Welcome to The Yardstead
Portland Oregon has one of the premier Community Garden programs in the country. They offer garden plots to residents for a small fee, and donate fresh garden produce to local agencies to feed the hungry. They encourage good healty gardening practices such as organic gardening, healthy soil building practices, composting, cover cropping, and sustainability. The program also encourages positive social practices such as community involvement and intergenerational cooperation. Portland currently has 32 community gardens throughout the city with more coming in the future.
The Portland Community Gardens program has provided gardening opportunities for the physical and social benefit of the people and neighborhoods since 1975. The 32 locations are scattered among many Portland neighborhoods. Volunteer garden managers........
Vermicomposting is composting using worms. There are a variety of species of worms. The most common used earthworm are Red Wigglers or Night Crawlers (think fish bait). These can easily be looked up online for more information as well as to purchase online.
We have become interested in raising worms after watching a video produced by Olomana gardens in Haiwaii. In this video worms were raised very easily in a stacked composting bin. These bins can also be found online and seem relatively inexpensive. At Olomana gardens the worms were being raised under permaculture principles. Garden and food waste are fed to the worms. The worms produce castings (vermicompost) or are fed to chickens. Then the compost or chicken poo is used to fertilize the gardens. So a cycle is created that is relatively self-sustaining. Each system depends on the other to produce well.
Of course, I went immediately to the internet and to youtube to find information on raising worms. There are a variety of ways to do this. Stack bins seem to be.......
There has been a lot of coverage in the media lately about community gardens and planting vegetables and fruits on public land. The Yardstead is in full support of these ideas and we plan to get invloved when we are able. We will be covering the progress of this movement in detail. I heard a radio interview yesterday with Darrin Nordahl, the author of a new book Public Produce: The new Urban Agriculture. The book is full of details about public spaces already being used for community gardens such as this community gardens program in Portland, OR. The book also includes many ideas for using more....
