Wednesday, April 30, 2008

It's the good news and the bad news

We have our seed balls out in 8 of the 10 sites. There are still a few sites available for adoption for adoption. If you are interested let me know. we will still be documenting throughout the summer and fall.

Now on to the bad news. We have had no rain this spring to speak of so the seed balls have not germinated but the GOOD NEWS is this is exactly why we used seed balls. They will just rest there until the environment is perfect for their growth, safe, sound and protected from predators and wind. Most will germinate this winter for harvest next spring. Unfortunately we will have to cancel the harvest this year.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Adopt a site, seed balls are broadcast…mostly

We have now identified 11 good sites and continue looking for more. If you know of a perfect site in your neighborhood and would be willing for this project to adopt it send me a picture and the address. To adopt a site all you have to do is broadcast the seeds and weekly check how they are doing. A picture to me and posts to this site documenting growth would be good.
The site criteria are: 1) it must have public access 2) be untended 3) within the city limits 4) non toxic 5) not be set aside for native restoration. That's it.

The seeds we broadcasted this weekend should be ready for harvest in May. Of course there is no way to be sure the exact date. Watch for updates.

We still have some sites to get seeds to. If you can help email me @ lp@lauraparkerstudio.com and we can figure out how to get you seed balls.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Seed ball workshop February 16, 2008; 10:30-12 noon


We had a lot of fun at the second seed ball workshop January 27th. It was great to meet so many new people interested in this process and foraging. Also, thank you to everyone who helped spread the word.

This Saturday will be the first day we begin broadcasting the seed balls. We will begin at 10:30 making more balls and after everyone will be able to take some with them to broadcast at the chosen sites if they would like to. The fava beans will be the first seeds to be broadcast. It's hard to know if they will reseed next year but even if they don't they will act as a mini cover crop. Currently I have nine really good sites and hope with your help to find many more. Please send me your ideas for sites. If you are out with a camera, even better, send me a picture with the address. Again the criteria are: 1) the site is fallow, untended land 2) within the city limits 3) have public access 4) not obviously toxic 5) not be land set aside for native restoration.

I look forward to seeing you Saturday.

Interested in wild bees? Check out Gordon Frankie's website. See link to the right.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Seed balls: promoting urban foraging in San Francisco





In remote or rural areas, berries and greens can still be freely foraged. By reclaiming many of our city's under utilized sites
Urban Growth promotes the possibility of reclaiming the commons by seeding bare and untended earth under freeways, vacant lots, spaces between buildings or soil just emerging from abandoned and broken concrete. Land, which has been left abused and fallow, is revitalized and will offer it's bounty to feed the surrounding people and animals with plants that will nourish only those who eat them but also the ground they grow in.

The project:
Urban Growth will create and broadcast thousands of seed balls filled with native and edible seeds around San Francisco on fallow urban landscapes. Seed balls are known throughout the world as an efficient and successful strategy to reclaim difficult or abused land. The seeds are rolled up in mud and humus containing a high degree of clay, and strewn over the ground creating a self-sustaining mini-community (for information about seed balls, see links to the right). The clay protects the seeds from being eaten by birds, and when the rains come, the humus and clay help hold moisture and nutrients so the seeds germinate. Some of the seeds I plan to use include, miner's lettuce, burdock, mint, nettle, wild leeks, dandelion, chicory, mustard, lambs quarter, wild spinach and purslane.
Support materials, including maps of the planting sites, will be handed out in neighborhood communities or through this blog so that those who want to gather the food will know where edibles have been planted, what they look like and what to do with them. When these plants grow, they become part of a living sustainable community of relationships that includes billions of soil micro-organisms, worms, insects, other plants, birds, and humans, all of which work together to create the possibility of more foraged foods within our everyday landscape.
Join us to make seed balls, find the sites, broadcast the seeds and finally to harvest our labors.
Watch for postings of events here.