“A few years ago nobody knew about urban agriculture,” says Roberta Groch, an SCLT board member who is also an urban planner for the state. “But, slowly we started incorporating it into the zoning in Providence and in other communities. And now it’s up at the State House, it’s in the Comprehensive Plan and in state regulations.
Rare and Unusual Plant Sale in Providence will kickstart your garden
Southside Community Land Trust’s sale marks its 25th anniversary May 20-21.
With 20,000 plants, live music, and a team of expert gardeners on hand to answer questions, the Southside Community Land Trust’s Rare and Unusual Plant Sale is a perfect start to the growing season.
At 25, the Plant Sale continues to delight, inform and inspire
An event about ‘feel-good commerce’ has stayed true to its roots
Every May for the past 25 years, gardeners and urban farm enthusiasts have made a pilgrimage to City Farm for our Rare & Unusual Plant Sale. They come to support SCLT’s work to transform abandoned land into gardens and farms and provide resources and training so anyone who wants to can grow food. But they also come to celebrate the start of the growing season and to savor the traditions that make the Plant Sale a joyful, authentic, shared experience.
Youth staff lay claim to urban farm
Caption: Spring youth staff Infinity, Jailine and Sergio at the Somerset Hayward Community Farm.
Last Wed., Mar. 29, a playful, eye-catching mural was mounted at the Somerset Hayward Community Farm off Broad Street in Providence. The mural depicts a pitchfork with vegetables, an idea suggested by SCLT youth staff and created by Met School student interns at the Avenue Concept.
This year’s Urban Ag Kick-off set for April 8
SCLT’s Urban Ag Kick Off is a fun time to reconnect with neighbors, learn about sustainable growing practices, and stock up on resources, like free, non-GMO seeds and low-cost, organic fertilizer. But the most tangible benefit for SCLT members is being able to take home 50 gallons of free, high-quality, organic compost! (Make sure you sign up or re-new either before or during the event.)
Food for thought served at Community Table
From artisan chocolate makers to school administrators, exercise physiologists to SNAP outreach workers, a group of people invested in the state of local food and public health gathered at the Social Enterprise Greenhouse’s Community Table on Sept. 27.
New garden lets West African elders grow familiar food
Usually it takes somewhere between several months to a year or more for a new garden or urban farm to go from the idea stage to completion (with design and planning, funding, installation and planting in between). So, when a garden for the nonprofit Higher Ground International was built within two months of being proposed, some of its clients called it a miracle.
Nonprofit awarded nearly $600k to help beginning farmers
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)—A nonprofit in Providence has been awarded nearly $600,000 in federal funding to help expand training opportunities for beginning farmers and ranchers throughout Rhode Island.
Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood welcomes new urban farm
A new urban farm in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood opens today. It’s the fifth urban farm created by the nonprofit Southside Community Land Trust.
The land trust has a network of 51 urban farms and community gardens. Executive Director Margaret DeVos explains that Providence needs these spaces because several of the city’s neighborhoods lack grocery stores. That means residents have limited access to produce at most of their local convenience stores.
Apprentice program grows food and community
By LEIGH VINCOLA/ecoRI News contributor
PROVIDENCE — This growing season the Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) will introduce a farming apprenticeship specifically designed for veterans and minorities. Funded by a grant from the USDA’s Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program, this is the first opportunity of its kind in the area.