Spring 2013 Issue

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Organic Gardens Today would like to thank

For the cover and back page photos.

You can view his remarkable photos on his Facebook page by typing “Ken Owen Wildlife Photography� in the search box or visit his website

www.pbase.com/kowenjr

As Spring approaches, look not only for daffodils and tulips but also for our native trees and shrubs in bloom.

Organic Gardens Today is a publication dedicated to gardeners who strive to garden the organic way. Articles are property of their perspective authors. Please contact them directly for reprint permission.

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From The Editor Welcome to the Spring edition of Organic Gardens

Today

Spring is a season of rejuvenation, of new and exciting hopes and dreams for our garden. I am very excited about the quality of the information of this season’s articles. We welcome several new authors and along with our existing writers, we have one of the best collections of independent writers in the industry in this “Home Grown” magazine. When the first issue came out two years ago, I had many hopes and dreams for this magazine, all of which are taking shape and coming to fruition. As we continue to grow, look for more varied interests in the gardening realm, all with the “organic” theme.

GMO’s are not only a point of discussion in this issue, but across the United States. A.J. King wrote an article on the basics of GMO’s, to help you understand the importance of this issue for gardeners and for our children and grandchildren. Proposition 37 in California brought this issue to the forefront and how big agri-business will do everything in its’ power to defeat it. Why shouldn’t we, as citizens, be able to decide by reading a label on a product whether we want to purchase that Genetically Modified Organism in the food product or not? Companies like Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and 35 other companies like Nestle, Pepsi and Coca Cola spent $45,600,000 to defeat this proposition with misleading ads. This is our gardening future, as well as the health of our families, so get informed!

Lastly, as I learn more and more about the publishing industry, items come to my attention that shock me. Did you know that the average “corporate” magazine, take your pick, has 80% advertising and 20% information/articles? So when you purchase a 150 page magazine at the store, you are only getting 30 pages of information. We do give writers the ability to highlight their respective businesses, but we will not allow this magazine to become an “Ad Journal” with only a few short articles, only hitting the highlights. The more information we can pack into each issue, the bigger the smile on my face, and that is what matters most to me – to increase your organic gardening knowledge. with your If you like what we have accomplished with Organic Gardens Today, please family, friends, coworkers and fellow gardeners. We rely on word of mouth to spread the word about the magazine, and I thank you in advance for sharing us. If you go to our website, www.organicgardenstoday.com and you can click the “Share” button to share the website with your friends on any social media platform.

David Daehnke, Editor

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MEET OUR WRITERS DAVID DAEHNKE, THE GARDENING GURU, EDITOR David is a seasoned gardener and lecturer, helping both the novice and experienced gardener. His fun and informative lectures are widely requested throughout the Northeast. Over the past 12 years, David has successfully managed three public gardens as Executive Director, but his true love is communicating proper gardening practices and creating gardens of beauty. He received his B.S. Degree in 1984 in Ornamental Horticulture at Delaware Valley College. David is widely known from his radio show “The Gardening Guru” on WGHT 1500 AM, and can also be heard monthly on Martha Stewart's Sirius Radio program "Morning Living with Betsy Karetnick". He is a horticultural consultant on his Internet Web page, www.thegardeningguru.com. Contact David through his web site for current lecture schedule and to make arrangements for your own presentation.

SUZANNE VANOVER Suzanne VanOver has always had a passion for plants. By the age of three, she could identify every vegetable by its leaf in her uncle’s garden where she spent a majority of her childhood. This ignited a curiosity that has followed her throughout her life and career. Her home gardens are filled with plants from both grandmothers and many family members and friends who have shared with her along the way. After becoming a massage therapist over ten years ago, her attraction to the plant kingdom lead her along nature’s path to the use essential oils for health and wellness. She regularly hold Wellness Workshops, educating about a variety of ways to incorporate essential oils into our daily lives. Suzanne has always called New Jersey her home where she is raising her three teenage boys with her husband, Bill.

KATE COPSEY Kate is a freelance garden writer from NW Ohio, who hosts America's Home Grown Veggie Show every Saturday at 10am on www.americaswebradio.com from the studio of Radio Sandy Springs (Am 1620 Atlanta) and is streamed live. The show is a one hour magazine format with in depth interviews of experts, authors and gardeners. America’s Home Grown Veggie Show is the only show on the air that airs 52 wks a year talking all about healthy vegetables.

AL BENNER Married to Deena Seligsohn Benner. Twin boys - Owen and Coleman 6 years old.

Too many interests, too little time... Grew up in New Hope Solebury, PA. Attended college at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA - BS in Ornamental Horticulture. Received an MBA at LaSalle University. Owner of three web businesses: www.OldSchoolFarmers.blogspot.com, www.BackyardFarmers.com, www.MossAcres.com, www.PurrfectFence.com. A founding partner for a self-sustaining residential real estate project in Costa Rica - www.FincaLasBrisas.org. Founder of www.BennersGardens.com - national supplier of deer fencing systems - company sold in Dec. 2006.

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MEET OUR WRITERS MIKE HOFMANN Mike Hofmann has a BS in Ornamental Horticulture from Delaware Valley College and over 30 years of experience in the landscape industry. With a strong focus on residential design, Mike has worked with home builders and home owners alike to bring landscaping visions into reality. He has a strong creative interest and enjoys working with people. Mike now owns and operates Stonehouse Outdoor Design LLC. He lives in Berryville, VA with his wife Carole and their five children.

Stonehouse Outdoor Design LLC is a full service landscape company with experience installing water features, landscape lighting, plantings, hardscapes and outdoor kitchens. Our quality comes from excellent design before the project starts and a great team of experienced professionals to bring it to life.

Have a look at our work and contact us at www.StonehouseOutdoorDesign.com GERI LAUFER Horticulturist Geri Laufer is a dirt gardener and a widely published authority on gardening topics. Her award-winning book Tussie-Mussies (Workman Publishing) is the definitive work on the Language of Flowers. Geri’s media appearances include Good Morning America, NPR and Home Matters. Former hats include Georgia Cooperative Extension Service County Agent, Gwinnett Tech Environmental Horticulture Adjunct Professor and At lanta Botanical Garden Public Relations Manager/newsletter editor/web content manager. Currently GardenGeri.com provides PR and social media strategies for horticulture companies and a regular monthly gardening commentary on Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE-FM. Visit http://www.gardengeri.com STEPHEN SCOTT Stephen is the co-owner with his wife Cindy of Terroir Seeds, an heirloom seed company that not only provides quality garden seeds but helps customers improve their gardens and skills with a wealth of information not found anywhere else.

From his experiences in gardening, rangeland and habitat restoration Stephen has found that it’s not just about the seeds; the highest quality seeds are great, but there is room and need for more, much more.

Stephen has discovered a cycle to gardening that is not being addressed much today- soil education and awareness of its role and importance; the important role of quality seed and how they interact with the soil; the critical importance of micro-organisms that feed us all that many are not aware of; how to prepare the food grown from the garden and how it can all tie in together to markedly increase our healthall from our home garden. Visit their website at www.UnderwoodGardens.com.

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MEET OUR WRITERS LORRAINE FOLEY Lorraine Foley (lorraine@wildlandscape.com) is a gardener and garden writer with many years experience working with organic methods. She has a degree in horticulture and a . This award explores the Masters in conservation value of habitats and ecosystems.

Lorraine specializes in designing and creating gardens that are wildlife friendly as well as being simply beautiful. Her passion for herbaceous borders is based on experience and a deep love of plants. Her garden is designed with an eclectic mix of ornamental species of trees as well as dense herbaceous borders that’s attractive to pollinating insects. She grows fruit and vegetables for her family using only natural methods. For more information on wild life friendly gardening, visit www.wildlandscape.com LAURA TAYLOR Laura Taylor is passionate about organic vegetable growing at her home in the in The San Fernando Valley. She sowed her first vegetable patch over 17 years ago with a variety of summer vegetables. With each spring Laura found herself creating additional garden spaces to accommodate her growing obsession with home grown vegetables and tomatoes.

Laura now grows a riot of season vegetables along with over 90 varieties of tomatoes.

She brings her passion for growing, cooking, teaching and bringing people together through her company, Tomato Matters. She has become a hub for education, inspiration and encouragement for inspired living and enjoying home growing, culinary arts and entertaining. Classes are offered in topics related to growing vegetables, cooking and needle arts. In addition, Laura has created a line of tomato-themed stationery as well as authored and self-published Tomato Calendar and Growing Guide. The 2013 Tomato Calendar and Growing Guide is available through Laura’s website, www.TomatoMatters.com KIM CAMPBELL Kim Campbell, OSU-OKC Horticulture Science Graduate, THRIVE-organic landscape owner/operator, Garden Blogger, resides in Harrah, Oklahoma organic gardening all year round. Workshop and event guest speaker, consultation or info email: herbwild@aol.com MAUREEN FARMER Maureen Farmer is master gardener and the founder of The Farmer’s Garden website (www.thefarmersgarden.com). The Farmer's Garden is an online place to make in-person connections between gardeners across the US. Gardeners and want-to-be gardeners can search and post free classified ads to share excess homegrown produce, tools, or gardening space with people in their area.

Food banks can post wanted classifieds for surplus food. She is an avid gardener and also a former Board member of Urban Oaks Organic Farm in Connecticut.

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MEET OUR WRITERS A.J. KING A.J. King is a writer living on the outskirts of civilization, on an island among many that dot the waters off the west coast of British Columbia. He is working on a number of written and visual art projects including but not limited to: his debut novel, a number of screenplays/teleplays, blog posts for various websites, some traditional art, some digital 3D visual arts, and basically anything else that piques his interest.

JANINE PATTISON Janine Pattison MSGD is an award-winning UK garden designer and horticulturalist who trained with English Heritage at Eltham Palace in London and at Kingston Maurward College in Dorchester. A Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers, the British Association of Landscape Industries and the Garden Media Guild, Janine is also a highly qualified RHS horticulturalist. Her practice is fast gaining a reputation for creating stylish, contemporary gardens often on difficult sites. www.janinepattison.com KIM DAEHNKE Kim is an organic believer living in New Jersey. She will be a regular contributor in future issues reporting on her travels as she continues to move her family to an all-organic diet and making smart choices in a big-ag world.

Are you a gardening ‘expert’ that would like to write for us and help share the organic principles the magazine conveys? Whether you have a gardening degree from a college or you are “dirt” educated, send me an e-mail with the subject and article you want to cover. I will review and see if we can use it in the next issue. Please remember that the magazine will be online on or about the first day of the new season, so please address your article for the upcoming season and make sure it is sent at least two weeks before the publication date for formatting.

Send your requests to editor@organicgardenstoday.com We look forward to hearing from you!

