Daily Loaf

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Cool-N-Save: An eco-friendly energy saver for your air conditioning unit (Video): Jennifer Meier writes about how the Cool-n-SaveTM system affixes to the top of most home air conditioning units, resulting in a substantial drop in ambient temperature of up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The Cool-N-Save(TM) system has also been rated by the US Department of Energy and EPA as an Energy Star Partner.

Signs of hope: are our environmental efforts making a difference?: Linda Taylor shows us an example of how environmental efforts can make a difference, even if they take years to come to fruition.
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Community gardeners and their supporters have a lot to celebrate in the Tampa Bay area this year: ordinances allowing community gardens in St. Pete, Tarpon Springs, Safety Harbor, Seminole Heights, Ybor, and Holiday (among others).

Don’t miss Green Florida’s 2nd Annual Summer Shuffle Event this Saturday June 13th, from 7:00 – 11:00 pm at the Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Courts, 559 Mirror Lake Drive in St Petersburg.
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The horrifying and tragic shooting death of 8-year old Paris Whitehead Hamilton this past month sparked a wellspring of grief and outrage among neighbors in Bartlett Park’s south St. Petersburg neighborhood.  In a move to heal and renew the community, members of Green Florida have launched a new project in Paris’ memory to transform front yards in the neighborhood into gardens integrating Florida native plants and vegetables.

Working with residents, including Paris Whitehead Hamilton’s family members, the first Paris Gardens are being designed with donated soil, plants and volunteer labor to take dying grass lawns and replace them with drought tolerant landscaping and money-saving vegetable gardens.  “Our neighborhoods need to provide for our needs!  The Paris Gardens can help provide food, work and job training opportunities, a way for neighbors to get to know each other, water savings and a beautiful, peaceful place to live”,  says Andrea Hildebran of Green Florida and Bartlett Park Community Garden.

Green Florida Potluck Supper and Organizing Meeting – Wednesday, May 13th, 6:00 pm Read the rest of this entry »

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St Pete City Council’s Public Safety and Infrastructure Committee went to work last Thursday towards adding language to their zoning regulations about community gardens.  Given that more and more people want to grow their own food and green up their neighborhoods these days, it may come as a shock that technically speaking, right now community gardens are not actually allowed.

Like most cities in Florida, St Petersburg’s zoning doesn’t have any provisions for community gardening at all.  Happily, in St Pete this appears to be an oversight — unsurprising given how few long-term community gardens have existed in the state of Florida.  City staff have readily provided temporary use permits to the Bartlett Park Community Garden over the last year (the Azalea garden on 22nd Ave. N is on city park land and doesn’t require permitting).  But more garden projects are in the works all over the city and it will help a great deal to have a more standardized process for getting them established.

If the city can move fast, St Pete could be on the upside of the curve.  Similar ordinances are in the works in places like Safety Harbor and Tampa (Tarpon Springs already passed theirs last year).  In fact, these others are looking at adding community gardens to their comprehensive plans as well as their zoning regulations, which could be really helpful as community gardens become recognized as both a necessity (for food during a recession) and a desirable neighborhood asset (studies show they raise property values and stabilize residency). Read the rest of this entry »

Last year, Andrea Hildebran told Creative Loafing that she hoped the seeds she helped plant in St. Pete’s Best of the Bay-winning Bartlett Park Community Garden would lead to more than just some beautiful green vegetables. She envisioned similar urban community gardens flourishing all over Tampa Bay.

That movement seems to be taking root. Earlier this week, more than 60 people met to form a permanent network of urban community gardens throughout the city of Tampa in conjunction with Green Florida, the nonprofit that Hildebran and her partners formed in Bartlett Park. Read the rest of this entry »