GardenShare – Whatcom County - Urban & Rural

[Heather K]

 Online GardenShare network now established!

Bellihgham: http://www.urbangardenshare.org/bellingham/

Whatcom County: http://www.urbangardenshare.org/whatcom/

Go Direct to these sites to either create your profile for an available garden space, or as a gardener.

(July 2010 thanks to Chris E. and Amy from Seattle)

 

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Below historic info is from the past before this new local gardeshare online site was established in July 2010:

 

Until our neighborhoods are included in an urbangardenshare website, you are welcome to use the original discussion, now called "Garden Space Available"

 https://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/forum/topics/garden-spaces-avail...

 

For a couple of years, some of us gardeners have admired Amy's Seattle website  and would like to create something as good for Whatcom county.  And  Amy has offered to add whatcom neighborhoods to their website!    Click 'follow' button to be part of the progress.

Also connect with Chris E. at BUGS who has also been communicating with Amy'  ****

 

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   - DRAFT  below -

 

Join in our  GardenShare Project,  between gardeners & garden-spaces in rural & urban lands, at ' www.urbangardenshare.org '

Are you an Edible Organic Gardener with gardening skills to share and longing for more garden space?

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Are Do You Have Garden-Space you want to share and benefit by the earthcare skills of an organic gardener?

Please do go to the current seattle's gardenshare website & explore ( http://www.urbangardenshare.org/  )

“ Urban Garden Share pairs together eager gardeners with eager gardens.

When neighbors come together and co-operatively grow food, dirt flies and good things happen.”

If You Are A Gardener, click on the 'create a gardener profile' at

http://www.urbangardenshare.org/?p=create_gardener

If You Have Garden Space to Share, click on the 'create a garden profile', at

http://www.urbangardenshare.org/?p=create_garden

 

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Follow this discussion as we co-create with Amy Pennington, Jesse, Colin, Gannon, myself, & friends as we add Whatcom gardeners & gardens to the already existing urbangardenshare.org website that was first created for Seattle neighbors by Amy & friends.

Once we have the site running for Whatcom gardeners & gardens, we will request help with local promotion to spread the word, and we hope to have the site ready before April's planting days and before our Whatcom Transition Great Unleashing event!

There is already a demand for garden space needing gardeners, and especially for gardeners & new-gardeners needing sunny garden space!

I need an computer or gardening  friend to help, with just a little time, with this project, so please let me know if you can be available to back me up when I'm not able to be online....I'm a gardener and not always functional on computers.

You can click the “Follow” button on this discussion page to stay updated.

[Heather K]

I'm requesting another local gardener to help out just a little bit as needed to help move this gardenshare project along.....I'm just very slow on the computer and what can take me 6 hours to draft & post, someone else could do briefer & quicker.....and I have limited computer access and a limited battery charge. I sure hope I have all the links I've posted on both discussions accurate!

Amy & friends- thank you so much for being part of this!!! I hope some of us gardeners can host you or share a garden tour with you whenever you travel up to the northern border of the Koma Kulshan & North Pacific Sea Watersheds!

Below is cross-post from original discussion on sharing garden space from
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/forum/topics/garden-spaces-available
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Below is a link to the many neighborhoods in the Bellingham & Whatcom county area....

http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/forum/attachment/download?id=2723...

As you will see, there are so many...
I think for starters for our strongly rural-urban&forested Whatcom landscape, it would make sense to choose just a few areas to list as neighorhoods...since many of them are small, and many of the seaside neighorbhoods are level & easily accessible by bicycle to each other.

For starters,here is a smaller list of area's I suggest we have included in the online site's map:

Birchwood, Columbia, York, Southside, B'ham Urban Center, Samish,
Sudden Valley, Birch Bay, Blaine, Ferndale, Lynden/Nooksack/Everson, MapleFalls/Glacier/Kendall, Agate Bay/Goshen/Rome, North urban B'ham, North rural Whatcom County, East urban B'ham, East rural Whatcom county.
(All – let me know if I missed an area you think we should also include for starters).

