Digging in the Earth

            It’s that time of year again—time to get my hands dirty and grow some things. It’s such a thrill to see daffodils blooming and tulips coming up. My lilacs are starting to bud! Everything’s ahead of schedule because of the mild winter, though I hope this doesn’t mean we have a scorching hot summer.

            A couple years ago we built four 4 by 8 foot raised garden beds and started a vegetable garden. This is something the kids look forward to and love. Most of us  probably live on suburban lots, so what’s great about raised beds is that they’re compact and pretty much an instant gratification thing sinceit only takes a couple of hours. Plus, it’s cool to eat food you’ve grown yourself. My kids think it tastes the best.

            I encourage anyone to try their hand at growing some of their own food, especially families with kids. Did I mention my kids LOVE it?

            Let’s start with building a raised bed. We built ours in a sunny spot in the yard with cedar boards and got some soil from GreenCycle to fill it. Building raised beds may sound like a lot of work, but I’m actually a lazy gardener and didn’t want to dig up all that grass (and then deal with where to put it). I laid down thick piles of newspaper, put the bed ‘frame’ on it, and filled it with soil. Voila! The grass dies and the newspaper composts. Raised gardens also dramatically cut down on weeds, which sounds good to the lazy gardener.

            Now, what to plant? I recommend carrots, tomatoes, peas, and/or beans. Herbs are great too. We started seeds indoors last week, so if you go that route now is the time to do that. I always buy heirloom seeds or plants, so that I’m not giving my money to companies that grow GMO crops.

            And if you buy seedlings later in the spring, also look for heirlooms. I like to buy from independent nurseries, especially Garden Thyme, who sells heirloom tomato plants in the summer.

            Since I’m a fan of keeping it simple, some of my favorite gardening books are those written for kids, like Garden Crafts for Kids and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots, both covering ways to get started on your gardening adventure, composting, and easy projects to do with your kids. Happy Gardening!

When a Garden Equals Jail Time

            Oak Park, Michigan is in the news in a bad way.  Julie Bass, who grows organic vegetables in her front yard, was cited for violating a city code that says residents are required to have “suitable, live plant material” in their front yard.   Bass is facing 93 days of jail time because she’s growing some vegetables in front of her house. 

            Apparently the definition of ‘suitable’ pretty much just pertains to grass, and maybe some trees and flowers, but NOT actual food, as far as the city is concerned.

            Really now?  This reminds me of my rant about HOA’s and clothesline bans.

            I personally would LOVE to see people growing vegetables in their front yards, back yards, wherever they can.  I think we see enough grass already, truly, and grass is kinda high maintenance and fairly boring. 

It’s like if you live in suburbia you’re expected to conform to the norm, to arbitrary, subjective and narrow standards of what is acceptable, and growing vegetables? Well, that’s just not ok.

            Backwards, I tell you.  Bass has even gotten neighborhood kids interested in her garden and they enjoy helping her.  That’s another one of my pet peeves—most people have a lack of access to fresh, organic food.  Here Bass is not only growing organic food, but giving kids access to it—not to mention the kids have the great fun of watching food grow before their wondrous eyes.  And she’s being punished for it.

            Thanks to the wonders of the internet this story has exploded and Bass is getting all kinds of support. As of press time the facebook page ‘Oak Park Hates Veggies’ had over 23,000 ‘likes.’ I’d love to see Bass’s neighbors plant gardens in their front yards too. How far is the city going to take this?  If Bass and her neighbors all go to jail, there will be worse eyesores—such as a sea of unmowed grass.

            It just boggles the mind that time and effort and money would be poured into this case of prosecuting a woman innocently growing a patch of vegetables. Shouldn’t it a right that we should be able to line dry our clothes and grow some plants?  It’s definitely not worthy of being a crime. 

Saving the Schoolhouse

Love this place, love this woman, love that I got to do this story: Garden Thyme

Beware of food from groceries?

It’s that time of year again—time to start planning the garden and gathering seeds to start inside. Last spring I wrote about the importance of buying pure, heirloom seeds and supporting those companies that have taken the ‘safe seeds’ pledge—the pledge not to include seeds from huge biotech conglomerates in their stock. These huge biotech corporations are the same companies that manufacture dangerous pesticides, which I also refuse to use.

I mentioned in my column that I purchased Botanical Interest seeds, a seed company that is committed to heirloom, pure seeds, and I purchased them at Allisonville Nursery (double bonus—supporting a local business. And Botanical Interest seeds are in stock now!)

I received a wonderful response to that column from Michael DePape of Botanical Interests, and here it is, in part:

“Gardeners and consumers of all kinds should be more concerned about the food that they are purchasing in the grocery store. There is no law to require labeling of foods that contain GMO (genetically modified organism) products. Chances are you may be purchasing cereal, fresh corn, corn tortillas, soy products, and all sorts of processed foods that contain genetically modified ingredients.

The best thing you can do to vote with your dollars and for your own peace of mind is to grow your own food and purchase certified organic products. (Organic products cannot contain GMO ingredients.)"

