A descriptive explanation of urban gardening and the hawley Hamlet.

1. The Hawley Hamlet
Growing Food on an Urban Farm
12 Blocks from Downtown Lincoln

2. My First Toyota Prius (2003)
Yes, I am a ‘Prius Driver’

6. Why do we
always plant
things that
we can’t eat?

7. Home, Sweet Home (prior to 2009)

8. The largest irrigated crop in America is the lawn.
According to NASA, there are three times more acres of lawns in the U.S. than
irrigated corn — enough to cover the entire state of Ohio.

9. The average bite of food on our plate
travels 1,346 miles to get there.
“U.S. Agriculture: Potential Vulnerabilities.”
Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, CA.
Prepared for: Office of Civil Defense,
Office of the Secretary of the Army
January 1969
About one-fifth of all food consumed in the U.S. is imported.
U.S. Government, 2014

10. Over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds
of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California.
Source: California Department of Food and Agriculture, 2015 Report
The brown-colored
area is the worst
condition of
“Exceptional Drought”
The U.S. Drought Monitor is jointly produced by the
National Drought Mitigation Center at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of
Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Map courtesy of NDMC-UNL.
California
Central Valley
U.S. Drought Monitor
Map of California - March 29, 2016
D0 - Abnormally Dry
D1 - Moderate Drought
D2 - Severe Drought
D3 - Extreme Drought
D4 - Exceptional Drought
California

11. percent
of the $4.4 billion
Nebraskans annually spend
on food leaves the state…
Source: Crossroads Resource Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota , 2010

12. Five Good Reasons To Grow Our Own Food
1. Good Taste (local is fresher)
2. Good Health (local is more nutritious)
3. Good Business (local is economically advantageous)
4. Good Stewardship (local is resource-efficient)
5. Good Security (local is more reliable)

14. …and as of September 2014

15. Our Lawn-free Front Yard with Bee-friendly, Drought-tolerant Perennials

17. Growing Food for Bees and People in the Public Right-of-Way

20. Looking for the ‘Huh’ Factor
( *Notice all the lawns up the block… )

21. What the Neighbors have to look at…

26. The Movie Stars
As featured on NET’s “Backyard Farmer”
The Movie Stars
As featured on NET’s “Backyard Farmer”

28. Plat map for ‘The Hamlet’ – our city block bounded by 25th & 26th Streets and ‘T’ & ‘U’ Streets
in the Hawley Neighborhood Historic District near Downtown Lincoln (photo taken 2010)

43. Potatoes
growing in
the Public
Right-of-Way

53. United Nations: “Of the 100 crop species
that provide 90 percent of the world’s
food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.”

54. A panoramic view of part of the Hamlet’s six tenths of an acre
neighborhood garden & orchard in the interior of the block
(photo taken July 2012)

58. Strawberry Lawn

59. Summer

60. FALL

68. The Urban Gardener’s Goal
To put something home-grown on the table every day —
whether it’s fresh, stored, canned, fermented, dried or frozen.
In an urban environment, ‘self-sufficiency’ will never be an option.
There’s no room in town for fields of corn and wheat and we can’t
keep the animals we need for dairy and meat.
But even at the city block level, we can be growing fresh greens
year-round, preserving our garden harvest, and keeping bees and
a couple of chickens for eggs.
We’ll be making more efficient and responsible use of available
resources, getting plenty of exercise and giving ourselves a daily
reminder of how that food got on the table.