350 Colorado is supportive of projects promoting local, organic food and reducing meat consumption because we know that many of today’s industrial agricultural practices and the globalized food system contribute significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the the atmosphere exacerbating climate change – some say as much as 19-30% of total carbon emissions! Growing more of our food locally and without petro-chemical fertilizers and herbicides is healthier for our bodies, gentler on our planet, builds a more resilient community to climate and fossil fuel price shocks, and helps us transition off fossil-fueled food system.
350 Boulder County is part of “The Shed” – The Boulder County Foodshed – a coalition including City of Boulder, Boulder County, CU, BVSD, businesses and nonprofits in our community focused on increasing the amount of locally-grown food consumed by locals and educating our community about the benefits of local food to our bodies, local economy, and our sense of place.
As part of The Shed, we created the Boulder Edible Landscapes Coalition. Projects include:
* Community Fruit Rescue – These neighborhood fruit harvests are organized collaboratively by 350BoCo, Boulder Food Rescue, FallingFruit.org, and Boulder Bear Coalition, with support from the City of Boulder. This program launched in fall of 2014 and meets many goals at once. We’re building a stronger sense of community, promoting eating locally-grown food, reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with food miles traveled, protecting wildlife by reducing the temptations for bears to come into town, and delivering food that would otherwise be wasted to people who need it. Sign up and learn more here. Photo Credit Paul Aiken, Daily Camera Read more here in the Daily Camera and here in the Boulder Weekly.
* Food Forests and Edible Landscaping in Parks and Public Spaces – What’s nicer than walking through your local park and picking some apples and raspberries along the way? We are working with city planners to integrate edible landscaping in the redesign of park areas and open space in Boulder. The vision includes planting fruit and nut trees and bushes, medicinal plants, and veggie gardens in parks especially when neighborhood groups or nonprofits are interested in maintaining them, and providing educational signage and interactive learning opportunities.
* Yards to Gardens Workshops – In 2015 and 2016, we offered monthly workshops spring-fall at the Edible Learning Garden we created at the Main Boulder Library. Stay tuned for future workshops in 2017. Click here to view our April 24th presentation on Basic Permaculture Design Principles, Soil Health and Carbon Sequestration, Water and Irrigation.
*We are interested in developing a Yards to Gardens program to offer consultations for home or business owners interested in transforming their yard into an edible landscape, based on their interests in having edible veggie gardens, fruit or nut bearing trees and bushes, medicinal plants, bee havens and drought-tolerant natives.
*Yard Share – We are seeking funding to set up an online matching program between home and business owners with a yard who would like to integrate edible landscaping and gardening, but don’t have the skills or time, with people who want more land to garden. The gardener would share a pre-agreed portion of the produce with the land owner in exchange for free use of the land.
*Edible Schoolyards – We support school communities interested in installing and maintaining edible landscaping into their schoolyards. A current example project is Columbine Elementary, which has raised bed gardens, a 33′ geodesic dome greenhouse, and edible landscaping with programming for students provided by the Growe Foundation, Growing Gardens and an after-school Greenhouse & Garden Club. Click here to learn more about Columbine Elementary’s Garden & Greenhouse to Table program.
*Community Gardens – Currently there are long waiting lists for community garden plots in Boulder, so we are promoting creation of more community gardens in park areas where neighbors desire it and the need is not met.
Want to learn more or get involved? Email Micah(at)350colorado.org if you would like to join the Edible Landscapes Working Group!
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Click here for great Climate Wise Gardening Tips, courtesy of Elizabeth Black.
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Click here to learn more about how to fight climate change with your fork – a blog post from one of our 350 Colorado supporters.