Our city has some computer mapping links but I currently do not have access to them.
Possibly David W or another person could find them if needed.
I'm thinking that it might be helpful if I started another discussion in regards to getting this online garden space exchange set up using Amy's program, as this one was started to channel folks with offers of land to post...which has worked....
(and I have another location to yet post that came to me from fourthcornerexchange.com, our local alternative currency.)

I'm excited for this tool to be developed for us to use...even as I also know person to person connections between gardeners & 'tax-paying land owners' can be effective, and is the current method that is now working among those who share skills & land.

Aloha from your oceanic north pacific watershed neighbor & friend! Heather

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Reply by amy pennington on February 1, 2010 at 1:41pm from 1st discussion forum
No need for computer navigation.

I need a list of neighborhoods and some 'proof' that the demand exists. Anyone can send requests to [e-mail]. We handle all the technology - easy peasy

[Forest Garden]

I'd be happy to help you out - Amy there is a group of local gardeners who have been meeting all year to develop such a resource..... I am sure they can help as well.

[David MacLeod]

Hi Heather,

I'm curious why we can't do the garden share coordination here on the transition website? Are there limitations that are not meeting your needs?

[Heather K]

Hi David, I'm sorry I don't understand your comment, if its being directed towards me.
My impression is this is the transition website, re a ning.com network, and this discussion is to enable us to work together & with Amy to do the gardenshare coordination.

All - Although I have not personally heard from Chris E, I do understand from one of Amy's emails that he called her and will be helping to provide a list of neighborhoods. And I understand that Alain is also able to help with the process. My hope is that either Chris or Amy will keep us updated here so that all the various local gardeners & landowners can be included in the process if they wish.

Here is a link to an online website that shows a map of the Bellingham
http://www.cob.org/services/neighborhoods/profiles/index.aspx

I am not sure if the neighborhood links I provided in the above discussion will work, as tonight they are not working for me.


David MacLeod said:

Hi Heather,

I'm curious why we can't do the garden share coordination here on the transition website? Are there limitations that are not meeting your needs?

[David MacLeod]

Heather,
The link to the list of neighborhoods document, as well as other documents useful to local neighborhood level Transition Initiatives, can be found on the TI Resources page, which comes up in the drop down menu from the Resources tab.
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/page/ti-resources

A direct link to the document ("List of Populated Places in Whatcom County.doc):
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/forum/attachment/download?id=2723...

My earlier comment was just asking for input on what people feel is lacking on this site for doing gardensharing coordination here (as has already been happening), vs. having to join another website to do it. I'm supportive of using a different tool if it works better, I'm just trying to learn what needs are not being met here.

Heather K said:

Hi David, I'm sorry I don't understand your comment, if its being directed towards me.
My impression is this is the transition website, re a ning.com network, and this discussion is to enable us to work together & with Amy to do the gardenshare coordination.

All - Although I have not personally heard from Chris E, I do understand from one of Amy's emails that he called her and will be helping to provide a list of neighborhoods. And I understand that Alain is also able to help with the process. My hope is that either Chris or Amy will keep us updated here so that all the various local gardeners & landowners can be included in the process if they wish.

Here is a link to an online website that shows a map of the Bellingham
http://www.cob.org/services/neighborhoods/profiles/index.aspx

I am not sure if the neighborhood links I provided in the above discussion will work, as tonight they are not working for me.


David MacLeod said:

Hi Heather,

I'm curious why we can't do the garden share coordination here on the transition website? Are there limitations that are not meeting your needs?

