Ornamental gourds (Photo: Cooksgarden.com)

If you’ve cruised the produce section at the grocery lately, you probably stopped to eye the small, colorful, oddball gourds near the pumpkins and winter squash.

You might have seen the Shenot crown of thorns, looking like a squash-like starfish (below right); the winged gourd, the mini red Turban (reminding one of a very small pumpkin with a bigger pumpkin hat), and the golf ball-sized prickles, which might make you think twice before touching them.

Shenot Crown of Thorns (Photo: Reimerseeds.com)

Autumn’s wee ornamental gourds have been staples of the harvest for many years, but time and hybridizing has produced smaller, wackier (or more beautiful, depending on your perspective) ones.

We’re talking about the colorful, warty gourds in the Curcubit family (which includes squash, pumpkins and cucumbers), not their bigger, more utilitarian cousins, hardshell gourds.

Those larger hardshells have been used for thousands of years as practical tools – spoons, dippers, bowls – as well as birdhouses, masks, pipes and even musical instruments. Throughout the centuries, artists have turned Lagenaria gourds into fascinating works of art. (Check out a sampling of some.)

But for now, we’re talking about mini-gourds such as the multi-colored eggs, the Ten Commandments, apple gourds and the huggable wooly bear.

Mini Red Turban gourds (Photo: Johnneyseeds.com)

“Think of them as cucumbers with an attitude,” Judi Fleming said. She is the point person for the American Gourd Society when it comes to talking about tiny gourds.

“I have noticed the trend of the last 10 years: The traditional bi-color pears, egg gourds, spoon gourds and crown of thorns have given way to the more popular angel wings and warty gourds,” she said.

If you buy some shiny (that’s because of a coat of white varnish or shellac) mini gourds at the grocery store, don’t think about eating them. Unlike other popular edible winter squash, such as butternut and acorn, you have missed the window of opportunity for eating small gourds.

“All gourds are edible in their young stages,” Fleming said. “In fact, most European and Asian cultures think we Americans are strange in that we let our gourds get old and hard. The ornamentals can have a slightly bitter taste.”

(OK, you can bake the tiny orange or white pumpkins if you want.)

The big question: Are they organic?

Maybe, maybe not.

Organic gourds are more likely to come from your local farmer’s market rather than the big grocery store.

Whole Foods’ produce expert James Parker spoke to a company representative, saying that they buy locally grown squash and gourds when possible, “to get them to market quicker. But they can come from anywhere.”

Prickles gourds (Photo: Johnnyseeds.com)

Right now, Whole Foods’ gourds are mostly from Indiana, North Carolina and California. “There are dozens (if not hundreds) of gourd varieties produced throughout the U.S. Some of the more common have simple names that match up with there general shape and color: apple, orange, pear, spoon, warty and egg.

“Unfortunately, the organic availability tends to be spotty, and very much local,” he told the representative.

“Yes, they can be grown organically. Any agricultural product can be produced organically if it is in compliance with the National Organic Standards,” said Miles McEvoy, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program. Large producers of small gourds would “have to get certification from an accredited certification agency if they sold more than $5,000 of organic products.”

Growing large numbers of these gourds can be tricky, which could be one reason lots of commercial producers don’t go organic. The gourds can fall victim to a variety of bugs and disease.

Their mortal enemies come under many names: striped or spotted cucumber beetles, squash bugs, aphids and the dreaded squash vine borer. Then there are the diseases: bacterial wilt, mosaic virus, mildew and others. Fruit rot is also a problem.

Plus, since most colorful little gourds are used as decorative items, there is probably a lower demand that they be organic.

Ten Commandments gourds (Photo: Reimerseeds.com)

But you can grow them organically.

The experts at Organic Gardening magazine say all gourds can be grown organically.

“Gourds, squash and pumpkins grow very well organically. There are many certified organic seed providers, and although insect pests sometimes pose a problem, it is easy to take care of them organically.”

