By Kevin Archer on April 12, 2011
Today I pulled back the mulch in my garlic bed. I was greeted by tender green shoots, holding aloft the fulfillment of a promise.
In October, I planted about 120 garlic cloves and let them sprout. Shortly before the first frost, I gave them a good blanket of straw, and we agreed to meet again after winter. I also put on a few extra layers, and now here we are, at the threshold of spring. The garlic, I must say, has a serious case of bed-head. As for me, well, I’m sufficiently groomed for gardening, I suppose.
It’s the same routine every year, this seed-to-plant-to-harvest-to-seed cycle. And it is still miraculous – because try as we might, we still don’t understand what created the spark of life that permeates our world. So I stand amazed as the plants awaken from their nap and demand my interaction.
It’s not just Nature performing this stage show, but also her sister Metaphor. Hand in hand, they remind us that winter’s spells are temporary. Dormancy is only a phase. Darkness is never eternal. Every yin has its yang, and life has its flow. Out of every cold and somber period, I also have sprung forth with renewed vigor and purpose.
I embrace all the seasons, and marvel at the unfair share of complaints filed against winter. Yes, it is cold. But it also can be a very productive time. In winter, we gather compact energy and have an opportunity to turn our attention inward. We conserve our resources. We have time to experience great peace in meditation. While these activities can be restful, they are a far cry from dormancy.
If we get a bit down, we have a promise to help us keep going. That promise is simple: The garden bed, once overflowing with autumn’s bounty, will spring into life again.
This promise is held in the tiniest of places, packed tightly into the seeds the garden gives us to save. Not only are the seeds tiny, but they are super-abundant, uncountable, even unmanageable. We gather them and keep them safely through winter. By using only a fraction of them, we’ll have more results than we can imagine.
Do we doubt it now and then? Do we sometimes wonder if the process will break down at some point? Sure we do. But behind it all, those seeds are lying in wait, as if they are secrets hidden by winter’s dim light. Then comes that mysterious and galvanizing spark …
So now the march toward aphelion awakens us, and we relive the unrestrained renewal of all living things. Energy breaks loose all around us. Spring blossoms peek in the windows as fresh tendrils turn the doorknob.
The newness in the air fills our lungs and reminds us that we can do anything. It’s time to grab a handful of seeds and step outdoors. Life demands our interaction.
Photo credit: AlyssssylA
Read More By Alexandra Jamieson on March 25, 2011
Some of my first memories are from my mother’s garden (that’s Mom and Me, aka “Sasha” at Eve’s Organic Garden, mid-1970s, Lake Grove, OR). When I close my eyes, I feel cool pebbles and dewy grass under my bare feet, hear buzzing bees and chirping birds and smell a cacophony of scents from roses, lilac, herbs, freshly turned earth and compost.
My mom learned gardening from her grandparents in Texas and moist, chilly Port Angeles, Washington. To me, she seemed like Snow White incarnate – mom could bring any dying house plant to life and sprout any seed, and knew where to find the birds, butterflies and interesting spiders. Her decade-long run as the radio host of Eve’s Organic Garden on KBOO in Portland, Oregon, proved that her ideas for planting and knowledge of gardening were admired by many. The local Italian family that ran Ricardo’s restaurant often stopped by looking for fresh herbs and flowers.
As a kid, I enjoyed the rambling gardens around our old farmhouse. Private tunnels of blackberries provided space to daydream, and the Rainier cherry tree offered sweetly blushed gems every spring. I found a lot of pleasure in picking seeds to grow every spring, learning the look of healthy soil and digging around for bugs and worms. It seemed like magic to discover the nasturtium seeds growing out of the stems where edible flowers of red and orange once bloomed so brilliantly.
While my brother and I grumbled about the inevitable hours of weeding, pruning, hauling and raking, today we look back on that time as peaceful, formative and a badge of honor. Now we find that gardening relieves our stress and keeps us healthy. It’s not just the organic, fresh food we can grow. We harvest something more – peace and connection.
Growing up on the west coast, we didn’t know that fireflies were real. My first sighting of these electric “lightning bugs” was actually in Central Park when I was about 21 years old. I was visiting my brother a few years before I moved to New York City. I excitedly told my brother, then almost 30, “I saw a firefly! They’re real!” He beamed back at me with joy, and it felt like we were kids again, sharing this wonderful discovery.
