Another talk, the keynote speech at the same conference, couched all of the above in different terms.  This speaker said that Gen Y’s grandparents, who came of age during the Great Depression and World War Two, were in survival mode their entire lives.  Because of what they did, their children were able to have a higher standard of living.  Those children, my generation, are philosophically beyond subsistence (For the most part.  We’ll see how this recession-thing goes), and up in the dream space.

Sign in the "SEEDS Garden," Durham, NC

We don’t just want meat.  We want pasture-fed meat.  We don’t just want milk, we want hormone-free milk.  We don’t just want tomatoes, we want organic, locally grown, heirloom tomatoes.  How long will that last?  I don’t know. It depends upon whether we can continue to feed, clothe and house ourselves by working one job apiece.  It depends upon whether the sea levels rise and the oil runs out and different forms of energy are developed and harnessed.  I think it is a definite possibility that we might end up exactly where our grandparents were-merely surviving.

In the Mean Time. . .

How to get us interested in gardening before our lives depend upon it?  (Some would say that our lives already do.)  Well, my favorite comment from this guy, Kelly Norris, was that people who write about gardening, or are in the gardening business, need to focus more on the benefits of the process, less on the end result.  I’d second that.  I was positively giddy to jump out of the car and check on my garden after being away for five days.  I wasn’t expecting big changes, because it is fall, in the south, and my plants are saying “We are D-U-N. Done!”  But, there were little surprises or greetings–my Mexican sage is blooming now.  The giant golden orb spider over the sidewalk is about twice as big as when I left.  My encore azaleas are blooming.

I asked my husband, who is an un-trained gardening fanatic, why he likes to garden.  He’s a seriously enthusiastic hobbyist.  He has Pam Beck’s Best Garden Plants for North Carolina, and keeps it by his bedside, marking the pages of plants he wants.  When he makes a grocery list he puts “plants” at the bottom.  He was thrilled when I told him that I brought home a toad lily from Plant Delights.  He ran and got his book and showed me the post-it on the toad lily page in his book.

He told me “Gardening is soothing.  It keeps me connected with the earth.  It lets me give back to nature’s creatures.”  (We don’t spray pesticides in our yard.)  I said “Are you just saying that because I’m a garden blogger?  Do you really mean it?”  He said that, yes, he did mean it.  He said he also viewed gardening as a bit of a challenge.  If he kills something (which is often), he tries again, with different techniques.  He said he has noticed that it is much different gardening in Wilmington, North Carolina than in Keene Valley, New York, where we lived when we were first married.  He likes learning.  He said nothing about the end result:  buckets of yellow pear tomatoes that he picked, and sat on the counter, and never ate, or lettuce gone to seed, or radishes so pithy they would break a tooth.

For all the talk about how besotted we are with instant gratification, which some interpret to mean “results,” I would tend to agree with my friend and co-hort, Jayme, owner of aHa Modern Living, a cool online garden store.  For us, many of my generation, who work long hours, at often unfulfilling jobs, and on a treadmill to keep up with our parents, rising housing prices and non-existent health care, the EXPERIENCE is the product, just as Kelly Noris said.  We don’t want instant tomatoes, we want to be instantly captivated by the EXPERIENCE of growing tomatoes, or lettuce, or potatoes.  Within that experience, there is room for learning the process, enjoying interesting gardening products, reading cool books and researching online.

Don’t Freak Out!

If you despair that you’ll never interest your child in gardening, or you can’t understand why your niece is more interested in boys than plants, or you won’t even ask your granddaughter to go cherry picking with you because you think she’ll say no, think again.  Think about how to present the gardening activity as an adventure, instead of a chore.  Entertainment instead of work.  Come at it from the standpoint of something interesting to do, rather than something nice to get.  Then, you’ll get results.