The gourds fare best in warm climates, but they can grow in cooler climates as well. They must be planted immediately after the final frost. The magazine’s editors advised using row covers over the plants in the first month or so, until they’re sturdy, then remove the row covers and use soapy water or a hard water spray to zap the pests.

“Gourds, squash and pumpkins are some of the plants most susceptible to absorbing and retaining pesticides, so it is especially important that they are grown organically,” said a representative from the magazine.

Wooly Bear gourd (Photo: Johnnyseeds.com)

“Plants that are shipped across the country can leave a huge carbon footprint, even if they are grown organically, so ask your grocer if their gourds are organic,” they add. If not, find a local organic farmer, they suggest.

A few tips for growing gourds:

First, they take a while to grow, and they can’t survive the first frost of fall, so very cold climates won’t suit them. They are slow growers, and they’re big and sprawling, so you need to give them plenty of room. They prefer bees for pollination.

If you need advice on growing them organically, the USDA has many resources on their website. The American Gourd Society has a cornucopia of information and links for gourd growers.

Interestingly, a Whole Foods representative said that this year, the small ornamentals haven’t been selling as well as in previous years. Plus, the grocery chain has seen an uptick in sales of the larger, hardshell gourds, such as the gooseneck and the snake.

Psyched up to get some gourds? Hurry, because after Thanksgiving they’ll vanish.

Autumn Wings blend of gourds (Photo: Johnnyseeds.com)

Resources:

Cooks Garden

Reimer Seeds

JohnnySeeds

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

“Just the thought of tomato blight sends fear into the heart of every farmer.”

Those are the words of organic farmer Charlie Reid, who operates two small farms in southeastern New Hampshire. “We’ve been lucky this year … so far,” says Reid. “Lots of farmers have had to pull (dig up and destroy) their entire tomato crops. But with all this rain and so little sun my luck could change (for the worse) overnight.”

Blight is a highly contagious fungus that hits both tomatoes and potatoes. The Potato Famine in Ireland in the late 19^th century was caused by blight. And now blight is killing both tomato and potato crops in New England and in some mid-Atlantic states. It’s not yet an epidemic, but cause for concern for both farmers and consumers, as well as home garden growers who unwittingly used infected seedlings.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s “Agriview” has this alert for farmers:

“It (blight) appears on potato or tomato leaves as pale green, water-soaked spots, often beginning at leaf tips or edges. The circular or irregular leaf lesions are often surrounded by a pale yellowish-green border that merges with healthy tissue. Lesions enlarge rapidly and turn dark brown to purplish-black. During periods of high humidity and leaf wetness, a cottony, white mold growth is usually visible on lower leaf surfaces at the edges of lesions.”

There are two culprits in this year’s late blight: too much rain and consumer nurseries selling starter plants, which unwittingly spread the ailment.

Tomatoes Need Sun To Shake Blight

Rainfall has varied across the country at seemingly excessive rates: for example, too little in Texas and too much in the Northeast. While early blight in lesser amounts  is normal each year, this season’s heavy rains have soaked many farms and there hasn’t been enough sun to dry the fields.

Add wind to the rain and the situation worsens: Late blight spores are carried by wind from one plant to another. And while one plant might be infected and the one next to it untouched, eventually the entire crop in a field or backyard garden will be affected and die.

Although nothing can save your tomatoes once they become blight-infected there are a wide variety of preemptive organic and natural ways to prepare your crop. Go to Garden Web to start your search.

Organic farmers and organic home gardeners can also find natural and organic compounds at most feed and hardware stores.  Conventional farmers try to prevent blight by spraying with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides but even they don’t guaranteed success.

A second blight culprit this summer was the mass marketing of tomato plants sold at big-box stores like Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Home Depot. An unknown number of plants were distributed by these stores via Bonnie Plants, a wholesale gardening company in Alabama that buys many of its plants from growers in other parts of the country.

Bonnie Plants has recalled seedlings that remained on store shelves but it was too late for others that had been bought and planted earlier.

Bonnie’s General Manager Dennis Thomas told the New York Times that only five of the recalled plants had blight. “This pathogen did not come from our plants,” he said. “This is something that has been around forever.”