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* When the weather warms up, you can set out plants of pansies as long as the ground and garden centers are ready. They will continuously bloom if the blossoms are kept picked.

* Any shrubs, hedges or trees that have suffered broken limbs due to snowfall or wind can be correctly pruned now. * Rake your lawn to remove any debris that has accumulated on it over the Winter. For more tips on lawn care, visit Organic Lawn Care Manual .

* Fast growing vines, like scarlet runner bean, the hyacinth bean, passion flower, and to some extent clematis vines are great candidates to plant against ugly fences or walls.

* Begin your garden book now, for future reference on what plants, seeds and other jobs have been great and which have done poorly.

* Annuals can be started in the house towards the middle of the month. Sweet peas can be planted directly into the ground when it is ready.

* A compost heap provides good organic matter for amending your soil. If you do not already have one, begin one this Spring.

* The Winter coverings of perennials can be removed by the end of the month. It is best to do it on a cloudy day, and remember to recycle those branches!

* Bird houses can now be cleaned and disinfected for the new nesting season.

* Give your lilacs a light coating of lime. They prefer an alkaline soil, which is not commonly found in * When doing your Spring clean-up, keep a watchthis area. ful eye out for resprouting perennials. Tread lightly! * Hardy roses can be pruned as soon as you are sure that chances of an extreme freeze have past.

* Scatter annual poppy seeds in the borders or wherever you want them to grow. Seeds of other annuals that can be planted directly can be done as soon as the danger of frost has past.

* Hardy chrysanthemums and other late-flowering perennials can be divided when the sprouts begin to show. * Clematis paniculata may be cut down almost to the ground. It will make rapid growth and will * As soon as planting conditions are right, sow the flower again in the Fall. following vegetables outside where they are to grow: peas, parsnips, spinach, beets, carrots, let* Lily pools should be drained and cleaned at this tuce, parsley, radishes and salsify. Potatoes may go time of year before the lilies start to grow. Hardy in early also. water lilies can be purchased and set out now, while * As always, keep an eye out for insects, eggs or cocoons and destroy them before they get the upper hand. * Prune shrubs in the month of March if they do not flower until Summer. Prune all Spring flowering shrubs after they have finished flowering.

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tender kinds should be moved out in late May or beginning of June. * There is no better time to divide perennials than when they first start growing in Spring. Dig the entire clump up and use your hands to feel where the plant can or cannot be split. Use of a knife to

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Home Grown Gardening Tips (continued) assist in the splitting may be necessary on tougher, woodier perennials. When replanting the new clumps, make sure to add organic matter to the hole, which will give the new roots a healthy start. * The pruning of roses should be completed as soon as possible, cutting back to live wood and cutting the stems even more if a smaller quantity but better quality of flowers is preferred. Comparatively light pruning will create a profusion of smaller blooms instead.

blueprint for your fertilizer and lime needs for the upcoming year.

* Peonies require plenty of water to fill out the flower buds and often benefit from an application of organic fertilizer. * If chrysanthemums and asters have not been divided, this work can be done now before they get too large.

* Set out pansy plants as soon as the ground is ready. They will flower continuously if the old blos* Nearly all flowers seeds can be directly sown in soms are kept picked. the garden during the next few weeks. Fine seeds such as petunias may be kept in place with a light * Perennials, roses and other shrubs can all use an coating of peat moss. application of a 5-10-5 organic fertilizer to give them a jumpstart for Spring. * When seedlings that have been grown in a cold frame or inside the home are ready to be set out, * As soon as the weather is settled, cabbage, brocchoose a cloudy, quiet day if possible. coli, lettuce, and cauliflower can be planted in the garden. * If you desire large peony blooms, you must pick * Defoliation of hawthorn trees is caused by a funoff the side buds that form along the stem. This will gus which can be controlled by spraying now with a redirect all of the energy to the lone flower bud at fungicide such as sulfur. the tip of the stem, otherwise known as the terminal bud. Peonies should also be staked no before they * Hydrangeas, buddleias, and other late flowering get too large. A support that encircle the whole shrubs may be cut back to produce a new flush of plant loosely is the best kind. growth. These plants flower on new wood and do not produce as well on older wood. * An easy and non-toxic way to kill the weeds that grow in the cracks of your driveway and sidewalk is * Lilacs, as well as clematis, like a sweet soil, so an to pour boiling water onto these plants. Try not to application of lime along with your application of pour excess that can run off into your existing beds 5-10-5 fertilizer can be made now. or lawns. * Early blooming shrubs can be pruned after they have ceased flowering.

* Chrysanthemums can be made into bushy plants by pinching the tips of the branches judiciously until the end of June, then allow the shoots to grow. * It is wiser to attack weeds as soon as they appear.

These bushier plants will have more blooms than They can be eradicated much easier now than when one not pinched. the have become established. * Now is a good time to have your soil tested for pH and soil nutrient values. This will serve as a

* Keep all newly planted trees, shrubs, perennials and roses well watered so that the roots will not dry

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Home Grown Gardening Tips (continued) * Chrysanthemums can be made into bushy plants by pinching the tips of the branches judiciously until the end of June, then allow the shoots to grow.

These bushier plants will have more blooms than one not pinched.

* Cut sprays of lilacs freely, but keep in mind the shape of the plant when cutting. Also try to open the plant up with your pruning cuts to help deter powdery mildew.

* Members of the squash family (also including * Keep all newly planted trees, shrubs, perennials melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc.) should be and roses well watered so that the roots will not dry planted as soon as the danger of frost has passed. out.

Be sure to plant them is full sun in a well-drained soil. * Remember to leave the foliage on all spring flowering bulbs until they turn yellow. Even though the * New Zealand spinach is a good vegetable for hot, plant may be done flowering, it is now storing the dry weather and can be cut several times during the energy needed for next year’s blooms. season. * Keep the faded flowers picked from pansies to encourage new blooms.

* Set out tomato, eggplant, pepper and corn by the end of this month for the north, earlier in the south.

* Irises should be given an application of bone meal * Spring flowering shrubs can be pruned after the now. Work it into the soil and water thoroughly blossoming season is over. when done. You will not see the results this year, but will next year.

You can now subscribe to receive Organic Gardens Today magazine in your mail box. Just fill out the form below and send your check for $25.00 for four quarterly issues and mail to: Organic Gardens Today Magazine 98 Hilltop Road Mahwah, New Jersey 07430-2202

Enclosed is my check for $25.00. Please start my subscription with the Summer issue.

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Your parent’s generation had limited exposure to GMO foods, and they probably remember planting

By A.J. King a garden with your grandparents and canning/bottling/pickling these wares for the winters. They remember your grandmother’s homeIt occurred to me the other day that many, many made Mac & Cheese, but as they moved on to people still do not have a firm grasp on what the create you, they found the convenience of the terms Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), Ge- store-bought-Mac & Cheese-in-a-box variety was netically Modified (GM), and Genetic Engineering so much easier and quicker to make that the effort (GE) actually mean. The opposite of these is Orand time savings justified the compromise in flavor ganic food.

– the true health aspects didn’t really factor in at You owe it to yourself and the people that you care that time because so little was known. Add to about to have a read and find out what these things which, even if your mom tried to make grandma’s are, and how they are affecting you, every day. recipe, it wouldn’t taste quite the same because the milk grandma had at her disposal isn’t the same type of milk your mom had/has to work with.

(Your mother’s is laced with growth hormones and antibiotics courtesy of the modern chemical companies and modern dairy industry.)

Well, GMO and GM are generally interchangeable terms to describe the fact that the food in front of you has had its DNA altered. GE is the in which the food products have their DNA altered.

But before we delve into that, I want to address a couple of points.

The first is important because we need to put the case of GMO foods in historical and social context.

Your grandparent’s generation didn’t have to contend with GMO foods, because they didn’t exist back then. Most of them knew their local farmers and quite possibly had their milk delivered to them in glass bottles. They might have had Mac & Cheese, but they made the ‘Mac’ part and they made the ‘cheese’ part. It was homemade, from scratch.

So now we get to you and your generation. You, most likely haven’t planted a garden of your own, ever. You’ve probably eaten countless quickie meals at fast food restaurants over the years, and when you cook at home, Mac & Cheese doesn’t even include the use of a pot and a stove anymore. In fact, it probably comes in a waxed cardboard container, straight from the microwave in under 4 minutes.

I’m as guilty of this as you are, so please don’t consider that a judgement, rather, a realistic observation. After all, admitting that there is a problem is the first step toward recovery, right?

This stuff is important to understand so that you realize just how different our grandparent’s world was compared to the one we have now.

The second thing is that if you educate yourself about GMO foods, you’ll most likely choose to adopt a more organic diet. Those two words, ‘organic’ and ‘diet’ conjure up images of hippies in a field somewhere chewing on dandelions. hippies in a field someIn truth, there probably where chewing on dandelions, but the organic movement is rapidly becoming more mainstream as

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Why? Because today’s chicken is force-fed feed that almost definitely contains GMO corn and GMO soy, as well as arsenic. (Here, I’ll play the part of your indignation, “Wait!? Arsenic? Why would they feed a chicken arsenic!?”) The chickens are fed arsenic Parents frustrated by hyperactive toddlers, or their because it plumps them up, and for chicken farmown chronic conditions, are beginning to the exam- ers, the more a chicken weighs, the more money ine foods that they consume as potential culprits. they’ll make at the market. It is so effective, that Hence, the word ‘diet’. This isn’t ‘diet’ to lose industrial chickens grow twice as big in roughly weight, it’s ‘diet’ as in the ‘complete menu of food half the time, often leading to broken legs that can’t that you eat’ each day. If you are a woman reading support their weight and other mutations or deneed your definitions adjusted, this, you fects. Arsenic, by the way, is a known carcinogen – while if you are a guy reading this, that means it is known to cause cancer. need your definitions adjusted (yes you “Eewww, I don’t want cancer!” (sorry, that was boys, the ladies have proven far more progressive your mind chiming in again). when it comes to organic foods and taking control of their health, and yes, that should bring you a So you decide you’re gonna just push the 2013 vermodicum of shame). So get up to speed gentlemen sion of grandma’s roast chicken aside and try to eat because the ladies of the world don’t want a planet the veggies. But, the veggies are GMO foods. Some without men almost as much as we don’t want a scientist in a lab somewhere pulled some DNA planet without them. from a fish and inserted it into the DNA of a tomato in order to affect it’s color, to make it stay redSo, understanding the link between diet and health dish longer, and give it a longer shelf-life in the is a pretty simple leap of faith for most of us. When grocery store. you eat better, you feel better. Straightforward right?

Hey! I see you pushing that tomato off of your plate. What’s left? The salad?

You’d think so.

