When I stumble upon a farmers market, I love to walk around, take in the smells and look at the mingling colors of the fruits, vegetables and flowers. This is from yesterday’s Portland Farmers Market on NW 23rd Avenue…

Craig and Libby Smith, owners of Badger Ridge Greenhouses, supply custom designed containers, hanging baskets, bedding plants and vegetables to Calgary and Cochrane wholesalers. This year business is down because of the cold, cloudy weather. Photo credit: Barbara Duckworth/Producer.com

Craig and Libby Smith’s farming dream has grown from a small greenhouse to more than 18,000 sq. feet of space producing flowers, herbs and vegetables.
They bought a bare quarter section of land northwest of Calgary near the hamlet of Madden in 1998 and by 2000 had started a small greenhouse that has expanded into a large indoor growing area and garden centre.
“It started as a hobby that grew into a business,” Libby said.
Seventy percent of their business is selling wholesale to garden centres in Calgary and Cochrane, Alta., with the rest from farm sales and farmers’ markets. They create custom designed hanging baskets and containers and grow vegetables such as traditional and heirloom tomatoes. Herbs are the newest product.
This year has been a challenge because home gardeners reduced buying due to poor weather in May and June. Wholesalers reported that business was down 50 percent.
“The rain in early June has really killed the wholesale market,” Craig told a June 24 farm tour.
Added Libby: “Despite the fact we are in a closed building, we need the sun to grow flowers and this year has been challenging with four weeks of rain and snow.… We are probably not down that much because every year we have been growing our own retail market, but we are certainly nowhere near where we should be.”

The Science Behind The Great Sunflower Project
As you sit at the table today, do you know where the water you are drinking came from? 85% of the drinking water in San Francisco comes from the Sierra. How about the last prescription medicine you took? It probably originated from a natural source. Of the top 150 prescription drugs used in the U.S., 118 originate from natural sources: 74 percent from plants, 18 percent from fungi, 5 percent from bacteria, and 3 percent from a species of snake! And, where did the ingredients for your lunch and dinner come from? One of every three bites you took probably came from a plant pollinated by wild pollinators. This is just the beginning of list of the services provided by healthy, natural ecosystems.
Economists and ecologists have started working together to find a way to place a financial value the contribution of natural ecosystems to human existence. The estimates are eye-opening. For example, the value of pollination services from wild pollinators in the U.S. alone is estimated at four to six billion dollars per year. While these ecosystem services are currently produced for “free”, replacing the natural ecosystem would cost many trillions of dollars. Unless human activities are carefully planned and managed, valuable ecosystems will continue to be impaired or destroyed.
To maintain biodiversity and to meet the increasing demands for ecosystem services, we must move conservation science into cities (Rosenzweig 2003). Cities are important for conservation for two reasons. First, 80% of the United States population already lives in urban areas (United States Census Bureau 2003). Second, cities encompass about 3% of land (59.6 million acres) in the United States and 230,000 additional acres become urban each year. Because of their large human populations, cities are the places where many ecosystem services, such as environmental quality of life, are delivered (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Given the growth of the urban population, it is clear that we need to develop the knowledge necessary for maintaining natural habitats in the urban setting and find a way to give urban dwellers access to nature.
We know that pollinators are declining in certain wild and many agricultural landscapes. However, little is known about urban pollinators. Our recent data on bumble bees in an urban setting suggests that urban bees may also be declining (McFrederick & LeBuhn 2006, Fenter and LeBuhn submitted). While the loss of these pollinators is important, it is more important to understand what effect these losses have had on pollinator services.
We do not know much about how healthy bee populations are maintained in an urban environment. Because natural habitats are uncommon in urban landscapes, they may not provide enough resources to support viable pollinator communities. However, if other habitats, such as urban gardens and restored areas, are sufficiently connected to natural habitat, then native populations may thrive.
By finding a way to track and value the goods and services provided by natural ecosystems, we will find a future in which conservation is not a luxury but a guiding principle of daily decision-making throughout the world. The data you collect from your sunflower willbe a start. It will provide an insight into how our green spaces in the urban, suburban and rural landscapes are connected as well as shedding light on how to help pollinators. What we need are innovative strategies to maximize the benefits of our wild and semi-wild habitat remnants. The Great Sunflower Project is the first step.

Source: The Great Sunflower Project

Here is a collection of 15 indoor gardens in subway stations, hotels, malls and more from around the world…

Have you ever wanted to cross though a Jungle during your morning commute? This indoor garden isn’t so secretive but it sure is amazing! Madrid, Spain is the next stop in the awesome secret gardens of the world. Atocha is the main train station for Madrid and has a beautiful garden simply known as the JUNGLE. The original station that stood here was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt by Alberto de Palacio Elissage and Gustave Eiffel- the guy who built the Eiffel Tower! Photo credit: Charlie Wild's Flickr Photostream

My friend Lonnie has a home in Alpine, Oregon (between Eugene and Corvallis) with beautiful flower and vegetable gardens as the video below attests…

Photo credit: The Double Knock Out® Rose/Conard-Pyle Rose Co.

The Conard-Pyle Company reached a settlement recently with a Central Florida nursery and landscaper found to have infringed its plant patent and trademark rights on the popular Knock Out® roses.
In addition to imposing a financial penalty, Conard-Pyle required the infringer to destroy a large number of infringing plants. The nursery and landscaper was in violation of United States Plant Patent Laws that states no one may asexually propagate or sell any patented plant without the permission of the patent owner.
“Illegal propagation is a topic that we take very seriously,” says Jacques Ferare, vice president of licensing for the Conard-Pyle Co. “As the introducer of the Knock Out® roses, we are committed to ensuring that Knock Out® plants are grown and marketed only by legitimate growers. This not only protects these legitimate nurseries, it also guarantees the consumer is getting the real thing and not a ‘knock off.’”
To ensure the rights of the Knock Out® brand of roses are being protected, Conard-Pyle is taking legal steps to enforce its trademark and plant patent rights throughout the industry.

From The Huffington Post,

Jules Dervaes, a man has turned his small yard in Pasadena, California into a profitable organic urban farm called Path to Freedom. Dervaes says what started out as a hobby became serious for him with the advent of genetically modified foods and rising food prices.
With the help of his family, they now produce over 6,000 pounds of food annually on their 1/10-acre of land, though their goal is to hit 10,000 pounds in the 2010 growing season. The 350 varieties of organic fruits and vegetables grown not only sustain the Dervaes family, but the large surplus is sold to local restaurants and catering companies.
Setting an example as to what’s possible in city farming and sustainability, the Dervaes family even makes their own bio-fuel for their minimal vehicle usage.

The Growing Edge highlighted Path to Freedom last year in this POST. The web site of Path to Freedom is HERE.