{This article was originally published on the site in 2009}

For example, in many regions of the country, this has been an exceptionally cool and wet summer. If this is the first time that an individual has tried organic gardening, they may decide to scrap the whole idea, and return to the use of conventional gardening methods. Due to this weather, peppers are not growing, tomatoes are not turning red, and plants seem to be more prone to disease and rot.

The experienced organic gardener knows that this is part of the process, and resigns themselves to some loss, and accept what they reap. There are other things that make a good organic gardener.

Dedication

As mentioned above, no two growing seasons are exactly alike, and each of those seasons provide different obstacles to conquer.  Some seasons are dry, some are wet, sometimes the wildlife or insects find your garden and destroy them, while other times the garden may be left to grow.

It is difficult when the gardener knows that there are products out there that can solve problems quickly, but that are not organic in nature.  Fighting the urge to toxify the soil in order to grow great veggies can sometimes be an awful battle.  Dedication to the commitment to garden organically is vitally important during the times that things are not going well.

Dedication is also important because more time needs to be spent in the garden looking vigilantly for problems, or research may need to be done on what can be done organically to save your crop. But as you gain the knowledge, you will come to realize the natural processes that make gardening worthwhile, rather than the cosmetic appearance if you stick to chemicals.

Ingenuity and Saving Money By Gardening Naturally

Organic gardening is sometimes expensive to get started because conventional fertilizers and amendments need to be replaced, and organic products are expensive.  As time goes on though, the organic gardener learns many ways that they can decrease costs, to the point where relying on chemicals become much more expensive.

• Re-purpose-Plant seedlings in yogurt cups or margarine containers, use branches for trellises and supports in the garden, borrow what you can from neighbors and friends.
• Go to Auctions-Auctions are a terrific place to find gardening tools, watering systems, power tools to aid in constructing raised beds, produce baskets and canning supplies.  When you think about it, 50 years ago, everyone was an organic garden.  If you happen to find an old farm auction, you are likely to find many treasures for a fraction of the price in the store.
• Talk to neighbors-Let neighbors know that you are gardening, and explain your methods without too much lecturing.  Volunteer to take their leaves, food scraps, grass clippings etc. to place on your compost pile.  Show them where the pile is, and encourage them to place items there even if you are not home.  Make sure to let them know what should not go on the pile.
• Borrow-Part of the mindset of the organic gardener is to use organic practices in order to lessen their impact on the environment.  Borrowing  a wheelbarrow from a neighbor, or hand tools that you do not need often, reduces consumption which is another way to lessen environmental impact.

Patience

Unlike other gardeners who use chemical fertilizers, the organic sometimes does not grow as quickly, as plants are relying heavily on natural elements in the environment.  This means that cool summers, wet weather, or drought can really effect the organic garden.  Sometimes this if frustrating as everyone around you is harvesting while you are waiting for flowering.

Acceptance for Imperfection

At the local farmer’s market, one of the organic growers had some beat up and misshapen carrots on his table.  He had them labeled “pretty carrots”.   They surely taste the same, they just did not look as good as some of the carrots other vendors had.

In your own garden, you may have tomatoes with end rot.  It is not necessary to waste the whole thing, just cut off the rotten part.  Broccoli may not bunch as tightly as it should, or apples may have worm holes.  This is all a part of organic gardening, and learning not to worry about the appearance, but the taste of the food can be tough.  Remember that the beautiful produce paid a dear price to get that way, and that sometimes things happen in the organic garden that make perfect fruit impossible.  Love them anyway.

Overall, being an organic gardener is a very rewarding choice.  You can be sure that the fruits and veggies that you and your family are eating are as healthy and as chemical free as you can make them.  However, it takes a tough attitude and a tough skin as the guy across the fence makes some derogatory comment about your gardening practices while spraying pesticides around his yard!

{This article was originally published on the site in 2009}

Tree of Thanks

Go outside and find interesting branches and twigs. Fill a vase with them, and string a garland of small red beads throughout your “tree.” Make little tags by cutting off-white card stock into two inch squares, punch a hole in the top and thread a cranberry-colored ribbon through the hole. Place one at each table setting with a golf pencil. Before the meal, ask everyone to write something they are thankful for on their tag and tie it to the tree. During dessert, ask everyone to share their gratitudes.

