O'k CSA Creatively Supported Art and Culture In our Gardens, our Minds and our Bellies: May Community Gardens Update

Thursday, May 7, 2009

May Community Gardens Update

Great news! Monday, May 4th, Little Artshram officially signed a management agreement for the Barns Property along with our management partners, SEEDS and the Botanic Gardens Society of Northwest Michigan. (Little a along with SEEDS and BGS are collectively the Barns Use Group-BUG!)

The Barns Property and the old farm, of the former State Mental Hospital is now our official home-place for the Community Gardens and Art-Farm programs! Little Artshram will be occupying approximately four acres along with an old garage building which we plan to transform into our Art-Farm Workshop and Community Learning Center. For details about the Art-Farm summer camps and the Youth Market Garden, please visit the Little Artshram blog, http://www.littleartshram.org/blog/, or contact Penny Krebiehl, penny@littleartshram.org

A few other updates:

-As there are now future plans for development and cultivation in areas outside the current fenced garden, it would be great if gardeners could refrain from driving past the garage building and into the garden area, unless necessary (i.e. for water hauling or tilling).

-Little Artshram has been working along with SEEDS on a well for the property, and last month we had a test well successfully drilled! We are now working on getting quotes and securing funds to put a well and irrigation in place. For the time being, there is water in the rain catchment tank and in the blue barrels, partake as needed!

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Urban Farming Collective

The Urban Farming Collective is a project of Little Artshram, and extends an invitation to any community member or organization to join in on our efforts of implementing projects and growing Community Gardens, "YARDens", thriving Farmer Markets, augmenting our local currency Bay Bucks with a Farm-Bank, and also with a community-wide effort of creating a Food Security Plan for Traverse City.

To support these projects through the Urban Farming Collective, we are pleased to have on-going support
through Little Artshram's non-profit Board and Advisory Circle, work in collaboration with Traverse City
Transition Town, have interest and support of the City of Traverse City and Garfield Twp.; and other local organizations supporting grass-roots, based organization that furthers
our collective understanding of sustainability and resiliency.

The Little Artshram Community Garden is located near the historic Barns that were once part of the working 54-acre, self-sufficient agricultural farm of the old state asylum. This beautiful green-space, just west of downtown Traverse City, has been described as our version of New York City's Central Park.

The Cook’s House Community Garden site broke ground in 2009, with additional planning work by Chef Eric and Chef Jen of the Cook’s House, and the Little Artshram Youth-Market Gardeners.

We are working to make this garden space, not only a no-till zone, but also a no lawn-mower space! We would like to extend the gardens and put in 4-5 more beds along the south area that is laid out as grass-land, beyond the brick, utility building.

For more information on the Urban Farming Collective, Little Artshram Community Garden or the Cook's House Community Garden, visit our webpage and contact us:

www.littleartshram.org

communitygarden@littleartshram.org

You can also get UFC updates at:
http://littleartshram.zatchs.com/urbanfarmingcollective/