I love this time of year. Looking back over our shoulders at where we’ve been the last three to four months, how could we not be amazed by the shape and size of all that is growing in our gardens. Even the hailstorm that ripped the plants to shreds last month couldn’t destroy its beauty. The tomatoes, beans, and greens are going strong.

If you want to enjoy some amazing community gardens (and some pretty cute chicken coops as well) come out for the 2010 Albuquerque Coop and Garden Tour this Saturday and Sunday, July 31st and August 1st. Maps will be available at the website by Friday. If you come by The Source garden on Saturday, I’ll be there along with other gardeners to show you around. It’s free, it’s local, it’s educational, it’s inspiring and it’s one of the best ways to see all varieties of urban gardens and backyard farms, and put to rest forever the notion that you can’t garden. It’s not too late to get one in this year!

The next couple of weeks gardeners should really consider how to integrate a fall garden into their growing spaces. I am a firm believer in growing year around here in Albuquerque and most of mid and southern New Mexico as well. Why waste all those warm, sunny fall and winter days?

A good overall plan is important and must include the following:

What is the location and how much sunlight will be available to the bed mid-winter?

What is being grown in that space now so we can determine appropriate crops in rotation?

And don’t forget a key question: what do I like to eat?

You would be surprised how many people take up a garden project without careful consideration to what they actually like to eat! If you plant something you and your family have never tried, you may find it way too easy to forgo a trip outside on a cold day to check on turnips and parsnips.

I’m also urging the community garden to get something like this going on one of the properties as soon as possible.

Far less costly than a greenhouse and faster to put up, hoop houses are practical and economical whether used as season extenders or for starting seeds. Hopefully,  if our hoop house becomes a reality it will serve both purposes. (I’ll let you know here when the Hoop House workshop is scheduled.) Chery at The Source garden ate from her winter greens bed for over three months simply by adding a piece of plastic cover to the bed and holding it in place with rocks. Surely a bit more construction and stability will add months of greens and other tasty items to our menus.

I also encourage the saving of seeds from heirloom and non-hybrid varieties of all plants. With a hoop house, we become even more self-sufficient by growing our own seedlings for each season. Here’s a good check list for what you can still plant and harvest this fall compliments of  Urban Farmer Seeds.

For starting seeds, one of the simplest, cheapest way to start your own seedlings is with newspaper. Check it out. We’ll be making some this week and staring our fall garden seedlings.
How to Create Seed-Starting Pots From Newspapers — powered by eHow.com

Whew! If you already have that beautiful garden/growing area happening, come register with the 2012 Edible  Abq Gardens by 2012, an initiative that started here but is gaining popularity all over the country. It’s free, it’s simple and it will help us all connect more deeply with the urban gardening movement in our city.

And finally, here is the lunar planting guide for the coming month compliments of Farmers Almanac:

July 2010
24th-26th First Day Good For Planting Above Ground Crops. Last Two Days Are Good For Planting Beets, Carrots, Salsify, Irish Potatoes, And Other Root Crops.
27th-28th Good Days For Killing Weeds, Briars And Other Plant Pests, Poor For Planting.
29th-31st Good Days For Planting Beets, Carrots, Radishes, Salsify, Turnips, Peanuts, And Other Root Crops. Also Good For Planting Melons, Cucumbers, Pumpkins, And Other Vine Crops. Set Strawberry Plants.

August 2010
1st-2nd Barren Days, Do No Planting.
3rd-4th Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Yield Well.
5th-6th Any Seeds Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
7th-8th Most Favorable Days For Planting Beets, Onions, Turnips, And Other Root Crops. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
9th-13th A Barren Time. Best For Killing Weeds, Briars, Poison Ivy, And Other Plant Pests. Clear Woodlots And Fence Rows.
14th-15th Good Days For Planting Above Ground Crops. Excellent For Sowing Grains, Winter Wheat, Oats, And Rye. Plant Flowers.
16th-17th Plant Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, Peppers, And Other Above Ground Crops In Southern Florida, California, And Texas. Extra Good For Leafy Vegetables. Plant Seedbeds.
18th-20th Cut Winter Wood, Do Clearing And Plowing, But No Planting.
21st-22nd A Good Time To Plant Above Ground Crops.
23rd-25th Barren Days.fine For Killing Plant Pests.
26th-27th Favorable Days For Planting Root Crops, Fine For Vine Crops.
28th-29th Barren Days.do No Planting.
30th-31st Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Yield Well.

