GROW

Day 28: Growing Community Through Victory Gardens

March 14, 2013 · 2 comments

It started with a simple idea.

LaManda Joy was standing in her local, Chicago neighborhood butcher shop a few years ago, when she noticed a vintage photo on the wall. It was a Victory Garden from WWII that had once stood right in her neighborhood. It was the standard nostalgic photo with straight rows of vegetables and had been taken during the gardens peak production in 1943.

Peterson Ave. WWII Victory Garden 1943

A few days later, as LaManda was driving down that same street, her eyes drifted over to a large abandoned, unused lot and…it clicked! THAT was part of the same lot as the photo on the butcher shop wall!

It was an Aha-Moment for LaManda as she pondered,

“What if, we revitalize that vacant lot into a modern, neighborhood Victory Garden – a community garden where people can reconnect with their food source?”

You might be thinking…Who has thoughts like that?

Well, luckily for us – LaManda does!

I’ll go ahead and tell you the happy ending. She set to work and within just a few short months (and a lot of passionate work) that vacant lot became…

The largest organic edible garden in Chicago!

100′s and 100′s of people volunteer and grow food in the 157 plots each year.

The story of how that happened is a great one. But, the story of what happened after that is even better!

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Day 27: Slow Flowers & A Book Giveaway

March 4, 2013 · 47 comments

“Each bouquet tells a story about one moment in time, about Grandmother’s cherished flower vase or the fleeting memory that returns with a whiff of lavender or lilac. That’s one of the intangible gifts of bringing flowers into our lives.”

-Debra Prinzing, Slow Flowers

From Debra Prinzing's new book, Slow Flowers

First there was slow food.

Now, thanks to Debra Prinzing, we are discussing Slow Flowers!

Debra Prinzing by Mary Grace Long Photography

Debra Prinzing is a dear writer friend of mine with incredible talent. Based in Seattle, WA, she writes for numerous magazines and newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times, Better Homes & Gardens, Country Gardens and many, many others). It is always a thrill to pick up a magazine and see her byline because you just know it’s going to be good.

She is also the author of many books including one of my favorites: The 50 Mile Bouquet with photographer extraordinaire, David Perry. And it was with that book that her current journey started.

The 50 Mile Bouquet showcased the local, sustainable flower-growing movement and the farmers and florists making a difference. All of us at Growing A Greener World TV enjoyed that book so much, we filmed an entire episode on it and I had the pleasure of writing it.

The Slow Flowers Book:

Now in her newest book Slow Flowers, Debra brings that message home and shows us the DIY info on how to enjoy local, in season flowers ALL YEAR LONG. (Yes, even in winter.) What started as a challenge to herself to create a fresh, local bouquets all 52 weeks of the year, quickly turned into an entire book.

According to Debra, it doesn’t matter if you are growing the plant material yourself, foraging it from the wild or buying it from your local organic farmer. You really CAN find local/sustainable plant material and the fun is in being creative with it!  In her book, she gives arrangement ideas, earth-friendly floral techniques and even a few “secrets” for long-lasting blooms. It is a beautiful book filled with valuable information.

The giveaway at the end of this post is closed, but there is still some great info about the book and slow flowers below!

So, What are “Slow Flowers”?

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Day 14 – Heirlooms and a Baker Creek Seed Giveaway

January 14, 2013 · 825 comments

Curious about heirloom plants? Or maybe you are already on board the heirloom bandwagon and are just interested in something really unique to grow this season? Well, today’s post features a giveaway of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek! (The giveaway is over, but there is still great info below on heirlooms!)

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

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Day 11 – So You Want to be a Farmer?

January 12, 2013 · 0 comments

I am not in a position to give advice on how to farm. But one thing I have learned from from my farmer friends and the inspiring farmers I have interviewed for our PBS TV show (Joel Salatin, Farmer D and others) is that there are some great resources out there that people can tap into.

See…Many of us dream of just owning a little piece of land where we can grow on a much larger scale. And others among us, want to farm…really farm…with acreage, CSAs and whole deal. Fun right?

Well yes, farming can sound very romantic and satisfying. But the reality is that Farming is also hard work. And unless you have at least some knowledge to back up your hard work, you probably won’t make it.

It’s a Journey!

But that does not mean you give up. It means you embrace the idea of gaining knowledge. And really, the process of gaining that knowledge can be a sweet ride for ALL of us. It doesn’t matter how large or small our little plot of land is, gaining knowledge is a journey. And it is a smart journey to start if you are even remotely considering going into farming. [click to continue…]

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Day 5: Sharing the Harvest with Others

January 5, 2013 · 3 comments

1 out of 6 Americans need food assistance, but can’t get fresh produce from the local food pantry.

And each year, millions of Americans grow more food in their backyards than they can possibly use…We have the opportunity here to allow gardeners to reach into their backyards rather than their back pockets help their neighbors in need.

~ AmpleHarvest.org

Day 5 - AmpleHarvest.orgDay 5: AmpleHarvest.org

If you are a gardener that grows food, at some point you end up with more food than you can possibly consume. I write a lot about canning and preserving that harvest and that is a great way to prevent waste. By preserving, you save the harvest for later and/or share it with friends.

But there is another way you can prevent waste and help others at the same time. Give your extra produce to a local food pantry.

I know this sounds simple. But it really is not.

See, most food pantries don’t deal in fresh produce. They only give away boxed and canned goods. It makes sense for them to do this. It is easy to store mass amounts of canned goods, easy to donate and it is easy to transport that way. But the down side is that people in need end up eating almost all processed food that is high is sugar and salt and…well, you know.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could take some of the unused produce from backyard gardens and share it with the people needing it most at food pantries? But how?

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Day 3: Inspired by HoneyLove Bees

January 3, 2013

This post is part of the 31 Days of Living Homegrown. Sign up for my newsletter (weekly or monthly) so you don’t miss any of the inspiration and resources I will be sharing for living local, fresh and homegrown! Day 3: I think as gardeners we sometimes forget that the general non-gardening public doesn’t always fully understand the [...]

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Day 1: Resources for Growing Fruit Trees

January 1, 2013

This post is part of the 31 Days of Living Homegrown. Sign up for my newsletter (weekly or monthly) so you don’t miss any of the inspiration and resources I will be sharing for living local, fresh and homegrown! Day 1: As I write this post, I am sitting by the fire in the log cabin next [...]

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Harvesting and Storing Homegrown Apples for Winter

November 28, 2012

If you’re a regular reader here, you know that I am managing the small orchard on our family farmstead in Northern California. Well as you can imagine, we’ve had literally hundreds of heirloom apples to deal with over the last few months. We have baked, canned, slow cooked (into apple sauce), dried, given away and eaten [...]

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And Over At the Burpee Blog…

November 13, 2012

I just realized that I neglected to mention my posts over on the Burpee Home Garden Blog lately. I chime in over there occasionally on Gardening with Children and Utilizing the Harvest. Fun stuff! Below is a listing of my most recent posts…

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A Traveling Farm…On A Bus?

October 25, 2012

We just finished filming a really incredible group of young people for an episode of our TV show, Growing A Greener World. The TV story will air on PBS in December and is about these four farmers (aged 22-23) who are traveling and living in a retro-fitted school bus. They are on a six-month journey across America [...]

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