Little City Gardens

The first issue of Germination is out! It is our handmade zine documenting our experiences, reflections and drawings from Spring 2010. We also have illustrated posters (by Brooke) and sticker sets (by Caitlyn) now available in our online store. There is a permanent link to the store on the menu to the right.

We’re asking for a few dollars (see sliding scale) for each zine or sticker pack, and a few more for each poster, in order to cover some of our printing and shipping costs, and to be put toward future issues of the zine. Please get in touch if you’d like copies of the zine for distribution at your library or infoshop.

PS. There is an article about us today in the New York Times! It describes the way cities are updating their policies and laws in order to keep up with the growing interest in urban agriculture. It’s an abridged version of the discussion, but a good article nonetheless. Check it out here!

There are so many logistics to consider while preparing the land for our small farm. Making the transition to a larger space requires us to constantly evaluate (and reevaluate) everything from the most efficient order of operations to the most appropriate tools for the job. We rearrange our priorities and shift around items on our to-do lists on a daily basis.

First on the list is preparing the soil for planting. For a while, we were making weekly trips out to Mar Vista Stables to shovel horse manure from their corrals. It’s a beautiful scene out there – foggy ocean bluffs, old wooden shacks, and the friendly horses that munch next to us while we shovel their poop. The manure is a rich source of nitrogen for our soil, and since it is from the corral (as opposed to freshly scooped from the stables), it is already nicely aged. This cuts down on the amount of time it needs to decompose before we can safely plant into it.

We’re also experimenting with mulch – lately we’ve been laying the tops of fennel plants onto the field (before they go to seed) as we cut them down in order to keep the soil moist and suppress weed (fennel) growth. Fighting fennel with fennel!

Now that we’ve gotten amendments onto our first field, our need for water is ever more pressing. We’ve been able to temporarily pipe some water in from a generous neighbor’s hose, using a flow meter to keep track of our usage, but we’re still working on a more permanent solution. With no water meter on the property, and with our use of the space being temporary, access to water on the lot is a complicated matter. More thoughts on this later.

In other news, there’s a good article here about our project and the productive conversations that have begun about zoning.

For the next three weeks we’ll be letting our freshly tilled, ammended, watered and mulched field rest while Caitlyn and I get a change of pace and scenery. Tommorow I’m leaving San Francisco and heading down to the Sonoran desert. The purpose of my trip is to volunteer with an organization that i have long admired called No More Deaths, a Tucson based organization that has been working on the US/Mexico border since 2004 on behalf of migrants and out of the desire for humane immigration policy.

Mission Statement: “No More Deaths is an organization who’s mission is to end death and suffering on the U.S./Mexico border through civil initiative: the conviction that people of conscience must work openly and in community to uphold fundamental human rights. Our work embraces the Faith-Based Principles for Immigration Reform and focuses on the following themes:

• Direct aid that extends the right to provide humanitarian assistance
• Witnessing and responding
• Consciousness raising
• Global movement building
• Encouraging humane immigration policy.

History of the organization: “A morally intolerable situation inspired a remarkable humanitarian movement in Southern Arizona in the spring of 2004. Driven by economic inequality, thwarted by ill-conceived US border policy, and ignorant of the harsh conditions of the Sonoran Desert, thousands of men, women, and children had already died trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States. Most of the deaths occurred in the brutal heat of the summer months. With another summer of inevitable deaths looming, diverse faith-based and social activist groups—along with concerned individuals—felt compelled to act to stem the death tide and attempt to save at least some lives. The result was the converging of hundreds of volunteers—local, regional and national—who came together to work for one common goal: No Más Muertes: No More Deaths.”

I am so glad that No More Deaths and a few other grass-roots and/or faith-based organizations exist to perform such an immediate and vital function on a border where enforcement (federally recognized and vigilante groups) is increasingly militarized with limited oversight, accountability, or institutional safeguards for protecting human and civil rights. According to the tally on the organizations homepage there have already been 153 deaths on the Arizona border this season. Migrants to the United States face death in many forms, from dehydration in the desert to excessive force by the Border Patrol.

I am also feeling anxiety and fear. From what I hear and what I can imagine, the Southwest border has an intense climate. Not only does the summer heat reach 115 in the middle of the day, but it is a region where our national racial tensions, the ills of our globalized economy, and federal policies of heightened militarization come to a head. Then add the elements and the inhospitality of the natural world: flashfloods, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, jaguars, fire ants!

While i am there I will be part of the desert patrols. We will be living at a base camp and going out hiking each day with packs full of water, food and medical supplies. We will be leaving water on well traveled paths and looking for individuals and groups that may be lost or de-hydrated or injured.