Not so fast… the chemical fertilizers and pesticides Here is what our generation gets to contend with: that are dumped by the ton on those romaine leaves If you made the same meal that your grandmother are known carcinogens – again, known to cause made, and put the two of them side by side on the cancer and a host of other illnesses. Are you still table, they might look the same, but hers would still hungry for 2013 and beyond? be better.

Your grandmother’s plate had free-range organic No, I’m not talking about your lack of cooking chicken that was fed real seeds, grass, worms, and skills. In fact, lets take that out of the equation. bugs – the stuff that chickens are supposed to eat.

Your grandmother, God rest her soul, time-travels The tomato was grown twenty yards from her herself with a plate of her roast chicken dinner with kitchen and didn’t come off of the vine until it was veggies and salad to your table all the way from the ripe. It most definitely wasn’t part fish. Her lettuce 1930’s. She also spends some time in your kitchen, grew up right beside her tomatoes and her method cooking that exact same meal with today’s chicken, of keeping bugs away was a few ladybugs, the most today’s veggies and today’s salad. You know what vicious killers in the insect world. Okay, not realthe end result is, right? Of course you do. Grandly… unless you’re an aphid. One ladybug can eat ma’s original time-traveled version is better for you. 5,000 aphids in its lifetime. Needless to say, farminformation about GMO foods and the increase of illnesses linked to processed foods continue to find their way to the public. I am proof that you can be be a hippy, or be destined to pro-organic and eat dandelions in a field.

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farmers love the ladybug.

of the organic versions of that plant that you can find. This means that the company would end up So, now that you know how things are different being the only place that you could across the generations, you begin to understand buy the seed to grow that specific crop. “That’s imhow important it is that you learn about GMO possible. How could one company drive a plant foods because we are responsible for our health and extinct?” I have no idea, but I’ve heard reports that that of our children. For them to have the best they’ve managed to do just that with canola. It chances of successful healthy, happy lives, we need would be impressive if it weren’t so nefarious. , the farmer to be educated and be able to educate them, right Also from the now buys his GMO seed from the company every from day one. year, and mates that with the pesticide developed by the same company, every year. The company has also protected itself by making sure that the GMO You may have heard the term ‘Big Agra’. Big Agra seeds are so-called ‘Terminator’ seeds, meaning is the nickname given to multinational Industrial that any seed that you try to save from the resulting Agriculture corporations. These companies employ crop will not grow. This forces the yearly demand armies of lobbyists and lawyers to influence govern- for more seeds. ment officials and write laws allowing them to help them put profits first, all day, every day.

This company is so engrained in our food supply system that unless you grow it yourself, it’s pretty Some of the biggest profits come when a company much a guarantee that you’ve eaten their products, alters the DNA of a plant or an animal, making it a either directly, or indirectly through the consumpGenetically Modified Organism, because tion of animals raised on feed derived from their . The pat- GMO crops. And even then, if you grow your ent means that this specific company is the only own food, but you didn’t specifically buy organic one with the legal right to grow that plant or aniseeds, you probably ate plants grown mal. One company in particular is very adept at this from GMO seeds. whole process. They have lobbyists in place and lawyers writing laws that give them more corporate But that is just the surface of it all. freedom once the new laws get passed. Some of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world are The real reach of their market share is having a working for them to create patentable plants and piece of the ‘processed foods’ pie. animals.

The other reason for them to be so focused on developing GMO crops is that their tampering makes the plant resistant to the company’s own brand of pesticide. For the farmer to kill off weeds in his GMO crop, he simply dumps tons of chemical pesticide that has been developed to kill everything except the GMO plant itself.

Now look at this from a .

From a , once you have a patentable plant, the best course of action that you could take to raise profits is to actively destroy all www.organicgardenstoday.com

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As of 2002, according to the documentary ‘Deconstructing Super’, approximately 60-70% of the processed foods on Canadian shelves contained GMO Processed foods are foods that are grown and then material – its DNA had been altered. That number elements of them are removed, things are added, is most definitely higher in the United States. And and altered. They make up the majority of the food in the 9 years since then, Big Agra has only grown on the market, in grocery stores and in many resin size and market share. Unless it is specified as taurants, and they almost definitely contain GMO organic, we are definitely getting GMO material in material in them. processed foods containing soya (soy), corn, and canola. GMO Soy is used as a filler agent in proFor example, a bushel of apples can be peeled and cessed foods to reduce costs and High-Fructose cored, then run through a blender to make appleCorn Syrup (HFCS) is a sweetener, derived from a processed food, because GMO corn, also commonly used in processed sauce. This is when you eat it, it doesn’t resemble it’s original foods. state. But as with the dinner earlier, this example is grandma’s version.

The term ‘processed food’, using the same analogy, is generally reserved for GMO apples that have had their DNA altered to make them grow faster or sweeter or bigger or juicier. Those genetically altered apples are then peeled and cored, and then they are put into a blender. After that, they most likely end up being stewed; some sugar is added – which itself is probably derived from GMO sugar beets and has gone through its own processing.

Other things that get added would potentially include addictive food additives like chemical-based, manufactured flavors, excitotoxins, added color, and chemical preservatives.

The total fallout from GMO food products may never be fully known, but each year as more and more products are allowed to land in our grocery stores, the accumulative effects of GMOs and additives on our bodies is clearly having detrimental results.

GMO foods have been shown to alter the receptors in your digestive track, mutating them to be less effective at absorbing the nutrients of the food you eat (which, if it is GMO, it is already nutrient compromised). This means that you can be overweight, eating huge portions, and still technically starving your body of nutrition. Being obese and malnourished is an ironic, and disturbing, first world probThis stewing stage either significantly reduces or lem. entirely kills off some of the natural nutrients that GMO feed has been linked to increasingly negative you would expect to find in something based on effects in animals. Tests of animals eating GMO apples. This is one of the reasons why you see a lot corn and GMO soy through multiple generations of fruit products labeled with ‘vitamin C added’. started growing hair in their mouths. Dramatic inVitamin C specifically, is one of the nutrients that creases in sterility and stillbirths are commonplace. does not survive the heating process. The ‘vitamin In pigs, farmers were noticing that their sows were C added’ is most likely synthetic by the way, and giving birth after full term pregnancies to sacs of usually it is a minuscule amount, only enough to water. These are all signs of generationally and gejustify splashing the words ‘vitamin C added’ to the netically accumulative mutations that should front of the packaging. be If it comes in a box, can, or jar, it’s probably proGMO foods have been shown to leave DNA strands cessed. And each one of those additives means the behind. These hybridized plant/bug or plant/animal company has sold another portion of one of their or plant/plant genetically engineered GMO patented chemicals to that food producer.

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products have deposited portions of themselves – parts that we were told would not affect us in our bodies. Now, there is a realistic concern that we run the risk of becoming walking pesticide factories.

GMO foods or even one simple food additive like a food colouring, can compromise a child’s ability to focus, and lead to sleep and/or behavioural issues.

The increase in food allergies has matched the increase in food additives approved for human consumption – an approval process based on science that has nothing to with the FDA, USDA or Health Canada. These agencies It is believed that GMO foods affect growing bodies more easily, meaning our children are at much greater risk of physical mutations to their developing digestive tracks.

Stick to naturally fed/raised livestock to avoid the mutated strains of DNA caused by GMO feed.

Avoid all sodas. The amount of sugar in just one 355ml can is not only terrible for your health, but also almost guaranteed to be derived from processed GMO sugar beats or GMO HFCS. Diet sodas are filled with artificial sweeteners…

Avoid all artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame – a known carcinogen.

Connect with local organic growers, farmer’s markets, etc… buy your produce and meat products straight from them.

Your health is your responsibility. So stay vigilant, stay healthy. Wake up to the food revolution.

Learn.

If you’ve read this far, you’re already ahead of the masses and you’ve taken your first step toward becoming healthier. Get your kids involved. If they’re teens, engage them in the conversation. Ask their opinions. Ask for some ideas for solutions. www.ajking.ca If they’re even younger, pick up some organic seeds for the veggies that they actually like to eat and build a garden together. Kids love to play in the dirt and are amazed by the concept of planting and growing ‘something from nothing’. They’ll be having fun and You parents out there that are clever and creative have already found ways to cut sugar out of your children's diets. Recently, I thought I was on to something with agaves syrup as a sugar alternative, until I found out that it too is heavily processed. So far, natural, unprocessed honey seems to be the best sugar replacement. . Furthermore, avoiding sweeteners altogether is the most advisable option. www.organicgardenstoday.com

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although the reasons will vary. You could try them for the following areas;

By Janine Pattison On areas being rested for a few months On soil waiting to be planted Most of us have got areas of our garden that are On poor soils needing a fertility boost not quite ready to be worked on, or are resting in On empty beds - whatever the time of year between crops. These areas can easily become inOn soils with poor structure fested with weeds and overgrown and become rathOn soil between widely spaced plants er unsightly. Well I've got the solution. Why don't you consider sowing a green manure crop during If you've never grown green manure in your garden the time that these areas are unused? before, you might be wondering why you should Green manure is the term used to describe the pro- bother? Well here are some very good reasons to cess of growing a crop and then chopping it down show you why growing these plants makes good and incorporating it into the soil. It then rots down gardening sense especially for the organic gardento add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. The er. plants chosen to grow as green manures are grown purposefully to benefit the soil. They've been used Nature adores bare soil. As soon as one lot of by farmers for centuries to implants are removed, another lot prove their land. The main benwill try to move in. Often these efits from sowing a green can be weeds, so covering bare manure crop include major imsoil makes sense. provements in soil fertility and Green manures germinate structure, better drainage and quickly and grow rapidly. A covwater holding and of course er crop of green manures will weed control. efficiently smother young weed Recently gardeners who prefer seedlings and eliminate the need organic methods have become for constant hoeing to keep soil to realize the value of these weed-free. green manures as they can help improve the growth rates and Green manures absorb and hold yields of fruit and vegetables by onto soil nutrients. In addition, deep-rooted green a significant amount. Seed suppliers have become manures gather nutrients from depths that ordinary aware of this new market and seed is now available vegetables rarely reach. By absorbing fertility in this in smaller quantities suitable for domestic gardens way, the roots prevent it from being washed down and vegetable patches. through the soil. Once the green manures are There are a range of plants which have been found turned in and decompose, this fertility is released to be most effective for growing as green manures. and returned to the soil ready to be taken up by the Their characteristics include nitrogen fixing, dense next crop. foliage for weed suppressing and strong, deep roots Green manures in the legume family such as clover which will open up heavy soils. and tares, absorb nitrogen from the air and fix it in The purpose of this article is to explain the benefits nodules on their roots. This added nitrogen is then of green manures and help you decide when and released into the soil when that crop is dug in ready where to use them. for use by the next batch of plants.