Hope to see you this weekend at the Garden Tour where you can meet folks like Melanie Rubin and visit her backyard farm!

]]> http://outrageousgardens.com/lazy-hazy-crazy-days-of-summer/feed/ 2 http://outrageousgardens.com/women-hold-up-half-the-sky/ http://outrageousgardens.com/women-hold-up-half-the-sky/#comments Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:42:23 +0000 Yvonne http://outrageousgardens.com/?p=464 …and produce 60-80% of the world’s food supply in Asia and Africa. Yet these same women–who also bear the children, tend the children, haul the water and wood and cook the food they grow–share few if any of the benefits and incentives their male counterparts receive.

Women are now 52% of the population on the planet. Our power base is expanding. And those women are growing stronger, more vocal and more political every day.

This International Women’s Day, I invite you to join my Pulsewire group to acknowledge the most valiant, creative, irrepressible, amazing and productive women from around the world who plant grains and vegetables with one hand and hold the tattered remnants of their families and community together with the other. Please join me at Outrageous Gardeners Worldwide with your stories, or links or suggestions.

Women have always been the backbone of community because we create community through our children, our often unacknowledged but essential wisdom and our tireless seeking after ways to improve life not just for ourselves but for our children. Take time today to consider the women you know and their contribution not just to your life but to others and see how wide a circle of influence they create in the many small, quiet and enduring acts of  power.

“Empowering female farmers worldwide is important to ending world hunger and enhancing the quality of life among rural populations,”  Canadian Federation of Agriculture President, Bob Friesen.

World population, which is currently 6.5 billion, is growing at 76 million annually, with an expected peak at 9.5 billion by 2070.

For the first time, global population estimates this year show that more people live in cities than in rural areas. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations projects that almost all of the population growth between 2000-2030 will be urban.

By 2020, according to the International Resource Centre for Urban Agriculture and Forestry, some 75 percent of the world’s city dwellers will live in developing countries – many of them in poverty. Already in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN, almost three-quarters of city residents live in rapidly growing slums. And this isn’t a migration of rural poor to the cities. These are groups impoverished by living conditions within the urban setting which prevents access to basic needs such as clean water, sewers, education and food production or the availability of fresh foods.

This is a scenario which will become more common I feel in days and months ahead. And living in the United States does not mean we are exempt. Residents of inner cities and marginal income areas have suffered from a lack of access to quality fresh foods for decades. It’s just that more of us may become aware of this problem in the months ahead.

One answer to over-crowding in our cities and to the wasted space atop business building, schools, hospitals and yes, parking garages (while we still have them) is to create garden oases.  And one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to do that is with childrens’ wading pools. Back in the mid-1990′s, Dr. Job Ebenezer was then Director of Environmental Stewardship and Hunger Education for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Job (as I refer to him) initiated an experiment in food growing on the rooftop of the church’s parking garage. Practical, compassionate, inventive and determined, Dr. Job is a true hero in service to his community.

The hope was that the roof top garden would serve as a role model for creative use of urban space throughout the country. Dr. Job proved the feasibility of growing vegetables in plastic wading pools, used tires and feed sacks. Urban gardeners at the ELCA offices in Chicago harvested nearly 1,000 pounds of vegetables from approximately 40 wading pools and a dozen of used tires and feed sacks. Here are his figures from those years:

Comparision of vegetable yield data between ELCA, U.S. and Wisconsin Farms

*National & Wisconsin data from the United States Department of Agriculture

Utilizing items often found in landfills or behind vacant buildings, Dr. Job created lush rooftop gardens and growing areas for senior citizens and the financially stressed, enrolling them in therapeutic gardening for their souls and enlarging their fresh food pantry at the same time. It doesn’t take alot of money to create a garden like this. Another benefit of wading pools is that they’re long-lasting and you don’t have to worry about previous contamination. With wading pools, you can garden on a roof top, a parking lot, in driveways or on patios. Both wading pools and used tires can provide a great deal of nourishment in a relatively small space.

