Somerville Urban Ag

95 years later, we want you to keep chickens, too. We want you to keep chickens so badly that we have passed the first Urban Agriculture Ordinance in the Northeast.  AND, as if that is not enough, we even made a video for you to watch when you come get your permit.

Have a look:
“C” is for Chicken: Chicken Keeping in Somerville, MA

You can find all the rules and helpful tips for all urban ag practices in the easy-to-understand document: The ABC’s of Urban Agriculture in Somerville

Thank you to SomervilleArchives for the fantastic photo!

THE CITY OF SOMERVILLE WINS A BOSTON SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT’S AWARD FOR THE MAYOR’S URBAN AGRICULTURE INITIATIVE!

That’s right! The Mayor’s Urban Agriculture Initiative won a merit award from the BSLA, northern New England’s chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA.) The award was presented to the City for excellence in communicating the first municipal Urban Ag Ordinance in the region,  promoting urban agriculture through innovative use of social media (ahem, this blog), and educational events, videos and the City Hall demonstration garden. 

In fact, the award letter reads, “The jury…was impressed by what great public benefit it serves, and what was accomplished with such a limited budget. The jury was very pleased that Somerville took this on and feels that it is a great example of what cities should be doing.” WHOA!  Did you hear that? (“WHAT CITIES SHOULD BE DOING!!!”) Even more impressive is that we did all of this with no additional budget, just our in-house talented staff and a community of people that love urban ag.  Go Somerville!

(applause please)

City Hall has a new ambassador…an Urban Ag Ambassador!

Meet Abe Gore. He’s a Somerville resident who just recently completed the City’s first Somerville Urban Ag Ambassador Program.  As part of the community service component, he has become the steward of the City Hall garden.  You know…the garden on the steps of City Hall that we wrote about all last year?  With the cabbage worms?  And all the municipal employees eating healthy produce for lunch?

Abe, like all Somer’villens, is really into food, urban ag and food policy.  In fact, he just concentrated on all that in his graduate studies at the Heller School at Brandeis.  We are thrilled to have a smartypants urban farmer who is as enthusiastic about growing local food in Somerville as we are!  Welcome Abe! (now, don’t anyone tell him about those cabbage worms ;-)

SOMERVILLE IN BLOOM

Thank you to the Somerville volunteers who planted over 1,000 daffodils and tulips all over the city in a “flash mob planting” last fall,  known as the second annual SOMERVILLE BULB BLITZ!  Let’s just say it is paying off BIG in beauty all over.  Here is a map of the Bulb Blitz locations.  Get outside and enjoy the flowers.

IT’S SPRING CLEANING TIME!

Join your neighbors this Saturday (rain date April 28) for the annual Spring Cleanup. Crews will take on projects in each ward from 10am to noon and then participants are invited to a bbq and SomerGreen Festival at Blessing of the Bay Boathouse from noon to 2pm. To find out where groups are meeting in your neighborhood: http://ow.ly/knB7L And thank you to Thomas M. Barton for designing our great new logo.

Mayor Joe Curtatone invites you to join the community at a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of Monday’s attack at the Boston Marathon. As many members of the Somerville community are personally affected by the tragedy, the vigil will include a “healing ceremony,” and attendees will have the opportunity to speak and offer words of hope, love, and support. The vigil will be held Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 7:45pm at Somerville City Hall / Somerville High School Concourse, 81 Highland Avenue. Please share this information with friends and neighbors. photo by: brentdanley

somervillebynight:

Spring - Somerville, MA

Beauty abounds.

Lead in Soil

This is part 2 of a two part series on urban soils.  Please see the previous post.

On residential sites with pre-1978 housing, the most common soil contaminant is lead (Pb). It  has been deposited on the soil from past years of industrial pollution, leaded gasoline and flaking leaded paint. In an effort to prevent childhood lead poisoning, the EPA has defined dangerous levels of lead in soil as 400 ppm in play areas and 1,200 ppm in bare soil [footnote].