Green manures are most commonly used in the vegetable garden but they can be useful all around the garHeavy rain can destroy surface structure and satuden. Many different parts of the garden may benefit rate soil, filling up all the airspaces causing water 18

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logging. Green manures form a protective cover over the soil preventing damage to soil structure during extremes of weather.

Gardens with clay soil are usually fertile but prone to compaction are slow to warm up in spring and get waterlogged in a wet season. On the other hand where the soil is sandy, moisture drains through rapidly taking valuable nutrients with it. Plants are often short of nutrients as well as dry and growth and yield can be poor.

Increasing the amount of organic matter in the soil will open up the structure, allow more oxygen to reach the roots and improve the flow of moisture in the root zone.

The extensive and sometimes deeply penetrating root system of green manures will open up heavy soils allowing better drainage. In light soils these roots remain closely bound to the soil particles and act as a sponge. They hold onto moisture and nutrients, and to prevent them from being washed out through the soil.

A healthy soil contains a teaming mass of micro organisms. The greater the number and activity, that healthier the soil. Green manures, when dug in, stimulate these microscopic creatures and provide a valuable source of food. There increased activity, as they consume the decomposing foliage boosts soil health. A healthy soil encourages vigorous plants.

Barren ground will quickly become unsightly with weeds and mud if left for any amount of time. A cover of green manure plants will look much more attractive and be very little work while it is growing.

It will also attract beneficial insects into the garden.

The benefits continue once the crop has been cut down and dug in. As it rots down it will increase soil condition and fertility for the next season.

Give yourself and your soil a holiday! After a period of intensive cultivation and cropping, soil can benefit from lying fallow for a while. Our ancestors knew this and the value of green manure was recognised as far back as Ancient Greece.

Mustard - sow from March to September Crimson clover - sow from April to August Grazing rye - sow from August to October Winter tares - sow from March to September Winter field beans - sow from September to November

Beneficial predators find green manures offer a welcome habitat. Welcome slug predators such as frogs and beetles enjoy the cool, damp ground under the green manure cover crop and they will emerge to feast on the pests. Flowering green manures such as clover will attract other beneficial insects too.

Surrounding certain crops with green manure plants will make them harder to find by the unwelcome insects. Carrot fly and cabbage white butterfly can be confused and prevented from laying their eggs by doing this.

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There is only ONE Gardening Guru, David Daehnke!

David has over 25 years of experience in the horticulture field, from running his own landscaping business, Executive Director of three botanical gardens, and having his own radio show for 18 years.

He wants you to be the best gardener you can, teaching simple, smart, organic gardening practices which are safe to you, your family, your pets and OUR environment. David is a well-renowned speaker, lecturing to garden clubs, civic organizations and businesses with a fun and informative style. To schedule David for your next event or visit to learn more about safe organic gardening practices, visit his web site at:

www.thegardeningguru.com 20

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By Al Benner

We also purchased an old "running gear" wagon frame from local farmer and talk radio farming personality, Dave Williams. For this Dave Campeau will fashion an oak flatbed, bench seats and sidewalls to form a wagon that will be used to move guests around the farm and for hauling hay and other bulky materials. Another addition to our small collection of farm equipment is an old John Deer corn/seed planter that gets pulled behind the tractor.

We have a lot of plans on the books right now for when the weather warms - for starters, a privy up on the hillside so that guests can have a complete "old school" experience when visiting the farm this spring and summer (superior in every way to a porta-potty). We are also currently planning a cold frame, and an additional shelter for some dairy goats we will be bringing to the farm.

Maple sugaring season is upon us, and we have a gravity feed line tied into 15 trees up behind the barn. This sap line drains into our rain barrel (a It may seem like a slow time of the year on a farm, reclaimed olive barrel) up near the hen house, and but this is not the case. Sure, aside from obtaining then drains down from there to our massive cast more firewood, tapping trees, and building portable iron caldron suspended over our fire pit. It takes structures, some of the physical demands have been 40 gallons of sap to cook down to make just one reduced a bit, but the amount of planning, market- gallon of syrup. Soon after set up it got so cold ing, equipment sourcing and budgeting going on is that our tap lines and bucket taps froze, so we now at an an all time high. await warmer temps to get things flowing - and cooking.

For starters, after months of deliberation and hunUntil next time, stay warm, and think spring ! dreds of used tractors viewed online, it was finally time to pull the trigger and make a decision on a multi-purpose farm tractor. In the end we didn't have to go far, as we found a 1959 Massey Ferguson T035 tractor at a good price right here in Honesdale. The tractor has a live PTO (power take off) and 3 point hitch on the back so that mowers and other attachments can be hooked up and powered by the tractor. We are also presently sourcing a front end bucket loader that we can take on and off as needed to lift and haul loads or turn compost, etc. We think our old tractor certainly has an "old school" feel.

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I began with a huge plastic tub full of the ingredients that go in my seed starting medium. I like the plastic tub because it's easy to move, easy to add water to and the high sides contain my potential spills. If you're really doing a lot, you might find mixing the medium in a wheelbarrow very convenient.

By Laura Taylor And, so, it begins...

Typically in the San Fernando Valley (one of the warmer areas of Los Angeles) we will plant tomatoes outside around the end of March or beginning of April. While the planting date in your locale may be later or possibly earlier than mine, the general rule of counting back 6 - 8 weeks from that target date to start your seed indoors still applies. For me, it's time to start tomato seeds and nurture them indoors until nighttime temperatures are consistently in the mid-fifties and the seedlings are strong enough to be planted in the ground.

Into the tub went equal parts organic peat moss, organic vermiculite and organic perlite. When mixed together the combination will provide a light medium that will retain enough moisture to encourage germination without drowning or rotting the tiny seeds.

Last weekend I started 18 varieties of tomatoes from seed. That's just the beginning. I'll start more seed but I also will allow plenty of room in the garden for tomatoes that I buy at seedling sales. Going to the sales and searching for new varieties that I haven't yet tried is one of my greatest pleasures and I'll never stop doing that!

We had a lovely afternoon on Sunday and I took full advantage by doing my seed work out in the garden. Frankly, the mess is easier to clean there so, if you can be outside or in a greenhouse to get your seed started, all the better.

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Using my hands, I lightly lifted and tossed the ingredients to combine. Then, I gently added water and mixed again. You want the medium to be moist when you add the seed.

Next, I took my containers (I like little pulp pots) and scooped some of the growing medium into them. I gently pat it down without compacting and then added more to fill each cell to the top.

Using the end of a pencil, I made three holes in each cell. The holes were about 1/4 inch deep. I dropped one seed into each hole and then carefully covered them up with the potting mixture that was displaced when I made the holes.

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I immediately added markers to each tray of seeds so I would know what I was growing. Seems like a See how easy it is? Now, go get set up to start no-brainer, but even though I do this right away your seeds. If it’s not the right date for you yet, be I somehow always end up with one mystery plant! I patient. Tomato season is right around the corner. included the name of the tomato and my start date on the marker.

Using a spray bottle filled with room temperature water, I moistened the growing mixture, taking care to spray each cell. The growing medium should be moist but not wet. To help retain moisture, I then put the trays into ziploc bags. The bags are left open so air can circulate.

My grow lights are set up (but not turned on until the little plants begin to appear) and heat mats are turned on. I've put the bags with the seedling trays on top of the mats as seeds need heat to germinate.

Now, I'll give a light spray of water each day and watch and wait. www.organicgardenstoday.com

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Heirloom and Hybrid Seeds

By Stephen Scott

tion to another, carefully grown and saved because it is considered valuable. The value could lie in its flavor, productivity, hardiness or adaptability. Many heirlooms have been grown, saved and passed down for more than 100 years. Some have history reaching back 300 years or more. To have been saved and preserved for so long, these seed varieties have shown their value to many people and families for an extremely long time.

Home gardening is enjoying a groundswell of resurgence in popularity today. People are turning or returning to their garden plot at home for a variety of reasons. Some of these include an interest in fresh, local and healthy foods, others need to stretch the family food budget, some need additionOpen-pollinated is another term sometimes used al exercise - preferably outdoors, and still others interchangeably with heirloom, but do not mean the are searching for the lost flavors of the family garsame thing. An open pollinated seed is simply a vaden when they were growing up. riety where the seed can be harvested from the plant, saved, replanted, and the same variety will All of this interest has created some confusion as to re-grow true to its parents year after year. The what the terms "heirloom", "organic", "hybrid" and heirloom varieties we have today are because they "Genetically Modified Organism" (or GMO) truly are open-pollinated. All heirloom seeds are open mean. Some believe the term “heirloom” is the pollinated, but not all open pollinated seeds are same as “organic”. Other folks believe that anyheirloom, as there are new open pollinated varieties thing that is not organic or heirloom means that it being introduced that are obviously not old enough is GMO. To make matters worse, some larger seed to be considered heirlooms. An example of this is companies sell both heirloom and hybrid seeds that the Oregon Spring tomato developed by Dr. Bagare certified organic, further confusing the matter. gett, Oregon State University through traditional plant breeding for early germination and productivity in the cool, coastal Oregon spring.

Let’s look at a few definitions so we can better understand what an heirloom seed is compared to a hybrid or genetically modified seed.

An heirloom is anything of value (though not necessarily economic) to a person, family or group passed down from one generation to other. Examples are furniture, China, silver or seeds. An heirloom is generally considered something worth passing down. An heirloom seed, therefore, is seed from a plant that has been passed from one genera24

Organic certification is the process of certifying a crop grown to a strict uniform set of standards.

The certification process includes inspections of farm fields and processing facilities, detailed record keeping and periodic testing of soil and water to ensure that growers and handlers are meeting the standards which have been set. The USDA sets the standards, and the criteria for meeting those standards. The certifying agency such as Oregon Tilth, CCOF, QAI and OCAI verifies that the grower is meeting the standards set by the USDA. In short, “Organic” or "Certified Organic" defines a crop was grown to a specific set of standards.

A hybrid seed is produced by manually cross pollinating two genetically different characteristics from plants of the same species, such as two different tomatoes or two varieties of corn. The cross pollination is done by hand, and a seed that is saved will

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not grow true to either parent. Thus the farmer or gardener has no choice but to purchase new seed each year. Hybrids are typically bred for commercial use and profit to change the characteristic of the resulting plants, such as higher yield, greater uniformity, more even ripening, improved color and disease resistance. Flavor has only recently begun to be addressed when selecting characteristics for new hybrids.

chance of starvation. This pattern has been repeated with great success, both for us and for the varieties that we cultivated into the present day. In much of the world even today, human scale agriculture is what is feeding the majority of the world's population.