Pumpkin Centerpiece

Hollow out a medium-sized pumpkin. Soak a piece of oasis foam in water until it is saturated and place it in the pumpkin. Cut greens from your yard and cover the foam to hide it. Divide a cash and carry bouquet from the grocery store and spear the plant stems into the foam. Instant arrangement!

Cranberries and Candles

Buy some in-expensive pillar candles and a shallow glass dish. Place the candles in the dish (or a candle in each dish if you are using several), and fill the dish with cranberries. Arrange the dishes artfully on the table. Light the candles during Thanksgiving Dinner and you’ll have a twinkling, cozy centerpiece.

If you are starting this with very young children, the task may be less difficult.  Toddlers and preschoolers are extremely curious by nature, and constantly wanting to learn new things and take on new challenges.  Gardening with a toddler?  Impossible.  Expecting a preschooler to be responsible for a small garden area? Disaster.  While both of these scenarios are possible, it is also quite possible that engaging children in the garden will be an invaluable experience for both of you.

Reasons to Get Kids Gardening

• Kids need to experience nature - Richard Louv, author of  “Last Child in the Woods“, gives compelling evidence and argument to the fact that in our technology-focused world, children no longer go outside and experience nature in an unstructured way.  He links this to the rise in childhood obesity, depression, and ADHD.  Getting your kids out in the garden can be a great way to inspire fascination and curiosity about the natural world around them, and the importance of being a good steward of the Earth.
• It can teach responsibility – If children are given a small plot in the garden and allowed to plant the items that interest them, they may feel a responsibility to maintain those plants.  This may require due diligence by the parent at first, to ensure that their children are meeting that responsibility, but once the habit of garden care is established, it may begin to flourish.
• Teaching moments – If gardening is important to you, then it may already be important to your child.  Ensure that children understand why it is important to garden, and why organic practice is the best practice.

Ideas to Inspire Children to Get Growing

• Start early – If your children are very young, you may well be served by allowing them into the garden, even if at first this causes more headaches than benefits.  Young children are naturally curious, and early exposure to gardening will likely cause them to explore this curiosity as growing seasons come and go.  Further info here
• Educate your children – We all have a desire to understand why we are doing something, and talking to children about self reliance, food miles, organic practices, and benefits of using gardening to be “eco-friendly” may further pique their interest.
• Buy children their own tools – There are various kid-friendly gardening tools on the market.  These range from small plastic, toddler friendly, watering cans and trowels, to functional metal tools similar to your own tools, but in more manageable kid sizes.  Make sure that children understand how to take care of their tools carefully, and how that they can prevent the spread of disease by cleaning tools properly at the end of a season.
• Start with small tasks – Perhaps it is not the best idea to plow up a plot, buy plants, and set your kids to being responsible for the success or failure of their gardens.  With very young children, it may be best to let them play in the garden while you work in the garden.  From my own experience, one easy way to engage my two year old was to place compostable material in his bucket, and send him to dump it on the pile.  Aside from one confusion between my raised bed, and the compost pile nearby, this has been a task that he understands, and takes pride in being able to do.  It also keeps him from stomping innocent plants that have done him no harm.
• Allow older children to choose – If your child hates vegetables, but loves flowers, do not fight that instinct.  Encourage them to plant at least one edible of their choosing, but allow them to grow flowers as well.  Teach them the benefit of having flowers nearby a garden in order to attract beneficials, or to distract harmful pests.
• Celebrate victories – If your child grows lettuce, radish, and onion in their garden, and there are actual fruits to their labor, celebrate this by helping them to make a salad for the family to share.  If their tomato plants result in a bumper crop, teach them how to preserve this crop for use later in the year.

