Recently in Organic Agriculture Land Management Category
Mothers and fathers are becoming aware that food is part of their impact on the world...and their own health. More young adults are getting worried about the politics of food -- how far it travels, how safe it is, how pesticides affect the environment.
On top of these social concerns, the young professionals are beginning to realize how much they are spending on organic produce. Driven by these growing food costs, concerns about global food shortages, and a new environmental consciousness, concerned consumers like are beginning to look at old fashioned 'victory gardens" to produce food on their own plots of land and urban balconies.
Some Tips for first Time Gardeners Find a USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Study it so you will know which plants grow well in your area.
You might like to start with some transplants from a quality local nursery. These are expensive, but they get you started learning how to care for plants, and they start your garden-to-table habit while you are highly enthused! It takes patience, discipline and staying power to plant seeds and wait 60 to 90 days for the harvest!
Start Easy, Start Small There are plants for food and plants that are just for looks. And some easy plants to grow are foods that you just might not like to eat! Some of the easiest "organic", "local", and highly nutritious foods to produce by first time gardeners include:
- Salad fixins: leaf lettuce, radishes, carrots, green onions, cucumbers
- Tomatoes
- Herbs: thyme, sage, mint,
- Squash
- Peppers
Vegetable Container Gardens Just Make Good Cents!
While it makes just makes sense that you can container garden with herbs and flowers, it makes real cents to add a small vegetable container garden as well. Here's a short overview of a very ambitious gardener! You might not want to plant all these plants...but this video shows you what seedlings look like!
Radish, carrots, tomatoes and small vegetables are a perfect choice.
How to Start a Fruit and Vegetable Garden
Container Vegetable Gardens and Vegetable Plants Suitable for Containers
And ... add a few plants for your local, native wildlife. They need food from gardens, too! Wildlife need local, native plants. Check with your local native plant nursery or native plant society for suggestions. You'll enjoy having butterflies, birds and native bees come visit your garden. AND they are pollinators for your plants, helping increase your harvest of many flowering plants.
Horticulture Outreach Coordinator
Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden
Each year I look forward to the burst of spring wildflowers in the planted strip along the sidewalk beside my house. I await the towering sunflowers that follow in the summer. The blues of the sages, ceanothus and penstemons calm me, while the bright orange and reds of the mallows and monkeyflowers bring excitement. The coolness of the woodland garden with its rich, deep greens is comforting.
The Compost Pile
But the compost heap is the wildness of my suburbia. It is teaming with life, with hunters, grazers, scavengers, and decomposers. They take the form of mammals, lizards, insects, snakes, spiders and unknowns. It is my favorite garden spot.
The rear corner of my backyard is where I put most of my yard waste. It is not a pretty sight. A black plastic bin contains household vegetable waste, hopefully keeping the rats from the sweet, succulent food they so enjoy. Leaves, twigs, branches, and grass clippings are piled high.
Beautifying The Compost Pile
Though it is my favorite place, I realize it is not much to look at, and so I planted a tree mallow (Lavatera assurgeniflora) to keep it from view. Within about six months the mallow grew from six inches to four feet tall and at least 6 feet wide, effectively screening the pile of debris.Easy Composting
I am a lazy composter. I throw the yard waste into a heap, spreading grass clippings over layers of twigs, branches and leaves. This ensures that the mound does not compress into an air-tight, anaerobic, rotting mess. I do not turn my compost, rather, I dig into it whenever the need arises.What to Layer Onto Your Compost Pile
On top are the least decomposed leaves and grass. Slightly below is the partially decomposed material, perfect for mulch in my woodland gardens. Digging in a bit further I come across deep brown, rich organic soil. Occasionally I sprinkle this over my turf instead of using fertilizer. It has seeds from weeds, but on balance my lawn is dense and healthy with a tolerable quantity of weeds. I add perlite (available at most garden shops) to this rich organic soil to make potting soil. Again, my pots have some weeds, but for the most part, my container plants do well. I incorporate extra perlite for succulents and other plants requiring excellent drainage. This mix has worked well for pots of dudleyas, sages, and even a woolly blue curls, now two years old.
Native Species Habitat In The Compost Pile
Whenever I climb the mound to add more greens, I see thousands of spiders scurry away. Digging into the pile I uncover large, juicy translucent grubs, and slender pink earthworms. Millipedes slither on. A startled lizard slides away as I turn over a log. Earwigs, sowbugs, snails and slugs join the mix. The compost heap is always warm as bacteria, in concert with all of these other critters, go about the everyday work of recycling organic debris into rich soil. It has a rich earthy smell.And if all of this activity were not enough, now when I go to the pile, I see a carefully excavated hole, with a neat pile of fine soil beside it. My imagination goes wild trying to visualize this meticulous excavator. I don’t have gophers. Maybe it is Mole from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.
About Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden
RSABG is the largest botanical garden dedicated exclusively to our state's native plants. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the meandering pathways of this 86 acre natural setting which offers panoramic mountain views throughout the year. Self guided interpretive brochures are available at the California Garden Shop and enable visitors to fully enjoy the three distinct areas of the Botanic Garden: Indian Hill Mesa, the East Alluvial Gardens, and the Plant Communities.The Botanic Garden is a private, non-profit organization, open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free; a donation of $4.00/person and $8.00/family is suggested.
Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden
1500 North College Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711-3157
Telephone: (909) 625-8767
www.rsabg.org
Web-based Geographic Information System for Water Management
IWRIS is a Web-based Geographic Information System application that allows users to access, integrate, query, and visualize multiple sets of data from diverse sources.Some of the databases currently accessible through IWRIS include DWR’s Water Data Library, California Data Exchange Center (CDEC), United States Geological Survey streamflow data, Local Groundwater Assistance Grants (AB303), and data from local agencies. The system will be expanded with additional data sets and functionality in the future.
Improve Water Data Management for Integrated Regional Water Management
DWR developed IWRIS to improve water data management and scientific understanding in support of Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM).The California Water Plan Update 2005 identifies IRWM as a key initiative to ensure reliable water supplies through the year 2030.
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.
RESOURCE:
Integrated Water Resources Information System
Department of Water Resources
Division of Planning and Local Assistance
901 P Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
www.iwris.water.ca.gov
Doug Green highly recommends composting strategies that make great common sense...and he takes it a step further with "compost tea".
Compost is the heart and soul of the garden and the more research that’s done on soil structure and health, the more that compost and composting becomes important for both home and commercial gardening. If you do nothing else this summer, get the compost bin working. And if you have compost working and want to take it one step further for your lawn and garden health, learn to make compost tea. Making tea properly allows you to take the small amount of compost you make and multiply it like loaves and fishes so your entire property gets the benefit. (DougGreensGarden.com)
Compost Tea
By using compost tea to replace chemical-based fertilizers,
pesticides, and fungicides, you can garden safer and be more
protective of the environment. Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection gives an easy pictorial guide to making compost tea:
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Supplies needed:
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And Wikipedia provides more options for selecting different kinds of compost tea and how Europe handles this earth friendly solution for ground nutrition.
Wikipedia: There are several kinds of compost tea, depending on the method and ingredients with which the tea is made. In Europe compost teas are largely distinguished on the basis of whether or not they have manure content, the latter preferred for having more consistent disease suppressive capabilities.
What does an experienced organic gardener read to learn the nuts and bolts...rather, the soil and plants... of starting their gardening avocation?
Lorra, an ardent fan of Doug Green's blog, left the following comment on a very thought provoking blog essay about how Doug takes "the high road" in providing information and a positive approach to gardening for his readers.
In the early 1970s when Life presented me, a farmer’s daughter, with the opportunity to have a large garden I was delighted. With my Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Rodale Press, and Ruth Stout’s The No Work Garden Book away I went. My husband had grown up in one of the largest greenhouse gardening areas in the USA Midwest. There was no end to our disagreements on how to do it. Or rather, how I should do it.It's possible to learn bits and pieces about biodynamic gardening, organic farming and permaculture from blogs, but there is nothing like a comprehensive encyclopedic approach if you want to implement a whole SYSTEM such as gardening or landscaping as an avocation / or vocation.I scrounge leaves from the whole neighborhood (already bagged). Use them for mulch at home and in the park garden I am building – even tho, by some standards, “they look dirty”. Put no chemicals on Mother Earth, have bird houses, talk to Earl the Squirrel, and even allow the local opossum and/or raccoon to reside under the deck – as long as it doesn’t trod on my lemon lily. (Douggreensgarden.com)
What is your favorite sourcebook or system for putting all the participants in your little bit of Eden together?
Your comments are very welcome and they will help develop this resource center into a positive source of information about landscaping solutions that are practical, environmentally nurturing and FUN!
The Earthbound Farm Farm Stand in Carmel Valley, California, offers more than unique organic produce and flowers fresh from our fields — there's delicious food from our certified Organic Kitchen, gourmet groceries, and engaging events for the whole family. Come visit us!
Our Farm Stand: The hub of our 30-acre organic R&D farm offers unique fresh produce and flowers, gourmet groceries, plus a Cut-Your-Own Herb Garden and more.
Organic Kitchen: Hungry? Every day our certified Organic Kitchen in the Farm Stand creates organic treats for every taste — from beverages, baked goodies, and entrees to a tempting all-organic salad bar.
What's Happening at the Farm Stand: From April through October, a wide range of engaging events take place each Saturday.
Ask Farmer Mark: What makes organic farming so special? Ask someone with more than 26 years of organic farming experience: "Farmer Mark" Marino, our Carmel Valley farm manager — we sell his premium organic produce at our Farm Stand.
Our Farm Stand is Open Year-RoundHours: Mon-Sat 8-6:30, Sun 9-6
7250 Carmel Valley Road (just 3.5 miles east of Highway 1), Carmel, CA
831-625-6219