These weren't known as "heirloom" seeds, as that term came into use after the development and popularity of hybrids came to be. They were simply Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO seed seeds, and everyone saved their seeds and traded have been created using DNA from completely dif- with their neighbors in the area. Prior to the mid to ferent species and organisms to give traits such as late 1800s there were few seed companies as we resistance to herbicides and acceptance of chemical know them today. Feed and hardware stores would fertilizers. GMO corn, for instance, manufactures have a small selection of staple crops, but not its own herbicide in its root structure. Some DNA many. The mail order seed companies of the day donors have come from fish, frogs, bacteria and served the market grower primarily, with the home viruses. The major crops that are genetically modi- grower as a much smaller customer. The United fied are corn, cotton, soybeans, canola and wheat.

States Department of Agriculture - or USDA - was Sugar beets and alfalfa have recently been deregu- an early innovator, breeder, researcher and distriblated and potatoes, zucchini and yellow squash are utor of seeds. They were tasked with finding and being studied. Most common garden vegetables are importing suitable seed varieties that would be suitnot yet genetically modified simply because the fiable and profitable for the American market. It was nancial return in the market is not yet present. customary for visiting dignitaries to give gifts of their native seeds to each other; so many varieties Now that we understand the distinction between were introduced via early foreign relations! the terms, let's look at the differences and benefits of heirloom and hybrid seeds. We won't address the benefits claimed by GMO seeds, as they are not available for the home gardener or small scale grower to plant and are not considered food crops.

Yes, that is right - the corn listed above is not used directly for human food. It is used as a cattle feed and to make the myriad of food ingredients that are corn-derived.

Open pollinated or what we call heirloom seed today is what has fed mankind for the past 12,000 15,000 years as we settled down from hunter-gatherer societies into more agricultural ones. Seed was planted and the fields were tended, then harvested and the best seeds were put aside to be saved for A unique program that existed until the early 1920s planting for next year's crops. The more practical was a Congressional act that allowed members of groups put aside at least two and up to five years’ Congress to distribute the seeds from the USDA to worth of planting seed as insurance against bad their constituents when returning to their home weather events that wiped out their first plantings districts. Farmers and growers would receive a listor bad crop years. This decreased the very real ing from the USDA on what varieties were availwww.organicgardenstoday.com

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able, along with the newest ones. The farmers would send in their requests and the Congressional members would bring the seeds back home. Everyone traveled by rail at this point, so it was the fastest and most economical method of distributing seeds possible, as Congress had allowances for seed that was not charged as freight. This program began slowing down in the 1910s as fewer new varieties were being introduced and regional seed breeding, saving and distribution began taking place.

Around the beginning of the 1900s, regional seed breeding and adaptations begin to be studied in earnest. Growers and farmers realized the benefits of the natural tendency of selecting the best seeds from each year's crops. This was helped along with widely distributed books on newly gained agricultural knowledge of seed breeding, selection and adaptation from the USDA. Agricultural yearbooks were developed that showcased and demonstrated newly acquired or tested knowledge that advanced food production. Local adaptations were recognized and almost every town had a wealth of locally adapted growing knowledge and seeds that were unique to that area. Individualized seed saving was at all-time highs, and several regional seed companies got their start as repositories of local seeds. They acted as seed banks, resources for many of the local seeds in one location. There were more than 3,000 local seed companies nationwide until the mid-1930s when they started to decline.

The benefits of heirloom or open pollinated seeds are numerous. We are the recipients of generations of selection for the best traits - flavor, production, hardiness and adaptability in home and small mar26

ket gardens. The heirlooms of today had to prove themselves over and over again, helping to feed families as they homesteaded and put down roots or packed up and moved across the globe in search of a new beginning. Heirlooms have encountered many different climates, soil and water conditions and have been valued enough to be saved time and time again, passed down to the next generation. We get the benefit of this long development cycle, as only the best producing, most flavorful, most memorable and most dependable varieties have made the selection throughout the years. Delicate, weak or fickle varieties are no longer with us; they were simply not saved.

The results were vegetable varieties with great genetic diversity and a wide variety to choose from in catalogs.

For example - by some estimates, there are over 7,500 varieties of heirloom tomatoes while there are a couple of dozen types of hybrids.

This broad selection can be overwhelming, but the result is there are several tomatoes that will perform very well in any garden in America regardless of the conditions. The re-emergence of the original heirloom varieties in several food industries show that quality and flavor are once again becoming factors in what consumers want in their food. The San Marzano tomato is a prime example. It established the paste tomato industry in Italy and subsequently America; was replaced by hybrids bred for even ripening and tolerance for early picking and transportation, ripening in transit. After almost being lost in the 1970s and 1980s, they were rescued and now enjoy a hefty premium over their hybrid cousins, with more and more fields being planted with the heirloom San Marzano each year.

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Hybrids are created by hand pollinating two different varieties of the same species of a plant, for example a tomato. They are bred for specific characteristics, such as early flowering, fruit set or faster growth. Some hybrids are the result of several years of experimentation. Most commercial hybrids of today do not consider flavor as a factor when breeding, looking only at the commercially beneficial results. Some hybrids for home gardeners are beginning to see flavor as important once again.

crop, making harvesting more predictable, usually with a higher yield. This is especially important for the market grower who needs a certain amount of produce to sell each week. Hybrid plants and fruit are more physically uniform, an advantage for large scale machine harvesting. They can offer faster growth and greater initial vigor. Some hybrid tomatoes have been bred for nematode resistance and are sometimes one of the few choices in areas that have high destructive nematode infestations in the soils. Currently there are some tomato grafting trials using hybrid roots and heirloom Each and every male flower or male portion of the plants, allowing the nematode resistant roots to flower must be removed; the pollen from the other support an heirloom variety that wasn't possible parent plant is gathered and spread on the female before. flowers. The seeds are collected, cleaned, packaged There are clear advantages for both heirloom and and sold. As a consumer, you cannot save the hybrid seeds and plants, with the end result being seeds and replant them expecting to get the same many gardeners choosing some combination of vegetable or flower as the parent seed. There will both to suit their particular garden's needs and be some expression of the two parents, with the challenges. Heirlooms are enjoying a tremendous possibility of the plant not flowering, not setting resurgence in the past few years as people re-disfruit or the fruit being completely different than the cover their unique, rich and distinctive flavors that parent. The second generation is usually much made them family treasures to begin with. Quality, lower yielding, have less vigor and will be quite taste and nutrition are becoming as important as variable in their physical characteristics. The origi- fast growth, uniform fruit and production quantity nal advantages are lost after the first hybrid gener- for consumers. These trends are driving hybrid ation. Hybrid seed will cost more for the research breeders to bring flavor back into the breeding matime and labor to produce them, up to five times trix, with new and more flavorful varieties showing the cost of heirlooms. They are more sensitive to up at garden centers and seed catalogs. adverse conditions and will often suffer more than heirlooms when conditions aren't optimum.

The amount of work that goes into creating a hybrid is staggering. For a 1/4 acre plot of indeterminate tomatoes - those that continue to flower and set fruit as the season progresses - 2 workers must spend 5 - 6 weeks working more than 8 hours a day to hybridize all of the flowers. Obviously there are many more workers needed, as the flowers would set fruit much sooner than the 5 - 6 weeks, but this shows the amount of man-hours needed. For this reason, much of the hybridization breeding occurs in Asia where workers are paid a much smaller working wage than in America, sometimes as little as a few dollars a day.

Hybrids do have their advantages that must be recognized. They tend to ripen more evenly across the www.organicgardenstoday.com

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What’s so great about Dandelions?

By Lorraine Foley Dandelions can never be described as beloved by any gardener!

This wild yellow flower can grow anywhere and is considered a weed. It’s easily recognisable with its yellow composite of hundreds of tiny flowers and long, lance-shaped leaves that are deeply toothed.

The distinctive seed head is white with airy seeds that disperse in the wind.

to feeding the next generation of bees when many other flowers are only budding.

How does having dandelions benefit the garden?

Well, by attracting more pollinating and predator insects like wasps, beetles and hoverflies improves flowering and pest control. Also, dandelions grow best on potassium rich soil, so it’s a good indicator of your soil quality!

The word “Dandelion” is derived from the Latin “dens leonis” meaning lion’s tooth. This is in reference to the shape of the leaf.

During medieval times the leaves were considered a valuable food source, rich in vitamins and minerals.

The greatest thing about dandelions is the wonderful source of nectar they provide for emerging queen bees, wasps and other pollinators during early spring. This early flower contributes

Bumblebee feasting on the nectar rich dandelion

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SPRING CHILDREN’S COLORING CORNER

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The first crop is peas which are planted as soon as the spring temperatures beckon, then the beans.

Beans are planted every two weeks through early

By Kate Copsey summer to get a long season of vegetables. By planting 3 weeks before the official last frost I am The beginning of every vegetable gardener’s year is ahead of my neighbors harvesting early beans. ‘But dominated by the average last frost date. Seed what if there is a frost?’ I hear you say - well, if packets suggested sowing 2-6 weeks before the last there is a frost and I lose the bet, my price is a few frost date; others suggest that you wait until you pennies of seed lost to an unexpected hard frost are frost free before planting. All this is fine, but and I plant again when everyone else does. The weather is rather unpredictable and the actual date price is indeed worth the gamble. that you get a last frost in your back yard can be as much as 2 weeks out from the ‘average’ date. The Peas, beans and squash are the main crops I gamble with and I do use traditional season extenders problem of course is that we don’t know what the weather is going to do next week, let alone 3 weeks such as keeping a cloth nearby in case a slight frost arrives. Tomatoes, peppers and basil are the boys of from now, so wise gardeners wait patiently until summer and do best in warm soil as well as swimthat magic date on the calendar arrives. ming pool weather, so they are not put in until a Alas I am not a patient gardener and when midfew weeks after the last frost date.

March weather turns mild, my gardening gloves go on and I go out to play in the dirt. By April my veg- So, while I am not suggesting that you erase the last frost date from your kitchen calendar, I think etable beds are already filled with peas, and the spring air taunts me with a string of above freezing that in some years it is worth taking a gamble on when it will, or will not, arrive. temperatures at night. That’s when the gambler in me starts to think about ‘what if’ and ‘what is there to lose?’, and after talking to Steven Biggs (No Guff Gardening) I decided that planting early is sometimes worth a bet.

The issue is that last frost date – it is average from the past 10 years and is taken at an official weather station, frequently an airport, near you. However, that weather station can be several miles from the city and often surrounded by fields, which allows it to record actual air temperatures without the contamination of buildings. If your back garden is in a subdivision it probably has a slope, where cool air pools at the base, and buildings that give you temperatures that are a few degrees different to that official reading. Add in the fact that 31.5 is officially a frost and the chance of frost decreases rapidly from 50:50 to 1:5 to 1:10 over the few weeks before the average last frost date, can see that the date is a true average and nothing more.

