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!

‘Give your stuff away’ day coming up in May

I’m not ashamed to admit it—I’m a trash picker. My poor, embarrassed family has witnessed me pulling good stuff out of other people’s trash on the sly and climbing into dumpsters. “It’s for the good of the earth,” I say.

I was looking through the archives of last spring’s columns that I wrote, specifically I was looking for the one about making a new Springtime tradition in Noblesville—Curb Shopping—modeled after the New England origins where towns and villages designate a weekend or two each spring for residents to set unwanted but perfectly useable items at the curb. Then you take a stroll through the neighborhood and come home with some new treasures.

What’s great about this is that items are recycled and not cluttering up landfills and wasting resources. And, they’re free.

It’s good for the pocketbook and the Earth. And, no one needs to risk their life climbing into a dumpster to salvage them.

I got great response from that column. One reader said she regularly sets her kid’s toys out that they have outgrown in a big box with a FREE sign. Another reader said he put out a couch that wasn’t needed. It was gone in two hours.

I put out a call to help organize one of these neighborhood swaps and was met with great enthusiasm. But after my column ran, I learned that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s already an organization spreading the word all over the nation for this great cause. The day is called Give Your Stuff Away Day and it happens the second Saturday in May, which is May 14 this year.

The website is www.giveyourstuffaway.com and it’s got all of the info you need to know to participate in this. My hope is that this will really catch on and become a re-established tradition. So while you’re doing some spring cleaning this month, set aside items that you don’t want or need and put them out on that day.

PS—as I’m writing this column, a friend ironically posts a photo on facebook of a gorgeous dresser in a dumpster downtown. It’s missing some drawers, but it’s way too good to be thrown away. Put things like that beside the dumpster. Someone wants it. Do them a favor and save them from having to dumpster dive.

Celebrating the Spring Equinox by the light of the moon

Being the earthy hippie chick that I am, I follow the moon cycles. I learned recently that the Native Americans named the Full Moons of the year as a way to keep track of the seasons. We’re in the third full moon cycle of 2011 right now. January’s was Full Wolf Moon, February’s was Full Snow Moon and here we are, in the Full Worm Moon.

Sounds kind of funny, right? The description I have of it says, “as the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation.”

And Sunday the 20th marked the Spring Equinox. I happened to have one of my (I’m not a) dirty hippie parties that day, so we not only made something awesome and earth friendly (the ever popular body butter) and drank vodka cocktails, but we also celebrated the coming of Spring together.

My friends Joni and Michelle and I began celebrating the solstices and equinoxes together, which have all incidentally coincided with the full moon since we began this ritual last fall.

The Winter Solstice was a pretty big party and I took a picture of the full moon through the fir tree in Michelle’s yard, and before that for the Autumn Equinox we all lingered outside as the moon rose over us. So to have this Equinox coincide with the Full Moon again was pretty cosmic. I loved celebrating it and making something useful with my friends.

And through this week I think I’ll plant some more seeds for the garden I’m planning, as well as plant some ideas for things I want to bring into my life too. Happy Spring!