So for this New Year, I heartily encourage everyone to just take over—their yards, their driveways, alleys, the roof, patios, even parks, medians and any under-utilized space of Earth for growing food. With non-Genetically Modified Seeds of course! But that’s not all. It’s so important to connect how we grow food with other aspects of our environment, our community and envision a more inclusive, nurturing and supportive way of life.

Here’s my list of 12 ways to Occupy Earth in 2012!

1. Order seed catalogues on-line from: Bountiful Gardens (www.bountifulgardens.org), Territorial Seeds (www.territorialseed.com/), So True Seeds (sowtrueseed.com/), or Landreth Seed Company (www.landrethseeds.com/) Not just for ordering seeds but these catalogues are learning tools of the highest order.

2. Collect leaves. Especially in bags. Lots of them. Bagged leaves can become part of your compost pile, shredded up for mulch between rows of the garden, kept in bags and piled on top of a raised bed or placed around the sides of a raised bed to keep the soil from freezing. And worms love them so throw lots of them over the top of your worm bed.

3. Talk to any landscape companies or lawn maintenance services that come to your neighborhood about leaving their work behind for you–especially if they don’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Why drive to Home Depot for top soil and compost when you can get the raw materials you need delivered for free?

4. Improved idea: Organize a neighborhood action to reclaim all the bagged leaves and grass left on curbs, set up a centrally located compost pile and teach new gardeners how to transform the leaves and grass into their own “black gold.”

5. Call local arborists who work in your area about delivering wood chips next time they take down trees nearby. Wood chips can be used for paths or as mulch for large areas.

6. Contact the closest food bank and offer to become a Plant A Row for the Hungry designated grower. www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=par/par_campaign.html

7. Organize a “gleaning operation” with your church, school, community garden, scouts.  Map out fruit trees, shrubs or vines that produce fruit that is left to rot. For more information from other communities and an operational guide to gleaning check out: Baltimore Orchard at http://www.baltimoreorchard.org or Forage Oakland blog http://forageoakland.blogspot.com.

8. Convince a local church, school or synagogue to allow use of their commercial kitchen on off-days or during the summer. Provide classes to new gardeners and others who want to learn how to preserve their harvest through canning, freezing and drying. It’s also an ideal place for breadmaking!

9. Buy a full share of produce for the season from a local Community Supported Agriculture farm then split it with another family or another single person. Most single people find it is more than they can use each week. Check with social service agencies to find out who could benefit from this split ticket of food.

10. Buy extra packets of heirloom seeds and give them as birthday and anniversary gifts in your cards.

11. Trade tools! Make an inventory of tools from among all your closest (geographically speaking) friends and family. Share the list and set up a tool trading coop to save time and money on duplicating tools you may only use a few times each year or each season.

12. Start gardening small. Using some of the ideas from this website on above-ground gardens and looking at your location differently, you may find new and interesting space for growing food this year. And don’t forget to share your excess.

This year, 2012, is also my year for publishing my delightful book of gardening templates from around the world:  Simply Garden Small! Watch for excerpts on this blog during the coming weeks.

Gardening by the Moon Calendar from the Farmers’ Almanac 

http://www.farmersalmanac.com/

The Farmers Almanac Gardening by the Moon Calendar is determined by our age-old formula and applies generally to regions where the climate is favorable.

May we one day remember that everything comes from you. Everything.

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving Day filled with Grace and Gratitude!

Yvonne

(Poster art by Jeness Cortez Perlmutter, 1994)

Morning comes to the Great Smokey Mountains.

After four months of car travel from Albuquerque, NM to my roots in the midwest, my youngest daughter’s wedding in St. Louis, a trip to Appalachia, down through North Carolina, up to Gloucester, MA and a few days at Occupy DC/Freedom Plaza, I’m now “home” in Whittier and Sylva, NC. It feels good to stop driving and not use a milk crate for a dresser anymore.

