Urban farming movement sprouts in Bowling Green

Toby, Amanda & Farmer Tim in the FFOYA House garden. Photo by Leanora Benkato.

FFOYA House's organic garden was featured in a story by Nicole Ares of the  College Heights Herald about urban gardening in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Here's what they had to say about our garden:

      In 2014, when Crawford and spouse Toby Fatzinger relocated to Bowling Green from Phoenix, they left behind their home recording studio along with the infertile desert soil.
     In the new city, the couple wanted to establish a home that represented their ideals and could influence the surrounding community. They chose a downtown Victorian home situated beside a halfway house and across from a juvenile detention center because they want to address large-scale imprisonment.
     “We hope by locating our arts venue across from structures of incarceration and next to a halfway house, we can help to raise consciousness on that issue as well,” Crawford said via email.
     It thus became the “FFOYA House,” a community home named after the couple’s indie band, Former Friends of Young Americans, that strives to bridge the gaps among local artists, musicians, activists and community members.
     “Buying local is an important thing to me and supporting your local businesses rather than major corporations or industries,” explained Crawford. “I have a concern about the direction that our world is going and whether the lifestyles we’re living are sustainable.”
     The FFOYA House is home to a recording studio open to local musicians, and the couple has also transformed their front yard into an organic permaculture garden.
     “Urban living is far more sustainable than suburban sprawl, so we hope we can demonstrate, even in a small way, that sustainable agriculture and urban living are compatible,” Crawford said via email.
​    A variety of produce has since grown there. Ripe orange tomatoes, red and green hot peppers, organic basil and a substantial amount of other plants grow throughout the yard. The couple’s garden is also home to a hugelkultur mound that was introduced to them by local farmer Tim Kercheville...
Read more...

---