Here’s how to create your own wading pool garden (based on Dr. Job’s directions and recommendations:)

WHAT YOU NEED: 

Child’s recycled 6’ or smaller wading pool – even if it’s split on the bottom it can still be used

Drill and ¾” or 1” bit

Compost

Soil/growing medium

Seeds or seedlings

A support for growing beans or vining vegetables

Access to water – rainbarrel, greywater

Riser—pallets or pavers and strong struts of used lumber

HOW TO:

Carefully drill 3/4″ to 1″ holes every 12-18″ around the circumference of the pool, 2″ up from the bottom of the pool. You’ll need to drill 4-5 holes. These holes allow for excess drainage while creating a reservoir below the holes, where water can accumulate to be utilized by the plants later. If the pool has splits or holes on the very bottom, you can place a sheet of plastic inside the pool before filling it with the soil mix.

2. Set up the wading pools so they are perfectly level. You can set them on pallets if necessary. But locate the pool in its ultimate location, since once filled, this pool will weigh approximately 350 pounds. Not exactly portable.

3. Locate it to its best advantage—not too much or too little sunshine. Any downspouts or gutters nearby mean free water so place a 5 gallon bucket under it to collect rainwater and lay out paths for foot traffic.

4. Fill the pool almost to overflowing with your growing medium. Since different parts of the world have different resources, a little imagination and creativity is necessary. Your goal is soil that is firm, moisture retentive and nutrient rich. Try to use (or replicate) equal parts topsoil, compost and peat moss. This is Dr. Job’s recommendation to be used in the wading pool gardens:

The following mix will provide a good soil structure and allow for air movement and water infiltration. A good recipe for a container growing soil mix is one part compost or well-rotted manure; one part topsoil; one part leaf mold, or peat moss*, or like fillers such as: coconut fibers; ground-up newspapers (only vegetable based inks); alfalfa; or leaf mold.

(*Peat moss will make the soil lighter and will afford moisture retention qualities. But there are many who consider this use to be detrimental to the environment and consider peat moss a non-renewable resource. While suitable for container gardening, it is suggested that when other types of more locally available materials are available, they should be substituted for the peat.)

5. Water the soil thoroughly and then stick your fingers in to test the wetness. It should feel damp and cool all the way to the bottom. But be careful not to flood the pool.

6. Now you can sow your seeds or place your transplants directly into the pool. Press your seeds gently into the wet soil. Beets and chard seeds like to be pressed about an inch into the soil, while lettuces prefer to sit closer to the surface. You can scatter a light dusting of mulch over the seeds, to prevent the soil from drying out. When adding transplants, dig the roots deep into the pool, press the soil around the roots and cover the area with a good mulch. This will prevent the need for excessive watering, and the plants can survive drought conditions.

7. Vine crops such as cucumbers, melons, zucchinis, winter squashes will need a trellis or support device. Wire mesh, bamboo stakes, branches, a small fence, mattress springs, formed into a ring around the outside of the wading pool all make a great garden trellis.

8. Remember, for inter-cropping, plant your tall crops together in the center, or nearest the wall (if so placed).

9. When used on rooftops keep in mind that some roofs, especially older wood- framed roofs, might not accommodate the 350+ pounds that each pool might reach. Before you establish a rooftop garden, be sure to check with the building engineer regarding structural strength of the roof.

10. Enjoy your garden! Add compost as a mulch for a slow-release continual supply of nutrients. If you prefer you can use fish emulsion or a manure or compost tea every 2-3 weeks throughout the growing season. [More on these later.]

Share the abundant produce with your community and those in need. Sell the produce to local restaurants and re-invest the income with your community. Teach children skills as they experience the rewards of Mother Nature and a connection to the earth.

WHAT YOU CAN PLANT:

Nearly everything but the corn or maize family. The ELCA wading pools were intensively planted with a diverse blend of vegetables, annuals and herbs. Marigolds and basil were used as natural pesticides. These rooftop gardens produced 984 pounds of vegetables from a dozen or so pools in an area measuring 1,625 square feet. One pool alone yielded an average of 22.5 pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini and a variety of greens. Will you have the same yield as Dr. Job? Try it and see and send me your results.

WHY WADING POOLS?

The plastic wading pool is the most cost-efficient container of its size available. At 6 feet in diameter and 12 inches deep, each one provides approximately 28 square feet of growing area for under $40 for container, soil and seeds, and is capable of producing up to 40 pounds of produce per growing season. Wading pools can be placed in any areas that cannot be gardened conventionally, such as rooftops, patios, decks, sections of playgrounds, along railroad tracks, in brown fields. The wading pools are lightweight (before they are filled with soil), easy to situate, and last for many years without decay.