I imagine I’ll be overjoyed to return to our mediterranean climate. I’ll be excited to get back to farming, and to give a give a report back about what I’ve seen and learned in the desert.

For the past few weeks, with the help of our friend Justin, we have been building ourselves a greenhouse. We needed some shelter on the property to anchor our activity, shelves to house things and plants, and a place to sit down protected from wind. Without obtaining an official permit from the city, we were allowed to build structures under 100sqft, so we drew up plans for an 8x12ft (96sqft) building that could function as a mini-greenhouse and an office. Justin and I had taken a construction course this past year at Laney College in Oakland, so this project was a great opportunity to put new skills to work.

I enjoyed the process so much, from design to material scavenging, from framing and raising walls to hanging doors and windows. We had to jog some old memories from geometry classes, and problem-solve some of our oversights. We got to put our aesthetic touch into every piece of wood that we cut and pieced together. Putting up this greenhouse felt like my favorite kind of art project: outdoors, collaborative, functional, putting old materials to new use. It is extremely fulfilling work to turn an idea and an image into a sturdy, physical construction that you can enter and take comfort inside. We managed to create it mostly from reused material. The only material that we couldn’t find on the streets, or at salvage yards was the polycarbonate corrugated roofing. Come by and see it some time, we are so proud!

Special thanks to: Justin, of course, who devoted a few weeks of his skill and energy to this construction project. He is a priceless collaborator and problem-solver. To Bob Short, our endlessly supportive next door neighbor. He allowed us the use of his electricity and tools. He brought us beer on hot afternoons, gave advice, helped us raise the walls, and graced the door with a goodluck horseshoe. Thanks to Marriane Short for taking these photos. Thanks to Building REsources for salvaging our city’s discarded building materials, and for offering us a great deal on wood, windows and doors.

photo: View of Islais Creek in 1918, disappearing into culvert not far from the Geneva Car barn. Sutro Forest covers part of Mt. Davidson in upper left. From the Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA

It is wonderful feeling to begin forging a relationship with a piece of land. In our case it is a stretch of soft earth running the length of a city block, couched by the fenced backyards of almost 40 houses. Going out to Cotter street is not yet going to a garden or to a farm, but like going to land. Its long and wild. There is no infrastructure, no water main, no electricity, no structures, no bathroom, no shelter except the dappled shade of a lone eucalyptus. In the mornings, the fog lays low and the Outer-Mission feels like its lodged in a perennial winter. At mid day strong, unobstructed sun warms beats down. Then, like clockwork, around four o’clock, wind kicks up from the south. Some days the fog and wind team up together and stay all day. After a days work, I do not feel like I have been in the city but rather that I have been in the elements. I leave Cotter Street windswept, with a sunburn and chapped lips, and I emerge two blocks away onto Mission.

The ground is still spongy from winter rains, confirming what many neighbors have told us – a river runs under our feet. Cayuga Creek, which hasn’t been day-lighted since the early 1900’s, makes its presence known. Apparently,some winters, in the low spots, the water table rises a foot above the saturated ground, flooding neighbors basements and backyards. Water makes this land compelling. One neighbor has offered to help us dig a well and I am so excited about the possibility of irrigating with our own water. I feel even more endeared to this place after a trip to the SF History floor at the Public Library. Old maps from 1915 show that vast tracts of allotment vegetable gardens stretched across this neighborhood. Probably because of the high water table, and alluvial soil, turn-of-the century SF residents recognized that this was especially fertile ground. I enjoy the feeling of connection to people who lived here a century ago. One of the neighbors we have met, Lena, is from this place then. She must be in her late nineties and says, regarding her friends and community, that she is the last one left. She remembers when most families grew vegetables and some sold them to produce markets.

The weeds are a soft jungle. Pastel fireworks of radish flowers explode out of a fennel cloud cover. Above that, drying wild oats sway making a soft clatter. Sometimes I hear the small scurrying of furry residents in the thicket. This land was in a particular state of grace before we started into it with our weed-wackers and roto-tiller. Even as a determined gardener committed to creating diverse food-producing gardens around the city, it feels like a transgression to plow into this vision of wild spring fertility with spinning blades. The aesthetic of land is subjective of course; multiple neighbors have mentioned that they are happy that we are finally abating the eyesore and the fire hazard. On one hand, our tools leave the land looking razed stubbled and scratched. On the other hand, this state of transition is a vision of potential. It is the image of the first step of cultivation. The first stroke of agricultural care and craft. All good farming and gardening is finding the meeting place between attention to the natural features and habitat of land, and the activity of coaxing your own imaginations, visions and desires from it.

