• City Farmer: Sharing Backyards in Greater Vancouver
  This is a map/list of those who are both looking for space to garden, and those offering garden space. If you don’t see a suitable partner, add yourself to the list and wait for a call. Keep checking back to see if a match turns up.
  (tags: Vancouver urban gardening agriculture cityfarmer googlemap community 07feb 2007)

Andrea Bellamy writes:
Sharing is good

City Farmer recently announced Sharing Backyards in Greater Vancouver, a website that aims to bring together people looking for a space to garden with those who have under-used backyards and are willing to share.

I received an email about this from City Farmer a few days ago but didn’t look at the website at the time. It is a googlemap Mashup and I’ve added my backyard to the list of people offering space.

All the construction near Cambie St resulted in a lot of side streets being dug up, so in a move to restore the ground, earth was put down and grass seed was spread.

What an opportunity to add to the diversity.

I took seeds of white dutch clover and
crimson clover

and spread them thickly over the area.

Want to do some guerrilla gardening yourself but need the strength of numbers?

The Vancouver Guerrilla Gardening Meetup Group has links to GG info in other parts of the world.
ooo

Technorati Tags: guerrilla gardening, guerrilla, gardening, white dutch clover, crimson clover, clover, vancouver, bc

• ScienceDaily: Bacteria Could Steady Buildings Against Earthquakes
  “By injecting bacterial cultures, additional nutrients and oxygen, DeJong and his colleagues found that they could turn loose, liquefiable sand into a solid cylinder.” Yikes! Look up “Ice-nine”. Imagine a mutation that turns all the world’s soil into rock
  (tags: earthquake microbes unintended consequences science 07feb 2007)

• Fog Creek Copilot - Home
  The Fog Creek CopilotSM service allows people to help their friends, relatives, and customers fix their computer problems by connecting to their computers via the Internet.
  (tags: online software support 07feb 2007)
• HIR | Responsibility of (Labor Zionist) Israeli leaders during Holocaust
  “The problem of Jewish self-defense”. In other articles, Francisco Gil-White exposed the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim acceptance of Nazi doctrine and is passionate about waking people up to a catastrophe facing Israel and Jews around the world.
  (tags: news opinion analysis 07feb 2007)
• City farmer cultivates rocky terrain with self-developed soil conditioner
  Quarter of a century research leads to development of Aafi, helps pulses [lentils/beans/peas] and fruits grow in rain shadow region of Yavat Triveni Rangarajan Pune,
  (tags: composting compost agriculture 07feb 2007)

• Timeline clock [.swf file]
  Sometimes looking at a clock is like watching paint dry.
  (tags: internet time tools 07feb 2007)
• YouTube - Council on American-Islamic Relations Exposed
  Some comments are as revealing as the video
  (tags: news Islam 07feb 2007)
• Urban Spots Veggie Plots
  Article found on City Farmer: Project has neighbourhood green spaces turned into affordable ‘edible’ landscapes
  (tags: urban gardening edible landscape sustainability permaculture housing development 07feb 2007)
• YouTube - The Edible Neighbourhood
  Video to match article below found on CityFarmer
  (tags: urban gardening edible landscape sustainability permaculture housing development 07feb 2007)
• Tokyo promotes recycling culture to deal with industrial waste
  A 16 hectare piece of reclaimed land along Tokyo Bay is home to a US$80 billion project called Tokyo Super Eco Town. Eleven private firms specialising in different ways of recycling have been chosen to operate there.
  (tags: urban waste management recycling planning development news 07feb 2007)

links-for-2007-02-13/

Anyone have experience with bokashi composting? I want to compost food scraps, but living in a flat without a balcony really limits my options. (The opening line in the ad copy is kind of gross. I assume it also works on veg.)

My reply

[Full disclosure: I make and sell my own bokashi composting systems.]

It works. You do not have to invest in the commercial version. You can use the fermentation liquid on its own in your own bucket.

People are impressed with the product…

• Saving Food from the Dump
  Feb, 17 2007 - 3:50 AM VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980) - Recommendations have been made to Vancouver City Council on food composting and diverting food from the landfill, thanks to a new food policy report….
  (tags: 100+mile+diet vancouver “food policy council” compost composting waste diversion landfill food bank report 07feb 2007)

Nice to see this progress…

Saving Food from the Dump - CKNWAM

Feb, 17 2007 - 3:50 AM

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Recommendations have been made to Vancouver City Council on food composting and diverting food from the landfill, thanks to a new food policy report.

Susan Kurbis of the Food Policy Council says they looked at a small-scale community garden compost in the Strathcona district that led to some surprising results, “They were processing, actually, up to 4 to 6 tonnes a week of food that was destined normally for the landfill…out of 100 tonnes of food waste, we were able to secure 20 tonnes of finished compost.”

The report also studied ways in which edible foods, destined for the landfill, can be diverted as a resource for local charities.

Vancouver City Council Meeting 15Feb07

.pdf file Second Annual Food Policy Progress Report

Technorati Tags: vancouver, food policy council, compost, composting, waste, diversion, landfill, food bank, report

• Local Cooling
  More than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is wasted because many of us simply forget to shut down our computers when we’re not using them. This application adjusts your computer power saving options and tracks your energy savings.
  (tags: climatechange globalwarming activism tools software 07feb 2007)
• Vancouver/ChangeEverything/Friends LocalCooling Stats
  Send an email to …. with your stats feed after you install this program and I will add you to this team page
  (tags: globalwarming climatechange community activism software Vancouver 07feb 2007)