Bonnie explains on its website that this year’s blight was worse than in previous years because of cool, wet conditions and refers home growers to the Texas A & M horticulture website, Aggie Horticulture, and its section on tomato problems. The notes on late blight help gardeners identify diseased plants; other tomato diseases are covered in the tomato guide at well.

An article in Growing Produce by a Cornell professor of plant website about this issue reports its discovery in commercial fields in Long Island in June, followed by reports on plants in retail stores.
The article notes that the problem could spread, depending on the weather: “All tomato and potato crops are at high risk of developing late blight this season, especially if the rainy weather continues. All growers should assume their crops eventually will be affected and thus should be on a weekly schedule to both thoroughly inspect their potato and tomato plantings…,” writes Margaret Tuttle McGrath.

Home Growers Should Dispose of Affected Plants

“We are urging home gardeners, especially those who may have recently planted tomato seedlings from a big box store, to check for this disease,” said Jim Dwyer, University of Maine Potato Specialist. “Because the tomato fruits will be ruined by this fungus and the threat of late blight spreading to potatoes, home gardeners that find late blight on their plants should pull, bag and throw out these plants. They should not put them on the compost pile.”

According to Jon Turmel, Vermont State Plant Regulator, “The stores across the state have been more than helpful at removing plants from their shelves.”

This summer in New Hampshire field tomatoes are selling for around $2.45 a pound but continued rain there and in Maine and Vermont hold the key to late blight and New England’s tomato crop. In the Hudson Valley agricultural region of New York late blight has been described as “explosive” and “never seen … on such a widespread basis.”

Late blight has not been common in New England but when it does occur it is very destructive. In Colchester, Vt., Laurie Mazza is still selling her greenhouse tomatoes for $2.99 a pound. “We’re a week or so away from our field tomatoes and while they look good now, especially the cherry tomatoes, something could happen.”

(Photos of healthy tomatoes and plants by Green Right Now.com; late blight tomato, photo credit: Texas A&M University)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Here’s a tip from fellow blogger Obama Foodorama: Take a quick eco-detour while visiting the National Mall this summer and check out the USDA’s gardens and garden workshops.

USDA staff will be conducting noontime mini-seminars on Fridays at The People’s Garden, installed outside the Ag Department headquarters. Topics will deal with watering, window gardens, attracting wildlife to the garden and of course, the ever-popular-and-more-work-than-we’d-like-it-to-be composting. You can see the schedule in this USDA press release.

The USDA demo gardens, which Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack had installed this spring, illustrate organic and veggie growing techniques, such the American Indians’ “Three Sisters” method of growing squash, beans and corn symbiotically in a cluster (wherein the beans feed the soil, the corn serves as a climbing pole for the beans etc.) There are porous paving, water recapture and green roof projects; pollinator gardens and bat houses. The overall concept is to nudge Americans into thinking about how their little plot of paradise could be more nature-friendly, and maybe also produce a salad.

Turns out Iowan Vilsack is quite keen on the family food garden idea and, as Steven Colbert would say, So Can You!

Obama Foodorama, btw, is a fun and an fairly exhaustive “daily diary of the Obama foodscape” run by Eddie Gehman Kohan, a food writer and self-described “ag policy wonk.” We just love to see what the first family is munching on, and we’re thrilled they’re growing some of their own too.

Now if we could just get the U.S. Park Service over here to help pick the cow peas.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

If you are looking for native plants for your garden – truly native plants that belong by heritage in your region and state – we have found a bouquet of information.

Novices and master gardeners alike will find a bounty of advice at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website, where they’ve cultivated the Native Plant Information Network, a listing of some 7,200-plus native plants that spans the United States.

Using the NPIN online map you can select your state and up pops a list of commercially available native plant species that are suitable for your area. This is so helpful because planting natives is a wonderful way to support not only a diversity of plant life, but in turn, a diversity of insect and wildlife and helps keep our local ecosystems robust. Native plants also are naturally adjusted to the local rainfall levels, so they help cut down on needless plant irrigation.

