By Vanessa Richins

Do you have land, but no time to do any gardening?

Or do you love to garden, but don’t have a space to use?

A new service would match landowners with urban gardeners.

Cultivating Sustainable Communities (CSC) is starting a new program called GardenSwap. Participants could sign up, noting whether they have garden space, or are looking for a yard to use. They would then be matched together and share in the produce harvest.

As their website GardenSwap explains, “Urban food gardens are not only fun; they support low-carbon food production, create economic development, inspire healthful eating, build community, create opportunities for education, address watershed health concerns, create Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Earlier this summer, UGC writer Vanessa Richins wrote about some lovely wall gardens designed by artist Patric Blanc.

His beautiful creations are living works of art.

A non-profit group, Urban Farming, has taken the vertical growing idea and run with it.

A series of four walls in L.A. have been turned into urban farms in a collaborative effort between Urban Gardening and Cal Poly students. 180 growing panels were planted up with organic veggies and herbs and installed in the four designated areas.

The produce was donated to area food banks. One wall was tended by residents of a low-income apartment complex and the food was Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

It all comes down to money.

Administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School district find themselves with a $460-million budget deficit, which will likely mean increasing class sizes and discontinuing programs.

One of the threatened projects is their blossoming urban garden educational program.

It was started years ago when a man named Mud Baron started volunteering in the district. Years later the district was able to hire him and others as garden instructors.

As quoted in an article from Read the rest of this entry »