I have already heard stories of “scavengers” in the landfill hunting for wading pools after learning about these mini-marvels of food production. I suggest putting an ad on craigslist.com or your local freecycle instead! Happy gardening and blessed New Moon!

Our thanks go to Dr. Job Ebenezer for his generous sharing of this information, his time and his vision. Please see: http://www.arts4all.com/elca/ and visit his website www.technologyforthepoor.com to learn more about his current work with appropriate technology in many areas.

The freedom of man, I contend, is the freedom to eat.” — Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1910)

Remember this old maxim, KISS?  Keep It Simple Stupid? Well, Jimmy Keyes understands how critical it is in moving out of hunger if you k.i.s.s. I’ve never met Jimmy Keyes but I like him.  And I found myself in love with most of the folks he knows.

Jimmy Keyes is one of the gardeners introduced to us in the “filmic journey” by Meryl Joseph entitled City Farmers, a deeply moving portrayal of what takes place in gardens of the inner city of New York.  K.I.S.S. are the words I prefer to live by, parent by, garden by, landscape by and promote here on this website. Not because people are inherently stupid (certain Presidents excepted) but because we, in this more technologically advanced society, tend to gravitate towards ideas or concepts or actions that are more complex, costly and difficult to attain. (Did I just define capitalism?) We believe that more is better–even if it isn’t. Which explains to me why so few organizations purporting to be humanitarian and at the same accruing millions of dollars to deal with the growing worldwide hunger issues, haven’t really been able to accomplish long-term changes. It is that frustrating observation that put me into this website. And which keeps me researching and falling in love all over again with videos like City Farmers and the contributions of folks like Dr. Job Ebenezer, former director of Environmental Stewardship at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in downtown Chicago back in the 1990′s.  Dr. Ebenezer set out to prove how to utilize otherwise wasted rooftop space to increase available food production with recycled children’s wading pools.  Add to that the growing interest in community gardening and urban sustainability and well, you had a winner from the get go.

According to the article about community gardening on the arts4all website which promotes the ELCA project: “The demonstration garden has proved to be highly successful. In 1997, gardeners harvested 984 pounds of vegetables from 38 pools in an area measuring 1,625 square feet. One pool alone yielded an average of 22.5 pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini and a variety of greens. This is equivalent to about 26,800 pounds. per acre, which far exceeds that of commercial yields in the state of Wisconsin and even the national 1996 average yields.” Pretty amazing for a piece of cheap molded plastic with holes in it and some compost and topsoil.  Now why can’t this happen in other places?

So this is my request for Thanksgiving: if you know a church organization, non-profit, homeless shelter, humanitarian aid organization in your community or on your email list, send them to this website and especially to this link. Today I focused on one of the cheapest, easiest to construct and maintain and richly abundant above-ground garden designs. It can work well in almost any climate and it’s created from a nearly ubiquitous and abundant material.  It’s not difficult. It takes just minutes to construct. There are plenty of folks on the ground from Dr. Ebenezer to Urban Gardening to E.C.H.O. who have been in the forefront of training and utilizing these systems for a couple of decades now.  So send this KISS to folks who can make a difference. And then try one for yourself!

• How do you spell the simplest, unrefined garden system that can be located nearly anywhere in the world? I bring you the “jeep” of gardens:  TIRES! (Or TYRES for those who write in funny English.)

You see them everywhere: along the road, piled next to garages, dumped in ravines, and some are even finding uses as walls for houses, outbuilding or fences. What else can you do with used tires? How about building ponds, compost bins or a GARDEN!

DID YOU KNOW?  Over 300 MILLION tires are thrown away each year and the United States accounts for nearly three-fourths of them. Even South Africa throws out a minimum of 129,600,000 kg annually (according to South Africa Trends) of the vulcanized circles and the pile just keeps growing according to the North American Recycled Tire Association. Approximately 33% of used tires are recycled or utilized in some form of energy recovery system. However, that still leaves a whopping 67% going to landfills—or worse.