“It’s a bit of a niche,” says Damon Waitt, senior botanist at the Lady Bird Center. “But we’re pretty convinced that native plants are your best choice for the landscape in the garden. They don’t cost as much in water and maintenance, and they have ecological benefits, you don’t need to use copious fertilizers.”

And they help restore of a “sense of place” that provides a “human benefit,” too, he said.

Which is what the former first lady had in mind. Lady Bird, as you may know, was big on natural landscapes, and advocated letting wildflowers grow along highways instead of turning public byways into cultivated gardens. In the 1960s, she was ahead of her time. She and actress Helen Hayes formed the National Wildflower Research Center, later called The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, in 1982, to promote sustainable landscapes.

Knowing the Lady Bird Center, located in Austin and supported by the University of Texas, would be strong on Texas natives (155 results just for Central Texas), we hopped around the map to make sure it really is a national resource.

For California, we found 158 recommended plants for the Northern part of the state and 208 results for Southern California. In New York, 112 results, and similar long lists spanning the nation — from North Carolina (135 results) to Illinois (177 results) to Washington (218 results).

That seems like a pretty good selection for homeowners looking to diversity their home gardenscapes, so many of which are pre-stocked with non-native ornamentals and lack native variety, which means they don’t contribute to the local ecosystem the way natives can. (Birds eat native berries; butterflies seek specific blooms.)

Natives, which include dozens of prairie flowers and wild flowers from every corner of the U.S., have faced some resistance from home gardeners who fret that native gardens must be “messy” by nature, says Waitt. But native gardens can be neat, as home gardeners will discover once they realize the full palette available.

Commerical nurseries typically haven’t stocked a wide range of natives, but that is changing, he says, as more people convert their yards or portions of their garden to native flowers and plants.

Interest has been extremely high in the Native Plant Information Network, which began in the 1980s as a mailing clearinghouse operation. But since  launching online, it has a large following; thousands of viewers daily from around the globe. A companion information service, Ask Mr. Smarty Pants, receives thousands of questions daily, which are read and sorted by volunteers with selected queries being answered online by Wildflower Center experts.

“Usually once a person’s is converted,” Waitt said. “They’re converted for life.”

(Photos courtesy of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, credit for building photo: Bob Daemmrich.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Talk about eating locally.

It doesn’t get much more local than your own backyard.

A Georgia company is selling ‘Farm in a Barrel.’ It’s a self-contained eco-system that allows homeowners to raise organic fish and vegetables at the same time. The method, called aquaponics, combines aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in a soil-less system.) The fish produce the nutrients to feed the plants, while the plants and bacteria clean the water for the fish.

Earth Solutions‘ smallest system is about $200. Fish, such as tilapia, catfish, and bass live in the detached bottom half of the barrel, while basil, lettuce and strawberries grow in the top half. Tilapia is a hardy fish that produces a lot of ammonia – don’t ask – for the plants to grow.

Larger systems cost upwards of $2,500, but also produce a lot more organically grown fish and food.

A beginner’s kit comes with one-inch long fingerlings. It takes about seven months for the fish to reach maturity – or plate size. At that point it’s up to you whether to eat one a week or have all the neighbors over for an old-fashioned fish fry.

For the squeamish, Earth Solutions owner David Epstein recommends putting the fish on ice to kill them.

“They just fall asleep,”‘ said Epstein, who is also a medical doctor. “You can cook them whole. Leave the head on, slice the belly and take the guts out.”

To keep the fish year round, use a greenhouse or a heater to keep the fish comfortable. If you don’t want to eat the fish, try hardy goldfish.

Epstein started building the units as a passion last summer and it’s taken off.  The smaller sizes – about 2 by 5 foot in diameter – are used for educational needs and folks who want to start small.

“We do a lot of these in people’s backyards for a single family,” he said. The family size systems can support a 300-square-foot garden. Larger systems (see picture, right) allow you to grow more variety such tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers.