Mostly it just feels good to be HERE, in these ancient mountains as Gaia cycles into an almost fanciful state of raucous color, chasing leaves down rivers and streams, and making squirrels frantic to collect those amazing acorns that sling themselves all over the forest floor. For a gardener, the sound of rain a few nights back (and the occasional walnut thud) gave me such a sense of peace. I realized that after 20 years of self-imposed hyper-vigilant gardening in Albuquerque, I can let down my guard. I don’t have to worry about consuming too much water or not collecting enough or fearing the endless days of sunshine and needing to protect tender seedlings from premature death. Here, life seems to be much more in balance. And so do I.

Enjoy some photos of what I am privileged to view each day. More to come from this maverick gardener as I settle in, get to know my neighbors and make my way to the nearest community garden.

Mainstreet Sylva, NC.

My new home--cabin in the woods.

My driveway in autumn splendor.

This is how these mountains got their name--enveloping morning mist rising up through the trees.

And finally my garden of course! First thing I did when I moved in was to clean out this old black plastic container, dig up some transplants from my friends’ garden and add them to my leaf mold, compost and topsoil blend. They are going strong!

My fall "garden" in North Carolina. Yum!

The book is progressing, life here is simpler but full of great organic food of every type! I feel so blessed to be surrounded with friends, a great job in the best little spa in Sylva, and the promise of meeting and learning from the many fine farmers and gardeners who seem to populate every square inch of western North Carolina. More to come…

And now from Farmers’ Almanac for November, 2011:

November 2011
3rd-4th Kill Plant Pests On These Barren Days.
5th-7th Favorable Days For Planting Aboveground Crops. Extra Good For Vine Crops, Where Climate Allows.
8th-9th Neither Plant Nor Sow On These Barren Days.
10th-11th Plant Root Crops, Where Climate Permits. Good Days For Transplanting.
12th-13th Any Seed Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
14th-15th Best Planting Days For Fall Potatoes, Turnips, Onions, Carrots, Beets And Other Root Crops, Where Climate Is Suitable. Also Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens. Good Days For Transplanting.
16th-19th Poor Period For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Clear Fencerows/land.
20th-22nd Favorable Days For Planting Root Crops. Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
23rd-24th Plant Carrots, Beets, Onions, Turnips, Irish Potatoes And Other Root Crops, In The South. Lettuce, Cabbage, Collards, And Other Leafy Vegetables Will Do Well. Start Seedbeds. Good Days For Transplanting.
25th-27th Poor Planting Days.
28th-29th Good Days For Planting Peas, Squash, Corn, Tomatoes And Other Aboveground Crops, In Southern Florida, Texas, And California.
30th Kill Plant Pests On This Barren Day.

Anyone even remotely interested in or connected to the organic agriculture movement or sustainability has registered the importance of saving their own seeds as much as possible. Learning that skill will become even more critical before too many more seasons pass. But saving seed is also about saving the heirloom organic seed companies that provide us with our plant material. We take for granted that when we want to buy some seeds from one company of another we’ll just pick up the phone, send an email, order. Those days may be limited for one of the oldest seed companies in the world.

You may not know D. Landreth Seeds in New Freedom, PA, by name but you are quite aware of zinnias, white potatoes and Bloomsdale spinach–all introduced by Landreth Seeds. And if you’re asking how old can that be, how about since 1784. George Washington purchased seeds from Landreth. Listen in to a recent Living on Earth interview with the current owner of Landreth Seeds to learn more about the financial crisis facing them.

And to fully understand the importance to the region and to our American way of agriculture, take a gander at the timeline for the Landreth Seed Company.  Impressive!

So what can you do to help preserve this historic establishment?  Chip in on Facebook! It’s not JUST a seed catalogue, it’s our future wrapped inside our past. Order several for gifts for those special gardeners, then plant to order your seed for next season. It’s not  just good karma and you are not just saving one small seed company.

You may in fact be part of something larger: saving our gardening future.

(I’m sorry it took me so long to learn about this wonderful establishment.  I may just have to mosey down to New Freedom myself!)