Ever think of growing some of your own food? It may seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Although you can build your own raised beds or till a new garden, which is great, to start out you might want to plant edibles right into your existing flowerbeds, amidst your other plantings, and expand from there.

Eat pure and leave the biotechs and chemicals on the store shelf

**I received this from Michael DePape of Botanical Interests.  This has helped clarify GMO and I want to be sure to present accurate info:  "To be fair to our competition and to prevent panic in home gardeners, as far as we know, there isn't any GMO seed in the garden seed trade. The companies that produce genetically modified seed are producing it for the big-ag farmers who have to sign extensive contracts and legalese and pay a lot of money to use the GMO seed. Home gardeners are just not (so far) the market for this type of product.

Gardeners and consumers of all kinds should be more concerned about the food that they are purchasing in the grocery store. There is no law to require labeling of foods that contain GMO products. So, chances are, you may be purchasing cereal, fresh corn, corn tortillas, soy products, and all sorts of processed foods that contain genetically modified ingredients.
(For more info., visit the Center for Food Safety http://truefoodnow.org/shoppers-guide/.)


The best thing you can do to vote with your dollars and for your own peace of mind is to grow your own food and purchase certified organic products. (Organic products cannot contain GMO ingredients.)"




A friend and I got together last week to do some heirloom variety seed sharing, as we’re getting ready to do start seeds indoors. Mindi, who I met via this column (hi, Mindi!) is an avid gardener like me and we are both committed to growing non-GMO, heirloom variety fruits and vegetables organically.

GMO stands for genetically modified organisms and are achieved through genetic engineering, leading to potential biological risks and scenarios yet unknown. Many of the seed packets you can purchase in the big box stores (unless marked ‘Heirloom’) may be genetically modified. I seek out the heirlooms. Not only do they have such interesting names, such as these tomato varieties:‘Aunt Ruby's German Green’ or ‘Green Zebra’, but they also taste amazing.

There are many reasons why I love heirlooms, and I’m committed to doubling my garden this year and growing more varieties. I refuse to support the huge biotech conglomerates that are producing all of these GM crops/seeds, and these same companies produce highly toxic pesticides (you couldn’t pay me to use Round-Up anywhere near my yard or my children. I wouldn’t use it anywhere far either). Thankfully, lots of seed companies have taken the ‘safe seeds’ pledge—the pledge to not include any seed from these biotechs in their stock.

Botanical Interests is one. I purchased their seeds from Allisonville Nursery—it felt great to support a local business and also a seed company that has taken the safe seeds pledge.

So, I’m voting with my dollars and leaving the biotechs and the chemicals on the store shelf, hoping and wishing they would go away. It’s so good to dig in the earth chemical free and eat good, pure food. See my blog for a list of seed companies safe from biotech ties. Happy Organic Gardening!

Read more from the Organic Consumers Association here.


Here is the list of safe seed companies:

Abundant Life Seeds
Amishland Seeds
Annapolis Valley Heritage Seed Company canada
Baker Creek Seed Co.
Berlin Seeds - they don't have a website. Atleast I didn't find one.
Botanical Interests
Bountiful Gardens
Diane's Flower Seeds (she has veggies now, too)
Fedco Seed Co. - phasing out seminis seeds.
Garden City Seeds
Heirloom Acres Seeds -I've heard from several people thier seed germination is poor and so is thier customer service.
Heirlooms Evermore Seeds
Heirloom Seeds
High Mowing Seeds
Horizon Herbs
Irish-Eyes
Kitchen Garden Seeds
Lake Valley Seeds
Livingston Seeds
Local Harvest
Mountain Rose Herbs
Natural Gardening Company
New Hope Seed Company
Organica Seed
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Renee's Garden
Richters Herbs
Sand Hill Preservation Center
Seed Saver's Exchange
Seeds of Change
Southern Exposure
Territorial Seed Company Tiny Seeds
Tomato Fest
Trees of Antiquity
Underwood Garden Seeds
Uprising Seeds
Victory Seeds
Wildseed Farms
Wood Prairie Farm

Links to these companies websites is here.



Seed companies to avoid:


Audubon Workshop
Breck's Bulbs
Burpee
Cook's Garden
Dege Garden Center
E & R Seed Co
Earl May Seed
Flower of the Month Club
Gardens Alive
Garden Trends
Germania Seed Co
HPS
Johnny's Seeds--they get 4% of their stock from Seminis-I would feel comfortable buying from them.  see here
Jungs
Lindenberg Seeds
McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
Mountain Valley Seed
Nichol’s
Osborne
Park Seed
Park Bulbs
Park's Countryside Garden
R.H. Shumway
Rocky Mountain Seed Co
Roots and Rhizomes
Rupp
Seeds for the World
Seymour's Selected Seeds
Snow
Spring Hill Nurseries
Stokes
T&T Seeds
The Vermont Bean Seed Company
Tomato Growers Supply
Totally Tomato
Vermont Bean Seed Co.
Wayside Gardens
Willhite Seed Co.