"Over the last 50 years, food and zoning laws have worked to minimize subsistence activities in populated areas. Not only have we lost the culture of subsistence, but we've instituted legal requirements that make it almost impossible for many people to engage in simple subsistence activities that cut their energy use, reduce their ecological impact, improve their food security and improve their communities. In some cases, these laws were instituted for fairly good reasons, in many cases, for bad ones that associate such activities with poverty.
Scratch most of the reasons for these things both for zoning laws and HOA policies, and you'll find class issues under their surface in the name of "property values." There are ostensible reasons for these things, but generally speaking, they derive from old senses of what constituted wealth. They stem from the notion that what constituted wealth was essentially having things that don't do anything of economic value, but show that you can afford not to do for yourself...
No front yard gardens. Reason: The lawn is a sign of affluence - you have money, leisure and water enough to have a chunk of land, however tiny, that doesn't produce anything.. It creates in many neighborhoods a seemingly contiguous but basically sterile, often chemically toxic and seeming "public" greenspace that is actually privatized and not very green. Gardens, on the other hand, have dirty wildlife and bugs in them, and might grow food, which is bad because it implies you can't afford it - even if you can't."

Toby Hemenway's suggested reading list.

Excellent information and resources on soil biology, microscopy, and compost tea-brewing.

"The concept of “winter gardening” in the Pacific Northwest is well-known, but not widely practiced. The lack of farmers’ markets at this time of year shows that not even the farmers do much of it...First, most people who want a winter garden start too late. The month when I have usually heard the most talk about winter gardening is September, by which time it’s too late to seed most things. In actuality, planting for winter harvest in 2012/13 starts now! Below is a simple month-by-month planting guide based on the experiences I had gardening in Portland."

"The short and often unsatisfying answer to this questions is to focus on soil health, which in turn will give stronger healthier plants, which are in turn less attractive to pests and less susceptible to their damage.
While this is generally the truth, it does turn out that this is rarely achieved purely and there are a few simple practices that will augment the healthy soil, healthy plants approach, especially where we’re trying to push the limits of what can be grown in our particular micro climates.
I don’t think a lot about pests in the relative sense of worries on the farm or especially in my garden, but if I’m honest with myself there are a few pests that I deal with consistently and I’ll talk about those here, with more general approaches below."

Lots of great info on potatoes. "Potatoes are the standard. I view grains as honorary potatoes. Potatoes and grains are comparable as sources of protein. A boiling type of potato, for example, with 2.1 grams of protein per 100 grams fresh weight, has 10.4% protein per unit dry weight. Brown rice with 7.5% protein in the bin, has 9.6% protein per unit dry weight. (Many people don’t realize potatoes are a high-protein food because they are used to seeing numbers that compare the levels of protein in wet potatoes with those of dry grain.) Pasta varieties of wheat have protein amounts comparable to those of rice and potatoes. Bread varieties of wheat have higher protein contents. But grain protein is low in the essential amino acid lysine, so is not as usable to fill our protein (actually essential amino acid) needs as is the same amount of potato protein. In addition, we don’t absorb wheat proteins as well as those of rice or potatoes. Taking these factors into account, the potato is about as good a source of protein as the higher-protein grains, and is superior to lower-protein grains such as rice or standard commercial hybrid corn. Of annual crops, only beans are better sources of protein."

Top rated edible plants (mostly rare or underused), at Plants for a Future.

"Use Plant Information Online to discover sources in 1074 North American nurseries for 104779 plants, find 357757 citations to 161488 plants in science and garden literature, link to selected websites for images and regional information about 19131 plants, and access information on 2631 North American seed and nursery firms. Plant Information Online is a free service of the University of Minnesota Libraries."

"The world record attempt all started in 19th August 2001 when I decided I wanted to break the world record for the greatest number of plant varieties in a salad with plants grown in our garden." Their garden is in Norway.

Some really cool NW-adapted seeds for sale here.

