Friday, February 7, 2025

Avalon Sustainability Initiative

“I was talking with my mother,” local environmentalist Michael Burford says between sips of coffee, “and realized that I had to go back six generations [in our family] to find someone who knew agriculture.” That disturbed Burford, who comes from a long line of doomsday preppers — growing up, his family had enough food to last one year after the apocalypse. “What happens after that year, waiting to die?” Burford wondered. Bent on survival, Burford learned to farm—in a city. And his mission now is to help you do the same.

To that end, Burford and his friend Scott Delaney founded the Avalon Sustainability Initiative, a local urban farming and landscaping company. Avalon started as a lawn-care service and property management company in Maumee during 2008, but shifted gears to sustainable farming after the snowless winter of 2011, which the pair saw as a definite indicator of climate change. Now Avalon installs small farming beds and other supplies for their customers, designed for growing food in urban environments — “edible landscaping,” to use their words. They want to prepare Toledoans to grow their own food to combat rising food costs predicted by environmental theorists.

Building gardens for you
Unlike other lawn care companies, Avalon sees mankind’s connection to the earth as necessary for an individual’s sense of well-being. Delaney taught better living through gardening in an after-school program at South Toledo Community Center. “It was the most natural thing to put the pencils down and take the kids outside to the garden.” Burford described his business as
“kingdom-based”— “a new way of seeing business, more biblical, more love and service instead of profitability.”

Urban farming is a new — and growing — movement of people producing food in cities, from gardens on roofs to chicken coops in yards. Proponents say urban farming makes cheaper and more nutritious food available to the 50% of all people who live in cities. Urban farming initiatives flourish in foreign metropolises like Beijing, as well as closer to home in Chicago. Avalon is the first urban farming initiative in Northwest Ohio to install gardens for its customers. To those who doubt the practicality of urban farming: Burford and DeLaney said one person can survive for a year on a quarter acre of farmland — a smaller area than a typical backyard. Delaney hopes that Avalon will be an asset to the community. “Hopefully we will teach parents skills they can teach their children [for] how to treat the environment better, treat themselves better, and introduce a little humanity instead of making us all into cubicle robots.” Avalon is still sprouting — their website will debut soon — and interest in their projects grows with them. According to Avalon’s blog (avalonsustainability.wordpress.com), as of late January, an online fundraiser on Kickstarter is on track to meet its goal. They signed their first big contract with Seagate Food Bank last month. “A lot of people are interested, they just need young men with strong backs to come in and do the labor,” Burford says. “That’s us.”

Avalon Sustainability Initiative, 1700 Woodlands Dr., Maumee. 419-283-7292. avalonsustainability.com. Facebook page: Avalon Sustainability Initiative.

“I was talking with my mother,” local environmentalist Michael Burford says between sips of coffee, “and realized that I had to go back six generations [in our family] to find someone who knew agriculture.” That disturbed Burford, who comes from a long line of doomsday preppers — growing up, his family had enough food to last one year after the apocalypse. “What happens after that year, waiting to die?” Burford wondered. Bent on survival, Burford learned to farm—in a city. And his mission now is to help you do the same.

To that end, Burford and his friend Scott Delaney founded the Avalon Sustainability Initiative, a local urban farming and landscaping company. Avalon started as a lawn-care service and property management company in Maumee during 2008, but shifted gears to sustainable farming after the snowless winter of 2011, which the pair saw as a definite indicator of climate change. Now Avalon installs small farming beds and other supplies for their customers, designed for growing food in urban environments — “edible landscaping,” to use their words. They want to prepare Toledoans to grow their own food to combat rising food costs predicted by environmental theorists.

Building gardens for you
Unlike other lawn care companies, Avalon sees mankind’s connection to the earth as necessary for an individual’s sense of well-being. Delaney taught better living through gardening in an after-school program at South Toledo Community Center. “It was the most natural thing to put the pencils down and take the kids outside to the garden.” Burford described his business as
“kingdom-based”— “a new way of seeing business, more biblical, more love and service instead of profitability.”

Urban farming is a new — and growing — movement of people producing food in cities, from gardens on roofs to chicken coops in yards. Proponents say urban farming makes cheaper and more nutritious food available to the 50% of all people who live in cities. Urban farming initiatives flourish in foreign metropolises like Beijing, as well as closer to home in Chicago. Avalon is the first urban farming initiative in Northwest Ohio to install gardens for its customers. To those who doubt the practicality of urban farming: Burford and DeLaney said one person can survive for a year on a quarter acre of farmland — a smaller area than a typical backyard. Delaney hopes that Avalon will be an asset to the community. “Hopefully we will teach parents skills they can teach their children [for] how to treat the environment better, treat themselves better, and introduce a little humanity instead of making us all into cubicle robots.” Avalon is still sprouting — their website will debut soon — and interest in their projects grows with them. According to Avalon’s blog (avalonsustainability.wordpress.com), as of late January, an online fundraiser on Kickstarter is on track to meet its goal. They signed their first big contract with Seagate Food Bank last month. “A lot of people are interested, they just need young men with strong backs to come in and do the labor,” Burford says. “That’s us.”

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Avalon Sustainability Initiative, 1700 Woodlands Dr., Maumee. 419-283-7292. avalonsustainability.com. Facebook page: Avalon Sustainability Initiative.

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