How do we showcase the Garden City of the Future? This is one of the central questions that a local team of city representatives, food activists and design researchers explored during last week’s two-day working meeting in Letchworth, UK. Joined by Vic Borrill, Brighton&Hove Food Partnership, and André Viljoen and Katrin Bohn, University of Brighton, as its consultants, the local team discussed visions for (food-)productive urban landscapes in the world’s first Garden City.

An extensive visit of different Garden City estates, food growing and food provision sites, allotments and green infrastructure elements – prepared and led by Julia Sonander, trustee of Transition Town Letchworth – made visible the beauty and open space characteristics of the city as well as its unique potential (and need) for local food production and other food system activities. Afterwards, the group met for strategic discussions in the city planning offices. The meetings were led by David Ames and Kevin Jones, Executive Director for Stewardship and Development and trustee at the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation respectively, and dealt with the group’s visions for the Garden City of the Future and how specifically its food provision aspects could become more sustainable and resilient.

https://www.letchworth.com/

Article submitted by

Katrin Bohn
Senior Lecturer
University of Brighton

  I 2020 skal tilskuddsordningen for urbant landbruk ved Oslo kommune dele ut to millioner kroner til grønne fingre i Oslo. Frist for å søke tilskudd til urbant landbruk var 20. januar 2020 og vi har fått 122 søknader!

URBANT LANDBRUK ER SÅ MANGT:

– dyrking i alt fra en pallekarm til en stor åker, på en flåte eller i en kjeller

– matproduksjon i form av hønsehold og birøkt

– tilrettelegging for ville pollinerende insekter
– eller en super og innovativ idé!

URBANT LANDBRUK KAN BIDRA TIL:
– at naboer blir kjent med hverandre

– at barn lærer hvor maten kommer fra
– sommerjobb for ungdom
– grønne lunger
– kortreist mat på bordet
– ro i sjelen
– innovasjon for framtidens matproduksjon

ALLE KAN SØKE
Vil du gjøre borettslaget ditt hyggeligere? Drømmer du om en frodig takterrasse på jobben? Ønsker du å starte med høns eller birøkt? Har du en innovativ og grønn idé? Vil du introdusere urbant landbruk i barnehagen eller på eldrehjemmet? Alle kan søke så lenge prosjektet gjennomføres i Oslo.

Les mer om hvordan du søker og hvordan vi deler ut midlene:
www.oslo.kommune.no/tilskudd-til-urbant-landbruk

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In 2020 Oslo municipality is giving out two million nok in funding for urban agriculture projects. The deadline for application was January 20th 2020 and we have received 122 applications!

URBANT AGRICULTURE IS DIVERSE:
– growing food in a planting box up to a large field, on a rooftop or in a basement
– food production in the form of chicken husbandry and beekeeping
– taking care of wild pollinating insects
– or a great and innovative idea!

URBANT AGRICULTURE MAY CONTRIBUTE TO:
– that neighbors get to know each other

– that children learn where food comes from
– summer jobs for youth
– green lungs in urban areas
– loccaly produced food on the table
– peace of mind
– Innovation for the future of food production

EVERYONE CAN APPLY
Want to make your neighbourhood more enjoyable? Do you dream of a lush roof terrace at work? Do you want to start with chickens or beekeeping? Do you have an innovative and green idea? Do you want to introduce urban agriculture in your local kindergarten, school or in a nursing home? Anyone can apply as long as the project is completed in Oslo.

Read more about how to apply and how we distribute the subsidies here: www.oslo.kommune.no/tilskudd-til-urbant-landbruk

Article submitted by

Stephanie Degenhardt
Rådgiver urbant landbruk
Oslo kommune Bymiljøetaten
Norway

https://www.klimaoslo.no/2020/01/02/tilskuddsordning-for-urbant-landbruk/?fbclid=IwAR2EfloCa7vO3-KDkLV7x7TZkscCEdFqqOkP3S1deIL6f26YWgKXZqBc14Y

The City Team was focused on the planting concept for the living lab and the integration of young children (age 4-10 years). Participants include representatives of kindergartens and primary schools, the Perspektive gGmbH (farmer and organizer), representative of a NGO and the city team chair.

The city team designed a planting concept regarding the annual Topic “biodiversity” (the annual topic was selected by the City Team during the meeting in december 2019). The concept is based on the following aims:

– Demonstration of biodiversity in plant varieties: We plant different varieties of potatoes and pumpkin with different colours, shapes and taste.
– Demonstration the positive effect of supporting plant partners: We plant all plants in mixed cultures, such as potatoes together with tagetes, wheat with lentils and corn with beans.
– Demonstration of biotope diversity: We show that different plants create different biotopes during the growing season, providing shadow and shelter, food and nesting material for various animals.
– Demonstrating the impact of plants on microclimate: We show that plants influence the microclimate thereby cooling the surrounding area and reducing evaporation.
– Demonstrating different food processing steps: We plant fruits (e.g. berries) and vegetables (e.g. tomatoes) the children can eat directly. We plant crops that need to be cooked (e.g. potatoes) and crops that need to be threshed (lentils), milled (wheat) or pressed (lein).