Remember your cold frames and plastic row covers give you an extended season. Here are your best gardening dates from Farmers Almanac Garden Planner:

October 2011
1st-3rd Do Clearing And Plowing, But No Planting.
4th-6th Plant Tomatoes, Peas, Beans And Other Aboveground Crops, Indoors In The North, Outdoors In Lower South.
7th-8th Poor Planting Days. Kill Poison Ivy, Weeds, Clear Land, But Do No Planting.
9th-10th Good Days For Planting Aboveground Crops, Extra Good For Vine Crops, Where Climate Is Suitable.
11th-12th A Barren Period.
13th-15th Good Days For Planting Beets, Carrots, Onions, Turnips And Other Hardy Root Crops, Where Climate Is Suitable. Good Days For Transplanting.
16th-17th Poor Days For Planting, Seeds Tend To Rot In The Ground.
18th-19th Best Planting Days For Fall Potatoes, Turnips, Onions, Carrots, Beets And Other Root Crops, Where Climate Is Suitable. Also Plant Seedbeds, Flower Gardens. Good Days For Transplanting.
20th-23rd Grub Out Weeds, Briars, And Other Plant Pests.
24th-25th Good Days For Planting Root Crops, Fine For Sowing Hay, Fodder Crops, And Grains. Plant Flowers.
26th-28th Good Days For Planting Aboveground Crops And Leafy Vegetables Such As Lettuce, Cabbage, Kale And Celery, Where Climate Is Suitable. Start Seedbeds.
29th-30th Do Clearing And Plowing, But No Planting.
31st

I promised a post on seed saving but this felt more important to share. Besides seed saving is best done in a fire sign, like Aries which is the 17^th and 18^th of this month so we have time to consider some other energies developing right now.

I’ve had the pleasure of spending the better part of two months doing absolutely what I want to do which includes time with family, friends, visiting a new part of the USA for me, exchanging visual love letters with the Great Smokey Mountains, and taking more time breathing into the changes we are all moving through. It’s recharged my previously flagging energy, opened up new relationships and renewed old ones. And I’ve had many opportunities to see the Earth from new perspectives.

As humans, we have this egotistical belief that we and we alone are affected by what happens on this planet. We too often forget that it is this planet that is most affected as she is the living entity dealing with her own growth cycles as well as all the problems we are creating. She is responsible for the lives of billions of humans and many more billions of other sentient beings. And She can be the recipient of our positive and loving energies. The finest conduit of that energy I call gardens.

For too long I have kept my energetic gardening hidden behind a wall of practical information in order to encourage others to get out and garden. (That’s all my planets in Taurus.) I still believe in these small, humble and quick designs as one tool to eradicate hunger. I also believe this is a critical time to address those who insist the world is a dead rock rather than a rock and roll star, and put my truth out into the ether: gardening is actually directed healing energy work with the planet, a hands-on process available to anyone, anywhere. And it is needed now more than ever before.

There are nearly 7 billion humans on this luminous blue ball floating in space. Of that perhaps 1 in 8 are working the land. What are the other 7 out of 8 humans doing for the planet? In the US, just slightly over 2 million people are considered farmers yet too many of those comprise large scale agriculture[1] or agribusiness, quite different from subsistence or family farms. What it says to me is that the scales are dramatically tipped away from a healing process of co-creating with the Earth and that the Earth is in dire need of much more directed, focused, light-infused prayer we create during moments of loving and grateful connection.

I have not been privileged with a space for personalized gardening in several decades. I intend that to change, I just don’t know when or how right now. That’s the primary reason I began my landscape maintenance business: to have ready access every day to another opportunity to connect myself directly with the Earth. I used my work as a form of meditation and intuitive healing as well as my financial support. I learned so much from that time and my learning process continues: about how the ego interferes with healing, how patriarchal pre-suppositions about how it’s “s’posed” to be done create more harm than benefit, how the earth responds when there are surrounding negative energies, and how humans often spin Earth’s natural events and needs into catastrophes because they are so distanced from their own Mother Earth.

Case in point: the recent spate of gloom and doom stories about solar storms.

While the media hype concentrates on how these surges of power from Sun to Earth will put our cell phones and satellite communication in disarray, and bring down the “power grid” i.e. our energy supply, I see something completely different.