Ultimately, there are more benefits to having children in the garden than there are drawbacks.  Take any glimmer of interest that your child may show, and seize upon it before the moment is lost.  If you find after all of this, that your child is just really not that interested or committed, let it go for now, lest they do it just to please you, and not because they enjoy it.

Some group are organized, and have structured plans of attack, while other guerrillas work solo, much in the theme of Rambo. However, and by whomever it is done, the philosophy remains the same. There are lonely, untended, or potentially fertile areas that are not being used to their full potential.

History of Guerilla Warf – Ur, Gardening

This movement is worldwide, and can be traced back to the seventies when gardeners began to realize the underutilized spaces in their community. They organized to forego the red tape of getting permission, with the understanding that perhaps, once planted, there would be no complaints from anyone. Sometimes they strike in the dead of night when they are least likely to draw attention. Sometimes it is a matter of planting a few annuals or perrenials, but in some cases, vegetables are planted where they can either be harvested by the sneaky gardener, or by other people in the community.

Guerrilla gardeners use a lot of planning. It is important that the area being planted is populated with relatively hardy plants that may not require a lot of maintenance. It would be irresponsible to go to such lengths to plant, only to have delicate plants die from pedestrian traffic, drought, or disease.

The sneak attack gardener also must put some thought into where the planting will be. Is the location in proximity to someone who will care for the plant. Lastly, the time, manpower, and tools must be assembled. For many, this is a task that needs to be done as quickly and quietly as possible. It sounds stressful to operate in this way, and stress and gardening do not seem to go so well together.

Guerrilla Gardening in Your Own Backyard

So, if this method of gardening under the cover of darkness does not appeal, does it mean that some form of the practice cannot be performed where you live?  Absolutely not.  There are many things that the more timid among us can do to acheive the same general idea.

• Organize your neighbors-It is a sure bet that there are a number of your neighbors who see your garden and ask questions, or state that they would love to be able to have a garden, but they do not have the time or do not want to be tied to their yard in the summer.  Educate them.  Gardening in general is beginning to boom, and more and more people have some curiosity about it.  Offer to help them get started, give them a list of easy to grow methods and crops, offer to tend their gardens if they are away on vacation.
• Gently persuade your neighbors-Mail out or hand deliver seed packets with instructions on where things could be planted other than a conventional backyard plot.  If they have no sun in the backyard, encourage them to plant flowers in the front yard, or to place a fruit tree in the backyard.  Another personally tested guerrilla method is to plant extra tomato or cucumber seedlings in the spring, then repot and give as gifts to neighbors with instruction on easy container care.
• Look for where the wild things are-My neighborhood is edged on two sides by woods and a ravine.  A good summertime activity is to walk my dog with a handful of “gone-by” black raspberries, and inconspicuously tossing them along the edge of the wild and unmown places.  The hope is that in a year or two, I can supplement my backyard harvest with those that I have accidentally “dropped” into the woods.  By the same token, seed pods from perrenial flowers can easily find their purchase in the soil without much intervention on your part.

Guerilla Gardening is about making greener places where uglier places once were.  The method for how this is accomplished is less important than the mission itself.  There is no reason for perfectly good tillable soil to go to waste with lawn that  requires upkeep, or with common places where the fruits of your labor can be enjoyed.  Another idea, would be to talk to the local authorities and just ask for permission to plant in the town square.  You’ll never know unless you try.

There are various schools of thought about whether you should cook your vegetables, or eat them raw.  The people who eat only raw food do not heat their food above a certain temperature (116 degrees Fahrenheit, 46.7 degrees Celsius), at which the chemical structure of the food begins to change.

For the purposes of this article, we are examining the way people’s lives have been changed by incorporating vegetables, especially nutrient-dense vegetables, into their lives.  Penni Shelton is one of those individuals.

