If you haven't yet read "Farm City" by Novella Carpenter, you should..

[big brown horse]

It is a great book about a young couple living in the ghetto in Oakland, CA's "ghost town" ~in an upstairs apartment~ who sort of gurilla grow a large permacultured garden on an adjacent vacant lot. They also raise chickens, meat birds, bees and a pig! Very inspiring and a great read to boot.

"Ghost Town" is near downtown Oakland, it is called ghost town b/c there are abandond lots and houses on every block. Bums lived in old cars left in the streets, gangs were everywhere, people used shopping carts as vehicles to tote their kids and groceries everywhere, gun fire was heard at night etc.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

It is a great book about a young couple living in the ghetto in Oakland, CA's "ghost town" ~in an upstairs apartment~ who sort of gurilla grow a large permacultured garden on an adjacent vacant lot. They also raise chickens, meat birds, bees and a pig! Very inspiring and a great read to boot.

"Ghost Town" is near downtown Oakland, it is called ghost town b/c there are abandond lots and houses on every block. Bums lived in old cars left in the streets, gangs were everywhere, people used shopping carts as vehicles to tote their kids and groceries everywhere, gun fire was heard at night etc.

check out her blog. her garden got shut down

 

[big brown horse]

Awww!! That sucks!

eta blog: http://ghosttownfarm.wordpress.com/

 

[JRmom]

Good grief. You'd think having green growing tended plants on a vacant lot would be a good thing!

I've seen some YouTube interviews she has done, very interesting.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Good grief. You'd think having green growing tended plants on a vacant lot would be a good thing!

I've seen some YouTube interviews she has done, very interesting.

Apparently, as long as she was squatting on the lot, it was all legal, but as soon as she owned it, it became a commercial lot unknown to her, and she was shut down.
We should all take note of the fact that her blog is read by the city officials, and is and has been used against her.

 

[Henrietta23]

That's too bad. I read the book from the library when it first came out and really enjoyed it.