood sets up a weekly produce swap, i.e. Sunday mornings 9am to 1pm, or the like, and people can come pick up, drop off, who knows. I am hoping to have an online garden share set up soon. This will hopefully be a good starting place for determining how much need or want there is currently for more gardens, and hopefully maybe a neighborhood hub could also serve for less electronic garden relationships to develop. The meeting was really good, there will be others soon.

Comment by Juliet Thompson on September 6, 2009 at 11:35pm

Hi Chris and all,
I just joined this BUGS group, and am sorry to have missed the Sept 5th meeting. There are many folks in Birchwood who have gardens or extra space they could share - so that's part of my question to BUGS - How do we connect folks with space, and possibly no internet connection with gardeners with a lack of available space?
I have some neighbors who might be willing to loan some gardening space (they have an acre), but talking to them and getting to know them, developing trust etc. takes quite a bit of time. From their yard there is another garden that went uncultivated this year. Do you all know of gardeners who need more space?
I am also interested in one of Chris' questions, how do we more effectively distribute our extra food? We've been taking it to the Food Bank for now, and I also give some (prepared for cooking) to some elderly neighbors.

Comment by Chris Elder on September 2, 2009 at 1:57pm

BUGS formative planning meeting at the Co-op Connections Building, downtown, this Saturday, Sept 5 at 7pm. Please come and help us brainstorm BUGS. Thanks

Comment by Chris Elder on August 30, 2009 at 1:00pm

Bellingham Urban Garden Harvest Dinner is Sunday, October 4 appropriately landing on the full moon. The location is yet to be determined. This will also serve as the unofficial official celebration of the creation of the Bellingham Urban Garden Syndicate. I will post this with Transition Whatcom as an event once the location has been determined and we will start accepting RSVPs. Thanks for bringing that up Mark, and thanks for joining. More to follow

Comment by mark huber on August 30, 2009 at 1:03am

Hey Chris, When I'm not working (for the man) I can often be found in the garden in the back yard. If it's Februrary or November, I might be dressed in yellow as per photo. When would you like to have a harvest dinner or plan it?

Mark

Comment by Heather K on August 21, 2009 at 1:26pm

Chris, What a great BUGS website you've created, and some of it is in espanol!
I really liked the mission statement & I've cut & pasted below:

BUGS is a support coalition of urban agriculturalists in the greater Bellingham district. We need your help and support as we hope to help and support the urban food movement here.

Mission Statement - Bellingham Urban Gardens Syndicate
* To promote, sustain, and advocate for urban agriculture in Bellingham through education, garden support, community action, and making local healthy food accessible
Programs
* Develop and connect gardens which could serve as a learning site for educational organizations and the general public
* Support existing community gardens while creating additional community garden sites and urban orchards
* Support the protection of urban farmland through the creation of an urban agriculture land trust and database of urban farmland available for lease or use ~ this could be accomplished by a partnership with the Kulshan Community Land Trust, or Whatcom Land Trust
* Create a Bellingham Urban Agriculture Plan, and develop a real-time dialog with Bellingham City Council to include urban agriculture in the Bellingham Master Plan
* Develop a registry of fruit trees on public and private land to maintain, harvest, and distribute fruit, and ultimately bring our city's fruit trees back into good health
* Support school garden programs to develop school board approved agriculture education curriculum and curriculum to allow teachers access to garden sites for teaching classes

http://www.bellinghamurbangardens.org/

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