The city team decided how to integrate kindergartens and primary schools into the planting season. Dates for different planting activities in spring and early summer were identified and special events were designed (such as rabbit hunt with a falconer in february or construction of worm boxes in may). The city team decided that special events should be also available for the public. Hence such events were split into two parts, one part designed for pedagogic institutions in the mornings and the other part designed for the public in the afternoon.

All dates will be uploaded on CMT Andernach page in February 2020.

The next city team meeting regarding planting activities will be on 24.06.2020 in order to plan the planting/harvest activities in late summer and autumn.

Article submitted by

Iris Kroeger
EdiCitNet coordinator Andernach
Municipal administration Andernach
Germany

https://cmt.eurtd.com/groups/profile/225390/city-team-andernach

On 24 October 2019, the annual meeting of EdiCitNet – Edible Cities Network (‘Edible Cities Network’) was held in Sant Feliu del Llobregat. The event brought together experts on NBS and representatives from different cities and universities from all over Europe.

After the exchange of experiences, the members of the EdiCitNet consortium and the event attendes (representatives of the City Council and the city team) visited the referenced projects that integrate edible natural solutions in the municipality of Sant Feliu, the urban and peri-urban gardens of the Parc Agrari of Baix Llobregat and the social gardens nearby the Parc Agrari. This ECS combines the recovery of an urban space for agriculture and labor insertion. The visit was conducted by the director of the Solidarity Foundation of the University of Barcelona, a foundation that launched the social garden project, and a technician of the NGO Tarpuna (project manager).

The Agricultural Park of Baix Llobregat (Parc Agrari) is located in the alluvial plains of the delta and lower valley of the Llobregat river in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. It occupies about 3,000 hectares of agricultural farms that belong to fourteen municipalities, including Sant Feliu de Llobregat. This urban agricultural area produces a great percentage of the fruits and vegetables that are sold in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona markets. The farmers who work the land have acquired the know-how accumulated over the more than 200 years of horticultural tradition in the region.

The initiative of social gardens of Sant Feliu combines the recovery of a space for agriculture with the attention of people needs with difficulties in finding employment. At present, the beneficiaries of the project are long-term unemployment, as well as young people with difficulties in finding a job, who have accessed the project through the Municipal Social Services.  These social gardens contribute to the well-being of people, both in the field of health and food, since the grown products are for personal consumption. The social garden project is an integrative solution for people at risk of social exclusion, as it improves the coexistence and social cohesion of the users, increase personal autonomy and self-esteem, help creating social networks, encouraging collective work, enhance local food and organic farming, as well as promoting healthy lifestyle habits.

The City Council of Sant Feliu wants to take advantage of the momentum of the EdiCitNet project to promote social urban agriculture projects, the creation of more urban gardens areas with different groups in vulnerable situations and the improvement of the water irrigation management, including water reuse.

Article submitted by

Antonina Torrens

Fundació Solidaritat UB

Building greening is becoming more and more important in urban planning. A large area of the city disappears through buildings, regardless of whether the buildings are new or old. Unfortunately, it is often the case that buildings are built cheaply and the roofs remain unused. In Germany, there are now many regulations for roofs and facades to be greened. Every year about 7 – 8 million square meters of new green roof area are added. Unfortunately, in most cases (about 80 percent) the prescribed simple greening, the extensive greening, is installed for cost reasons. On the one hand, it‘s good because extensive greening has a better influence on the environment than bitumen or gravel roofs; on the other hand, these roofs cannot be walked on or used by the public. Only about 19 percent are constructed as intensive green roofs, i.e. as accessible roof areas. And a major part of these are underground garage roofs.

We want to point out that there is usually no thought yet of making the lost area on the ground on the roof “usable” again. There are many examples that show what is possible on the roof. Because if the conditions are right, practically the same thing can be done on the roof as on the ground. Urban farming is then possible in various forms. In the first place, the cities must be active here. The BuGG (SME in EdiCitNet) can help to develop strategies so that “Rooftop Gardens” or “Facade Gardens” will hopefully be standard and not stop at a few examples here and there. A few ideas how the BuGG can support:

Front Runner Cities:
• Planning support for the building greening for Living Labs, especially Urban-Farming-Roofs.
• Development of brochures / working tools (also for private persons) on how urban farming can be implemented on the roof / facade.
• Development of information brochures for “Urban Gardening” on buildings • Development of strategies to promote ECS, especially on buildings, in the city.
• Arrange contacts to companies for green roofs and green facades.
• Arrange Contacts for potential analyses for green roofs by means of aerial photography.

Follower Cities:
• Development of brochures / working tools (also for private persons) on how urban farming can be implemented on the roof / facade.
• Development of strategies to promote ECS, especially on buildings, in the city.

Article submitted by

Felix Mollenhauer
Project Manager
Bundesverband GebäudeGrün e. V. (BuGG)
Germany
felix.mollenhauer@bugg.de

www.gebaeudegruen.info