Now I long for spring planting and have happily settled in a ground floor Brooklyn apartment with a back yard and space to plant a few pots. Last summer’s freak tornados had the silver-lining effect of creating more sun in my previously shade-choked yard when three neighboring trees lost half of their limbs.
I’m passing on my love for digging, planting, watering, weeding and waiting to my son, Laken. When I discovered kid-sized tools at a stoop sale (we call them stoop sales here in Brooklyn, because who has yards? We have stoops!) a couple of summers ago, I scooped them up and handed them to Laken, who happily took them outside and started digging. Gardening seems to be in our DNA.
Teaching him how to dig a hole, bury a seed, water it carefully and often and look for slugs feels right. What could be more important than teaching my kid how to grow his own food? We won’t be living off of our harvest any time soon, but being able to grow our own lettuce, a few strawberries, snow peas and pretty flowers makes me feel capable, and I hope to pass that on to him.
Read More By Mike Lieberman on September 20, 2010
We are very fortunate to live in a time when at any time of the day or night we can easily walk or drive to the store and have a selection of various produce available at our fingertips. With this luxury why would you want to spend your time growing your own food? I have a pretty simple answer to that: We are human. As humans, this is what we do. We grow food. It’s what we have been doing for thousands of years. It hasn’t been until the past hundred or so years that we have put the responsibility of producing food into the hands of others.
Who are these people that are responsible for growing and handling our food? And what are they doing to our food? How is treated? What are they spraying on it? Is that good for you? Is that good for the land? Who really knows? They could be professionals who have business interests more in mind than our health. What we do know is that if we go to the supermarket food will be there year-round. I am no scientist nor have I extensively studied this, but common sense tells me that this could not be good for us or for the land because it doesn’t seem natural or sustainable.
Some questions to get you thinking the next time you are in the grocery store buying food:
- Who grew that?
- How was it treated?
- How was the worker who picked it treated?
- Do these people have my best interest in mind, or are they just trying to make a higher profit?
In May 2009, I took control. I started growing my own food without any experience or land. During that time I was living on the fourth floor of a New York City apartment. All I had was my 2-foot by 3-foot fire escape that I turned into an organic vegetable garden. Despite the limited space, I was able to grow lettuces, kales, swiss chard, peppers, cherry tomatoes and a variety of herbs.
In April 2010, I moved to Los Angeles, where I started a balcony garden that I’m continuing to grow more food on. In comparison to my fire escape, the 13-foot by 4-foot balcony seems like a huge farm. Space is not an issue. If I could grow on a fire escape, you can grow given whatever space restrictions you have.
Here are four reasons to start growing your own food:
You’ll Appreciate Your Food More
By no means do I expect everyone to go out and start their own garden because I know that ain’t gonna happen. But what I do expect is for everyone to grow at least one herb or vegetable.
Why? Because it will open your eyes and change your relationship with food. It will help to re-establish that connection that we as a human race have lost. You will also appreciate the food that much more because you grew it and took care of it. Not only will you appreciate the food that you grew on your own, you will start to appreciate the food that you buy as well.
It’s Natural and Sustainable
Food supplies us with the sustenance and nutrition we need to survive. The taks of supplying us with food is not in the hands of other people. Look back at history. Civilizations were built around food. They were set up around areas that had access to fertile land to grow food. Think about everything that goes into food and what was built around it: growing, tending, harvesting, preparing, eating and sharing food. These days we just fast forward to the eating part, which we often do on the run. There is much more to food that just eating it (though that is fun).
Why if you live in the northeast part of the United States, can you get pineapple, mangoes and other tropical fruits year-round or at all for that matter? I can help to answer that question. It’s because the food is being transported from distances far away to get to you. Did you know that on average food travels about 1,500 miles to get to our plates? Now think about the oil and resources that go into getting that food to your plate.
You’ll Be Helping the Environment
We live in a great time where so much information is readily available to us at the click of a mouse. The downfall of that is that so much information is readily available to us at the click of a mouse. We are presented with all kinds of messages about how we impact our personal health and that of the environment. In reading some of the information out there, it feels disempowering to see something like the BP oil spill or the ice caps melting.
I wanted to do something instead of sitting back and letting someone else worry about the situation. It didn’t matter how small it was, I just wanted to do something. Food has always been a love of mine. I mean, who doesn’t love food? So I decided that I would grow my own. It would be beneficial to me and to the environment.
