County Farm Kickoff
2008 Plant Sales As announced in our pre-season issue, Project Grow will hold its spring Plant Sales on two weekends, May 2–4 and May 10. The May 2–4 sale will be part of the Matthei Botanical Garden’s spring plant sale, open on May 2 to MBGNA members, and to all on May 3–4. The May 10 sale will be held in our old spot in front of People’s Food Co-op. This year’s sales will again offer oodles of heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and potatoes that Grow volunteers raised last year in the Heirloom Garden. We will have over 50 varieties of fabulous heirlooms to suit every taste. All this year’s seedlings will be raised to strict organic specifications, thanks to our partnership with Matthaei Botanical Gardens. These include many favorites, tried and true, and some unique varieties only available through Project Grow. Come meet Grow gardeners, learn about local heirloom projects, and indulge your curiosity, gardening acumen, and desire for great flavors across the tomato and pepper spectrum. Support diversity in southeastern Michigan gardens and your organic gardening community!
County Farm Events Are Coming Up Quickly. The annual Stake Out event on Saturday, April 26 is a great volunteer opportunity, and we hope to see a number of you helping to map out the garden plots. Helping out will also give you a jump on getting to know your fellow gardeners. Staking begins at 10am. By All Means Plan To Attend the Spring Garden Kickoff on Sunday, April 27 10am–12pm. This season’s Site Coordinators—Karl Longstreth CF B #10,11 272-7459, karleric@umich.edu; Jeanette Fontanive CF B #4; Damaris Suffalko CF B #18,19 649-5118, damarisks@aol.com—all longtime gardeners at this site, will explain the hose system and answer any questions you have about gardening at County Farm Park. These are important folks to get to know for tips about mulching, what’s a weed (Damaris especially is quite philosophical about this), and where to get what. Be Sure To Watch the bulletin boards and feel free to use them to post communications regarding garden business. Expect a few phone calls asking you to volunteer over the course of the season. In recent years, we have also used the garden group email list to make important announcements; if you have not already notified us of your email address, let us know right away!
Backyard Orchards Without Honeybees By Jack Caldwell, Leslie Science Center Orchard Volunteer Backyard orchards have an advantage over large commercial orchards. To a large extent, the big orchards depend upon honeybees for pollination, and with the current scarcity of the American honeybee, owners have to buy or rent bees to ensure good pollination. Often they import them from Europe. The little home orchard in the city or countryside tends to enjoy visits from a large variety of wild bees. On a sunny day next spring, stand quietly by an apple tree in full bloom on your property and watch carefully. You should see bumble bees and their smaller cousins crawling in and out of the blossoms as well as a few honeybees. Looking even more closely should reveal some very small hyperactive fliers moving from blossom to blossom. Continued on page 6
An Unexpected Harvest By Alan Pickett Many of you who visited County Farm this past season may recall a unique garden, noted for its pale blue shade umbrella attached to a makeshift table, tucked in the far upper corner adjoining the community shade garden. What many of you may not be aware of is that this garden, now in its fourth season at County Farm, is tended entirely by homeless or formerly homeless adults living here in Washtenaw County.
What I often can’t help with is the trauma—physical, social, and spiritual—caused by the experience of homelessness itself. Spending time gardening together is a collaborative, physical, and engaged activity that restores what I like to call an “existential heartbeat” to our most vulnerable neighbors. Gardening, my friends, is a defibrillator—not of ailing hearts—but of wounded souls.
I work as a mental health nurse for Project Outreach, a program of Washtenaw County government charged with engaging and assisting vulnerable homeless individuals in our community, particularly those with mental illnesses and addictive disorders. Ironically, each aspect of our garden—from the raised doubledug beds to the riot of morning glories that crept up the tomato trellis—was planned and executed by people without a table to put their harvest on. Why? As fellow gardeners, I don’t think my answer will be much of a surprise to you.
I have taken people in the throes of active addiction to the garden and seen them smile for the first time in months. I have seen the deep, full sighs that occur when a person finally relaxes after a rough journey. I have seen people with severe schizophrenia attend to the pleasurable and rewarding tasks of putting up a fence, staking a tomato, or arguing with conviction over the best way to mulch peppers! Working together thinning carrots or pinching basil, I have been able to have collegial, productive discussions with my clients about housing, treatment, and dreams in ways that would be impossible in an office setting.
