Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

Community Gardening to New Heights

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

We love some news about community and we love news about community building even more. Thanks to our local EcoBroker, Genevieve Concannon for finding the details about this new program from her home state that is about to Launch nationally.

Every now and again, driving past the community gardens in Arlington, I wonder what happens to all of the produce that happy gardeners forget to come pick up? Sometimes you can see people actually chit-chatting in the larger community gardens, and then there are the folks who, you can tell are in the garden for their alone time. One University of Texas student took his love for gardening and sustainability to a new level with his non-profit program called Food is Free. His program is supposed to bring salvaged products, and communities together through shared gardening and community building. Join the discussion and see how you might be able to bring this sustainable dynamic to your neighborhood.

Food is Free is starting to gain traction in the South and will be doing a National launch in the coming months!

John Edwards, founder of Food is Free, who happens to also be of my alma mater, The University of Texas at Austin, has produced a very nifty non-profit organization whose mission is to grow food and community. Food is Free launched just six months ago and it is growing strong!  Their mission states that “the Food is Free Project grows community and food, while helping gain independence from a broken agricultural system.  The Food is Free Project is a community building and gardening movement that launched in January of 2012. We teach people how to connect with their neighbors and line their street with front yard community gardens which provide free harvests to anyone.”

Click on the lettuce patch below to watch their short video!

The Power of Community

Based out of Austin, Texas, Food is Free has built a program that can really be replicated anywhere. They take salvaged materials and organize campaigns within local communities to plant edible plant wicking gardens (garden beds which have piping that will enable a garden to self-water for up to four weeks). These gardens are all planted in the front yards throughout the neighborhood; the idea is that people will come together and build these gardens and share the produce that is grown. Food is Free’s founder has some fantastic quotes about sustainability and community building and the concept is such a neat collaborative idea. – Genevieve Concannon

 

 

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A Big Rain Barrel Question

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

We talk about Water Consumption quite often and we discuss the usage of water run off and rain water collection, but what about using rain water for watering your tomatoes and basil and other edible plants? Is that good for you?

In the Organic Gardening’s August/September Issue, a Falls Church resident asks a great question: “Is there a potential problem with using the water that drains off of [asphalt shingles]? Should I periodically drain out all of the water to clean out the sediment in the bottom of the rain barrel?”

He was asking this because he’s been collecting water in his rain barrels that comes straight off of his roof to water his edible garden. I guess he was thinking it was like watering his garden with water from the pavement from the very dirty ground and then eating the produce and how healthy could that be? The gurus from the Organic gardener say that the powers that be- mainly the councils of the environment of NYC say that you can’t compare the rain and run off from one area to the rain and run off from another area, so you really can’t generalize how the water in your rain barrel is going to be and how “hazardous” it is to water with and then eat the produce.

Organic Gardening suggests these steps to minimize health hazards:

  • Add a “first flush feature that will capture the fist 5-10 gallons of water that come off of your roof and hold it separately from the next rain- this would be like bird droppings, and the gravel from the asphalt run-off, etc.
  • Apply water from your rain barrel to the soil around your plants rather than directly onto your plants so that the soil will act as a filter.

  • Rinse your produce with clean, potable water before you eat it…
  • Keep your rain barrel reasonably clean. Rinse it at the end of a growing season.

These are great, somewhat common sense tips from one of our favorite sustainable magazines, Organic Gardening! We still do know quite a bit about sustainable living and green building… ask us questions, and leave us comments, we’d love to hear from you!

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Top 5 Virginia Native Plants

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

We are all about the Natives around here! Drought tolerant, water-wise plants that can deal with our little bit of Maine and little bit of Florida that we call Northern Virginia.

What do I mean by that? A little bit of Maine: We get the bitter cold and snow, don’t we? Yes. A little bit of Florida: We get the hot, humid days that feel like we could cut through them with a machete, don’t we? Yes. See? A little bit of Maine, and a little bit of Florida. That is zone 7 on the US Department of Agriculture’s climate map for planting. We are currently in prime planting time, so I figured it was the prime time for telling you about my favorite Virginia native plants.

Here they are in no particular order:

The State Tree, Dogwood. Elegant four sided flowers in either white, soft yellow or even a Cherokee Brave Rubia, the State tree is an understory tree that can get up to 35 ft. They have delicate branches and make lovely statements in the yard.

Fast growing, Bald Cypress. They love the water, and can grow quite quickly, the peeling bark is stately and beautiful. If you grew up around them, you remember the fun little cones that they create that are perfect for throwing at siblings and pretending like they just fell…

A great shrub, Viburnum. There are like 150 species of Viburnum and they flower and make berries and change color in fall or have evergreen leaves which are super-green and slightly itchy if you rub against them (don’t recommend doing that). This is a strong shrub, great to border, add in for greenery and generally keep in the garden.

A wonderful perennial, Echinacea. They come back year after year, blooming late summer to early fall bringing with them droves of butterflies and bumble bees! Purple cone flower is a wonderful addition to a native Virginia garden and is one of those fabulous “cut and come again” flowers, so you can enjoy them inside in a vase and outside in the garden. When the petals fall off and they go to seed… watch the cardinals flock to you!

A short-lasting Spring arrival,Virginia Bluebell. If you want to know where you can sneak off to see droves and droves of these gorgeous phlox cousins, head out towards Manasas Battle Field to the Old Stone Bridge. If you time it right and get there in mid April, you can see these electric bluebells doing their magical thing… it is like gnomes live there and well… it is just beautiful. Add some of these bad boys to your mix and you will not be disappointed.

I found this great chart from Merrifield Garden Center of all sorts of Virginia Native Plants showing their favorite spots in the garden, light levels, etc.  Happy Gardening!

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How to make an indoor plant happy

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Using air-purifying indoor plants can be a good thing, and can have its set backs.

How many of you have ever brought home a new houseplant and then noticed that after you have it perfectly situated in a picturesque spot in your home… it get’s happy… then it gets buggy? I was recently reading a copy of Organic Gardening Magazine and they had a great tip about how to take care of this at home! Sometimes when the plant has gotten to its prime, the little nasty fruit-fly like flying insects (fungus flies- how gross does that sound?) start to crawl out of the woodwork- or in this case, out of the dirt. Ick.

Your first reaction may be to take the plant out or try to return it. A little hint here, is that most dirt contains these little critters, it is just how you manage them that keeps them at bay. A low cost, healthy option to dousing a plant with pesticide inside of your home is to create a fly trap. Sounds like a fun project…

Here is what you’ll need to make your traps to keep your indoor plants happy and pest free:

  • Medium gauge wire- even a coat hanger will do.
  • Pliers to twist the wire into a flat spiral at the top.
  • Index card, or cut up cardboard.
  • Petroleum jelly or as Organic Gardening magazine suggests, Tanglefoot brand insect trap paste.

Take your pliers and create a little spiral at one end and flatten it. Keep about 2-3 inches of wire straight so you can poke that into the houseplant’s soil. Then cut the cardboard or index paper into small squares and coat it in either the petroleum jelly or the insect trap paste. Stick the sticky square into your spiral and watch the little critters get trapped. Replace the sticky paper as often as you need to until the problem is under control.

Using indoor plants as a  natural air-purification system can be a wonderful thing, just make sure you’re keeping its environment healthy, too!

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