It’s Easy and Inexpensive
You don’t need to buy expensive tools and materials to start growing your own food. You can make a self-watering container for less than $5 out of recycled materials. You could turn a 2-liter soda bottle into a self-watering container or a hanging planter. These are some ideas to get you started. There are plenty of ways to make gardening cheap so you don’t have to invest lots of money. Check out my previous post on Crazy Sexy Life about Urban Gardening for the Everyday Person for more details.
Now you can get back to being human and growing your food. One plant will surely make a difference. Start growing some of your food today.
Photo credit: miss mass
Read More By Danny Seo on May 21, 2010
Even someone who claims to have a brown-thumb when it comes to gardening can achieve green and gorgeous results with these easy gardening tips. Whether it’s digging up dirt in your own backyard or container growing on a sunny windowsill, these simple strategies will help your garden grow.
Gardening Tip #1: Reuse those packing peanuts. Container gardening is popular for folks with limited backyard space, but the large pots can be heavy to move when filled with soil and plants. Lighten the load by filling the bottom 1/3 of the pot with Styrofoam packing peanuts. It’s a great way to reuse the packing peanuts, while keeping the pots lightweight. Added bonus: The packing peanuts help prevent root rot and mildew growth.
Gardening Tip #2: Another use for the Sunday paper.
To prepare an area of the yard for your first garden, don’t spend hours tearing up turf. Reach for a newspaper instead. Place thick layers of newspaper over the section of grass you want eradicated. Place heavy rocks on top and walk away. In a few days, the grass will die off due to lack of sunshine and will make prepping the ground much easier for tilling and gardening. Bonus tip: Pour boiling water onto weeds and grass to speed up the process.
Gardening Tip #3: Plant a smelly sneaker.
Deer and other wild animals may find your vegetable and flower garden to be irresistible. Instead of erecting cumbersome fencing or using smelly sprays, try leaving a very used gym sneaker in the garden instead. The strong scent of humans is a natural way to scare off wild animals.
Gardening Tip #4: Use organic insecticides and herbicides. Using chemical sprays to control insect and invasive weed growth in the garden is passé. Try a natural product that uses a blend of sweet-smelling essential oils to target insects and weeds but is safe to use around children and pets.
Gardening Tip #5: Recycle cans. Instead of pitching used soup cans in the garbage, use the can opener to cut off the top and bottom of the can. Little seedlings can be protected in the garden by the metal sleeve. When the plant has grown large enough, remove the metal sleeve and recycle as you normally would in your curbside bins.
Gardening Tip #6: Use paint stirrers as garden markers. An easy and free way to know what’s growing in your backyard is to recycle free wooden paint stirrers into garden markers. Just write the plant’s name on the top of the stirrer with a permanent marker and insert into the ground.
Gardening Tip #7: Repurpose compost. Use eco-friendly tools like a mulching lawnmower to reduce waste. Repurpose grass clippings and compost to naturally feed the soil in your yard. Mulching (covering the soil with organic or inorganic compost) is a great way to help conserve water and prevent soil diseases from contaminating plants.
By following these gardening tips, you should be well on your way to a bountiful harvest!
Read More By Guest Blogger on December 15, 2009
Laura Mathews
What if plants could multi-task? You know, do more than stand there and look pretty.
Consider this: in order to add color and interest to your yard, you’re looking for a flowering shrub.
You could choose a deep pink flowering azalea. That would be pretty.
Or you could choose native spicebush. That would be pretty, too. But spicebush, like other native plants, offers deeper beauty. Like azalea, it flowers in the spring. Unlike Azalea, it has multiple seasons of interest. And since it is genetically predisposed to thrive in much of the US, maintenance is less. It also comes with its own butterfly: the spicebush swallowtail.
Plants have purpose beyond their ornamental value. By adding plants that are native to your area, you’re doing yourself and nature a favor. Native plants need us less. Let’s say you’d chosen the azalea. As pervasive as these are, they’re sensitive. They’re native to China, so they aren’t used to North American growing conditions. To keep them thriving here, it’s suggested you feed them with an acid based fertilizer a couple of times a year. To keep them looking good, you’d need to hit them with a fungicide spray. They’re prone to powdery mildew.
