More poetry from our own Carl Wayne

Oh my gosh!  No posts here for soooo long - sorry, we've been vacationing (right at prime gardening season, but more about that later.)

Here's a poem from Carl Wayne:

Expensive Mater Pome

Carl Wayne June 14, 2006

Organic gardening is a beautiful thing
Taking care of Mother Nature's good earth
Growing maters and taters with taste and smell
Whatever it costs it is worth.

But organic gardening is not cheap my Dear
If you want that good old taste
My price per mater has risen too far
I tell by the look on Mimi's face.

A five dollar pot and 4 dollars of mix
Wire cages and cute two dollar stand
Expensive crystals supposed to retain water
Mimi said it's getting out of hand.

But I had not finished my buying spree
I bought gallons of expensive soil soup
And SeaTea and bone meal and various sprays
Composted chicken and black cow poop.

For a ten dollar bucket and 9 buck bag
Of organic alfalfa pellets
I could brew my own tea for almost free
But Mimi said she couldn't tell it.

I'm hoping for a large mater harvest
Maters that smell and taste so sweet
And accept the fact that they cost me
Somewhere around ten dollars apiece.

Maybe next year I'll plant in the ground
And have more maters to glean
And reduce my cost to less than a buck
And fertilize with triple thirteen.

You say to-may-toe, I say to-mah-toe

Everyday we receive an email with the day's Writer's Almanac, edited by Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame.

Today's edition contained a fascinating discourse on whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.  Did you know that even the U. S. Supreme Court has weighed in?

It was on this day in 1893 that the Supreme Court ruled that the tomato was a vegetable, not a fruit.

Gardening and Needlepoint - the Big Bang

Don't you just love it when two of your passions collide and create a new passion?  That's how we felt when we read about a book called Embroidered Knot Gardens in the latest newsletter from Amy's Golden Strand.  OMG. 

Alas, we didn't follow our instincts and immediately contact Amy to reserve one of the two copies she had on hand.  We could get a copy on Amazon, but we're trying to shop local, so we'll wait until she gets the next order.  It's not like we don't have anything else to do...

We've found that gardeners frequently have other artistic interests, and needlework is a common one.  Gardening and needlework are both meditative, they both allow self expression while requiring a certain amount of technical expertise, and the results can be shared with others.

Here are some other images from the book - and yes, these are needlepoint!

Can you believe it?  This book is a must-have for us.  And if you haven't been to Amy's on Summer, well.  You're in for a treat!

Cool Idea | WNC Magazine



The hoophouse protects plants growing in the winter garden

 Yes, we know that it's spring. Yes, we know that bad storms are right outside our window. But on this gray, rainy day we decided to work through the pile of magazines on the coffee table to see if anything was worth saving before we put them in the recycle bin. (Magazines are so seductive, aren't they? On the stand they scream, "You can't live without reading this article!" A month later you wonder why you bought the darned thing. However, there's always that one story...)

But we digress. Here's an article from WNC Magazine (that's Western North Carolina, one of the neatest places on the planet) about a group called Winter Green. This group's mission is "to train backyard gardeners and entrepreneurial growers for four-season organic food production." In the winter, they use hoophouses to grow cool-weather greens and vegetables. Did someone in Memphis do this last year? Seems something like that is stuck in our memory. Let us know.


Cool Idea WNC Magazine

A rare bird story

Bullock's Oriole

Our friend Kandi sent us this story.  It progresses from a pig barn to a rare bird sighting to sharing a discovery with new friends.  Isn't sharing and new friends what gardening is all about?

As an aside, the Bill Murphy mentioned in the story leads birding trips to Trinidad and Tobago yearly and has written the Field Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago.  So he's no slouch when it comes to birds.

Click here to read:   Weedpicker's Journal



Pets and Plants, a Problem

We were in New York City recently and I must say, it is very "green."  Parks, gardens, local food - and it was very clean!  I ran across this New York Times blog post and wanted to share it.  It's about the effect of pet urine on plants.  Pretty interesting, especially the science part.



Have you experienced any problems with "excessive" dog fertilizing?  How did you handle it?

AmpleHarvest.org



ampleharvest.org

 As you know, Michelle Obama’s Lets Move effort calls for Americans both to eat a healthy diet and to exercise more.  For many food bank/food pantry clients (approximately 1 out of every 6 Americans), access to fresh produce is often limited or completely unavailable.  AmpleHarvest.org is the ideal solution to get these pantries access to garden produce which previously has been composted or left to rot in gardens.

AmpleHarvest.org is a nationwide anti-hunger effort created by Master Gardener (also CNN Hero) Gary Oppenheimer, which enables millions of Americans who grow food in home gardeners to find a local food pantry eager for their garden excess.

Nearly 3,200 food pantries across all 50 states are already signed up with more signing up daily. While the USDA knows the location of every food bank in the US, AmpleHarvest.org represents the most extensive list of food pantries in captivity. 

You can help more fresh produce get to more people in the community by:

1.    Being generous with your own harvest.  What you grow is your food first and foremost and you should enjoy it, preserve it and share it with friends and neighbors.  However, any additional garden bounty should be donated to a local food pantry easily found at Ampleharvest.org.

2.    Making sure your neighborhood food pantry is registered.  If you know of a food pantry in your community that is not yet listed on AmpleHarvest.org, you should visit www.AmpleHarvest.org/addpantries to help the pantry register.

3.    Making sure other gardeners know that they too can donate.  Gardeners can take the flier at www.AmpleHarvest.org/gardenshop to local nurseries and garden shops to be posted where other customers can see it.

4.    Mentioning AmpleHarvest.org on your blog, Facebook page etc.

Many of you are familiar with Plant A Row (PAR) and some of you have worked with them in the past. It is a wonderful program and AmpleHarvest.org has several features that complement it. These include:

1.    Available anywhere in the country (www.AmpleHarvest.org/map) that a local food pantry registers;

2.    Is easily accessed by gardeners any time of the year – even those who did not plant an extra row but are now faced with an excessive harvest;

3.    Is accessible online or even from a garden via a free iPhone app (AmpleHarvest.org/iphone); and

4.    Is promoted with a $10K/month grant for advertising on Google to help reach the maximum number of gardeners.

If you already know about PAR, utilization of Ampleharvest.org would be a great “one-two punch” against hunger.

Finally, you should know that AmpleHarvest.org publishes photos of gardeners making produce donations to food pantries.  All you need to do is send a photo to info@AmpleHarvest.org  of your delivery. AmpleHarvest.org finds that pictures like these help encourage other gardeners to also donate from their garden.

Please do what you can to help spread the word.

Adapted from an email sent to Master Gardener Coordinators across the United States by:
Bill Hoffman
National Program Leader - (Ag Homeland Security)
Institute of Food Production and Sustainability
NIFA/USDA
202-401-1112 (office)
202-445-5576 (cell)
whoffman@nifa.usda.gov