The water loving plants go from seedling to bountiful plant in six to eight weeks. That’s about 125 plants in each 3-by-8 foot bed. Aquaponics enthusiasts say the system uses 90 percent less water than traditional gardens. What you save in water costs, may show up in your electric bill to run the pump and aerator – about $25 monthly. But plants grown in these systems are more productive overall.

You’ll also lower your carbon footprint by cutting down on frequent trips to the grocery store.

In addition to the Earth Solutions sustainable gardens page, see Backyard Yard Aquaponics for more. Also see this YouTube video on aquaponics.

Earth Solutions also is exhibiting an aquaponics system at the Oakhurst Community Garden in Decatur, Ga., in the Atlanta metro area.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

MORE FROM GRN

‘Tis the time of year for bugs to start bugging us. They may be creepy, or stingers, but most bugs and spiders serve a useful purpose in the environment. There are numerous devices now to help you trap and release wayward insects, indoors and out.

For those who are timid toward spiders and other creepy crawlies in the house, there are several ways to trap them and sent them go their buggy way.

You can find several variation on the “one bug at a time” catcher, such as the Katcha Bug Catcher, right, a small plastic dome placed over a wayward spider or other bug. Slowly close the trap-door, and take the bug outside. It’s $8 from the PETA Catalog, and it’s also available from other Web retailers.

The Spider Catcher, at left, is made in the UK, but you can easily order it from the U.S. It’s a simple idea — a long-handled device with straight, soft bristles at the end that open and then gently close around your eight-legged buddy long enough for you to carry it outside. (Although some might suggest that you leave spiders alone in your house – they eat other bugs). It’s $20. They say it’s gentle enough to pick up a butterfly and leave it unharmed, but we suspect those soft bristles might not be tough enough to grab  a jumbo cockroach.

Gaiam has the battery-free BugZooka, which extends up to 24” for you to suck in an errant bug and release it outside.  It’s $29.

Outdoors, combine cornering wasps with streamlined design using the organic wasp trap, $31.90, at right, created by industrial designer Pernille Vea of Denmark. The pretty trap uses sugar and vinegar, and its funnel-shaped entrance holds wasps inside until you’re ready to release them. (Try to keep the errant bees out, though. You need them in the yard to pollinate.)

If you’re so nature friendly you refuse to swat a mosquito, Gaiam has a pocket-sized Solar Mosquito Guard, at left, which emits a high-frequency wave that keeps mosquitoes at bay.

And if none of these smush-free bug devices suit your fancy, you might go with the tried and true clear plastic bag filled with water hanging from the rail or roof. You see them in the South and all over Mexico. Their effectiveness is a bit of a mystery, but many experts attribute their success to light refraction.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The bunnies are bountiful in our backyard this year; they’re large and prolific. They’re rabbits.

So it was with an eye out for trouble that we installed the garden this past weekend. This is a second veggie garden, which we put in to test the Evo Organics handy-dandy Weed Free Garden Watering Blanket.

This intriguing product claims to block out weeds (the blanket covers the ground, like mulch only better) while supplying the plants with an efficient, water-conserving, drip-line irrigation system.

I’ll admit, I’m really sucked in by the promise of no weeds and significantly reduced water use (up to 80 percent less water according to the package claims) but leery. Drip line irrigation is more efficient, but this much more? We’ll find out. I’d be happy with a 50 percent reduction.

So now, if the bunnies don’t like tomato and pepper leaves (I don’t think they do, but please send email if you know otherwise) Jed and me’ll be growin’ some food for the young ‘uns. We’ve planted Romas, some other tomato varieties, some Mexican peppers and bell peppers. And we’ve got room to grow in this 8 x 10 foot patch.

I’ll update you as we go. And we’ll talk with the Evo Organics folks. The installation was not difficult by the way; the hose line slipped out of the blanket once or twice, causing Jed to mutter under his breath and stomp off briefly. But after threading the hose back through, it was smooth going. Really. A piece of cake. Here are the pictures:

First step, begin with a ph test (this comes with the Evo Organics kit). Ours found that the clay soil was ok, acid-wise. So we didn’t amend anything.