Real Food Tulsa

Shelton organizes Real Food Tulsa, a group of individuals in Tulsa promoting a raw food diet, and incorporating more whole foods, fruits and vegetables into the diet.  Penni Shelton does not follow a 100% raw food diet, but hovers between 75-100% raw.  Prior to going raw, she had major allergy problems, irritable bowel, depression, alcohol problems, and chronic fatigue syndromes.  She spent her 20’s in and out of doctor’s offices, eventually finding that she felt better when eliminating certain foods from her diet.  She still had terrible digestive problems, however.  While on a family vacation, Shelton picked up a copy of the book Eating in the Raw, by Carol Alt, a former supermodel whose list of chronic symptoms prior to beginning a raw food diet read much like Shelton’s.  Shelton and her husband decided to adopt a raw food diet.

She writes on her blog that within a few weeks of starting her raw food diet, her irritable bowel symptoms went away.  She lost weight and feels none of the chronic pain she felt before the switch.  Shelton grew up with a gardening family;  however, because her family’s livelihood came from selling their organic produce, the best was saved for their customers, not for the family.

Instead of growing up craving fresh fruits and vegetables, Shelton grew up with a much different food culture.  Now, she has come full circle, following a raw food and juicing diet, and composting the multitude of vegetable and fruit peelings and pulp to feed her lush container vegetable gardens.  Shelton and her family live in a rented house, but still find time, space and energy to grow some of their own organic fruits and vegetables, and follow a healthy, plant-based diet.  In Tulsa, Oklahoma, not exactly the gourmet food capital of the world.

Eat Local, Organic Produce

Shelton stresses the importance of eating local, and whenever possible, organic fruits and vegetables, as part of her diet.  (Diet, used in the sense of “eating plan” or “eating strategy,” not in the modern “deprivation” sense.)  When you juice fruits and vegetables, everything in them is concentrated, including any pesticides used during their life cycle.  Organic food is much healthier in this sense.

Additionally, locally grown food is harvested and sold at the peak of ripeness and freshness, which means it will be most healthful and nutrient-dense.  Shelton also brought up the idea of nutrient dense, versus empty calories and the importance of getting the right balance of vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fiber.

Shelton believes that when you know where you food comes from, you are more enthusiastic about eating it.  You know the integrity, and can feel confident about the healthfulness of the food.  You do not have to worry as much about weight and calories – by eating a carefully balanced diet of foods from every part of the rainbow, you give your body the nutrients it needs to function.

Shelton relays that much small-scale agriculture is grown organically, but that the organic certifications are prohibitively expensive for small operations.  When a farmer looks his or her customer in the eye, while handing over the fresh produce that will go home to the customer/neighbor’s table, there is a chain of responsibility and accountability that is hidden through far-flung and vast supply chains.  Since changing her diet and way of living to focus around plants, especially raw fruits and vegetables, Shelton has been able to lead an active, fulfilled life that was not possible before.  Vegetables changed her life.

Visit Penni at her blog:  Real Food Tulsa

Over the past few weeks, I’ve come face to face with almost every facet of gardening/eating/organic/conventional agriculture.  There was the trip to Tryon, NC for the BBQ and Bluegrass festival.  That was an awesome meat-eating fest if I’ve ever seen one!  We sampled lots of “chop,” which is BBQ code for “chopped pork straight out of the hog that is still roasting on the grill.”  I bought a shirt that also entered me into a raffle for a “smoked butt.”  Yep, you did read that correctly.

Shortly after visiting the friendly folks in Tryon, I headed off to the great Midwest, to visit my parents in Indianapolis.  Right off the plane, my Mom whisked me away to a dairy lovers paradise:  Traders Point Creamery. This is not, however, your run of the mill dairy farm.  No sirree!  It is a post-organic, uber environmentally friendly operation-a biodynamic farm that not only raises dairy cows and their calves from birth to milking to beef, but also produces award-winning yogurt, cheeses, milk, and grass-fed, grass-finished beef.  They also have true free-range chickens, and eggs, for purchase at their shop.  I’m lucky enough to be able to buy their yogurt in my local Fresh Market in Wilmington, NC, a fact which produces its own ethical dilemmas.  But, there’s nothing wrong with partaking of their sumptuous products when en-situ, which is what my Mom, her recipe group and I did in late June.