Thank you for all of your letters so far. They have been passionate, pointed and inspiring. We, as a community, have successfully gotten the attention of City Hall, and we are currently weighing our options about how to proceed. We’ll be in touch with a more detailed update, once we clarify the next steps. (We also would like to keep copies of all letters of support, to be used for any future hearings. If you haven’t done so already, will you forward us your letters?)

In the meantime, spring flowers are shining bright in the Guerrero garden, reminding us that springtime is ticking away and summer is coming so soon. If only the timelines of the city could cooperate with the timelines of the calendula. We’re anxious to plant our crops.

May 11 2010

To the members of the SF Planning Commission,

Little City Gardens is an innovative and experimental new business in San Francisco. (Please see attached for more information) Our aim is to strengthen San Francisco’s urban agriculture movement and food security by creating a functional model of a financially self-sustaining, urban micro-farm (Market-Garden). We are working to embody the important language put forth by the Mayor in the July 2009 Executive Directive: Healthy Food for San Francisco. We have negotiated a temporary Land-Use Agreement (at least 1.5 years) with the owner of a vacant lot in a residential neighborhood (RH1). We will grow healthy organic produce, which we will sell to local restaurants and to community members through a vegetable box subscription program. We plan to operate Little City Gardens as a registered business, but equal to our identity as a business, is our identity as social activists piloting a new model of sustainable economy, as educators, as contributors of experience, and information to the growing healthy food-systems movement. We feel that a clarification in zoning code should be made to allow for Market-Gardening in residentially-zoned neighborhoods (without first obtaining a Conditional Use permit) for a few reasons.

1. Market-Gardening is an approach to urban agriculture that could flourish and grow without dependence on limited city and foundation funding. We believe that urban food production (a field strongly promoted in the aforementioned Executive Directive) will not reach its full potential unless there are unhindered avenues in the local market economy for food gardeners to make a living wage through the sales of their produce.

2. Most of the open spaces in cities that are easily accessible to individuals (especially those who are not affiliated with city programs or non-profits) are backyards and vacant lots in residential neighborhoods. Due to traffic and pollution, parcels of land in Mixed Use, Business, or Industrial zoned areas are often less appropriate for Market-Gardens. Access to property in residentially-zoned neighborhoods is essential for Market-Garden projects to succeed.

3. Due to the small scale of most urban Market-Gardens in the context of the larger food economy, the business of Market-Gardening has an extremely low-margin of profit. Most Market-Gardeners have low start-up budgets because they do not expect to have a large return on their investment. In many cases, including ours, the aim of Market-Gardening is to provide more healthy food for the immediate community while compensating the labor of production. In most cases, including ours, the projection of Market-Garden businesses is not profit, but rather self-sustenance. Our Land-Use Agreement is temporary (at minimum 1.5 years). We will be putting this lot to temporary best use until the property owner decides to develop housing. The cost of the Conditional Use application is prohibitive to this type of business and could amount to a significant percentage of our start-up budget.

4. Functionally, our use of the land will be most similar to the uses typical in Community-Gardening. Our activities will be restricted to gardening. We will not be running a produce stand or making commercial transactions on site. In relation to an average small business, the operation Little City Gardens will be extremely low impact. We will commute to and from the garden by bicycle with occasional truck use for bringing in compost and materials. Once every three months we expect to have an 8ft truck drop off compost. Our work will not draw more regular daily traffic to this residential neighborhood than any household. Our work will not contribute more noise to the neighborhood than an average household as we will rarely be using machines or loud equipment.

If the prohibitive obstacle of the Conditional Use Application is lifted, we believe the field of urban agriculture will be more accessible to would-be urban farmers, thus broadening the urban agriculture movement, our overall food security as well as opportunities for creative entrepreneurship.

Thank you for your Consideration.
Brooke Budner & Caitlyn Galloway
Co-owners, Little City Gardens

Tomorrow evening, Wednesday May 12, at 7:30 we’ll be speaking on a panel with other urban agriculture activists at CounterPulse. The event is called Circling the Food Wagons: Local Food Economies. The event is free. We’d love to see you there!

We need your help!

The Zoning Administrator at the SF Planning Department is currently looking at the case of Little City Gardens to determine whether or not it is legal to run a market garden in a residential neighborhood without first obtaining a Conditional Use Authorization (CUA), a costly and lengthy process. Our project has no contemporary precedent in San Francisco (although there are many examples in other cities), therefore the zoning code does not have clear language that incorporates market-gardening.

Generally businesses are not permitted to operate in residentially-zoned areas without a CUA. However, we believe that if the city government wants to encourage the urban agriculture movement to flourish, it must encourage market-gardening. In order to create hospitable conditions for growing and selling healthy organic food in the city, zoning code must make an exception for market-gardening in residential neighborhoods and eliminate obstacles. CUA is a typical procedure for businesses seeking to use space in a manner that is outside of its zoning designation, however, the process could be prohibitive to would-be market gardeners operating on a low budget.