The EPA has issued a list of pesticides that will be screened for possibly disrupting the human, as well as animal, endocrine system. The list, released Wednesday, focuses on “endocrine disruptors” which are chemicals that can negatively impact hormones produced by the endocrine system. The system regulates all biological processes in the body – specifically, growth, metabolism and reproduction.

“Gathering this information,” said EPA Adminstrator Lisa P. Jackson, “will help us work with communities and industry to protect Americans from harmful exposure. Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems, especially for children.”
The endocrine, or hormone, system is found in all mammals, birds and fish. It is made up of glands, hormones that are produced by the glands and receptors in different organs that respond to the hormones.

The EPA will have the makers of 67 pesticide chemicals test their products this summer to see if their chemicals are responsible for disrupting the endocrine systems.

The testing will be done through the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (ESDP) set up by the EPA, which commonly relies on companies to test their own products.

The list of all 67 chemicals can be found here. The EPA stresses that this list is not a definitive collection of known endocrine disruptors. The chemicals selected were chosen because there is a high potential for human exposure through food and water, residential activity or agricultural pesticide application. Many of the chemicals found on the list are present in commonly used lawn treatments, insect sprays, solvents and other household products.

“These pesticide chemicals were picked because we wanted to start with ones that more people might be exposed to,” says EPA spokesperson Suzanne Ackerman. “They were not selected based on which ones are considered most dangerous. We won’t know that until we have them tested.”

Several chemicals on the list, though, have been flagged for health concerns. Atrazine, for instance, has been banned in the European Union. Atrazine is among the most common, if not the most common, herbicide used in the United States.

Other recognizable chemicals on the testing list, include diazinon, malathion, carbaryl and permethrin. Diazinon has been banned for household use in the U.S., but remains available for agricultural use as an insecticide. Permethrins turn up on flea collars for dogs, which some health groups consider too toxic for household use.

Endocrine disruptors work in several ways. Sometimes, the chemical mimics a natural hormone, tricking the body into over-responding to the stimulus. The endocrine disruptor can also block the effects of a hormone from certain receptors. In other cases, the chemical can stimulate or inhibit the endocrine system, causing the overproduction or underproduction of hormones. Sometimes, as in the birth control pill, a chemical intentionally inhibits the endocrine system.

Impaired endocrine function can result in lowered fertility and other health conditions.

The direct connections between human diseases of the endocrine system and the system’s exposure to environmental contaminants, are still not clear, according to the EPA. This is why the establishment of the screening program is considered an important step.
Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Before you turn over the first spade of dirt for your new veggie garden, you’ll want to take stock of your equipment. Spades, shovels, picks — these things tend to accumulate in garages and storage closets, and you’ve probably got some already. If you’ve done any flower gardening or have potted plants, you also likely have a watering can that can be used in the veggie patch.

But when it comes to hoses and watering equipment, there are some special considerations when growing food.

First, consider that the garden hose you have may not be the purest water conveyance. In fact, many garden hoses can leach trace amounts of lead. That’s because they’re made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is made using lead as a stabilizing agent.

The leaching from these hoses is apparently quite variable, depending on temperatures and whether water remains sitting in the hose. A Consumer Reports’ analysis found that some hoses didn’t leach much more lead than might be found in drinking water and that some leach enough lead to exceed by many times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe thresholds.

The bottomline for your garden: Lead is a heavy metal that can accumulate in soil. It’s not healthy for anyone, but it’s especially dangerous for young children, in whom it can cause neurological damage. So take special care in selecting any hoses that you may be using in the garden. You may be safe with a hose that’s labeled as safe for drinking.

Consumer Reports suggests looking for a hose marked “safe for drinking” or labeled as safe for boating or camping use, such as this Apex Never Kink Hose.

These safer hoses tend to be made of competitively priced polyurethane or the somewhat pricier rubber.

