Moving ahead! sustainability using organic principles

The next step in educating our city as to the benefits of diverse and sustainable landscaping has fallen to the radio and our website for me. As Web Master I am continually growing as I am researching to put up informative articles, links and then writing about sustainable gardening in a way that is easily understandable. I love building websites so this is both fun and stimulating for me - but then, it is very time consuming.

I am now doing a weekly radio spot for approx. an hour. It is on how to grow an organic vegetable/fruit bed. This is focused on those who are new to organic gardening and/or new to gardening. The talk show is fun because Christine, the host is very interactive with me on the air, as she is an organic gardener also. She is a lot of fun which makes it easy to do for me.

There are so many wonderful reasons to garden and to grow your own food following organic principles.

• Help provide proper nourishment and five-a-day fruits and vegetables.
• Supplement food budgets.
• Provide fresh food that has not been grown with pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
• Provide a healthy family activity.
• Provide an education in ecology, botany, and the cycle of life for the whole family.
• Provide a fun activity that includes good exercise.
• Provide a needed stress reducer in a fast-paced world.
• Provide for the development of positive relationships with neighbors through communication as well as the sharing of produce.
• Provide beauty and a place to practice being good stewards of the earth on your little piece of land.
• Help lessen the impact of waste products in city dumps through composting of left over food.
• Help lessen green waste by composting and mulching.
• Help lessen chemical run-off into our streams and rivers by using environmentally friendly garden practices.
• Help lessen air pollution created from conventional lawn yard-care equipment.
• Provide diverse species of plants that provide habitat for beneficial insects and wildlife.
• Digging in the dirt with your hands chemically provides the body with a natural antidepressant.

So, out to the garden I go! Happy Earth Day!

We did it! Democracy can actually work in America!

We did it!!! After a full year of dedicated work, we were able to change the city front yard landscape code in our city. My own gardens are in a sad state, because every bit of my energy has gone into this effort. I have spent from as little as two hours a day to about 15 hours doing research, writing, and distributing our information to supporters and citizens of our city. Also, time spent finding and photographing gardens, editing and creating a website and creating three powerpoint presentations. Then the tasks of presenting to neighborhood associations, issuing media releases and talking with the media . I have never done anything political like this before. It has been a huge learning curve.

On April 3rd, we made a presentation to the full city council. focused on my powerpoint presentation, I believe that we "wowed" them with the depth of research and the far reaching implications that changing the existing and the city's proposed Front Yard Landscape ordinance language could have. It is all about sustainability and setting up our city to be in a better position to deal with an uncertain future.
The "Quality of Life" indicators that we focused on were:
economic impact
water conservation
water quality
green waste management
air pollution
energy
climate change
food security
hunger
ecological risks and benefits
neighborhood development
and cultural diversity

This is a big thing for the welfare of our city. It has been quite an experience!!!

Sustainable Front Yard Gardens

Where have I been for more than 6 months?
I have been putting together a grassroots movement to change our city front yard landscape ordinance, which currently only allows for primarily low ground cover or turf. We are asking that the ordinance allow diverse front yard gardens, which are sustainable and can help address energy conservation, resource depletion, hunger, food security, and critical environmental issues. We have asked that they not put restrictions on the growing of annuals and perennials, which may include fruits and vegetables. The city has moved in our direction and we hope for full city council approval of our proposed ordinance amendment in the middle of March .

So this has taken my time and my energy. But I have saved some of myself for the garden. I had wonderful success with my perennial gardens. My veggie garden was a little more challenged because we had prolonged temperatures over 100 degrees (many up over 110 degrees) for over two weeks. It was miserable and my veggie garden felt the same. I had the worst year ever for tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant. The peppers seemed to do fine and the luffa vine was extremely happy as it topped my elder tree with its hanging fruit.

Now this winter, we have had over two weeks of freezing temperatures. Mother Nature is striking out to say - STOP! YOU ARE KILLING ME!
So, I have lost ( I believe from the looks of them ) several perennials this winter. My lettuce decided to go back to the soil too.

Right now, I have onions waiting to be planted. I have pimento seeds from Laura that sprouted in transport from Alabama which are ready over an inch high. I have broccoli raab and chinese cabbage seeds in their sprout bag right on. I will start some peas this week too - and more lettuce. So, that is my update for now. Gardening is truly a stress reliever!

Wow! Where did the summer go?! Or where have I been?!

It is August 12th and I cannot believe the time that has gone by. The gardens have been overwhelming. I started so many veggie seeds and flower seeds that the individual beds are packed.

Let's start in the front yard gardens. The roses have done well this year. The only one that I am concerned about is Heritage ( a David Austin rose ). It has some yellow leaves that don't look healthy, but then new growth is green. It gets the same amount of water as all the other healthy plants. We had such an intense heat wave for two weeks in July, that many plants didn't get to put on their flower show and are limping along just trying to survive. My friend and neighbor Kim, gave me some large perennials that have fit into the flower beds beautifully. Now, just making sure they make the transplant. Two of them are beautiful heathers, one peony, a varigated fushia and two others that I don't know the names of. By the way, the gardens in the front yard have expanded somewhat which looks really nice to me. I got more landscape rocks from the mountains to finish off the border edges.

