ARTIFICATIONS: "4th & Jackson" Grassroots Weekend

What is Artifications???

Artification’s mandate is to bring culture to Hoboken residents in the form of music, quality art, theatre, dance and performance art. In this wonderful city, there is a stunning shortage of art. Artification works with the Monroe center to bring visibility to Hoboken artists while also inviting quality artists to display their art in Hoboken.

American cities undergoing gentrification unknowingly marginalize artists. Through steep rents and a stifling lack of gallery space, artists are forced to look elsewhere for reasonable work and display spaces. In Hoboken, a city that embodies gentrification, Artification is working to reverse that trend, and bring art back to the Mile Square City.

We need your help to do this.

Monday, April 28, 2008

"4th & Jackson" Grassroots Weekend

The disconnect between the plate and the pasture is so immense, we consume, without knowing where our food came from.There is a great book named the "Celestine Prophecy". In this book, spiritual groups plant and maintain their own gardens. They chew slowly and enjoy every bite. This is very much missing this connection to our food in urban areas.

In response to this disconnect, we have created our own container garden.
We are growing the following:

zucchini
Peppers
Tomato's
Lettuce
Thai Basil
Tarragon
Pansies

We have also re-potted just about every plant in 4th & Jackson. We are looking for a way to better sustain ourselves though this economic downturn. Every little bit helps.

ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN COMMUNITY GARDEN

More than ever, we are finding the 3rd & Jackson Community Garden less of a sanctuary for gardeners, and more so for beer swilling residents from across the street. In its latest attempt to dispel beer drinkers, the organizing of the 3rd st community gardens have cut the picnic tables into kindling. Sux, big time.

This is a reality check for those who have not looked at the stock market *Clearing throat* -
YOU WILL SAVE MONEY BY PLANTING AND HARVESTING YOUR OWN PRODUCE! PUT DOWN THE BEER AND STOP BLOWING UP THE SPOT FOR YOUR GARDENING NEIGHBORS.
If 5.0 roll up to the community gardens and expel the beer guzzling crowd a few times, it will mar the public gardens image. We can ill afford that, especially at a time when sustainability is paramount on the global "To Do List".

Instead, I would like to focus on what the gardeners are doing. Here we see how easy it is to plant beans. Here we see one of the gardeners has planted 6 rows of beans, all of which should be ready to harvest by mid to late May.

Here is a wonderful article on how beneficial Community Garden are and the role they play in our communities.

The Community Gardens are an underutilized commodity. There are still lots that are unreserved or have not been used for sometime. I think some of these are fallow because Hobokenites don't know about them yet.