Posts tagged ‘garden’
Garden Warfare: Squirrels
As I moved my artichoke and pepper seedlings outside this morning, I was greeted by a horrible sight. My beautiful beet babies were tossed about and buried. My mizuna roots were lying bare.
Squirrels.
Bane of my existance! Oh why do you torment me so?
So, I reached for my handy dandy secret weapon. Cayenne Pepper. Yup, just plain old cayenne pepper. You can sprinkle it right on your young plants, the soil, and even mature leaves, without harming anything. My only problem is remembering to reapply after rain and waterings.
The Brooklyn Botanical Garden suggests a more peaceful method: Feed the squirrels. They claim that squirrels are territorial, so it won’t increase your squirrel problem, and if they’re well fed, they won’t bother digging in the dirt. It’s a lovely thought, but I don’t negotiate with terrorists.
The WHO Farm Project
You’ve probably heard by now that Michelle Obama has planted a 1100 sq ft organic vegetable garden on the Whitehouse Lawn to supply the White House kitchen. But do you know where the idea originated?
Although Michelle Obama had her own reasons for starting the garden, it started with a non-partisan, petition-based initiative called The WhoFarm (White House Organic Farm) Project. The Project, lead by Daniel Bowman Simon, 28, and Casey Gustowarow, 27, acquired the WHOFarmMobile, (two school buses fused together with an organic edible garden on the roof) and drove across 25 states to raise awareness and gather signatures for their petition.
As the first harvest comes off the garden, we can see a positive example of how a grass roots movement made a huge difference. Now “every single person from Prince Charles on down” are talking about it:
More on what people are saying later.
Think about The WHOFarm the next time you think, “why bother, the government isn’t going to do anything”.
EDIT:
evidently the WHOFarm wasn’t the only group petitioning for a Whitehouse garden. Roger Doiron started a project called Eat The View in Feb 2008, which gathered 100 000 signatures.
Raingutter gardens
I am stunned by the ingenuity of these re-purposed rain gutter gardens. They are an excellent way to increase your gardening space. They’re perfect the perfect size for growing herbs, leeks, and lettuce. Plus they’re beautiful to look at–they’d look amazing with trailing nasturtiums. 
Via homegrown.org.
Spring Makeover: Our expanding Urban Homestead.
This weekend we removed the last of our grass, making way for more food. Grass represents things that I’m not into, not the least of which is mowing. Last year, an old Italian lady asked me, as I offered her herloom black cherry tomatos from my front yard, “Don’t you have a back yard?” Now I can answer that with, “You should see how much food I can grow back there!”
The Urban Homestead says that it’s best to avoid tilling, but sadly, we are too lazy busy to dig it up by hand. This means more maintenance work later, but at least I can get right in there. And it’s so satisfying to look at 
Before:
That’s sawdust, not dead grass. Excellent soil additive! You can see the tiny patch of dirt around the perimeter that I used last year.
After!
I was so happy to tromp around in the fresh dirt
Britain Waves Goodbye to Magical Forests
Conservationists suggest that by the end of the century, the UK will see traditional orchards disappear, due to the trend of uprooting orchards to build or plant arable crops. Traditional orchards, being pesticide free trees that are given room to grow and fall where they stand, and provide grazing space for livestock, are being replaced by chemically treated trees. That means a loss not only of biodiversity, but also of rare varieties of apples.
“Traditional orchards have become an extremely rare and precious habitat. We need to do something to stop this decline. Orchards bring people and wildlife together. It’s about food, the culture behind them, the heritage. They are magical places to be in.”
Read the article in The Guardian
10 points for Genetic Purity (in food)
I’ve always been a little wary of GMO food. I’m not interested in eating tomatos spliced with fish genes. I’d rather not have my corn doused in roundup. And remember that big corn recall in the 90′s, when an innocuous bean gene caused fatal allergic reactions in corn?
My decision not to (knowingly) eat GMO food is a personal one, but it still makes me wary when GMO seed companies suggest that they are part of the solution to world hunger and “sustainable agriculture”. And when I learned from The Future Of Food about Monsanto suing a Saskatchewan farmer for patent violation after they contaminated his crops with their seeds.
and then I read this:
Herbicide-tolerant soybeans, herbicide-tolerant corn and Bt corn have failed to increase intrinsic yields, the report found. Herbicide-tolerant soybeans and herbicide-tolerant corn also have failed to increase operational yields, compared with conventional methods.
So, not only do my veggies taste better and fulfill my desire genetically pure food, but they also have the same yields as herbicide drenched ones. Take that, GMO advocates!
