This is an “after” shot of a front strip, raised bed vegetable garden my crew and I worked on this week. The people who own this home have 5 kids and they’re all excited about the new garden. We planted tomatoes, peppers, arugula, beans, cucumbers (I still need to come back with trellises, and supports), Rainbow Swiss chard, basil, cilantro, lavender, mint, Walla Walla onions, marigolds, raspberry (container shrubs), strawberries, and corn (not pictured, it’s on the driveway strip adjacent to this one.)
I love the way this came out, I hope it gets huge. It was a somewhat sad dirt patch before, with just a few drought tolerant flowers around the tree. We added a bunch more flowers, pink ice plant, around the tree. I love my job.
The garden lasted a few months. Then, an agent of the town’s housing authority found out about it and told my mother it was against the rules. “But no one’s using the land,” I remember her arguing. “The kids in the neighborhood play there.” The response was clear: Get rid of the garden or be evicted. Here was another one of those impossible choices of poverty. This was what my classmates would never understand, as they earnestly debated welfare fraud and the grasping desperation of the undeserving poor.
My mother stopped tending the garden and the next weekend a maintenance worker came and poured something onto the soil that made all the plants die and turned the grass brown.
This is what they did all over bushwick. The older black folks would start gardens ,especially on Broadwag,and the city would tear them up and pour bleech and rat poison and put up barbed wire and “no tresspassing” signs . Brutalized a beautiful sanctuary in the city.
Now white folks want them,NOW they’re “community gardens” allowed to flourish.
The romans used to “salt (or in the case fucking BLEACH the earth)” over the land of their conquered enemies so nothing could grow for anyone in those places. I believe that’s an act of war my friend
Built up some large wire tunnels. Cut and fixed burlap sacks to the bottom halves of tunnels. Filled with dirt and matter. Added potatoes, eyes up. Soaked. When plants are six to nine inches tall I will mulch with hay and fertilizer. Also, I never take these rings off anymore.
Excited to announce another urban farmer has joined the Kiva Chicago family! Bel of Fruiting Mushrooms, LLC is the only commercial mushroom grower in Chicago and supplies his goods to local businesses like Local Foods Grocer & DistributorandLula Cafe! As a member of The Plant community he is an important part of the ever-growing local urban agriculture movement. Please consider supporting Bel and his lovely mushrooms today!
As an urban ag and beekeeping devotee I couldn’t be more excited to announce the newest member of the Kiva Chicago community! WestSide Bee Boyz, LLC is officially fundraising on Kiva Zip to raise funds for new bees and beehives!
Thad is an incredibly positive and inspiring entrepreneur. Over the next year the WestSide Bee Boyz are doubling their impact by partnering with local schools and universities to teach beekeeping! Please considering supporting Thad and the expansion of urban beekeeping in Chicago!
Csa volunteers hard at work. We are cleaning up the garden to prepare the soil for planting cover crops for the fall season. Planting a cover crop in fall really helps protect our soil from the upcoming frost.
Ruby’s Place rooftop farm has babies. This photo was taken in August. I will be posting some more updates for Ruby’s place soon as we are now harvesting large cucumbers and beautiful kale before it gets too cold.
At the start of spring we had basil everywhere. I guess we forgot to remove a basil plant that went to seed, but then again, we now have near 100 basil seedlings
georgia’s place is supportive housing for formerly homeless adults. Here is one of our residents “shopping” for strawberries…it was the first time he had eaten something he picked…
