Stop by Fonda San Miguel Resturant in Austin Texas to take a look at one of our projects and eat the best interior Mexican food in town. Scott planted the garden in October, and we’re just begining to harvest our first fall crop. Thanks to Austin Green Art, Land Art Division, for site design and installation.

Take a look at this short animation produced by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture. It does a great job of summing up how individuals are effected by and can affect global food security. (more…)

Last week, at nearly the hottest, driest time of the year, my once green, lush lawn had begun to look like a dry, barren, dead patch of ugliness.  Because of the six months long drought we’ve been having (http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html), everyone’s lawns on my block were either starting to look this way or had looked this way for some time.  I decided that the insanity had to stop.   (more…)

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about knowledge. Knowledge can be such an inhibitor to creativity, growth, and beauty. So many people struggle with the feeling that they don’t know enough to get started on a project - whether it is gardening or self-exploration or writing, we seem to need a hand to guide us through it. We have the most educated population on the planet in history and yet so many people are still hungry to know more. One of the hardest things to do, though, is to apply that knowledge - even if its just a little bit of knowledge - to a problem in the world that needs solving, or to an issue we find ourselves feeling passionate about, or just to an idea that’s been simmering internally for a long time waiting to become reality. The uncertainty that something might not go right, that an idea might fall flat on its face, and that time will be wasted is one that people must face if they are to do something that they haven’t done before. This uncertainty is inherent in the creative process, because making something new is nothing we can be taught how to do - its in the doing that we learn, become confident, and have faith.

I still haven’t fully internalized this perspective, though gardening is how I practice pushing myself to manifest a few of the ideas I’ve come up with in life.   (more…)

The fact that San Francisco has a brand new vegetable garden out in front of their city hall has made me a bit jealous. Austin’s local food movement is indeed vibrant and growing, but support for it, especially community gardening, within city hall is sorely lacking. (more…)

An amazing statement for a more sustainable food system was just planted at San Francisco city hall. It’s entire front lawn was removed and replaced with a Victory Garden, filled with a variety of edibles, to coincide with the Slow Food Nation conference that is taking place there at the end of August. (more…)

Urban Homestead’s Scott Dubois and Austin’s Sustainable Food Center are featured in OnNetworks.com Zen Living show talking about the benefits of community gardening. (more…)