For the back gardens, I do have to say that both shade gardens ( under the apricot tree and under the Eureka lemon tree ) are doing great! The one under the apricot tree is like a true woodland surprise.

The sunny perennial/annual bed is a bit overgrown and needs maintenance. Soon! The Vitex tree is so full of seeds that I keep cutting limbs ( hate to do that ) and still the limbs are close to the ground and even I have to bend parallel to the ground to walk under. Even then, my hair ends up being full of seeds and flower debris.

The veggie garden is HUGE! I think I planted too many Cuore di Bue in one bed as it is solid foliage. Even the Amish paste have had trouble setting fruit this year with the temps up to 113 degrees. Everything kinda sat there for more than a few weeks just trying to live through the heat! That is including me!!!

We are getting peppers, bell and chili peppers, as well as eggplant and some tomatoes. The pole beans are still coming on but I missed the harvest of the bush beans and they all dried up. I have been pulling up the onions -Rossa di Milano- they are very juicy and quite hot. My eyes cry the whole time that I am cutting them. We did have lettuce ( until the heat wave ), and enjoyed the Four Seasons leafy, Bronze Arrow leafy, and the Little Gem romaine. The spinach was good when we had it. The lettuce leaf basil is doing great. I have always had great success with this basil. The purple ( Red Rubin ) basil is doing okay. With the heat wave I lost all three of my squash, two zucchini types and one crooked neck. Very sad to lose them. I need to start new seed. But that is another story - next paragraph.

The heat did in my greenhouse. The plastic on the roof bubbled and then cracked and just has fallen off or is hanging from the roof. Very very sad. I am in the process of investigating the best course of action for getting double and triple polycarbonate panels to put on the greenhouse. Until then it is direct sun in there and nothing can be started for the garden. ;-(

The days are in the 90's now and that is warm, but nice. The grapes are ripening and the elder berries should be ready for harvest soon. Things are always happening in nature.

Quote for the day: Nature quiets the mind so you can hear your heart.

We skipped Spring and jumped right into Summer !!!

I can't believe that it has been 16 days since I have posted. The garden is mostly all planted now, the peppers, tomatoes, basil, eggplant ( Japanese, Black Beauty and a White Japanese shaped one ), peas, bush and pole beans, carrots, luffa, green zucchini and golden zucchini are all planted. Earlier the leeks and onions, spinach and lettuce was planted. We have been eating salads every night from the Four Seasons lettuce, America spinach, some onion tops and nasturtium flowers. Yesterday I noticed the the Stupice ( an early 60 day ) tomato has flowers. That is exciting ! It is really stimulating to grow these heirloom tomatoes and other veggies. It is almost time to fill in some of the leek trench.

I got the drip system going again, but it isn't putting out much water. I really need to take apart the filter and regulator and flush the whole system, but haven't gotten to it yet. So, I hand water everyday. This next week I need to spray everything with maxicrop and fish emulsion or feed with compost tea. The heat is getting to everything, including me. I think the high has been between 96 and 98 degrees already.

In the greens bed, I have Little Gem lettuce that is ready to start being harvested. It is a romaine. I just planted some new starts of the Little Gem also. In the greenhouse I have two more Little Gem starts and one Bronze Arrow lettuce start to plant out soon. Two days ago I planted Jericho lettuce seeds inside in my herb room. It would have been too hot for it to germinate in the greenhouse, as it needs conditions between 45-80 degrees to germinate. This lettuce was bred to grow crisp and sweet in very hot temperatures. My plan is to keep lettuce coming all year. Our salads have been very wonderful!

In our front yard the old roses and David Austins have all had bursts of blooms. The Heritage David Austin climber is budded out and soon to start. I got a lot of blooms from the Louise Odier. Last year I got one bloom. The penstemon, salvia, carnations, foxgloves, lavenders, gardenias, shasta daisies, hebes, hibiscus, dianthus, oenothera, nemesia, stock, lithodora, phygelius, sweet peas, purple robe, margarita, scented geraniums, columbine are just finishing, mexican primrose, heucheras, spanish heather, agastache, astilbe, verbena, snapdragons, foam flower, heather, yesterday, today and tomorrow, begonias, pansies, forget-me-nots, bleeding hearts, persian shields, banana shrub, alyssum, Australian violets, dead nettle, calibrachoa, chamomile and elfin thyme as fillers and I can't remember what else is blooming.

Tomorrow I need to pick up some mulch from the utility district for the tea rose bed. Last year I mulched with wet cardboard, several inches of wet newspaper and mulch from our chipper/shredder. Stephen is too busy to make up more mulch right now. So far, knock on wood, this thick mulch has squelched the huge nutgrass problem in that bed. A few are starting to come up on the very edge where the mulch meets the concrete retaining walls. And maybe 5 have come up in the center of the pile. Of course I have pulled these immediately! So, I need to get another thick barrier layer down to keep a lid on the nutgrass. I also want to put some of this mulch down on some of my other ornamental beds in the front yard.

So, this is an update of the abundant life and activity in my cottage gardens.

"Queer things happen in the garden in May. Little faces forgotten appear, and plants thought to be dead suddenly wave a green hand to confound you." ~ W. E. Johns