I see a solar flare as an energetic wave, like kisses and hugs from Sun to Earth.

And in the solar storms I sense the Sun’s increased energy coming at a critical juncture to support the Earth in this time of cosmic transformation. We, Earth’s stewards, have done a rather, dare I say, piss poor job of late, in not blessing the Earth, thanking her for all that she gives us which is, well, EVERYTHING. WE are the takers. That has to change.

When was the last time you blessed your glass of water before you drank it? Or when you bowed to a tree or a flower or the grass beneath your feet? When was the last time you stopped to watch the moon rise over mountains humbled by the continuity, the cyclical certainty of the moon’s orbit around our planet? How recently have you knelt upon the Earth to watch a honeybee on clover or some unfolding blossom? Without that tiny insect, we would all be starving. And you think you can’t live without your cell phone?
These moments create simple points of prayer, awe and gratitude. They are acupuncture treatments of light. Man has forgotten: WE did not create all those divine entities of the elements, the plants, animals, insects; they came with and through the Earth. It’s a package deal. And each moment of gratitude accelerates the changes and the healing of the planet–as well as our own!

We are, or we all should, consider ourselves Earth midwives in this transition time. She is panting, breathing hard, working to continue LIFE on this planet—for all of us, for the thousands of generations to come, not just the current one. We discuss these Earth changes as “disasters” because human lives are lost, human and corporation property damaged. Yet where is the anguish, the cries of pain at species lost, at jungles burned and cleared, at forested mountain tops blown off with dynamite, their animals, insects, flowers, water sources instantly devastated? Who cries for the Earth?

Personally, I welcome the solar storms[2]. I find comfort in them. They push aside and override mans’ technology in order to hug the Earth, to send her love and light and encourage her on into our next evolutionary dimension. The Earth could use a little help from us, as well. A little more gratitude. A little less taking.

So: is it too much to ask for a few more gardeners?

PS: Regardless of what your lunar gardening calendar says about the next 5 days, I encourage less activity. As the Sun is sending out a high vibration to the Earth toward a Full Moon on Friday, I feel that it’s best to do the minimal amount of work, planting, etc., this week. Water if needed, mulch if needed, and simply spend time WITH your garden, not DOING your garden.

---

[1] Why Hungerhttp://www.whyhunger.org/programs/fslc/topics/family-farms.html

[2] http://news.yahoo.com/power-companies-prepare-solar-storms-set-hit-earth-144759933.html

One strawbale garden, coming up!

So what’s the “secret” to these quirky little gardens I love so much?  The organic scavenger-throw-together growing system that pretty much works anywhere? The answer is: Think like Mother Nature!

I am quite certain that what we call gardens are simply energetic relationships that manifest through the intention of soil, seeds, water, air and sunlight brought together all in one place.  People at our workshops watch us throw together some newspaper, dried leaves, spoiled hay or grass clippings, some not quite decomposed compost, maybe some pumice stones or even cola cans, toss them into a tire or wading pool or a rectangle of straw bales– VOILA! –they see a garden. I see the Universe. But that’s another blog.

There is a teeny bit more to forming a useful, nutritious and fairly all-purpose, growing medium.  So perhaps the real “secret” is in the way all those items are placed in a growing container or piled on top of a piece of ground. I have a system that I like to use but you can design your own based around the materials you have available in your area and following a basic procedure of layering.

When you have collected all your organic matter together and are ready to put together the growing area, this is what you’ll do:

Stack each of the various layers of material one on top the next after creating a weed barrier of thick layers of newspaper or cardboard.  Next is a base or bottom layer to provide water absorption; then an aeration (breathing space) layer; then a slow-release organic nutrients layer; and finally a topping of finished compost and topsoil with a dusting of bone meal, rock phosphate or wood ashes, where the seedlings and seeds will get started.

Cross-section of the various layers in straw bale garden.

But wait a minute, you say. Is that all there is to it?  Well, yes and no.  There are some general guidelines about the way each layer works as part of the whole.  What will be a bit different depending on your area, climate, time of year, are the organic materials you will have available.