Some safer hoses available online include the Drinking Water Safe Coil Hose and the Gatorhyde Green Garden Hose. The polyurethane Gatorhyde gets you bonus green points because it’s made of 50 percent recycled material.

If you’re shopping in stores, check any new hoses for potential problems by looking for a warning that’s required as the result of a 2004 California lawsuit against selected hose manufacturers. Our recent check at the neighborhood Big Box found that every hose offered carried the warning.

By the way, when watering vegetable plants, especially seedlings, a fine spray or ground-level drip-line watering is most effective, necessary even. Don’t expect to water these delicate plants with the same powerful blast from the hose that you use on the lawn. You might want to consider using a soaker hose. These seeping hoses, made from old tires, can be the most efficient, water-conserving way to water a vegetable garden. See the Gardening and Yardening blog for more on how to use them. Apparently people sometimes fail to use them correctly. (And now you’re wondering, do soaker hoses contain lead? And the definitive answer: I don’t think so.)

If your garden is not large, you could skip getting tangled up in this hose issue altogether by choosing to water with a watering can. Or you might also buy a rain barrel and water the garden with rainwater using your watering can. Of course, rain water that rolls off an asphalt roof can contain debris from the roof. On the other hand, it’s free of the chlorine that comes free-of-charge in your sanitized city water, which many organic gardeners consider a problem because chlorine can sap a plant’s vitality by killing beneficial bacteria.

There are solutions to getting the chlorine out of your gardening water, filters that dechlorinate and attach to your hose. But these are matters for fuller exploration another day. Who knew watering a simple garden could be so complicated? For now, we’re hosed!

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible

– Welsh proverb

The recession-fueled increase in home gardening of vegetables, herbs, fruit and berries is creating another boom: seed sales.

Seven million more households are planning to grow food for themselves this year than in 2008, a 19 percent increase, according to a recent National Gardening Association report. That’s a pretty significant number, given the fact that 31 percent of all American households already garden for food. And it is likely that their 19 percent estimate is growing every day.

Of that 7 million, 21 percent will be gardening newbies, the report says. That translates into a lot of seeds, for a lot of plants, for a lot of people who are buying right now.

Seed sellers are seeing an overwhelming demand. The country’s largest seed retailer, Burpee & Co., has said that sales in January were up 20 percent compared with last year. Another report says that organic seed sales are up 46 percent from 2008.

Burpee’s CEO, George Ball, has been quoted in various publications saying his company is selling out of vegetable seeds . Other large seed retailers say their vegetable seed sales are up anywhere from 40 percent to 80 percent.

Smaller, regional seed sellers, many of whom produce heirloom and organic seeds, also are overwhelmed with demand.

Jim and Megan Gerritsen, owners of 55-acre Wood Prairie Farm in northern Maine, sell  Irish potatoes and many varieties of organic seed potatoes. They’ve been farming organically for 33 years, selling by mail order for 20 years and on the web for about a decade. Jim Gerritson estimates their sales are up 30 percent over last year, but frankly, they’re too busy to study the numbers.

“We’re working seven days a week to keep up with orders,” he said.

Organic and heirloom seed sales have grown by as much as 60 percent in the last two years, estimates Cricket Rakita, a board member for the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. Rakita is also working on a Save Our Seed project to create an organic heirloom seed bank for the southeastern states. (So that those tried-and-true varieties that produced some succulent and tasty fruits and veggies are not lost in the march of progress.)

Credit the economic crunch, as well as consumers’ growing desire for natural – and locally produced – food for the increase. “Lots of people are just wanting to grow their own food. It’s a function of the economy. They don’t want to have to worry as much about” the cost and quality of what they eat, Rakita said.

Regionally grown seeds make more sense for gardeners, because every region has its own climate, insects, diseases and other growing factors. The big seed sellers produce seeds that tend to do well in the Midwest, the Northeast and the Northwest, Rakita said, but areas in the South and Southern Midwest are somewhat ignored. “Those varieties were starting to disappear and people were having to plant inferior seeds,” he said. Thus, around 2000, more small seed companies started springing up and the effort to preserve regional seeds gained momentum.