Most of the city’s open spaces that are easily accessible to individuals (especially those who are not affiliated with city programs or non-profits) are backyards and vacant lots in residential neighborhoods. Because of traffic and pollution, parcels of land in Mixed Use, Business, or Industrial zoning areas are often less appropriate for market-gardens. Market-gardens are not a typical commercial enterprise, as often they are also open/green spaces that attract natural habitat, absorb storm water, and provide food and educational opportunities for the community.

In July of 2009, Mayor Newsom issued an Executive Directive, entitled Healthy and Sustainable Food for San Francisco, in which he declares a commitment to promote and support more food production in the city, “including community, backyard, rooftop and school gardens: edible landscaping, and agricultural incubator projects.” The directive also declares that it “shall promote economic opportunities in the food sector that create green jobs and local food businesses.”

This language suggests that Little City Gardens is explicitly modeling some of the Mayor’s stated goals. We need the mayor and the planning department to recognize the inconsistencies between the Executive Directive and the current zoning code. We need the city to eliminate antiquated and unneccessary obstacles to building a grassroots, healthy food economy.

In order to make change on the city level we need a broad base of support. Right now we need you, our supporters, to raise your voices. Help us encourage the Zoning Administrator to rule in our favor (that we can operate our market garden without a CUA) and set the precedent for a more gardeners to join the local food economy!

What you can do: Write a letter to the acting Zoning Administrator, Craig Nikitas, as well as Mayor Newsom, or make a phone call letting either of them know that you think we need code that allows for market-gardening or micro-farms in San Francisco.

San Francisco Planning Department
Attn: Acting Zoning Administrator Craig Nikitas
1650 Mission Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94103-2479
Phone: 415.558.6378
Fax: 415.558.6409
Email: craig.nikitas@sfgov.org

Mayor Gavin Newsom
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 554-6141
Fax: (415) 554-6160
Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org

An urban planner named Karin Huelsman wrote this letter, which you can use as inspiration. Its pretty compelling.

RE: New Market Gardens & SF’s Antiquated Zoning: An opportunity to make SF Livable;

I am urgently writing in response to a recent article on SF Gate: “Little City Gardens makes a go of urban agriculture in San Francisco”, and am aware that the Zoning Administrator, Lawrence Badiner, is currently working on a Zoning Interpretation for Market Gardens in RH1 zones.

I look forward to the SF City Planning Department leading the way on California’s overdue advocation of Urban Food Production for self-reliance, and for San Francisco to reaffirm its commitment to providing our city with healthy and sustainable food.

Please refer to Detroit’s zoning approval AND purchase of land for Market Garden project.

“Greening of Detroit buys land for Market Garden project.” (link)

(Read more about Little City Gardens on SFGate).

Thank you- Karin Marie Huelsman
San Francisco State University
Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Our Kickstarter campaign has ended, and we can’t thank all of you enough for your support. Zines, stickers, posters and garden picnics coming soon!

If we’re to talk about agriculture, we must also talk about immigrant rights.  We’d like to share a few thoughts sparked by SB1070, the draconian immigration legislation signed by Arizona’s Governor last week.

As humans who believe in human rights, we are deeply disturbed by the aggressive racism inherent in this law – and the blatant racial profiling that it enables.  As gardeners/farmers who believe in the right to a respectable livelihood as agriculturists, we know how much immigrant rights are tied to our food system.  With the passage of NAFTA in 1994 and CAFTA in 2005, Mexico and Central America incurred devastating price destabilization of agricultural commodities and thus disturbance of agricultural communities and economy. Through designing and enacting these oppressive trade policies, our government created one of the largest root causes of migration.  Now, conveniently for US Agribusiness, there is a legally marginalized population to be manipulated. The immigrant population now fuels our own agricultural economy.  Many immigrants who come to the US, especially to California, end up employed as farm workers. They work hard, long hours and deserve serious respect for the work of growing the nation’s food supply. Instead, for the most part, they are paid poorly, their health is put at risk, and they must live in fear of being deported.

First and foremost we believe that immigrants should have the right to a healthy stable livelihood in their own countries. The present reality is that many people do not have this privilege. We believe that all immigrants, including farmworkers, deserve admiration and respect for making an arduous journey to the US, for persevering (despite racism and separation from family and community), and for contributing their labor to this economy and their culture to our lives.

Arizona is not our state, but it could be. Tomorrow, May Day, we’ll be joining millions of others to declare this law unacceptable.