Tires are one of the cheapest, most durable, long-lived, least costly garden containers around. Construction is fast and the growing results are phenomenal. They are portable and can be moved to track the sunlight or shade. Or easily moved from the path of marauding animals, thieves or vandals. According to Purdue University  and Washington State University there is very little concern for growing food in tires. However, the addition of a plastic trash bags or another thin plastic liner between the soil and the tire not only provides stability to the planting medium but also acts as an additional barrier to any microscopic elements such as metal shards, that might be absorbed. Construction is super fast. No tools are required—except for cutting the top open. Planting can take place immediately. This is the diagram supplied by Dr. Ebenezer:

Easy enough. You can also use other tires for compost bins (stack them as you add organic materials; pull off the tires one at a time; place it next to the first pile and toss the stuff from the first tire pile into the second and you’ve turned your compost.)

Author with tire gardens Sept.08

Many people swear by potato tires. Place your seed potatoes in your compost and growing medium in the first tire. As the potato seedlings grow add another tire above the first and more dirt. Repeat as needed (usually three tires is enough) and when you’re ready to harvest simply take down the tires one by one till you collect all the new potatoes. They may not be pretty but they certainly are effective and SIMPLE.

[Next time:  Dr. Job Ebenezer's "Wading Pool" gardens!]

Rooftop gardens in Havana, Cuba

Photo below is courtesy of Cuban Organic Support Group

It’s yet another piece of this movement in which I’ve registered myself and this website: true sustainability is about US, not about ME. I alone cannot sustain much. Sharing information and ideas–freely and easily–is, in my opinion, at the very core of this change called sustainability. Knowledge withheld or basic skills we teach at a premium price is not sustainability. It is within the collective of our skills and knowledge and experience that we create a safe, secure and nurturing environment. Here’s a video from the GOP on a community development initiative in South Africa. “In the inner-city of Johannesburg, The GreenHouse Project is turning one urban park into a seedbed for sustainable communities. The program takes a holistic approach to the city’s challenges, integrating green building and design, efficient and renewable energy, recycling, organic farming and nutrition.”

Why “outrageous” gardens? Because for me it’s outrageous that over 900 million people in the world are malnourished and 177 million of them are children (according to Bread for the World.) It’s outrageous that one child DIES every 5 seconds from the consequences of hunger. It’s outrageous to me that enough food is being produced in the world today to feed every man, woman and child yet the hungry must wait for our handouts of grains–and other expensive to maintain and costly to transport foodstuffs–when a nutritious supply of basic vegetables and small fruits may be only a discarded tire, burlap sack or plastic bag away.

As a life-long gardener and former organic farmer, landscape restoration consultant here in Albuquerque, a freelance writer, activist, and armchair researcher on gardening for more than three decades, I have looked at the various methods of food production and food security from all over the world. While the crisis widens worldwide on a nearly daily basis, the “answers” to poverty and hunger seem to become more complicated, take longer to implement and more costly. Martin Plaut wrote in a BBC report on Ethiopia recently, “The current crisis in Ethiopia is being lost in a swirling mist of competing figures.” He’s referring to the discrepancies between the aid agencies and the politics of that country over just how many people are in desperate need and who is paying what and when which is not solely an issue in this one heart-wrenching situation. It’s a common dilemma.  As a pragmatic woman of minimal means, I keep asking the same question in these situations: why not look to the easiest, most direct and cheapest method of feeding people? That is the question this website hopes to answer.

Here on Outrageous Gardens, you will find an expanding collection of the most effective, extremely low-tech and inspiring templates for food production from many sources. These have been field-tested by various agencies and organizations for their ease of construction and immediate implementation. These gardens are constructed from any available or  recycled materials or trash. They utilize minimal nutrient inputs and minimal water, preferably grey water. And because of their lightweight materials, fast construction and compact sizes, many are also mobile so they could be thrown on wagons or moved to higher ground if necessary. Readers will quickly realize that the notion of the family garden needing long straight, tilled rows in a large square of soil is pretty much compost here. This is about bringing food production right to your doorstep, right on your doorstep, to your tent flap or on your rooftop. ‘Get a yield,’ as we learn in Permaculture. Get food growing quickly and successfully to nourish the gardener and the family, then expand into market growing later, as health and stamina increase. That’s what this process is all about.

“When you make a difference with what you have, it expands.” ~ Lynn Twist, Soul of Money Institute (www.soulofmoney.org)