Christmas tree pickup is going on now, good citizens. If you live in the city, and you’ve dutifully removed all the tinsel, lights, bulbs and other doodads from your tannenbaum, you can put it out on the curb and it will probably get picked up by the city and turned into mulch. I say "probably" because, according to the city website, trees should have been out on the curb by 7am on January 12 to guarantee collection sometime during this week. The 12th was yesterday, and some of you have probably missed the boat. But others probably haven’t, and better for that tree to get mulched than to go in a landfill or a start a fire in your living room.
While we’re on the subject of awkward timing, let me point this out: an article on urban farming, including a section on Charlottesville’s own Urban Agriculture Project, which was published by WireTap Magazine last June but which I only just stumbled across. It details the nationwide movement in which fresh produce is being grown in urban plots, to the benefit and enjoyment of local residents. From what I know about the farm in Friendship Court, it’s a pretty neat program; locals volunteer to grow the veggies, free food gets distributed to the needy, and healthy stuff gets eaten instead of junk food.
Mostly asleep for the winter, but still cool as hell.
I used to volunteer at this urban farm in Providence, Rhode Island, and loved the incongruity of beautiful bursting vegetable beds in a rough city neighborhood. I get the same feeling when I walk past Charlottesville’s urban farm. Let’s have more of this! Kale and peas and tomatoes in front of City Hall, in the Downtown Mall planters, and along the median on Preston Avenue. Let’s get middle school kids gardening at school and inmates gardening at the jail. The more connections we make between our food and our immediate surroundings, the better off we’ll be.
Anybody been involved with the farm at Friendship Court? Want to tell us about it?