"The study features three replicated plantings under each of the three systems.
The first system will grow apples, peaches, blueberries and blackberries in the giant pots; deep-rooted vegetables, such as tomatoes, in normal-sized buckets with drain holes; and shallow-rooted crops, such as green beans and strawberries, in wide gutters hung on cattle panels (stiff, welded-wire fencing). This is the system that’s highest off the ground and so may be easiest to care for: less stooping. Will all the containers be worth it?
In the second system, all the fruits and vegetables, including the fruit trees, will grow in 3-by-30-foot trenches cut out of the asphalt. A low raised bed will surround each trench. The bed will raise the trench’s sides; make it deeper to plant in; and also make it easier to reach, at least compared to planting in the ground. Is taking out only part of a parking lot, instead of all of it, a viable option?
The third system will grow all the crops in tall raised beds — about 30 inches high, or up past your knees — set on, not into, the asphalt. They’ll be higher than the trench beds but lower than the pots. The bottom 15 inches in each bed will be wood chips for drainage and height."
Wish some of his research was looking at actually building the fertility or doing bio-remediation of the soil under the pavement.

"But there are alternatives to double digging and tilling that will break up compacted soils. Scott Kleinrock at the Huntington Ranch turned a former construction parking lot into a productive edible landscape without double digging or tilling. Kleinrock used what I'd call a kind of toolkit of de-compaction strategies:<br />
-The application of a thick mulch (Chalker-Scott suggests a minimum of 12 inches). It's surprising how many earthworms start doing the tilling for you with a thick mulch layer.<br />
-Planting soil busting cover crops with thick tap roots like Daikon radish<br />
-The use of a broadfork or deep spader"

"In most cases, though, starting a new weedless garden is as simple as adding a nitrogen input, mowing, tossing down a layer of paper, and then topping it all of with mulch.  In less time than it would have taken to till the ground, you've created a new growing space and preserved the soil structure and organic matter." Difficulty is still finding a cheap sustainable source of nitrogen. 

Long but v. interesting article on the illegality of growing poppies. "But before I try to explain, let me offer a friendly warning to any gardeners who might wish to continue growing this spectacular annual: the less you know about it, the better off you are, in legal if not horticultural terms. Because whether or not the opium poppies in your garden are illicit depends not on what you do, or even intend to do, with them but very simply on what you know about them. Hence my warning: if you have any desire to grow opium poppies, you would be wise to stop reading right now. As for me, I’m afraid that, at least in the eyes of the law, I’m already lost, having now tasted of the forbidden fruit of poppy knowledge."

"Inventive men are constantly contriving simple but valuable things to meet the needs of their own practical experience. We are all the time hunting after and gathering these ideas. Now we are putting a lot of the best ones into this book. We are trying, by words and pictures, to explain clearly just how to make each device. Everything described is tried and practical. Some are old, many are new, all are good for the purpose intended. They represent the practical, successful experience of farmers and other wide-awake workers all over the United States." Copyright 1910

Composting, Useful Perennial Edible Garden Plants, The Ten Basics of Square Foot Gardening, Typical Plant Spacings

"In a healthy town every family can grow vegetables for itself. The time is past to think of this as a hobby for enthusiasts; it is a fundamental part of human life...The amount of land it takes to grow the vegetables for a household is surprisingly small. It takes about one-tenth of an acre to grow an adequate year round supply of vegetables for a family of four. And apparently vegetables give a higher "nutrient return" for fixed quantities of energy - sun, labor - than any other food. This means that every house or house cluster can create its own supply of vegetables, and that every household which does not have its own private land attached to it should have a portion of a common vegetable garden close at hand."

"If a garden is too close to the street, people won't use it because it isn't private enough. But if it is too far from the street, then it won't be used either, because it is too isolated...It seems then, that the proper place for a garden is neither in front, nor fully behind. The garden: needs a certain degree of privacy, yet also wants some kind of tenuous connection to the street and entrance. This balance can only be created in a situation where the garden is half in front, half in back - in a word, at the side, protected by a wall from too great an exposure to the street; and yet open enough, through paths, gates, arcades, trellises, so that people in the garden still have a glimpse of the street, a view of the front door or the path to the front door."