The EPA has not, however, defined lead hazard levels for gardens; and, there are varying opinions on how much lead is too much for growing edible plants. The Massachusetts Contingency Plan identifies 300 ppm of lead as the standard for “soil associated with unrestricted use [footnote].”  In addition, the University of Massachusetts recommends not growing in soils with more than 300ppm of total lead. Based on these guidelines, the City of Somerville recommends growing produce in containers and raised beds or in soil with under 300 ppm of total lead. Under the Somerville Urban Ag Ordinance, if you intend to sell your produce, you are required to post your annual soil test results at the point of sale- even if you are growing in a raised bed. UMASS Amherst Extension Services offers an affordable “Routine Soil Test” that includes lead and is also helpful for gardening. 

Always follow these best practices for gardening:

• locate gardens away from painted structures
• add compost to your soil every year
• do not let children play or garden in contaminated soil
• wear gloves when gardening, and wash hands afterwards
• wash all produce thoroughly before eating
• throw away the outer leaves of vegetables where soil particles are most likely to be located
• peel all root vegetables before eating

For recommendations on how to improve soils and grow plants in mildly contaminated soil, see:
Brownfields and Urban Agriculture: Interim Guidelines for Safe Gardening Practices 

Using Potentially Contaminated Landscapes: Growing Gardens in Urban Soils

If you have a child under six and you live in an old home, please see the City’s Lead Hazard Abatement Program.

THE DIRT ON SOIL, PART 1
(HEY, READ THIS- IT’S IMPORTANT!)

As in all older cities in the U.S., soils in our beloved Somerville can contain contaminants. On a site that has always been residential, the most common contaminant found is lead. (Part 2 of this post will address lead in soil.) When a site has had other uses, such as industrial or agricultural, it contain many other contaminants. Be sure to research the site history before you plant your garden.  You can overcome the obstacles encountered in urban farming to become more informed and garden safely.

1. As a best practice, it is recommended that urban produce be grown in containers or raised beds built from wood that does not contain old paint on it and has not been chemically treated, or from another safe material.  First turn the existing soil, to help with drainage. Then, place landscape fabric, available at hardware stores, on the turned earth and build the raised bed on it.This provides a barrier to the old soil, while allowing water to infiltrate. If you have problems with critters, you can also put a wire hardware cloth below all of it to prevent any burrowing. There are many ways to build a raised bed and many tutorials out there.  Search the web to find guides and videos and do what works best for you.  You can find more tips in the “Agriculture ” section of ABC’s of Urban Ag, a guide to urban ag in Somerville.

2. Next, fill the raised bed with clean, TESTED soil.  Be sure you know where your soil comes from.  Do not buy untested soil from someone’s city yard, from the internet or from an urban site, as it is likely to be contaminated. If you buy soil from a nursery or landscaper, ask  where it comes from and if it has been tested for contaminants. Place gardens away from structures with flaking paint and be aware that clean soils can become contaminated by activities like the scraping or weathering of leaded paint on a nearby structure.

3. Finally ,plant and grow delicious, local food! Remember, in Somerville, under the new Urban Agriculture Ordinance, if you plan to sell your produce, a soil test is required and must be posted.  See Pg 11 of the ABC’s of Urban Ag.

Stay tuned, part two will discuss lead, the most common contaminant found in urban soils.

Somerville Garden Club presents Urban Beekeeping

FREE EVENT
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
7-9 PM at the Tufts Administration Building
167 Holland St., Somerville on the second floor, wheelchair accessible.
  

Urban Beekeeping is the topic for the April meeting of the Somerville Garden Club. Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D., will talk about the importance of bees as pollinators and how to establish and maintain hives, as well as collect honey, in an urban setting. Wilson-Rich is a behavioral ecololgist, beekeeper, and founder of the company Best Bees.

 All Somerville Garden Club events are free and the public is invited to attend. The Club meets the second Wednesday  of every month. Each meeting begins with club announcements, followed by a horticultural question and answer segment, a lecture or presentation, and concludes with an auction of donated plants and garden items. On site parking is available, and the building is a short walk from the Davis Square T station.