So, with full knowledge that we could indeed get a frost in the next few weeks, but a forecast for the next 7 days is calling for mild overnight temperatures, I start to slowly plant the vegetable garden.

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Add some Spring to Your Winter

room with a temperature between 60 to 70 degree Fahrenheit. Change the water every few days to minimize bacteria growth.

By Maureen Farmer

Forsythia, quince and pussy willow branches are some of the easiest to force because they are also among the earliest to naturally bloom. Be careful not not cut off too many branches in one area or you will end up with a miss-shaped shrub for months or even years. If possible, take branches from more than one shrub or from crowded areas since you will be removing part of the plant's natural spring beauty.

A bouquet of flowering shrubs will bring a smile to your face during the cold, gray days of late winter.

After six weeks of cold weather, some shrubs can be “forced� out of their winter dormancy. The flower buds of spring flowering shrubs are fully formed in the fall. Buds can be easily forced open when the buds begin to swell in late February or early March or approximately one to two months ahead of their natural blooming period.

Other shrubs that can be forced to bloom early indoors include redbud, dogwood, hawthorn, witch hazel, magnolia, apple, cherry, spirea, fothergilla Cut a few stems containing thick buds on a day and lilac. In general, shrubs are easier to force then when the temperature is above freezing. The fuller trees. The Department of Horticulture at Purdue the buds, the quicker they will open. Using pruners University has prepared a helpful table of possible or a sharp knife, split the cut end of the branches to shrubs and trees for forcing including the approxiallow them to take up water more quickly. Place the mate time required and flower description. This stems in a vase or other container of warm water. table is replicated below.

Place the contain away from direct sunlight in a SHRUB

TIME TO FORCE (Weeks)

Beauty Bush* Kolkwitzia amabilis

5

Bridal Wreath Spirea Spirea prunifolia

2

Clove Currant Ribes odoratum Cornelian Dogwood Cornus mas Deutzia Deutzia gracilis Flowering Almond* Prunus glandulosa Flowering Quince Chaenomeles sp.

Forsythia Forsythia x intermedia Honeysuckle Lonicera sp.

Lilac* Syringa sp.

2 2

DESCRIPTION Small clusters of pink flowers on slender stems.

Small, white flowers in sprays.

Double flowers last longer than singles.

Small clusters of yellow, fragrant blooms.

Dainty, yellow flowers in clusters.

5

White flowers

3

Delicate, pink flowers.

4

Long lasting, red or orange flowers

2

Many yellow flowers.

2

Fragrant, pink or white flowers.

4

Fragrant, lilac, blue, purple, or white flowers in large clusters.

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Mockorange* Philadelphus coronarius Pussy Willow Salix sp.

Privet Ligustrum sp.

Redtwig Dogwood Cornus sericea (C. stolonifera) Rhododendron* Rhododendron sp.

Shadblow Amelanchier sp.

Spicebush Lindera benzoin Vernal Witchhazel Hamamelis vernalis Wisteria* Wisteria sp.

4

Clusters of white, fragrant blooms.

2

Fuzzy, white buds.

2

Glossy, rich, green leaves.

5

White flowers with red stems.

4

Large clusters of blooms; wide variety of colors, depending on species.

2

Dainty, white flowers.

2

Fragrant, pinkish-white flowers.

2

Four yellow, strap-shaped petals.

3

Blue-violet or white flower clusters.

TIME TO FORCE TREE

DESCRIPTION (Weeks)

Alder Alnus sp.

Beech Fagus sp.

Buckeye Aesculus parviflora Cherry* Prunus sp.

1

Flowers in long, drooping, reddish-brown spikes.

3

Flowers in long, drooping spikes.

5

White, pyramidal flower clusters.

3

White or pink flowers in clusters.

Crabapple Malus sp.

4

European Birch Betula pendula

2

Flowering Dogwood* Cornus florida Hickory* Carya sp.

Horsechestnut* Aesculus hippocastanum Magnolia* Magnolia sp.

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5 2 5 5 www.organicgardenstoday.com

White, pink, or red flowers in clusters. Single-flowering forces easier than double.

Graceful branches; delicate, green leaves; drooping flower spikes.

Large, white, long-lasting flowers.

Flowers in drooping. threebranched spikes.

White flowers in large pyramids.

Large, creamy-white to deep red flowers. Easy to force.

Peach Prunus persica Pear Pyrus sp.

Redbud* Cercis canadensis Red Maple Acer rubrum Weeping Willow Salix babylonica

4

Pink flowers.

4

White flowers in clusters.

2 2 2

Dark branches; small, magentapink flowers.

Small, orange-red, unusual-looking flowers.

Green foliage.

* Best cut in March; cutting earlier will delay blooming several weeks.

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By Kim Daehnke What was your AH-HA moment in going organic? Mine was reading, The World According to Monsanto. I’ve read a lot of scary books in my day but to date this is even scarier than anything Stephen King has written and it’s all true.

co-op in Chestnut Ridge close by but I found Purple Dragon Produce co-op and begged my husband to join it. We get a huge box full of organic produce every other week. Sometimes we need to get more carrots or celery but those are easy to pick up at the local market in the organic section. I can’t even begin to imagine what the summer will bring.

We started going organic in produce because that’s what we seem to use the most of. Our next move was to dairy. While limited selection in I’ve always been a foodie, trying new recipes the local supermarket, I can always drive to Chestand techniques. Baking from scratch, canning jelly nut Ridge for a better variety. Recently I just found in season, drying our own herbs for winter use. I out we have an organic chicken farm in town that even started dehydrating fruits and vegetables durgoes to the local farmer’s market ! They too are ing the summer months of bounty to use in my offering a CSA program that runs from March to soups now. When given a couple of moose steaks October. Imagine, local eggs and chickens. Now if last summer I made amazing jerky out of them, and I could just find a dairy that is organic, I’d be in I don’t even like jerky normally. heaven. I’m researching cutting back on wheat and such and trying whole grains instead. That will A few months back I started reading labels probably be our hardest battle. But I have a book to make sure I wasn’t using products with high that is in queue to read before we go any further fructose corn syrup and to my surprise I found than switching regular pasta for whole wheat and that most processed food has soy in it. Even your cooking spray that you would think is olive oil and my baking at home. I will say that just going organwater, but has soy and about 10 other things I can’t ic and cutting out the processed foods I feel so much better. even pronounce. So what is a mother to do? I searched the Internet food blogs to find mixes that Hubby and I are looking forward to starting I could make at home, controlling what went into our heirloom seeds soon in preparation of our exsimple things like taco seasonings, pancake or panding food gardens with some bee friendly flowbrownie mix to name a few. But why stop there? ers thrown in for good measure. I want to be in Let’s make our own laundry detergent using borax, charge of what my family eats, not some seed giant. washing soda and Castile soap. Or save our citrus My canners and dehydrator will be working over peels to cut the smell of vinegar to clean around the time to keep up. house.

But after reading, The World According to Monsanto, and Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal,

by Joel Salatin, I wanted to have less of a carbon foot print, and to know where my food came from.

I wanted to eat more locally. That’s all fine and easy in the summer months when there’s a Farmer’s Market almost every weekend somewhere and by preserving our food either by canning, dehydrating or freezing it to enjoy in the dead of winter. I began looking for co-ops and CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture Farms). There’s a great 34

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GardenGeri.com Geri Laufer, M.S., APR Public Relations and Gardening Expert Public Relations + Social Media Consulting for Green Companies Horticulturist and Garden Writer Geri Laufer strategically positions and powerfully promotes your horticulture and green concern products and services. This horticulture industry insider combines classic public relations tools, skills and experience with the freshest social media campaign savvy. Put Geri’s unique fusion of public relations acumen and gardening expertise to work promoting your brand, initiative, products or services. Anticipate a brilliantly high yield.

Get to know GardenGeri on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

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By Geri Laufer Whether planting a new herb garden or enlarging an old one, adding herbs to a perennial border, or need extra plants for plant swaps or give-aways, it is helpful to understand the different methods used to propagate herbs.

Take care to prevent them from drying out for the first three or four weeks. By isolating parts of a plant and inducing them to grow and develop into separate individuals you maintain conformity of type in the garden, a nice feature of “pass-along” plants.

Herbs with a main stem, such as sweet marjoram, lavender, sage or santolina, or woody herbs like The “no-brainer” technique is to purchase starts rosemary or bay, are best propagated by stem cutfrom the local nursery, and certainly that is a fine to tings. Take six-inch cuttings with a knife or sharp acquire new varieties. It is fun to search out and clippers, strip off the bottom leaves, and “stick” travel to specialty nurseries and plant sales in your into a rooting box. My favorite rooting mix is equal area. Call the local botanical garden to get plant parts of perlite, vermiculite and milled sphagnum sale dates. However, it is expensive to buy plants, moss. I fill a recycled styrofoam box to the brim and even a dozen or so adds up. Propagating herbs (e.g. supermarkets toss out the foam boxes in yourself is both economical and satisfying. which grapes are shipped) and push the cutting half way down, watering thoroughly. To set up a “sweat box,” make a covered wagon of wire covered with clear plastic, and keep it in bright light but out of The easiest method of vegetative propagation is direct sun. When fully rooted after four to six simply to divide a clump in half. The advantage of weeks, gently lift them out of the rooting mix from this “chips off the old block” method is that diviunderneath with an old teaspoon, and pot into indisions rapidly develop into mature and productive vidual containers or into permanent locations in the plants, needing very little “nursing” other than regarden. planting in a prepared spot in the garden and watering in. Division is best achieved when many stems come up from crown of plant. A sharp, serrated “bread” knife dedicated to dividing herbs such as chives, mint, lemon balm, catnip, campion, pyrethrum, sweet marjoram or oregano is ideal.

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Some herbs such as horseradish and tarragon are easily rooted by pieces of roots. After making root cuttings, if there is any question as to which end grew closer to the crown (“up”), lay them in the rooting mix horizontally. In the sweat box they will soon grow green shoots and roots.

You may have the experience of creeping herbs, such as thyme, forming roots along the ground.

This is natural layering. To propagate herbs by layering, you can encourage the formation of these roots by scraping the stem lightly about ten inches back from the tip. Make sure the scored area is in contact with the moist soil by putting a rock or a brick over the scored stem, but making sure the growing tip remains in sunlight. After roots form, the new plant can be cut free of the original starter plant.

an attempt to find the sun, and become tall, pale and spindly.

