Gardening Resources

This just in. Couple of articles on City of Chicago Urban Ag Zoning Changes. (Jan 10, 2011)

• Chicago Area Food Strategy
• Chicago Urban Agriculture Zoning Changes
• Chicago Tribune Article on Zoning Changes
• Urban Food Policy

• Vegetable and herb companion plant spreadsheet as well as a companion planting sheet. Download the pdf.
• The companion planting guide from Wikipedia

• Gardeners Supply Company
• Another great web site at : ww.veggieharvest.com

Recommended by Julie Samuels at the May 23 Root-Riot: Harambee  New Gardener Session
John Jeavens: Bio-intensive methods web site:
And the name of the book info:

• How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine (Paperback)
• John Jeavons
• A link to the book on Amazon.com

Other Useful Gardening web sites.

• http://www.victoryseeds.com/
• http://www.greenpeople.org/seeds.htm
• http://rareseeds.com/cart/
• http://www.heirloomseeds.com/
  

• Starter Vegetable Gardens 24 No-Fail Plans
• Rodale’s vegetable garden problem solver : the best and latest advice for beating pests, diseases, and weeds and staying a step ahead of trouble in the garden / Fern Marshall Bradley.
• From seed to table : a practical guide to eating and growing green / Janette Haase.
• Rodale’s pest & disease problem solver : a chemical-free guide to keeping your garden healthy / Linda Gilkeson, Pam Peirce, Miranda Smith

Radio Resources

• Hear and Now, Fredrick Kaufman
  Did Wall Street Cause A Food Bubble?
  (added July 18th)

• Food Mondays, Guest Robert Paarlberg,
  Food Politics: What everyone Needs to Know.
  (added July 18th)

Books on community gardening at the Oak Park library:

• Community Gardening by Ellen Kirby This book focuses on various CG projects around the country. All of them give interesting tips on how to manage and make your CG flourish.
• Sharing the Harvest By Elizabeth Henderson

• Garfield Park Conservatory holds workshops, lectures and even has horticultural vendors onsite. They provide a wealth of information, ideas and resources for horticulture.
• Chicago Botanic Garden has an extensive line of lectures, classes and workshops available. They also have wonderful demonstration gardens of various types and designs: http://www.chicagobotanic.org
  The Jane Addams Hull House has a free program every Tuesday called Re-Thinking Soup that focuses on different projects. Tomorrow they are having a discussion on creating an urban farm! Hopefully someone form your group can attended this program.They also have a free online copy of their canning manual.
• University of Illinois Extension website supplies a wealth of resources. They have a plant clinic based at the Garfield Park Conservatory where they can troubleshoot many individual plant/gardening problems. Master Gardener and Master Composter certification classes are also available.

National Resources

• ACCA (American Community Gardening Association) gives great tips on how to start and manage a community garden. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter!
• Community Garden Organizer’s Handbook is a comprehensive down-loadable manual by the Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin. Its a good source to view policy guides for your group.
• Though guerrilla gardening is not in part community gardening (CG) it gives good food for thought on how to garden in a different way!

This Jeavons book may be a good book to read as a group over the winter. If a Root-Riot Regular is interested in putting a book-club session together, let us know.  It could be a start of something great!