The experience of homelessness is both deeply demoralizing and profoundly alienating. Many of the maladies that we associate with homelessness—drug addiction, trauma, poverty, and mental illness—are by no means unique to the experience of homelessness. As difficult as they are, we all accept that these things happen. And we all know what it is like to discuss, quietly, on a back-porch or a coffee shop, a cousin’s struggle with cocaine, an uncle’s bout with depression, a nephew’s layoff. Homelessness however, takes things to another level. Homelessness is the stuff of Greek tragedy and Shakespeare: it is not supposed to happen. When homelessness does happen, it is often perceived as a complete failure of one’s humanity. To be homeless is to lose one’s privacy and to be publicly shunned at the same time. It is the polar opposite of anyone’s dreams. It is our worst nightmare made manifest. What a downer, right? Well, this is where gardening comes in. When I encounter homeless people in my work, much of my attention is focused on treating the problems mentioned above. I work to get people health care, medication, and benefits.
I often joke with my homeless gardeners, particularly those trying to stay sober, “Hey, it’s impossible to sin when you’re weeding an onion patch!” And it’s true. All gardeners at County Farm express to one another a concept central to any therapeutic relationship: unconditional positive regard. How can you be an outsider if you are gardening? Despite our pride in our garden, the best fruits were the moments of sharing wisdom, stories, or a laugh with our neighboring gardeners. I’m convinced that these moments were taken in as sustenance by my clients, as profound reminders of their inherent humanity and place in our community. So, my thanks go out to those of you who took an interest in the plot with the blue shade umbrella, way off in the far corner. Not only did your friendship inspire us to tend to our garden with loving attention, it also inspired us to tend to each other and in so doing, I believe many of us reaped an unexpected harvest: Hope.
2 • The Project Grow Community Gardener • Spring 2008
Project Grow
St. Pattie’s at Seva
Project Grow’s office is located at 1831 Traver Road Ann Arbor, MI 48105
By Sheri Repucci
Mission Statement Project Grow Community Gardens provide the space, education and inspiration to make organic gardening accessible to all. Project Grow Community Gardener is published three times a year: spring, summer, and pre-season. Readers are encouraged to submit articles and ideas. Advertising and additional sponsorship are always welcome. Please email newsletter@ projectgrowgardens.org Board of Directors
Mike Scholl, President Patti Smith, Secretary Melissa Kesterson, Executive Director Joan Bulmer, Treasurer Devon Akmon Terre Fisher Laurie Kotchenruther Catherine Riseng Leigh Smith Damaris Suffalko
This was the first spring in memory that we’ve held a pre-season fundraising event and it turned out to be both extremely successful and an enormous amount of fun. Called “Eat Green for Grow,” the event was actually a two-in-one, a silent auction with an eat-to-donate component. None of this could have come off without the generosity and flexibility of Seva’s owners, Marion and Jeff Jackson, who allowed us to use a large bit of the bar for our silent auction, add our own centerpieces to their tables, and generally take over the place for the evening, while they remained open to the public for business. And take over the bar we did! Merchants, museums, festivals, and Project Grow volunteers were so giving in their donations that we had to bring in a table of our own that doubled the allotted space at the bar. Even so, the donations space was wonderfully cramped with a wide assortment of goodies—a beautiful sight. All items sold at closing bids that ranged from 25% to 200% of the retail price. A warm thank you to everyone who bid or who, in good cheer, egged on their friends to bid! Those who came out to Seva’s for food and drink with friends and family, you did well—very well! Thanks to your hearty appetites, Seva Restaurant’s donation to Project Grow from the evening’s sales was significant, almost equal to the amount earned from the silent auction. It was certainly a good night to eat green! So, to the merchants of Ann Arbor, to you, the community of gardeners we have come to know and love, and again to Jeff and Marion Jackson a thousand thanks! The evening was a blast.
Community Gardener Volunteers Terre Fisher Liz McDowell Pamela Schwarzmann Elizabeth Ward
Project Grow memberships are $10 a year and include a subscription to the newsletter. Project Grow is a 501(c)3 organization; donations to Project Grow are tax deductible. Board Meetings Board meetings are held at the Leslie Science Center, 1831 Traver. Please contact the office at (734) 996-3169 for upcoming meeting dates. All Project Grow members are welcome to attend.
www.projectgrowgardens.org
Many thanks to all the area merchants, museums, festivals, and volunteers who donated items to Project Grow’s Eat Green for Grow spring fund-raising event. Thanks also to volunteers who have helped with various projects.