"This is a list of vegetable crops that are either currently grown, are recommended alternate crops, are experimental crops, or are not recommended for the Willamette Valley."

"As my search for references to human food habits continued, every so often I found a paper describing famine food plants - those plant species hardy or hidden enough to survive drought or other causes of crop destruction - upon which starving indigenous groups relied to assuage often death-dealing famines. Eventually, I realized no one had coordinated this small but fascinating literature on these famine plants. As I collected more citations, I decided to compile an inventory of all the published famine species...It seemed, at least in theory, more cost-effective to consider improving some of these indigenous crops, rather than continuing to transplant traditional Western crops to areas where they are not environmentally compatible and organoleptically acceptable."

On deciding what to grow: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a bit of garden will plant it with potatoes, onions and carrots. Faced with a world of possibilities, a special madness takes over and we fill our precious patch with the cheapest, most widely available food we can think of...I'd spent months wondering what plants to grow, forgetting that it was food I was after. I started listing everything I liked to eat. I got out of a now-cold bath with a long, wet list. I put the plant books away, got out the cookery books and that list of fruit, nuts, vegetables, herbs and spices got longer and longer. I did a little research, whittling out the truly impossible as well as anything cheap and widely available. What was left formed my first wishlist: mulberries, apricots, medlars, persimmons, quinces, pecans, olives, peaches, walnuts, mizuna, Szechuan pepper, kai lan and almonds. What a menu. Otter Farm was on its way."

I'll be getting a lot of use out of this massive collection of links. Compiled by Bob Waldrop.

"When most of us think about the urban landscape, we tend to fall into one of two worldviews. One is what you might call the traditional gardener’s approach, cultivating attractive ornamental plants while eliminating weeds — think of Boston’s Public Garden, or a carefully landscaped front yard. More recently, a new idea has gained ground: to reflect the natural landscape by planting native vegetation, while eliminating alien species. Del Tredici is offering an entirely different philosophy. Nothing is native to the city, he argues. The modern city is a new kind of habitat — one that provides pockets of livable spaces in surroundings that can be harsh, inhospitable, and polluted. The city habitat is so specialized, our divisions of “native” and “invasive” plants doesn’t really apply here. Instead, the plants that grow and thrive here could be considered the natural denizens of a new kind of habitat — what he calls “cosmopolitan” species."

Community-based garden in NE Portland.

"I plant weeds sometimes. I just feel I should admit this upfront, and come out with it and accept your outrage...As someone who also relies on cultivated crops, I've tried every strategy you can imagine for preventing and killing weeds - I used a borrowed flame weeder once, and decided it was too big a pain. I've mulched, hoed, hand weeded, used landscape fabric (the weeds just grow on top of it and it looks ugly), tilled, not tilled, solarized, mowed, cover cropped and underplanted. I've found that the best strategies for me are a combination of just accepting that weeding is part of life and also choosing my weeds - either creating conditions that are hospitable only to weeds I can deal with or actually planting weeds to fill ecological niches that I know are going to get filled anyway. Now I plant sweet alyssum under my squashes, white clover in my pathways and bee balm in the occasional soggy spot which otherwise will be filled with wet loving ground ivy."

For planting veg in Oregon.

Good diagrams for 10' by 10' Three Sisters garden.

"Plants For A Future is a resource centre for rare and unusual plants, particularly those which have edible, medicinal or other uses. We practise vegan-organic permaculture with emphasis on creating an ecologically sustainable environment based largely on perennial plants."

