Rendezvou with Permaculture Carins

After finishing up with the Permaculture Design Certificate I decided to try my luck at actually getting my hands dirty! I found a few permaculture groups in towns on my route up North, and contacted them to see if they had any work parties or cool events coming up. Permaculture Cairns was the only group [...]

Vancouver Food Policy Council Spring Update

I was so excited to see all the amazing workshops that were posted in the Food Policy Spring Update! You can see the full list here, but I wanted to highlight the following because they look especially cool:

Saturday March 7 – Sunday, March 8, 2009 – Local Food Security and Starting your own Community Garden [...]

It’s Offical! Vancouver Allows City Chickens

I’m sitting at the first Vancouver Green Tech Forum. Mayor Gregor Robertson opened the event, and in his address he confirmed that the amendment to the Animal Control By-law has passed! This means Vancouverites can now legally keep chickens in their backyard. I don’t have all the details, but I believe that there is a [...]

City Chickens for Vancouver

This evening Legalizing Backyard Hens was on the list of motions on the City Council meeting agenda, but I’ve heard through the grape vine (and a reputable source) that the vote will actually happen on Thursday March 5th.
We’re down to the wire folks – if you support an amendment to the current Animal Control By-law [...]

Vancouver Urban Gardens Sprouting

Community gardens are uber popular in Vancouver, and the number of developer-started gardens is on the rise. Land developers, like Onni, are taking their idle land and turning it into temporary community garden space. The gardeners have to move on as soon as the development company is ready to start building, but until then AT [...]

Canadian Politics Explained by Worms

Last night I was in the audience for CBC’s “The X Challenge” debate on environment. Four candidates were on the stage to debate questions asked by self-described “necessary polluters” in the audience.
At one point, one of the greener audience members asked a questions that involved mentioning his worm composting bin. The host had never heard [...]

Gardening in the Sky

Yesterday I got the chance to get a tour of the YWCA’s 5th floor Rooftop Garden in Vancouver, BC. It’s an amazing spot right in the heart of downtown that produces fruits and vegetables a community centre’s hot meals program on the Downtown Eastside.
The garden started as an under utilized ornamental garden until an intrepid [...]

City Chickens

The idea of urban homesteading and green living is obviously becoming more and more appealing to people living in cities around the world. The first step in self sufficiency is usually a vegetable garden. The hot trend now is the addition of a chicken coop. Chickens are totally the new pug. I’ve hung out with [...]