We’ve gotten so many requests for a handout on this,  that I created a guide with photos and diagrams so folks at workshops would no longer have to scribble furiously on notebooks or the back of envelopes while we demonstrated. [ You will be able to order a copy of  The Secret of Outrageous Gardens right here soon as PDF for $5.00 and proceeds are used to support the work of several organizations uprooting hunger in various parts of the world. See my Resources page and thanks for helping out.]

Backyard at the Zemach residence.

If you’re still not convinced that thick layers of organic mulch, water harvesting as opposed to irrigation, and a wide diversity of interplanted herbs, edibles and perennials can’t possibly happen in high desert, enjoy these photos taken at Mary Zemach’s annual permaculture tour of her residence in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Her home was the cover photo for Toby Hemenway’s first edition of Gaia’s Garden, a must-read for anyone feeling the urging to restore their particular section of the planet to health while claiming all the moisture we’re gifted in the form of rain. There were a multitude of straw bales in evidence throughout her property.

Mary Zemach with some very happy horseradish.

Thank you, Miss Mary, for your willingness to share your experience, your wisdom, your wit and joy, and your commitment to the Earth with so many people over the years.

While I’m staying in the abundantly beautiful Great Smokey Mountains, I’m surrounded it seems with every kind of small grower, CSA, organic farm, free range livestock you can imagine.  Sustainable agriculture is ALIVE AND WELL in western North Carolina. I’ll let you know more about this bountiful state in a later post. Right now I just want to head into the picturesque town of Sylva, NC and enjoy a vegan dessert and a glass of wine.

[Artwork by Christina Bouajila www.crewnewmexico.com/creativeartist]

From Farmers’ Almanac (Gardening by the Moonsigns):

July 2011
28th-29th Most Fruitful Days For Planting Root Crops. Excellent For Sowing Seedbeds And Flower Gardens. Good Days For Transplanting.
30th-31st A Most Barren Period. Kill Plant Pests And Do General Farm Work.

August 2011
1st-2nd A Barren Time. Best For Killing Weeds, Briars, Poison Ivy, And Other Plant Pests. Clear Woodlots And Fencerows.
3rd-4th Good Days For Planting Aboveground Crops. Excellent For Sowing Grains, Winter Wheat, Oats, And Rye. Plant Flowers.
5th-7th Plant Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, Peppers And Other Aboveground Crops, In Southern Florida, California, And Texas. Extra Good For Leafy Vegetables. Plant Seedbeds.
8th-9th Cut Winter Wood, Do Clearing And Plowing, But No Planting.
10th-12th A Good Time To Plant Aboveground Crops.
13th-14th Barren Days. Fine For Killing Plant Pests.
15th-17th Favorable Days For Planting Root Crops, Fine For Vine Crops. Good Days For Transplanting.
18th-19th Barren Days. Do No Planting.
20th-21st Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Yield Well. Good Days For Transplanting.
22nd-23rd Any Seeds Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
24th-25th Most Favorable Days For Planting Beets, Onions, Turnips, And Other Root Crops. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens. Good Days For Transplanting.
26th-29th A Barren Time. Best For Killing Weeds, Briars, Poison Ivy, And Other Plant Pests. Clear Woodlots And Fencerows.
30th-31st Good Days For Planting Aboveground Crops. Excellent For Sowing Grains, Winter Wheat, Oats, And Rye. Plant Flowers.

NEXT UP: Saving seeds is empowering and fun (not to mention, necessary!)

completing my course on agroforestry through Trees for the Future—as well as my mental and physical preparations for this three week experience, it felt like the time to transplant this blog into what I envision will be a journey of hope and transformation not just for me but the people AND the land around Port-Au-Prince.

NEWSFLASH: We raised a little over $1300 on Saturday 4/23,  from an amazing group of people! !!! THANKS to all who came out.