Not feeling all the work and all the chemicals? Let’s look at the spicebush. It’s a naturally occurring shrub throughout the east coast and into the Midwest. It doesn’t need us. Spicebush, like most native plants, will thrive without the regular addition of fertilizers and chemicals because it has evolved to grow in northeastern climate and conditions. As with many native plants, it offers three seasons of interest. Delicate yellow flowers start the spring, yellow leaves mark fall, and berries decorate spicebush for the winter. The spicebush swallowtail butterfly will lay eggs on the leaves and the larvae will feed on the leaves. Native shrubs benefit birds, too: “Spicebush is a McDonalds for birds,” says Judy Bono, a Native Plant expert. Birds can feed on the larvae in spring and the berries in the fall and winter. And spicebush is but one of many native plants.
Spicebush
My point? The spicebush, though less perennially popular, will enrich your garden in more ways than one. Choose plants that are supposed to grow in your location, and you’ll create a symbiotic relationship in which you, your plant, and nature all benefit. I call it right plant, right place, cubed.
Good arguments for natives can be made on a purely economic basis as well. Native plants cost less because they don’t require chemicals or, once established, as much or any watering. And there are some native plant appreciators who simply prefer natives’ delicate aesthetics: say, the wisps of purple flowers of the redbud tree as compared to the explosion of pale pink blooms of the yoshino cherry tree.
But it’s interest in environmental preservation that is truly fueling the current rage for native plants and convincing folks that they’re crucial for our ecosystem. From soil, to birds, to insects, “Nature contains incredible layers of relationship,” said Jan Getgood, of Meadowood Nursery, an all-native plant nursery. According to Getgood, our efforts to re-arrange Mother Nature in our developed areas by introducing non-native species has impacted the biodiversity that those species support.
Douglas Tallamy, from the University of Delaware, has energized plant lovers with his book, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in our Gardens. In it, he explores the relationship between native plants, birds and insects. Certain insects only feed on certain plants. Birds for instance, search for certain insects; often in spring, caterpillars. Native oaks, for example, support the most butterfly and moth species, over 500, who lay their eggs in oaks. Those eggs become caterpillars and feed the majority of migrating birds. Birds need protein provided by insects to feed their young. While birds gain sustenance from seeds and berries, that’s not enough to support their offspring.
“We need to abandon the idea that we are planting purely for the aesthetics of plants.” Said Tallamy. “Landscapes need to be functional for nature.”
So does this mean we need to tear all our plants out and start over with native plants? Hardly. In fact, native plant experts suggest starting small.
“First, make sure there are no invasives, then replace your plants with natives through attrition,” said Tallamy. “Reduce the amount of lawn you have and plant your areas densely with native plants. Almost everyone has more lawn than they need. ”
Gardens that are tightly planted provide food and shelter for insects and wildlife can gradually allow nature to rebound. The hope is to create a corridor through suburban landscapes that allows wildlife to move freely and find shelter and food.
Of course, gardeners nurture plants. So the idea of pulling out your hybrid tea to replace it with clethra feels a little counter intuitive to us. Native plant champions argue that we should quell our guilt: “People need to know its O.K. to kill a plant,” said Lorrie Preston, President of the Appalachian Audubon Society. Preston suggests looking closely and really thinking about some of our problem plants. Rather than putting a plant on life support with additives or keeping it in bounds with excessive pruning, take the plant out and replace it with a native.
“Plants have their own purpose. We have to understand and think about how a certain plant can serve nature,” said Preston.
Years ago, when natives were called wildflowers, the only way to find them was to start your own from seed. Now, you can find native plants at your Garden Center. Often, there will be entire sections devoted to native plants. And don’t think your plant palette will be whittled down to nothing. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center at the University of Texas hosts a native plant database of more than 7,000 plants. Many of our garden favorites are native: echinacea, rudbeckia, and coreopsis come to mind. And there are several resources on line, including these:
-Wildflower.org
-Plantnative.org
-National Wildlife Federation
With native plants, you enjoy their beauty and the beauty of the nature that they attract—all while ensuring that birds, butterflies and, well, everything, will be here in the future.
Laura Mathews is a horticulture student, life-long gardener and professional photographer from Pennsylvania. Currently, when she’s not driving her teenage daughter from place to place or chasing her kindergartner around the yard, Laura is writing blog posts for Punk Rock Gardens and shopping for a small farm.
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