Native Plant Nursery Pictures Plus Plum Market Roosroast Free Speech Coffee
16 Hands Gallery
Seva Restaurant
Acme Mercantile
Three Chairs Furniture
Ann Arbor Film Festival
Melanie Boyle
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
Susan Cybulski
Arab American National Museum
Tara Griffith
Crazy Wisdom Bookstore & Tea Room
Eric Kampe
Downtown Home & Garden
Mary Price
Eastern Accents Restaurant
Mike Scholl
Falling Waters Books & Collectibles
Pam Schwarzmann
The Project Grow Community Gardener • Spring 2008 • 3
Perennial Wheat: The Harvest of the Future? By Brook Wilke I’ve always loved wheat. I remember when I first discovered you could create your own chewing gum by crunching on the kernels. The golden fields in mid summer fill the countryside with beauty and the expectation of an abundant harvest. And who can resist cutting an extra slice of warm bread made from the freshly ground grain? Wheat is one of the most important food sources worldwide and is still primarily consumed by humans, unlike many grains that have become animal feed and biofuel. Farmers all over the U.S. will be watching their green wheat plants emerge from the fading snow, waiting for the hot summer days of harvest. Soon, farmers may be watching leaves of perennial wheat plants sprout up, not only after the snow melts, but also right after the summer harvest. No longer will farmers need to worry about soil washing away, nutrients escaping into the groundwater, or relying on weak plants during drought. With their deep, persistent root systems, perennial plants are always there, through good times and bad. Virtually none of our grains now come from perennial plants, so the idea of perennial wheat sounds pretty good. Annual crops, with their large seeds, have fed the human race for 10,000 years, but they have their share of problems. Continual replanting requires tremendous labor and soil disturbance, while over the necessarily long fallow periods soil is prone to erosion and leaching. But perennial wheat presents certain challenges too. How will weeds be controlled? Will the plants use up all the soil nutrients? How do we know they will produce seed every year?
The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in southwest Michigan obtained perennial wheat populations from Washington State University researchers as part of a multi-region evaluation project, which includes sites in Washington, Texas, Michigan, Turkey and Kazakstan. We seeded perennial wheat and annual winter wheat in fall 2006, spring 2007, and fall 2007 and evaluated them for grain production and fall regrowth. In 2007 perennial wheat varieties produced from 50% to 112% of the annual wheat yields. All perennial wheat populations matured later than the annual wheat and were more difficult to thresh. Fall regrowth varied from 65% to 85% across these populations while annual wheat exhibited 0% regrowth. Individuals and populations that yielded high amounts of grain and exhibited high levels of regrowth are being selected to create improved varieties. Spring always comes quicker than we think—yes, even in Michigan—and I am anxious to find out whether the perennial wheat plants will produce again. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to grow up on a farm in a culture that obtained food from perennial wheat. Can it change the way we farm? Will it help to support more small farmers? Can it improve the quality of our water and provide habitat for prairie birds that have been struggling to find nesting grounds? All these questions remain to be answered, but I anticipate a happy conclusion to this story.
Perennial wheat is a cross between annual wheat (Triticum aestivum) and intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium). Its history goes back to the mid-twentieth century when Soviet scientists flirted with the idea, but all seed from that program has been lost. Scientists at University of California-Davis worked with perennial wheat in the 1970s but abandoned the program when yields reached only 70% of those from annual wheat. Recently, scientists at Washington State University and The Land Institute in Kansas have revitalized perennial wheat breeding, and these programs have made astounding progress. The goal of this research is to produce a substantial quantity and quality of grain for multiple years, not by re-seeding but by regrowing. When planted in the fall, each plant produces grain the following summer, develops a large root system, and produces new leaves in the fall after the harvest. During the second year of growth, these same plants send up new flowering shoots and produce grain again. This cycle can continue for many years assuming the plants continue to re-grow each fall and survive each winter. Current perennial wheat plants produce “soft” grain, which results in flour similar to that used for baking pastries.
4 • The Project Grow Community Gardener • Spring 2008
My Transition to Low-Vision Gardening By LuAnne Bullington To me gardening has always been an art form where plants were used instead of paint. My winters were spent working on designs and searching catalogs for just the right plants for the next growing season. A few years ago I developed a degenerative eye disease that made gardening extremely difficult, and it wasn’t long before I could no longer see the flowers or shrubs or weeds or the damage caused by pests. Gardens not well tended revert back to their natural state, and soon weeds, especially quack and crab grasses, thistle, and garlic mustard took over my beds along with bugs, slugs, and other varmints. To add to these problems, I found I was pulling out flowers and tending weeds as well as getting disoriented in my own backyard! I turned to other blind and visually impaired gardeners for help and advice. I found many had hired landscaping companies. Others routinely ripped out all their beds and replanted them from scratch. A lucky few had relatives who worked side by side with them in their gardens. I searched online, contacted university extension offices, and looked for books on the subject. There is a lot of information available on gardening with a physical disability, but very little on how to garden with poor eyesight.