What is “Burquenos Helping to Heal Haiti?” Well, for starters, we’re women from Albuquerque (Burquenos) and our project overlaps two forms of relief for trauma: acupuncture treatment and training health care workers with establishing small, subsistence gardens to reduce hunger and provide dark, leafy greens for reversing chronic malnutrition. I’ll be helping with the gardening plus an agroforestry design effort on land donated to the What If? Foundation for increasing food supplies for the daily food program. Acupuncturists Without Borders will provide the training as well as treatments for some of the residents of the parish served by the What If? Foundation food program. We feel this is a very dynamic collaboration and we look forward to working with this community.

Bowls ready for the children What If? Foundation food program

The posts to follow will bring you with me and the team heading to Haiti on May 23rd. Lots of things to do, packing, medical supplies, setting up appointments, collecting donations of seeds, jump ropes, soccer balls, too many details and still more money to raise. Whew!

If you would like to help cover the costs of transportation and translation while in Haiti, our housing, food and miscellaneous expenses, you may send a tax-deductible contribution to: AWB (Acupuncturists Without Borders), 909Virginia NE, Suite 211, Albuquerque, NM 87108. PLEASE indicate this is a donation for: Haiti Trip May 2011. Mesi anpil.

In this process, I’ve uncovered so many groups or individuals located in Albuquerque who are supporting Haiti in some way. It is truly uplifting to know that so many folks here in New Mexico feel a kinship with our Haitian neighbors and are doing their part. I’ll share more about them in upcoming blogs and when I have the opportunity to visit some of their service locations in Haiti.

Happy MayDay! Regardless of the snow, rain, wind and cold temps today, gardening is under way! Here’s the calendar for May according to the Farmers’ Almanac so get out there and PLANT:

May 2011
1st-2nd Poor Planting, Fine For Cultivating Or Spraying.
3rd-4th Favorable For Planting Beans, Corn, Cotton, Tomatoes, Peppers, And Other Aboveground Crops.
5th-6th Any Seed Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
7th-8th Most Favorable For Planting Corn, Cotton, Okra, Beans, Peppers, Eggplant, And Other Aboveground Crops. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
9th-12th A Barren Period. Good For Killing Plant Pests, Cultivating, Or Taking A Short Vacation.
13th-15th Excellent Time For Planting Corn, Beans, Peppers, And Other Aboveground Crops. Favorable For Sowing Hay, Fodder Crops, And Grains. Plant Flowers.
16th-17th First Day Excellent For Planting Aboveground Crops. Second Day Favorable For Carrots, Beets, Onions, Turnips, And Other Root Crops. Both Days Good For Planting Cabbage, Lettuce And Other Leafy Vegetables, And For Planting Seedbeds. Second Day Good For Transplanting.
18th-20th Do No Planting.
21st-22nd Plant Late Beets, Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, And Other Root Crops.
23rd-25th Kill Plant Pests On These Barren Days.
26th-27th Favorable Time For Planting Late Root Crops. Also Good For Vine Crops That Can Be Planted Now. Set Strawberry Plants. Good Days For Transplanting.
28th-29th Poor Planting, Fine For Cultivating Or Spraying.
30th-31st Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Yield Well. Good Days For Transplanting.

June 2011
1st-2nd Seeds Planted Now Tend To Rot In The Ground.
3rd-4th Plant Tomatoes, Beans, Peppers, Corn, Cotton, And Other Aboveground Crops On These Most Fruitful Days. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
5th-8th Poor Period For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Clear Fencerows, Clear Land.
9th-11th Favorable For Planting Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, And Other Fall Crops Bearing Yield Aboveground. Sow Grains And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
12th-13th Extra Good For Planting Fall Lettuce, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collards, And Other Leafy Vegetables. All Aboveground Crops Planted Now Will Do Well. Plant Seedbeds.
14th-16th Poor Planting Days. Cut Hay Or Do General Farm Work.
17th-18th Plant Late Beets, Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, And Other Root Crops.
19th-21st Poor Days For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Spray, Fertilize, Do General Farm Work.
22nd-23rd Favorable Time For Planting Late Root Crops. Also Good For Vine Crops. Set Strawberry Plants. Good Days For Transplanting.
24th-25th Cut Hay Or Do Plowing On These Barren Days.
26th-27th Good Days For Planting Root Crops. Good Days For Transplanting.
28th-29th Seeds Planted Now Tend To Rot In The Ground.
30th Best Day For Planting Root Crops. Excellent For Sowing Seedbeds And Flower Gardens. Good Day For Transplanting.