[Heather K]

David MacL. - Thanks for your help with this discussion on this long-standing garden share & mapping project.
I am just learning how this other website of Amy's might work for us...and I'll then be convinced its useful when I see it working for our community.. I had Not noticed that her website is yet another website to join & sign in on, and I'm not able to use her site to try it out until our whatcom neighborhoods are on it.
My non-computer-geek intuitive sense, is that this ning.com website that we use on TW, is not going to be able to do the type of gardenshare online program that allows maps and and members to create pages for a seperate gardenshare process....
There are other local volunteers who have been working on creating an online map with available garden plots, but as yet nobody has a completed project. It might be a good project for a college intern, but once they leave town then who would manage the site....I'm just plugging along trying to maintain the spark to someday have a completed long-term site....
For now on TW, I think the original discussion that was created for 'Garden Space Available' is workable...Although I did set it up originally to be just for Garden Space Offers, and was planning on having a seperate one for 'Offers From Gardeners.'...which I then did not do once Amy offered to add whatcom onto her site.
For now, since I hear Chris E from BUGS gave her a call with list of B'ham hoods, it is their turn to take the next step.
Unfortunately, I've also had some recent feedback from a few folks that the ning.com site is very difficult for them to use. I find it fairly intuitive to use, so I would not be able to say why it is hard for some. I think once you start using it, it's both logical & intuitive. (Looking for gardenshare swaps on foot or bike may be the best time-tested and low-tech way to increase our available local garden shares & swaps)

I'll be posting the full whatcom neighborhood list I found from one of our earlier discussions.
As yet, I still do not have a whatcom Map link that would show either these neighborhoods, or their main 'community center' like a fire-station.

I've also updated the top section of the discussion to make it noticeable that this gardenshare project is “Under Construction' and not ready for folks to actually use.

Thank you again for all you do to create this site and bring us together as community! _ Heather


David MacLeod said:

..........
My earlier comment was just asking for input on what people feel is lacking on this site for doing gardensharing coordination here (as has already been happening), vs. having to join another website to do it. I'm supportive of using a different tool if it works better, I'm just trying to learn what needs are not being met here.

[Heather K]

Neighborhoods & Populated Communities in Whatcom Country - Alphabetical List: - list of 55+

"Acme, Agate Bay, Alabama Hill, Anacortes Crossing, Balford, Barron, Beach, Bellingham, Birch Bay, Birch Bay Circle Grange, Birchwood, Blaine, Blue Canyon, Boundary, Brennan, Cedar Crossing, Cedarville, Chuckanut, Chuckanut Village, Clearbrook, Clipper, Columbia, Comar, Cottonwood Beach, Custer, Delta, Deming, Dewey, Diablo, Doran, Edgemoor, Eureka, Everson, Fairhaven, Ferndale, Forest Ridge, Geneva, Glacier, Goshen, Greenwood, Hampton, Happy Valley, Haynie, Hillsdale, Kendall, Kickerville, Kulshan, Lakeway, Larson Mill, Laurel, Lawrence, Limestone Junction, Lummi, Lummi Island, Lynden, Maple Beach, Maple Falls, Marietta, Mirror Lake, Mountain View, Neptune Beach, Newhalem, Nooksack, Nooksack Salmon Hatchery, Noon, Northwood, Nugents Corner, Parkview, Pleasant Valley, Point Roberts, Roosevelt, Ruby (historical), Saxon, Semiahmoo, Silver Beach, South Beach, South Bellingham, Strandell, Sudden Valley, Sumas, Sunnyside, Van Wyck, Van Zandt, Victor, Wahl, Warnick, Washington Colony (historical), Welcome, Wickersham "

Missing on the above list, may be 'South Bay' and 'Glenhaven' which are in southern lake whatcom neighborhoods and make up Fire District # 18.

Also possibly missing on above list, is the 'Sandy Point' neighborhood which is south of the listed 'Neptune Beach' , but possibly could be considered as one combined neighborhood.

The above is info is from the TW discussion 'List of Neighborhoods in Whatcom County”
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/forum/topics/list-of-neighborhood...

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A Map-Geek's Dream - Geographic Information System (GIS), 'the innovative technology that uses geography to bring countless benefits to the world'.
City link: http://www.cob.org/services/maps/index.aspx

[Heather K]

Online GardenShare network now established!

Bellihgham: http://www.urbangardenshare.org/bellingham/

Whatcom County: http://www.urbangardenshare.org/whatcom/

Go Direct to these sites to either create your profile for an available garden space, or as a gardener.

(Established July 2010 thanks to Chris E. and also Amy from Seattle)