Post Script

Backyard redux

We love this blog journal: A Brooklyn-dwelling GOOD Magazine writer took an urban junkyard and attempted to turn it into a flourishing garden. Joni Mitchell would be so proud.

The adventure begins here. 

Meet MUG in the garden today

The fine green-thumbed people at Milwaukee Urban Gardens will host a get-together today at the Richards Street Garden in the first of a series of monthly "open garden" events. If you're interested in learning more about urban and community gardening, this is a good place to start. Today's meeting is from 4 to 5 p.m. at the garden on the corner of Richards and Clarke.

If you can't make it today but want more info so you can attend a future get-together, head over to the gardeners' website or visit MUG on-line. 

Bitten by the garden bug

We've been bitten by the gardening bug here at the Exchange, and it's not just about vegetables and heirloom tomato plants (thank you, Gail Vella!) ... it's about the simple beauty and joy of flowers and shrubs, trees and potted bits and bobs. 

So here's a website we'll be browsing this weekend for inspiration, and it's so great we thought we'd better share it. You Grow Girl.

Social change in a gumball machine!

Seedbombs are back and coming to a gumball machine near you. Well, that's if they get the seed money, no pun intended. We love this idea - simple, effective, fun and inspiring. Watch a video here and lend your support if you can!

Via @NancyQuinn and @kickstarter on Twitter.

Blight is back: watch your tomatoes

The Rodale Institute wants tomato-growers to keep an eye out for signs of blight again this year. The devastating fungus was found on home-grown varieties in 2009, and now it's back. 

Rodale.com spoke with Meg McGrath, PhD, associate professor of plant pathology at Cornell University: "Unfortunately, I think it's a matter of time before it's widespread. (...) Hopefully, people will be more knowledgeable of the disease this year, realizing it's a community disease. If you end up with it, you have to take care of the problem, you can't let it fester in your garden."

What to look for? Brown patches on leaves are a sign that your plants are affected. Growers should remove the plant, bag it and send it to the landfill. And try not to cry.

Details and photo here.

Fresh and local foodie? Here's your book

 If you buy your produce at the coop, farmer's market or you subscribe to a CSA, you want to make the best use of all that fresh, organic leafy goodness before it spoils.

That's why we love this new cookbook, stuffed with recipes to help you make the most of all those fresh ingredients. Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers features 150 recipes organized by main ingredient to help you figure out exactly what to do with all that zucchini or arugula.

And here's the kicker: "Eating Local also takes you on a wonderful editorial and photographic journey to 10 small farms across the country. An up-close look at these noteworthy small farms and the people who cultivate them reveals how hard work and a passion for sustainability yield wholesome and delicious products perfect for eating and living locally."

Oh, and the ultimate locavore/celebrity chef Alice Waters helped write it. Can't be bad!

Via Sur La Table.

Can organic feed the world?

The Kathleen Show in Madison asks that question in an interview with Maria Rodale, author of "Organic Manifesto" and you can listen in at 2 p.m. central time, today.

Fabulous urban food class at UW!

What does where you live have to do with the food you eat? Why do some areas of the city have access to fresh, green and even organic vegetables and why are other areas of the city surrounded by fast food chains and convenience stores? Why are poor people around the globe the most likely to be those that are faced with food insecurity as well as the most likely to suffer from obesity?

This course will not just involve engaging discussion groups and reading material; it will use urban Milwaukee as a classroom. Guest speakers will share the knowledge they earned in the field, so to speak, and students will go on field trips to local urban farms. Documentaries will be a key part of the course.

The curriculum is fabulous. The class needs only one thing: enrollment. You know how it works; if enough people enroll, the class stays alive. Let's make sure this one does!

urban Studies 360: Perspectives on the Urban Scene: "You are Where You Eat."  Urban Food Geographies, fall 2010, Tuesdays 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., Jennifer Cadenas, instructor.

$50,000 in gardening grants up for grabs!

Want to start a community garden? Know an organization that would like to plant one but doesn't have the funds or know-how? This grant could be the answer:

Nature's Path Organics is giving away a total of $50,000 in cash, garden design, technical assistance and fund raising support. 

Two gardener-wannabe winners will each win the following:

• A $10,000 grant to be used toward the cost of planting an organic garden in the community in 2010 (cash grant)
• Coaching from Organic Gardening magazine to help establish the garden, including technical assistance with design, and technical assistance and guidance to built it (estimated value $5,000)
• An organic breakfast fund-raising event and garden dedication hosted by Nature's Path to raise funds for the winning organization. Nature's path will provide free breakfast at the event and give away reusable shopping bags (estimated value $10,000)
• Total: Two grants valued at approximately $25,000 each.

Nature's Path will also make a donation to a food pantry in the winning community with a maximum value of $100,000. Wouldn't it be great if that was Milwaukee? 

Apply and vote on-line. And spread the word among your Milwaukee network!

More press for Milwaukee's brightest gardening star

He's already been interviewed by the New York Times and Oprah magazine. Now it's Bon Appetit. Will Allen offers readers a brief insight into Growing Power and urban gardening. Here.