As much as my heart grieves for the loss of human life in Japan this week, just as deeply do I grieve for the vast quantities of others species forever altered by the human decision to use a form of energy that humans are not capable of controlling. Like Pandora’s box, the poisoning radiation was suddenly unleashed through the power of her ocean’s surging tsunami. Never to be put back. I can’t help but wonder: is Gaia trying desperately to teach us, to bring us back to balance within ourselves?

I think so. And while the pros and cons of the safety of nuclear energy supplying our electricity swirl unabated from every corner of the globe, I paused today to review an ever deeper lesson from this tragedy and this question came to mind.

As a gardener, how much do you depend on some form of technology or energy supply to grow your garden or to farm the land?

Take a moment, grab a piece of paper and a pencil and quickly write down all the ways you depend on resources outside your piece of land to grow your food, herbs or medicinals or keep your livestock.

Now consider what your life would be like if in 90 seconds your ability to utilize those outside resources vanished. Forever. How capable are you to move on? To take on the care of your farm and garden without electricity, a hose, irrigation tape, Home Depot, the garden tractor, etc.? You may need to do this exercise more than once to fully comprehend how dependent you are. And if you’re completely off the grid and free of all outside influence, well, you are to be congratulated and please send me your location so I can visit!

For me, having spent 20 years in the arid southwest, which is now deep into a severe drought, water is my constant touchstone of independence. Although I’m not presently on a piece of land (yep, I meant it when I asked for you off-grid folks to send directions!) what I teach, preach and insist on is learning to garden without irrigation or electricity first. Later on you can add those components because you know you can always return to your first non-mechanical system if you need to.

The Super Full Moon today, March 19, means the moon will position itself at its closest location to the Earth since 1993. Let the moon overhead remind you of the power of water: her tides, oceans, rain, springs, rivers, mists, snow and ice. Make a vow to take time to learn or create a garden or landscape totally independent of all forms of technology or mechanical interventions.

• Study water catchment with Brad Lancaster.
• Learn how water moves across the landscape through Permaculture.
• Take a Permaculture design course!
• Build a cistern, set up a windmill to draw water.
• Mulch heavily. Or better, all of the above.

Mother Nature will always have the last word. She should be the first word we speak in the morning. In gratitude for all that she gives. Everything comes from the Mother. We’ve forgotten that along the way. And everything returns to the Mother. Something else we’ve forgotten.

Earthquakes, tsunami, hurricanes, volcanoes, floods, drought, tornadoes. What she gives, she can always reclaim. It’s time we started remembering that again….with respect for this living, changing, very much alive planet we are blessed to live upon: Earth!

Take an hour today to watch this amazing movie about our one and ONLY,  Home.

Any of you who are participating in the Plant A Row for the Hungry (PAR) program may be interested in applying for one of these grants from The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. Just visit the website below (http://thescottsmiraclegrocompany.com/GRO1000) and follow directions for submitting the application for a grant.

Let me know if you have any questions.
-Carol Ledbetter

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Offers Grants for Community Gardens and Green Spaces

World’s Largest Lawn and Garden Company Launches Program Helping

Communities to Cultivate a Green Thumb

The goal: to plant 1,000 gardens and green spaces across the U.S., Canada and Europe by 2018. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company wants to make that happen and launched a new program called GRO1000, offering $1,500 grants to deserving communities and organizations in the hopes it will get people involved in creating more community gardens and green spaces where they call home.

“Something happens when communities grow and learn together,” said Jim King, ScottsMiracle-Gro’s senior vice president of corporate affairs. “People develop a sense of pride and accomplishment when they get involved in cleaning up their neighborhoods, growing flowers, or cultivating their own healthy local food, and we want to help them get the job done.”