The Cows

The True Circle of Life on Display

While driving to Michigan to visit a client, I started listening to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollen. (Separate book review coming soon.)  I feel lucky to have visited Traders Point and taken the tour, because I was fully able to visualize the biodynamic farm, Polyface Farm, he visits during the middle section of the book.  Traders Point is a post-organic, post-industrial farm that is, in many ways, very similar to Polyface.  Hence the chickens, pastures and cows all living and thriving together.  Here’s the way it works, in a snapshot:

• The pastures are carefully cultivated with a mix of native grasses and legumes (clover etc.).
• The cows graze the pastures and leave their cow manure there for the chickens.
• 

  A good look at the chicken house and the pasture grass

  The chicken-mobile is on wheels, and can be wheeled around to the various pastures so that the chickens can eat the insects in the cow doo (and, according to the lady giving the tour, chickens are only too happy to do this.), while still having a safe place to roost at night.

• The chickens leave their doo, which is high in nitrates, a natural fertilizer for the pasture.
• The cows are milked once or twice a day, and their doo from the area where they wait to be milked is washed into the manure pond
• Where the manure is broken down by bacteria into nutrients that plants can take in.
• The water is used to irrigate and fertilize the pastures.
• Chicken eggs are gathered.  The cows are kept at the farm for their natural life span, except for steers, which are butchered after about two and a half years of eating a 100% pasture grass diet.
• No anti-biotics or growth hormones are used or needed.  Because they rotate the grazing, feed the cows according to their natural diet, and let chickens pick through the cow doo, gobbling up what could be harmful organisms for the cows, disease is almost non-existent.

It’s Good to Eat Beef

Undoubtedly, one of our favorite parts of the tour was learning about the nutritional content of meat, eggs and dairy products from  grass-fed, grass-finished animals.  Cows are naturally ruminants, which means they have a highly adapted stomach that perfectly digests grass.  Chickens are healthiest on a diet of grasses and insects.

Modern CAFOs (confinement farms) feed cows and chickens grain-based diets, for which they are completely un-adapted, and basically makes them sick.  Another ridiculous part of the CAFO system is that meat, dairy and eggs produced this way is not healthy for us.  These products are high in Omega-6 fatty acids that lead to heart disease, and low in Omega-3s.  Grass fed beef and dairy products have a normal ratio of the Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, and are good for you.  So, it isn’t that eating beef is so bad, it just depends on what the cow ate.  Ditto with dairy.  The fats in grass-fed dairy products have been studied, and the general conclusion is that they are good for you.  (I’m not a dietician, so you might want to read more about that elsewhere.)

Inside the Milking Parlor

While at Traders Point, we bought some packages of their ground beef from their grass-fed cows, and cooked up some DELICIOUS burgers.  I think I might have even converted my parents.  In addition to being better for you, grass fed beef just tastes better.  Up until the factories producing materials for bombs switched over to using the nitrogen to produce fertilizer, cattle and chickens, and other grass-eating animals only ate grass, because corn wasn’t cheaper.  And when did our health start to drastically decline due to our “western” diets? During the 1950s-post World War II “boom.”

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Probably Fire

The most remarkable thing about visiting this farm, aside from drinking a BUNCH of their chocolate milk, which tastes like melted chocolate ice cream, was observing that the farm did not smell bad.  If you’ve grown up in an area with lots of farms, you know what I’m talking about.  If you’ve taken a trip through the midwest, past CAFOs with chickens, cows, or hogs, you’ve gotten a whiff.  The whiff of too much waste, and not enough micro-organisms breaking it down, and nowhere for it to go.  Basically, my point is, where there’s smoke there’s fire.  The stink of a CAFO is the smell of agriculture gone amok.

