(Re) Chic

This is a rant about a recent lawsuit against Scotts Miracle-Gro.   You were warned.  Since working with Grow Food, Grow Hope in Wilmington, OH I have come to appreciate and love the organic movement for what I thought it was: a fad with a great idea.  Its all well and good to think that organic is the way to be and that you should only eat/shop/garden organic because its healthier and you're not subjecting yourself and the environment to all those nasty chemicals.  And I have totally agreed with that, but there was always that voice in my head saying 'that's what the EPA is for, they take care of these things and make sure they are safe even if they are slightly harsh chemicals'. Boy was I wrong.  This morning a representative of Scotts Miracle-Gro company plead guilty to violating environmental protection laws as well as marketing items that had not been approved by the EPA.  Those items were sold for TWO YEARS before being pulled off the market...

I thought that before I start seeds I should take a little bit of inventory as to what I have, what I want to eat this summer, and how much of it I actually want to grow.  With my new apartment I have a drastic reduction in the amount of space I have therefore I am either going to need to buy more of what I eat at a farmers' market, CSA, or Kroger or find an alternative planting spot to my current residence.   So lets start with my seed inventory: Flowers:  California Poppy (Orange); American Seed Impatiens (mixed color); American Seed Marigold; Harvested from Wilmington College Community Garden 2010 Zinnia (mixed color); American Seed Veggies: Beets (Detroit dark-red); Burpee Signature Beets (Detroit dark-red); Burpee Signature Broccoli ; American Seed Brussel Sprouts; Ferry-Morse Bush beans (white); local Wilmington farmer Cabbage; American Seed  Carrots (Darvers); Livingston Seed Chives; Horticultural products and services  C...

As you all know I worked for a year and a half at the Community Garden Project, Grow Food, Grow Hope. And when you work at a community garden people are always asking for gardening advice or trying to give their own; and in my adventures I was always hearing about different ways to grow potatoes. Even recently I have heard tell of interesting potato growing schemes such as a "Potato Bed" .   Well the idea that you could grow potatoes in very small spaces was very intriguing to me because what better way to supplement your diet with things you grow yourself than potatoes?!   So way back at the beginning of the gardening season I found some seed potatoes and some potatoes that were growing eyes and I decided to conduct the Great Potato Growing Experiment.   I planted seed potatoes in containers-one that was meant to simulate growing in actual earth-(although it wasn't very deep) and the other in a 4 quart pot.  I also planted some extra potatoes tha...

Vermicomposting is exactly what is sounds like: composting with vermis, which is the Latin for worms.   I first became acquainted with vermicomposting when I started at Grow Food, Grow Hope in November 2009.  One of my coworkers was attempting to vermicompost in a container he kept in his desk and usually the 1st thing he said to you after "hello" was "want to see my worms?"  However, the worms jumped ship, were all over the office, and then were banned permanently.   Since that day I had a small adventure into composting with worms.  In my ignorance in the nature of compost I assumed that worms were always necessary for compost and therefore dug up worms from the backyard to add to my porch compost bin (an 18-gallon Rubbermaid tub I drilled holes in and added my food scraps to).  These worms of course were never seen again as they were cooked in my compost bin.   And then the research began.    Now tha...

Not that this one is anything substantial, a majority of the information was actually pre-written officially approved language. But I'm hoping this means they'll also post the second article that I shared with them...either way the photo with the kids was also taken by yours truly! Check it out at the Master Gardening.com Blog!

As a 2011 Global Youth Service Day Blogger on Youth Service America's Website!   Check it out!  

Rescued Food! Check out what I did with some volunteers from a local fraternity, Sigma Zeta, last week !  Not only did we rescue food but we're also hoping that this post with a little attention from the local media will turn into a HUGE push in our community to rescue even more!

September 1st marked the 1st Day of Hunger Action Month so my coworkers and I celebrated by having a "Pumpkin Planting Party" so that we could hopefully have a few pumpkins to donate during the holidays. We planted "Sugar Sweet" pumpkins which are meant for eating instead of the usual Jack-O-Lantern variety.  They also grow a little faster, maturing in only 105 days.  Unfortunately, unless we get an early crop of pumpkins that still won't be in time for Thanksgiving...can you tell we're still new at this garden planning?! We were only able to plant a few places however, we now have pumpkins at a few of the school gardens, at the City of Wilmington Denver Park Demo garden, Sugartree Ministries and (really exciting) around the ECO houses on campus!  Since my contract is up before the pumpkins will have a chance to grow I really hope they get put to good use!  Everyone deserves a pumpkin pie for the holidays! Pumpkin sprouts in my office window. ...

I apologize that I have been so lacking on updates lately.  I have been spending lots of time in the gardens all over the Clinton County area.  You can check out all of the craziness that I've been doing on our website at www.growfoodgrowhope.com. But for a short synopsis here are some photos of what I've been doing:  Backyard Gardening

I would just like to say that I had a FANTASTIC day at work today!  The Choice Pantry system that I've been working to get implemented at Sugartree Ministries has finally happened and I got to write the feature article on the blog about it!  The great comments from clients and volunteers spoke volumes about how great the project was and it was truly one of those "this is why I do what I do" moments.  I can't wait to see more success with it in the future.  But don't just hear me gush about it...go read the blog about it here!

Hello again! Here's the link to the Rachael Ray show's page on Wilmington's episode. "Thanksgiving on Main Street" Check it out, I'm going to be working with Sugartree Ministries which is the food pantry that now looks like a food network set!

I know that since my blog has moved to a new location a lot of my readers are new and haven't heard a whole lot about the huge new move in my life. I have started this week at Grow Food Grow Hope in Wilmington, OH. Grow Food Grow Hope is a Community Garden Initiative with 9 VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteers working to raise awareness of the benefits of backyard gardening and all the great things that happen when you have fresh produce at your disposal. For those of you who haven't heard we just won a HUGE grant from Tom's Of Maine where we get to spend $20,000 to work with this initiative. I believe all the great press happened because Sugartree , the food pantry and soup kitchen I will be working closely with, was featured on Rachael Ray where they completely redid the entire inside and basically made it look like a food network set. For Rachael Ray's trailer click here and of course check your local listings because it should be airing t...