Articles about urban farming from PC grad

Here's a list of interesting articles about urban farming from a High Altitude Permaculture Institute grad. Article topics include bees and chickens.

Denver Urban Permaculture Salon

From a mailing list I'm on

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The Salon of Urban Permaculture SoUP) is a new monthly potluck focused on building skills and community around permaculture in the city. Each SoUP gathering showcases a different urban permaculture site, and includes an informal talk, activity or workshop based around that month's theme. People of all levels of familiarity with Permaculture are encouraged to attend.

The first Salon is happening on Saturday, May 15th at 5:30 PM, at the Orbis House on 1818 Gaylord. The theme for the month is "Becoming Native to this Place", and we'll be exploring what it means to be an inhabitant of the South Platte watershed on the Shortgrass Steppe. You're encouraged to bring a dish featuring native or wild-harvested ingredients - although of course every dish is welcome!

DU putting in Permaculture Gardens

From a blog post, I found this: "Permaculture gardens are being put in around the DU campus as it is a dry environment. This is a long term plan."

He has posted a picture of the garden spot.

No mention of the garden being planted on the official DU website that I could find, but some minutes from spring 2009 showed that it was being discussed.

Denver Permaculture Classes this fall

The folks at Wild Green Yonder, announced a slew of permaculture courses. These include

Intro to Permaculture, Urban Permaculture, Permaculture for Renters, and Obscure Edibles for the Colorado Climate.

For more information, including pricing, visit their classes page.

Database of useful plant species for the Denver region

Via the Wild Green Yonder, I found this google spreadsheet with over 100 plants well suited to the Denver area. The author explains:

...a wealth of information exists in print and online for researching and selecting guilds – check out Plants For a Future and the University of Minnesota’s nursery database for starters. Still, this species information is spread across several websites, it’s difficult to sort through, and it’s rarely specific to the climate you’re in. As a result, guild building isn’t always as user-friendly as it ought to be.

In response to this challenge, I’ve begun the Atriplex Project – an attempt to create a comprehensive open-source database of useful plant species for Denver’s bioregion of the shortgrass steppe. Its current incarnation is a google spreadsheet that anyone can edit and export, although down the line it would be great to develop it into a more user-friendly standalone website.

What a great idea! This type of open information exchange is just what the internet is great for, and it looks like the author is happy to have other people help.

A side note about Plants for a Future--I wanted access to a sample of their database a month or so ago, and wrote them email, but they didn't seem too responsive. Based on the home page note:

The Plants For A Future charitable company has a new management team, and we are working on plans to redevelop the Plants For A Future website and database. Some of the information on this website about the organisation is out-of-date and misleading. The database continues to be available from this site.

and the blog entries, it seemed that they're going through changes right now. But the data is still good!

Meetup in Denver: Permaculture at the Home Scale

I recently joined a meetup group called the Greater Denver Urban Homesteading Group (if you haven't checked out Meetup.com, it's a great way to find local common interest groups meeting regularly). I have not yet been to a meetup, but they've already sent out some interesting classes (how to make saurkraut, intro to pressure canning). On the 28th of June, they're having an introduction to permaculture class, focused on household designs. Looks really cool:

Permaculture is an effective and rapidly-growing framework for applying patterns found in nature to human structures. Join certified permaculture teachers Adam Brock and Kenzie Davison as we explore how the ethics, principles and design process of permaculture can be applied to our own homes to create an integrated, regenerative system.

In case you're keeping score, that's the same Kenzie and Adam working on the Park Hill demonstration site.

More urban permaculture in Denver

Another article about urban permaculture in Denver. They have a nice list of resources at the end, too.

For nine people living together in Denver, their adventure in urban homesteading is all about cooperation.

"Two years ago, it was lonely, and now I'm swept up in it. It's overwhelming, exciting," said Adam Brock, 23. "It's not just gardening but what you do the other eight months of the year."

The homesteaders moved into the big house facing City Park about two months ago. Already, they have transformed a large chunk of the big yard into gardens using tenets of permaculture, an approach to gardening that tries to mimic natural ecosystems. In addition to the usual slate of vegetables and herbs, they are growing things like Siberian pea shrub.

Update 5/27: Here's the blog of the homesteaders in the big house across from city park

Denver neighborhood of Park Hill gets permaculture demonstration site

Via the Denver Post, news that Feed Denver and the Urban Land Conservancy are partnering to "create an urban agriculture demonstration farm in northeast Park Hill".

The conservancy, which recently purchased [a property in the area], will make long-term, permanent development plans for the site in partnership with the surrounding neighborhood. Permanent development will take a few years.

In the meantime, Feed Denver will work with Kenzie Davison and Adam Brock to create an urban ag demonstration as a viable farm for the neighborhood, as well as an education opportunity. The project will build a variety of plots to demonstrate the use of compost techniques for growing soil as well as permaculture techniques for growing food plants.

More in the article; I'm sure Kenzie and Adam can use help.

Two new Permaculture events in Boulder, and one in Denver

There's a two day introduction to permaculture, Permaculture at the Human Scale: An Introduction, at the end of March.

This course is appropriate for students new to permaculture as well as certified designers interested in applying permaculture at the social level or strengthening their analysis of invisible structures.

And there is a one day workshop/potluck/film, Permaculture Early Gardening & Potluck/ Free Film, during the ides of March (plus a gardening workshop before if you want--it's unclear if there is a charge for the workshop).

FREE FILM SHOWING: Bill Mollison's Global Gardener Part II, Dry lands application. Discussion on what Drylands Permaculture means here in Boulder Valley. Seed sources, water-saving strategies.

Lastly, there is a two hour workshop at the Denver Botanic Gardens, Urban Sustainable Living, in early April.

Learn about the ethics and principles of permaculture with particular attention to small lots, condos and apartments. Even without a “real” garden, you can live more sustainably in the city! Discuss espaliered fruit trees (one foot wide instead of 20!), the many uses of windowsills, using vertical space efficiently for living and storage, indoor worm bins, gray water, rooftop gardens and more.