Next time:  more about the Omnivore’s Dilemma and what all of this means to us.  In the mean time, if you have the chance to eat some of the Traders Point Creamery dairy products, seize the opportunity and eat!

Once you start gardening, you’ll find out that gardeners are the most helpful, generous and friendly bunch of people you could ever want to know.  We always have extra seeds and plant starts, ideas, extra produce and advice (solicited or unsolicited) to share with each other, and the public.  Gardening is, at once a solitary and a community endeavor.  You might tend your own garden by yourself most of the time, and enjoy the peace and quiet, but once you plant a garden, you will meet all of your neighbors and your neighbor’s neighbors.  You’ll be outside more, and have more chances to interact with people as they walk, ride or drive by.  You might notice yourself starting to wave at everyone going by.  Planting a garden will connect you with the earth, yourself and your community.

HELP! I need somebody. . .

Because most gardeners have a sense of community and generosity, if you’re a new gardener, find a current gardener in your area to ask for help, if you need it.  Do a search for blogs in your area.  There are lots of gardeners with their own, locally focused blogs.  Leave a comment on the blog saying you have some questions.  Gardeners always love to share their information with others!  Visit this page, at the Sustainable Gardening Blog, by Susan Harris for “local” garden bloggers.

More Unsolicited Advice

I have to give some of my own advice!  That’s what I do best!  Here are more “quick tidbits” for hitting the ground running with gardening.

• Read the back of the seed packet before you plant the seeds.  It really does have good information. (Usually.)
• Plant plants that like sun in the sun, and plants that like shade in the shade.  If you aren’t sure where to plant, ask someone!
• You can’t go wrong by adding compost.
• If you’re going to put a bird bath in your yard to fill with plants, do the birds a favor and put a bird bath in your yard filled with water.  (I saw a poor little birdie splashing around in one of my plant saucers this morning.  Note to self.  Get a bird bath.)

What are your best tips for newbie gardeners?

What was NOT hilarious, though, was watching them indiscriminately eating violas straight out of the cell packs.  Yes, those flowers are edible, but does P. Allen know where they came from? Who grew them? If not, that was irresponsible.  They could have pesticides all over them!  So, I tweeted my outrage and a word of caution about eating things at the hardware store or garden center.  One of my followers asked me, if she wanted to grow her own edible flowers, which flowers should she grow?

On a completely unrelated note, another tweeter said she wanted to plant a garden in a shopping cart, but didn’t know how to do it.  I am all for found objects in the garden, so I told her I would answer her questions on the blog today!  So, tweeps: here are my answers to your questions.  If you want to ask a question, feel free to tweet at me @gardenofwords  or comment your questions to this post!

Growing Edible Flowers

You can grow your own edible flowers, and that is what I recommend if you are going to actually eat them.  These are the easiest to grow from seed, which is the only way you can truly know that they haven’t been treated.  (You have to buy organic seeds.)

• Nasturtiums. These have a peppery taste.  You need to plant them in the early spring, and be patient.  Mine took three weeks to sprout, after I soaked them for about three hours before planting.
• Dandelions.  Eat the young flowers, so that they aren’t bitter.
• Viola: Eat small quantities
• Pansy
• Violets
• Squash: flowers only last a day.  Good stuffed.
• Marigold: Lemon gem and tangerine gem are yummiest
• Snapdragon
• Calendula

The NC State Extension has a good list of edible flowers here. A word about edible flowers:a lot of people do freak out when they see flowers in their food.  If you are not serving horticulturists, you might want to use your edible flowers as a garnish (rather than mixing them in) and tell your guests they can eat the flowers if they want to.

Planting a Garden in a Shopping Cart

You can plant a garden in almost anything.  The shopping cart has something good going for it, in that it has lots of drainage.  The whole thing is a drain!  In order ot have a successful garden, you need to line the shopping cart with something.  This is my completely un-scientific, un-tested recommendation about how to do this.  (I’m a big fan of making things up as I go along-in terms of engineering and building things-and have had some good results.)