Communities interested in pursuing 2011 GRO1000 grassroots grants can apply online at http://thescottsmiraclegrocompany.com/GRO1000 by March 31, 2011. Projects should include the involvement of neighborhood residents and foster a sense of community spirit.

This year’s crop of Scotts Miracle-Gro’s community gardens is already underway. On March 1, teachers, parents and students at Morning Star School in Tampa, FL, got their hands dirty planting edible and learning gardens on the school’s campus.

Throughout 2011, ScottsMiracle-Gro and its partners: Keep America Beautiful, Plant A Row for the Hungry, Garden Writers Association, the National Gardening Association and Franklin Park Conservatory will establish gardens and green spaces in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, New York, Ontario, Canada and Lyon, France.

–
Carol Ledbetter
Program Administrator
Plant A Row for the Hungry
5281 Holly Springs Dr.
Douglasville, GA 30135
Tel/Fax: 877.GWAA.PAR
E-mail: par@gardenwriters.org
PAR is a public service campaign of the Garden Writers Association Foundation

This spring I have the opportunity to go to Haiti with a humanitarian group from Albuquerque, Acupuncturists Without Borders. My good friend, Melanie Rubin, is their development director. But before that, she was the originator of Albuquerque Backyard Farms and that’s how we met. She learned about me and what I was doing to teach small sustainable garden systems and asked me to do a workshop. Two years later, we are close friends collaborating on a pilot program to relieve trauma through acupuncture and creating subsistence gardens to provide vital micro-nutrients simultaneously. When her group received a grant to do follow-up with the Haitians they treated after the 2010 earthquake, Melanie said “I really think you should go with us.” And thus was a seed planted, took root and is developing at tremendous speed. More about that next post.

That is just one personal example of women supporting women to do service in the world. Women don’t just hold up half the sky: women hold up most of the Earth. Because we bring life into the world, women understand what life needs to sustain life. We understand the delicate but tenacious tendrils that develop through relationships either to other humans, to the animal kingdom, to the elements of the earth, water, sunlight and wind, to our soul and spirit. And we recoil and regroup whenever we feel those tendrils endangered.

When I lived in Bulgaria in the early 1990′s, I was given an introduction to the celebration of International Women’s Day from my adopted Eastern European community. All day on March 8th I was met with greetings, often accompanied by flowers or chocolates. Males went out of their way to offer their well-wishes. Coming from the United States where the ERA was dirty word, I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm to compliment and thank women for their work in the world. This year has seen such a focused attack on workers, I’m sure Hallmark couldn’t find a way to make March 8th profitable yet so that’s probably why most of us don’t celebrate a day devoted to the contributions of ALL women workers, mothers or not.

So today I thank my mother for giving me life but also for blazing a trail for me that service to one’s community is a true vocation. Her acts of charity (a word she despised) were almost unnoticeable–except for my young eyes. When we had so little, she still shared something. When someone needed help, she was there though her own health was always in jeopardy. When money needed to be found for a school or church project, she was on the committee and pounding on doors. And all of that made her happy, not tired. It’s the same face I find in the women who are living their passion for sharing their talents with others. We want to leave the world better than we found it. It’s like it was tattooed on our palms but we’re the only ones who can see it.

So of course we’ll go to Haiti, four or five women, and come back wiser from working with the women there, from sharing, from teaching, from exchanging laughter, stories, grief, pain. Like the tendrils of vining beans, we must encircle each other’s lives in order to continue to grow ourselves.

I hope you have taken a moment or two today to thank the women in your life–at home, in the office, at school, in the drugstore, at the gas station. Now envision your life WITHOUT them and see how much is lost.

I know that my life would be very gray indeed without all the amazing women who infuse it with their unique talents, passions, and emotions, and fertilize my mind and heart with their wisdom, beliefs, ideas and energies.  To all of you I say “Have a blessed women’s day, every day!”

Now, to prepare for gardening in Haiti; please stay tuned!

There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole – women and men alike – than the one which involves women as central players.
– Kofi Annan