After the seed leaves and first true leaves are in place, transplant into small individual containers, Growing herbs from seed has many advantages. It taking care to lift by a leaf and not by squeezing the is an economical and convenient way to make large tender stem. Soon, your seedlings should be exnumbers of plants. The disadvantage is slowness to posed to garden conditions and “hardened off” bereach maturity and the special care young seedlings fore planting into their final garden locations. need to get off to a good start. Typically, annual and biennial herbs such as basil, dill, parsley, cilan- Whether propagating for your own garden or for tro and foxgloves are seed propagated. Clean, ster- others, the satisfaction of a bunch of home-grown herbs can’t be beat. ile, conditions are best. Start with a light potting mix in clean, shallow containers. Sprinkle the seeds thinly in the containers. Check packet instructions to determine if that variety require light to germinate and should be pressed into top of soil, or if they need to be covered with soil in order to germinate in the dark. Water and keep evenly moist.

Once the seedlings are up, give them plenty of sun.

High light intensity provided by a greenhouse, south-facing windowsill, or 6-inches away from fluorescent grow lights, produces short, stocky plants with deep green leaves: the most desirable. If there is not enough light, seedlings will elongate in www.organicgardenstoday.com

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~ Using Pure Plant Extracts to Relieve Hayfever ~

By Suzanne VanOver The first sighting of yellow, orange and lavender crocuses poking through the snow … trees being to awaken from their slumber and buds begin emerging from grayish branches … our lawns take on a purple hue from the grape hyacinths Nature and chipmunks have helped to spread. The earth Liz and her husband, Chris, found a better way to warms and one day, those buds start to crack open address their severe seasonal allergies. “Living in … and for allergy sufferers, so it begins … the Seacoastal Virginia, my husband and I suffered terribly son of Tissues! each spring and summer from allergies. The pollen is so thick at times we could actually write our names on our cars! Last summer, we started taking lavender essential oil in vegetable capsules.

Five drops per capsule, once a day, did the trick!

We had almost no symptoms, no side effects, and found we needed less oil, less frequently over time.”

Seasonal allergies, also known as Hayfever, are caused by your immune system mistakenly recognizing a harmless airborne substance, such as pollen, as a something harmful. Your body then releases chemicals, like histamine, to fight the foreign substance. Histamine is what causes a host of cold-like symptoms, including sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion, itching and a post-nasal drip. And, just because you never had allergies before, doesn’t mean you can’t develop them as an adult. Allergies can develop at any age and its prevalence in adults is rising.

It’s as simple as that! Plant matter is gently steamdistilled to separate the pure, unadulterated plant extracts, known as essential oils. Many contain anti-histamine chemical compounds, just like the synthetic conventional medication we use for allergies. However, because essential oils are natural, produced from plants that are synergistic with the human body, essential oil use does not produce side effects!

Many people turn to over-the-counter or prescription medication which may relieve the cold-like symptoms, but can cause side effects that are even Melissa’s hayfever caused her extreme sinus presworse, such as excessive drowsiness, dry mouth, sure headaches that were debilitating … not good stomach problems, and dizziness … to name a few. for an elementary school music teacher! She had also heard about taking lavender essential oil in 38

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capsules, and it changed her life She was able to face the day with a song!

While everyone’s body chemistry is just a little different, and some oils and protocols are better for one and not another, here are some suggestions to help make your season sniffle-free: ·

·

·

·

·

Place 5 drops of YL (Young Living) Lavender or YL Orange Essential Oil in a vegetable capsule and take internally.

Diffuse 8 drops of YL Lavender Essential Oil in an ultrasonic diffuser run for 15 minutes, twice during the evening while you are watching television or reading … or even while you sleep!

While you can purchase a variety of essential oils at your local health-food store, even if they say “100% Pure” … they might not be. There is no governing use of essenagency that regulates the tial oils. Most will even say “Not for Internal Use”.

So, you must choose VERY carefully. That is why I choose and recommend only Young Living Essential Oils. Their plants are grown in virgin soil, without the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

They are picked at the peak of their chemical potency and distilled very gently at the optimal temperature. The essential oil is captured from the steam water, filtered and properly bottled. Each bottle is 100% essential oil with no fillers, additives or adulteration whatsoever. With five farms around the globe (and several more in the planning) and utilizing trusted partner growers, I feel confident that Young Living creates the purest, most potent natural products that help bring my body the relief I expect.

Enjoy 1 teaspoon of local honey with 2 drops of YL Lavender Essential Oil, 1-2 times per day.

Place a drop of YL R.C. Essential Oil Blend, a mixture of variety of essential oils, including Eucalyptus, Myrtle, Cypress and Peppermint, in your palm and rub together, cup over face and breathe deeply to open nasal passages.

Take 1-2 ounces of NingXia Red, a super antioxidant drink made with NingXia Wolfberry (also known as the goji berry), pomegranate, wild cherry and other juices, as well as YL Lemon and Orange Essential Oils.

This nutrient-rich supplement has been known to boost the immune system and alleviate allergy symptoms.

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den. Back doors are so much more relaxing than front doors you know. Now tell me, what do you like? Better yet, tell me what you love. You know what I mean. Right over there next to that old oak.

By Mike Hofmann Not too long from now you may get to do one of your favorite things in the world. Walk around your neighborhood garden center in the spring time. Wow, look at the beautiful color of those flowers.

How about the amazing shape of those leaves?

You’ve never seen that before. “That’s the one!

I’ve just got to have it.” And home you go with a great new treasure for your garden.

But then what? Well, there’s the place next to the steps, or maybe under the plum tree. Oh, no, that’s where I put the one I got last year, maybe along the fence.

Or maybe, since it’s still early in the season, you could spend some time creating a landscape plan.

Oh no, you may say. Planning takes all of the fun out and I can’t get what I like. Maybe, but what if you could build the fun in. Make it part of the plan.

Would you love to see a bench there surrounded by tulips in the spring and astilbe in the summer? Or over there near the gate. Can you imagine soft light on the rose covered archway on a summer evening? Can you taste those organic tomatoes from the garden? Really, spend some time dreaming and asking “what if?” Then WRITE IT DOWN. And it’s still ok to use paper if you want to. Now I know that was fun! Kind of like a little vacation. And guess what, you’re already half way done with your plan! And if you don’t want to make your own plan take your “what if “list to a professional landscaper designer and they will be happy to help you.

So why bother with a plan anyway? Well, I bet you can design a space for the next plant you pick up at the garden center. By the way, how big will that plant get anyway? Good question to ask. And if you ask it now, in the planning phase, it won’t be growing over your front walk by this time next year.

Your overall landscape will look better in the long run if you take the time to plan it up front.

OK, how do you make “fun” part of the plan? And Another advantage of a plan is that your plants will what benefit is a plan anyway? We’ll talk about the actually thrive instead of just struggle along. Yes, benefits in a minute. Let’s start with the fun. just like that azaleas that is struggling on the sunny side of your house. I know you’re wondering if Take a walk with me for a few moments. Let’s step you should just pull it out. Maybe as part of the outside your back door and stroll around your gar- plan it can be moved to a location with a little more 40

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more shade. Even the iris flowers from your grand something that’s worth the effort and a little time to mother could be moved to the right spot so that dream! they burst into color the way they did for her when you were young. Planning doesn’t require you to throw everything away and start new. Your favorite plants can be preserved. The green blobs put in by the builder ten years ago can, let’s say, be left out of the plan.

And how about the soil. Isn’t that one of the most important ingredients in organic gardening? Plan for the soil in your planting beds. Do you need to add topsoil? Would some compost help? How thick should it be in your annual beds? All of those decisions can be made as you work through your plan.

The plan is one big decision making tool. It’s a place to figure things out. A place to try ideas. A place to say “what if”. And it’s a good place to figure things out because after all it is easier to move a plant with a pencil than it is to move it with a shovel.

Finally a plan can save you money. That can be fun in itself. It can save you money by getting your yard right the first time. It can save you money by not having to replace plants placed in the wrong location. It can save you money on your energy bill by placing trees properly.

Fun, thriving plants, and an enjoyable summer evening all packaged up on one plan. Sounds like www.organicgardenstoday.com

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creating a very unhealthy unsustainable situation.

Don’t use chemicals in the garden, your health depends on it.

By Kim Campbell Organic living is more than just selecting labels marked organic. Living organic is a way of life and involves a focused view of how things need to be. It concerns our food source and nutrition. Organic living is a life free from toxic chemical fertilizers and herbicides. Chemical and synthetically formalized sprays that some douse their landscape and food plants in an effort to destroy a bug unsuccessfully and or kill plants/weeds growing in the wrong spot. There are numerous reasons for gardeners to adopt organic status. Toxins are in the foods we are buying to consume and feed our family. Organic seed is better, often bred to be tastier and the variety of heirlooms are growing in number. Networking an organic garden has connected me to so much love and healthy information I must spread the word myself in an effort to urge you readers to join in my quest for organics to rule the day. We all win in this scenario.

B. The pesticide and herbicides are killing our livers, kidneys and all filtering systems of the human body. These chemicals are accumulative, meaning the toxins are adding up and compiling poisonous levels in our bodies. They can shut your organs down when built up over periods of time. This includes the food we buy in the grocery store unlabeled as natural grown or certified organic. This is not acceptable as a source of food. I want food labeled genetically modified or shown as grown with toxic chemicals. I’m pretty sure every family economist feels the same when feeding food that has been purchased with hard earned dollars.