1. Gather a bunch of sticks.  You can get green twigs or grape vine and weave them through the shopping cart holes, and line the bottom of the cart.  If you use older, drier twigs, you can tie them onto the cart with jute twine. (Going for the “rustic basket” look.)  I would not advocate using sphagnum moss because it is not a renewable resource.  You could potentially use coir, the fibers from coconuts. It is sustainable.  It depends upon the look you are going for.
2. Fill the bottom 1/2 to 2/3 of the shopping cart with a mixture of soil, chopped up leaves and packing peanuts or old coke cans.  (I learned this during my trip to ECHO.)  You don’t need three feet of soil for the plants to grow, and it will be less expensive to fill the bottom with something other than soil.
3. Fill the top with a good container mix or compost/container mix blend.  You should mix in some vermiculite for water-holding properties.
4. Plant, and wheel to desired location!

This could be a particularly fun project if you have a light problem in your yard!  You could grow veggies on wheels, and move them around as the sun moves.  I seriously want a picture to post on the blog when you are done with your shopping cart garden!  Click the contact us link and send it to us!

Keeping Dogs out of the Compost

The next question comes from someone who wants to keep family dogs from eating food in the compost pile.  Having a dog myself, I understand how hard it is to keep them from eating anything.  She eats everything. (If you know what I mean.)

There are a couple of things you can do.

1. If you leave your dogs unattended outside a lot, you probably need a compost bin.  (We had to buy a much better trash can for the kitchen when we got our dog.)  A compost bin or tumbler with four sides and a lid with a latch will most likely keep the dogs out.  That is, unless you have very large dogs.
2. If you are usually outside with the dogs, you can try adding food scraps to the middle of the pile, rather than the outside.  That way, if they go over and start digging, you have enough time to get to them before they reach the “treasure!”
3. Never compost meat, dairy products or unwashed egg shells.  Most homeowners, unless they are true die-hard compost monitors, are not set up well for composting animal products.  These products attract all kinds of critters.
4. Put up a fence around the compost.  If you don’t want to get a bin, or can’t, keep the dogs out.
5. Feed your kitchen scraps to your worms, and then add the worm castings to your compost.  I am this close to getting a worm farm, because the dog/compost problem is my problem, too.

Do Tomatoes Love Strawberries?

The last question comes from the enterprising gardener planting edible flowers. She wants to know if tomatoes and strawberries are compatible. I consulted my Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food to answer this question.  Apparently, strawberries and tomatoes neither love nor hate each other.  They aren’t in the same plant family, so you don’t risk pest issues.  Strawberries do not love brassicas (cabbage family).  They do grow well with spinach, beans and lettuce.  So, I bet if you introduce tomatoes and strawberries, they would enjoy each other’s company.

Thanks, everyone, for your great questions!  Send me some more and I’ll make this a regular feature!

Every year, the night before St. Patrick’s Day, my Mom would take us to the grocery to select ghastly dyed green carnations to give to our teachers the next day.  My Mom is super-creative, has quite the green thumb, and is very stylish.  Therefore, I have no idea where this green carnation tradition came from.

To this day, I am not at all interested in carnations, tiny garden pinks, or anything else that resembles one.  So, of course, my husband is so totally in love with dianthus, that every time he sees one at the grocery/hardware/garden center/gas station he brings one home.  I do NOT call that the Luck O’ the Irish. His family is from Slovenia, though.

Fun Experiment for Kids

If you want to explore the wonders of plants with your children, making your own crazily dyed carnations is a nice little science experiment.  You can show the kids capillary action in action by buying a few carnations at the store, snipping off the bottom two inches, and putting them in vases with water and a bit of food coloring.  You can make some truly unnatural creations in this way.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everyone!  I plan to partake in the other horticultural St. Patrick’s Day tradition: Drinking Beer.  (Beer comes from a plant, yes?)