The more helpful books talked about “sensory gardens,” landscaping with vegetables, and organic gardening. I frequently had to modify their advice. For example, some books suggested removing any plants with thorns or pickers. But instead of removing my roses I moved them to an easily identifiable area so I wouldn’t accidentally scratch myself on their thorns. The books also suggest using strong smelling flowers to help you identify where you are in your garden. But strong smelling plants made my neighbors and me sneeze, and often they were only in bloom for short periods of time. Where I used to spend my winters working up a new visual design and looking for colorful plants to add to my collection, I now search for plants that will turn my yard into a living sculpture that I can feel and touch. My yard may no longer have the visual interests it once did because I can no longer see to landscape, but I continue to develop new designs. I am “seeing” my gardens in a new way and trying new techniques I would not have thought to try in the past. More importantly, I am enjoying my gardens again and looking forward to the next growing season.
The Project Grow Community Gardener • Spring 2008 • 5
Backyard Orchards Without Honeybees Continued from page 1 On a good day your trees might enjoy a swarm of such diverse pollinators. If so, you will be benefiting from the diversity of flowering plants and trees in your neighborhood. You are also probably being rewarded because you and your neighbors are not using toxic sprays. In addition to having a neighborhood friendly to wild pollinators, there are other things the orchardist can do to improve pollination. When buying new trees, check with quality nurseries about which trees need cross-pollination and which trees make good partners. Plant trees according to the recommended spacing so they can cross-pollinate
Join the Project Grow Photo Pool on Flickr! Connect with fellow gardeners by sharing photos from your garden, and find inspiration for the gardening season while admiring others’ photos. The website is: http://www.flickr.com/groups/484034@N23/
efficiently and benefit from wind pollination. Remember that apple trees need full sunlight all season to produce the best fruit, so site selection is very important. Lastly, save old bedsheets for covering the trees (assuming you have dwarf trees and have pruned them to a manageable size) so that when a frost or light freeze is predicted during blossom time, you can help the trees weather the crisis. A step ladder and an assistant are a big help for this job. Another short article to complement this one is planned for later this year. In it I will discuss organic procedures for improving the quality of your apples.
Volunteer! Help out at Project Grow’s Plant Sales We need lots of ready hands to assist with both the May 2–4 and May 10 events. Please call the Project Grow office at (734) 996-3169 to sign up for a time slot or register online by visiting: www.projectgrowgardens.org. The May 2–4 sale happens at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens (Dixboro Rd) and May 10 we will set up in front of People’s Food Co-op, right across from the Farmers Market.
6 • The Project Grow Community Gardener • Spring 2008
Spring ‘08 Classes Disappearing Honey Bees & Bumble Bees: What’s Happening to Our Pollinators? May 14, 7:00–8:30pm, Ann Arbor Library Pittsfield Branch Scientist and author Stephen Buchmann will discuss the latest findings of a National Academy of Sciences panel on the loss of native pollinators in North America. In an illustrated lecture, Dr. Buchmann will present information on loss/extinction of bumble bees and Colony Collapse Disorder in honey bees. Information on what you can do to conserve and protect pollinators and their plants will be explained. An invitation to join the “Pollination Partnership”
(www.pollinator.org) is extended to everyone. Come and join us for a stimulating evening of cross-pollinations. Stephen Buchmann, Ph.D. has authored 150 scientific publications and 8 books, including The Forgotten Pollinators, (Island Press, 1996) and Letters from the Hive (Bantam Dell, 2006). He helped create the largest pollinator initiative (the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign; see www.pollinator. org), is active with international legislation protecting pollinators and their plants, and served on a National Academy of Sciences committee reporting on the status of pollinators in N. America in April, 2007. Steve is an adjunct professor of Entomology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His research interests are in pollination ecology (honey bees and native solitary bees) and conservation biology. Currently, he is working with Mayan beekeepers in the Yucatan to restore their millennia old beecraft with stingless bees, including filming a documentary in progress on the plight of Mayan beekeeping and tropical forests of the Yucatan peninsula. His latest book The Bee Tree, with co-author Diana Cohn, and illustrated by Paul Mirocha, is a children’s book, a coming of age story about a young honey hunter in the Malaysian rainforest. Basics of Composting June 3, 7:00–8:30pm, Ann Arbor Library Pittsfield Branch Project Grow community gardens’ director and advanced master gardener Melissa Kesterson will take the mystery out of composting and speak about composting basics including appropriate items for the compost, composting containers and benefits to adding compost to the garden.
The Project Grow Community Gardener • Spring 2008 • 7
1831 Traver Road • Ann Arbor • MI 48105
Non Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID Ann Arbor Michigan Permit No 289