C. The flavors available through heirloom seed stock plant foods are very different than the tasteless tomatoes and bland veggies offered once again at your local super, supermarket. Hundreds of luscious varieties temp a seed catalog dreamer's head for months of chilly weather in Spring. These are plants bred for taste, unique habits, and love for the food they produce. Heirloom, organic seed has been cherished enough at the table to warrant saving the seeds and planting over again for the next A. Current chemical herbicide and pesticide usage time frame of forever. Taste is everything when has been shown to be unsustainable and unsuccessconsidering food choice. Heirlooms are tasty treats ful when considering the big picture and circle of added to any table. life. Chemical usage in the garden and landscape kills beneficial microbes, fungi, and bacteria. A plant needs these soil workers to process vitamin and mineral elements of a plants food source through it’s root system. The root system transports nutrients to the plant for optimal plant health and growth. Residing in all organic soil are millions of tiny organisms that help the plant process what it A. Genetically modified food is food that has been needs from the soil into nutrients, vitamins, and tampered with by scientists hired by big business minerals. These are most prevalent in compost, corporation. Money talks, healthy food walks it compost tea, worm castings, etc. They are rich in seems like now to be the case. Food that is half as humic acid and this makes a plant happy. Decomnutritious than 50 years ago, come on, folks listen position of material into plant food is done by miup and demand change. If you can not grow the cro organisms that are depleted by any chemical food you eat then choose wisely because if it's geusage. This cause the plant to suffer. The plant netically modified it may be detrimental to your then needs more chemicals to survive and produce 42

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friends and family will always savor. Giving organic food feels so good, it is a gift to myself at the end of B. GMO food is supposedly cheaper to produce the summer day. Food is medicine, organic food is therefore costing the unaware consumer less. Is it natures way of feeding the soul and body through really less when it is going to cost more than money consumption. You are exactly what you eat. Eat when consumed. Spend extra for organic, and or, your vitamins and minerals through healthy organic certified naturally grown (CNG) so that your food food choice. doesn't slowly poison you. When genetically modified, sometime the pesticides are bred right into the plant to repel bugs. This does not sound so great to A. People who are organic gardeners usually travel me, how about you? in packs. We can't hold the secret of a better way to live inside for any period of time. Sharing is caring C. When buying that canola oil, canned vegetable, in the garden and the world of green passion is and rice product you are probably eating some spreading. Groups and varieties of all kind of folk GMO food. Frankenfood is a term that hits home gather to garden together through community garfor most. GMO food is grown for profit margins not for consumer nutrition and taste. The benefits dens and horticulture haven of city parks, city only belong to the company trucking this food out beautification programs and farmers markets. all over America, unlabeled and cheap to purchase B. The availability of crazy plants are great for my for grocery retailers. sense of humor. I will grow anything that looks funny, produces funny or strange flowers, fruit or vegetable. I enjoy making people laugh and my A. Organic gardeners know the harm toxic chemi- comedy stage happens to be located in the garden cal do to people, pets, and the environment. These for me. Peter peppers, phallic cactus, white pumpsavvy folks are most likely a plant detective that kins, green tomatoes, purple carrots, bumpy hunts down the best plants that give the best food, gourds, swan shaped squash are jut some of the medicine, crafting material, fiber, etc. They are of- crazy things I routinely grow at home in the kitchen ten a part of a large network of other like minded garden. folks eager to share information on qualities and fun facts, & nutritional values. We brag about C. Using less chemical in the landscape allows nathings like goodness and aromatic flavor. tive fauna and flora to thrive and survive. Watching and feeding the wildlife can be one of the most reB. Happy gardens are tended by happy growers. warding things you ever do. The butterflies and When you love the earth and all her generous honey bees, sweet chirping frogs and colorful belbounty life is certainly all good. A happy gardener is lied box turtles, dragonfly and blue bird, all a part more likely to produce high quality food. It goes of organic living. together hand in hand, good garden practice and satisfied proud producer. Hold your head high if you ban chemicals in your yard and gardens. Grow healthy food the happy farmer way.

A. Organic gardening education and information, C. A gardener prides their grow skills and loves to spread by social and other media has become soshow off the happy healthy garden. It produces cially applauded. Trends and new and improved brighter, more flavorful food than any other. Shar- ways to organic garden is the hot new event to try ing food from an organic garden is a treat my and achieve. Even though the principle of organic health and body's defense mechanisms.

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gardening has been around as long as there has been gardens, people are creative in the green industry and we are constantly looking, dreaming, and planning new garden projects.

B. Organic grow supply products are flooding the market with good wholesome greatness. The packaging and marketing themed labels for cow manure and worm poop is just amazing. Compost tea brewers and hydroponics’ systems mix up the scenery a bit, aquaponic farms and flood tables, high spectrum plant lights are now affordable priced to grow food in winter indoors. I believe we should be setting up food grow systems in all the educational buildings. Teach how to grow healthy food while producing nutritious edibles for the student to eat and maybe even learn how to process and prepare.

I worked in an organic hydroponics’ grow supply store and we had tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, salad greens, etc producing fruit 365 days a year indoors under high spectrum Hort lights. It was amazing and so fun to teach others to produce organic food all year long. The whole community is blessed by such an establishment.

C. The Internet has connected me to so many other like minded organic gardeners. I can visit any farm, any place with the touch of a button via my wireless high speed connection. In summer i keep a desk with a lap top in the actual garden. I write about organic gardening while actually organic gardening. My gardens are full of life and green magic.

This magic could not exist in a garden where chemical toxins were applied. I can promise you that. I share my experience and trials with others and other do the same for me. The resources are out there for anyone to find anything they are searching for in the way of advice, education, information, and most of all support from other green folk.

people that they market to and feed. It all boils down to economics, choice and supply. Demand it from your grocer. Demand that they buy and supply local grown food. Quit buying imported genetically modified food that grocers are stocking the shelves with. Knowledge that many canned vegetables are genetically modified, pesticide laden, sodium added food sounds unacceptable to me. Is it food? Is it medicine and nutrition for the body? Is it truly healthy like food ought to be? Those are some questions we need to be asking ourselves when selecting food for our families to eat. We are blessed with a wonderful resource for local food here in Central Oklahoma, The Urban Agrarian, Edmond, OK. run by super local food tracker, Matt Burch. A real 'super' market that provides local grown food for the community,. hooking up farmers and the hungry health conscious foodies demanding change. Demand change in your own area, get involved in your local food system through co-ops and farmers markets. Local organic food makes sense and should be incorporated into more home family pantries. Get to know some neighbors who garden organically. Trade valuable information and develop lifelong friendships that will enrich your total existence. Own what you eat and care for in the landscape proudly by using only organic farming and garden practice. it's healthier for you, the planet, and everything in between.

A revolution needs to materialize quickly. Agriculture and horticulture in the US is divided into two separate camps. Big business corporate commercial farming and the now, more informed, and educated small business farmer who genuinely cares for the 44

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By David Daehnke Gardening in a container is much like gardening in the ground; think of it as simply using a smaller "plot." No need for a large yard to enjoy your own garden of edible delights. Use space on your deck, patio, or windowsill to display pots, hanging baskets and window boxes of vegetables and herbs.

Start a garden in a pot anytime during the gardening season from early spring (for cool weather crops, such as peas and lettuce) to late spring (for warm-weather vegetables and herbs, such as beans, tomatoes and basil) through midsummer (re-sowing peas and lettuce for fall harvests). Planting and care require a minimum of time and effort.

Use a potting mix that drains well, such as a soil-less medium. Soil-less mediums are lightweight, an important consideration if you want to move your containers around after planting. To help the mix retain moisture you may want to add some leaf compost or any compost in general to the soil before planting. Try to stay away from MiracleGro or synthetic fertilizers. These will often stress out the plant making them grow quicker than the roots can provide for. Using a top dressing of compost or organic 5-10-5 monthly will be more than enough to keep the plants healthy.

Follow these guidelines to help you select the best pots and plants for your needs, whether you are a first-time gardener or an experienced pro.

Drainage is essential when you garden in containers. Few conditions will harm plants faster than soggy soil. Select pots with holes in the bottom or sides, so excess water can escape. If a pot lacks holes, drill three or four in the bottom. Raise containers without saucers off the surface of a deck of patio by placing them on decorative “feet� or pieces of wood. If you place saucers under containers be sure to empty water from them.

Choose large pots, such as half-barrels and 12to 24-inch-diameter planters, and deep window boxes to provide sufficient space for plants’ roots and to cut down on your watering chores. The soil in large planters dries more slowly in hot weather than soil in small containers. The latter can lose moisture so quickly in the heat of midsummer, you need to water daily, sometimes twice a day. Opt for plastic or composition planters instead of clay; even though terra cotta pots look very decorative, their porous nature allows water to evaporate from the soil fast.

Many vegetables and some herbs grow best when you start them from seeds you sow directly in the container such as beans, carrots, peas, radishes, turnips, cilantro, and dill. Warm-season plants, such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and basil, get a head start if you sow them indoors and transplant the seedlings into a larger container after 6 to 8 weeks. Of course, you can purchase bedding plants at a garden center. Still others thrive with either method: spinach, lettuce, cucumber, and basil, for example.

When you combine bedding plants and seeds set the plants in the container first; then sow seeds around the edge or in empty spaces among the plants. Seed packets tell you the correct spacing

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and whether or not you need to cover the seeds with soil. (Some seeds need light to germinate.)

With the exception of tomatoes, set plants in the container at the same depth or just slightly deeper than they were growing in their pots. You can bury tomato plants up to the top two or three pairs of leaves; roots will form along the entire length of the buried stem.

3). Harvest ripe fruits promptly so plants continue to produce new growth.

4). Near the end of the season, protect your contained crops from sudden frosty nights by covering them with burlap or light blankets. If you tend only a few pots, bring them indoors when low night temperatures are forecast. Most vegetables slow their growth and fruit production as the heat and duration of sunlight subside going into fall; many Provide support for vining plants, such as toma- herbs, however, grow well and continue to form toes, pole beans, and cucumbers. Stake or cage new leaves on a very sunny windowsill indoors. tomatoes when you put them in the container. For pole beans and cucumbers, erect wooden trellises, trellises covered with netting, or build tepees with 3 You can grow almost any vegetable in a pot, but to 4 bamboo poles tied together at the top. these give great returns for your efforts. carrot Water the containers thoroughly when you fincucumber ish planting. Keep the soil where you sowed seeds eggplant (standard, dwarf, or oriental) evenly moist until seeds germinate. Thin seedlings lettuce, green- and red-leaved if necessary to the correct spacing for mature plants pepper, sweet and hot by cutting off the weakest looking ones at the soil pole beans (on a trellis) surface. radish (sow with a later-maturing vegetable) spinach Spread a 2-inch-deep layer of mulch over the strawberry soil surface, after germination if you start with swiss chard seeds. Mulch, which provides a decorative, finished tomato, bush and patio-type appearance to any planting, helps the soil conserve moisture and prevents rain or hose water from With these few simple tips, you can grow your splashing soil up onto the plants’ leaves. Choose any mulch that is readily available or that looks par- vegetables in container and without having to dig up a section of your yard. The major benefit of ticularly attractive with your container such as vegetable container gardening is that containers can shredded bark. be moved from a patio to the garden and back again depending on your personal taste. Even when your spring bulbs fade and there is a void in the garden, a container filled with herbs or vegeta1). Water planters as needed, which may mean bles will fill it in nicely! daily in midsummer. To test soil for dryness, poke your finger into the soil; if it feels dry to a depth of David Daehnke is widely known as “The Gardentwo inches, water. Save time and effort by hooking ing Guru� and can be heard on WGHT 1500 AM up a drip irrigation system designed for containers; (www.ghtradio.com). David is also available for most garden centers carry them.

2). Fertilize monthly with a top dressing of compost or a slight sprinkling of 5-10-5. Food is especially important when plants such as tomatoes and peppers begin to flower.

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lectures. Please visit his web site, www.thegardeningguru.com for more useful organic gardening information.

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