"Amidst two seemingly unrelated activities of gaming and guerilla gardening comes a new video game titled Seeds of Revolution. The games allow you to virtually green empty spaces in the urban realm while avoiding restrictive authorities, without the real-life fear of detection and municipal punishment. This is a cute game and at the very least provides attention to guerrilla gardening efforts, but with recent advancements in augmented reality and virtual gaming, I can't help but imagine that a new style of drone based urban landscape replenishment isn't a far off possibility...This interaction of mapping and potential robotic deployment reveals possible scenerios for future practice of urban design and landscape. The idea is an evolvement of games like The SIMs, adding the excitement of real results and the danger of bypassing city codes."

A handy chart of what crops to plant near each other.

"What I’d really like to see though, is Pollan and his ilk get a little more honest about the stark politics behind good eating. I’d like them to get a little Wendell Berry combativeness in them. All too often the tendency is to turn gardening and local eating into another ‘lifestyle option’, another accoutrement for bland yuppies to brandish, an aesthetic pose. But to my mind rethinking food politics is an overtly political stance – and taken seriously will cause havoc to certain social milieus...The same thing happens when lots of us start riding bikes everywhere: we stop buying cars and gas and it hurts business. All of this is all good and fun and ecological and “green,” but really it presents a direct, antagonistic challenge to capitalism. And so it should be. I want planting gardens to be not just an aesthetic activity or an attempt to ameliorate capitalism’s worst excesses but the first punch in a brawl."

"Russell Moore, a former chef and produce buyer at Chez Panisse, recalls when he and Waters first began working with Cannard. “What struck me about Bob was this guy was absolutely connected to the earth that he was taking care of,” Moore said. “He just seemed to do everything right.” Moore said Cannard’s crop wizardry is unparalleled. “Bob’s produce is the best. No one can grow arugula like him, or lettuce, carrots, fennel, cardoons. I could live off the food on Bob’s farm all year round and be completely content.” Wandering near Cannard’s house, I found what looked like a neglected garden. An arugula crop had gone to flower near rows of young lettuce heads glowing green in the sun, interspersed with weeds. A lopsided fig tree was covered with still unripe figs, and a jumble of mint grew in between strawberry plants...How could this place, which felt more like an unruly nature preserve than a farm, be the source of so much culinary inspiration?" Cannard's explanations are fascinating.

"The proponents of urban farming often muddle up doing it because we must (that is, we face shortages if we do not) and doing it because we should (self-reliance being a virtue, food security being desirable and so on) - necessity and desirability...the aesthetics are, regrettably, an instance of apocalypse chic. For some reason, when young architecture practices confront the planet's combined crises, the reference tool they reach for is Mad Max rather than, say, anything attractive or optimistic. In an effort to make the project visibly post-crisis, it is deliberately informalised, made to look uglier, cheaper and more improvised than it could be. In order to make this palatable, it is made to be "fun", usually by installing a turntable. The overall idea appears to be to suggest that the chaotic transition from petroeconomy to whatever comes next is going to be like some kind of hipster yard party."

Great list of useful and important crops to grow in a personal garden.

Thinking about the future of big box stores: "The vast acreage of big-box parking lots seems almost providentially proportioned to be turned into walkable city blocks...lay these blocks out with parking garages at their core, and encrust those with an outer layer of shops and apartments on all sides. That makes one block. Put together a whole bunch of these blocks, with the shops and apartments facing each other across the newly defined streets, and you've got a chunk of city." Inside the stores themselves could be housing or organic gardens.

"Your sun-food agenda promises to win support across the aisle. It builds on America’s agrarian past, but turns it toward a more sustainable, sophisticated future. It honors the work of American farmers and enlists them in three of the 21st century’s most urgent errands: to move into the post-oil era, to improve the health of the American people and to mitigate climate change. Indeed, it enlists all of us in this great cause by turning food consumers into part-time producers, reconnecting the American people with the American land and demonstrating that we need not choose between the welfare of our families and the health of the environment — that eating less oil and more sunlight will redound to the benefit of both."

Foraging for free fruits, vegetables, and other "wild food" around the city; guerrilla gardening: The practice of taking over public spaces and turning them into urban gardens.