Jeff Moyer waxes eloquent on the power of a single seed. The farm director of the Rodale Institute (a research, educational and outreach organization with its organic roots reaching back to J.I Rodale’s push to grow organic back in the late 1930s), Moyer sees what can grow from a seed.

“As the economy changes, people need therapy, positive therapy,” he said, “and there’s therapy in planting a seed. There’s a sense of renewal that’s very powerful. People need that. . . . There’s a renewing of spirit.”

He emphasized the power of growing food. “If you can only grow one tomato in a flowerpot on the sill, it gives you a personal relationship with that plant. When you harvest your first tomato, you’ll inevitably say it’s the best-tasting tomato you have ever had,” Moyer said. “That starts to force people to ask the right questions at the point of purchase: ‘If I can grow the best tomato in the world, first-time out, why can’t you?’ ”

That single tomato seed can enhance a person’s maturity in relationship with what he eats. They get more involved and interested in how the food they eat was produced. “The power of a seed will do that for you,” he added. “It grows into something more.”

For beginning gardeners, it’s not hard to plant seeds in the ground and sprout them, just giving it 10 minutes a day. Some vegetables, berries and herbs are easier to grow if they’ve already been sprouted at the local garden center or farmer’s market, where buyers can ask about the origins of that transplant to ensure its roots are clean and organic.

The National Gardening Association is all about helping beginning gardeners. “A lot of new gardeners are calling us, asking how to make a raised bed, what they can grow, what’s the easy stuff and how do get started,” said Charlie Nardozzi, the association’s senior horticulturist.

He offered some simple suggestions: don’t over-commit to a big garden at the beginning. Lots of new and urban gardeners can stick to container gardening.”

The hardest part of starting gardening is just that: getting started. “The space can be as small as 3-by-6 feet. Keep it close to the house or a walkway. . . select something you want to eat. Don’t plant lots of beans if you don’t like beans.

Heirloom seeds are a subset of seed sales that can bring history to your garden. Holding onto seeds, trading them with neighbors and family members was common many decades ago. In addition to preserving strains of vegetables with old roots, the food from heirloom seeds is unique. “It’s not the same run-of-the-mill tomato. The flavor, shape, color is different. . . the flavor is better than with brand new seeds,” Nardozzi said.

Saving seeds from generation to generation is a way for a family to find history in a tomato seed, said the Rodale Institute’s Moyer. One group, Seed Savers Exchange, has been helping gardeners to save and share heirloom seeds since 1975. They offer a broad selection of heirloom seeds for purchase, as well as instructions on how to save seeds.

“There are a lot of very positive aspects (of home gardening) and it all starts from the power of a seed. “This economic downturn has pointed out to our generation that when you base your value and your worth solely on your job and money, that can be very temporary. . . . Most people aren’t going to plant a garden to live on, but there is a sense of ‘I can do this on my own, and I can rebuild my life,’ and it comes from gardening. . . and it can literally all start with the power of a few seeds.”

Gerritsen of Wood Prairie Farm says it a little differently: “I think we went off on a tangent on being overly materialistic and focused on money. As people’s pensions and retirement funds have evaporated, they’ve realized there’s something more, something that’s more real.”

There is a spiritual side of planting a seed and watching it grow, he added. “Even if they don’t talk about it, it’s absolutely amazing to plant a seed in the spring and see it come to fruition. There is a lot of empty striving in our society, and in the opposite end you’ve got gardening, good outdoor work. It results in bountiful goodness and is the most fulfilling activity,” Gerritsen said.

“It’s good all around from a societal standpoint. We’re better off as a nation of family farmers.”

OTHER RESOURCES:

A detailed seed resource guide is available on Rakita’s site, along with a healthy list of organic seed dealers.

The Organic Seed Alliance is an advocacy, educational and research organization aimed at preserving and maintaining restore and develop organic seed varieties, as well as keeping these unique genetic resources available for the future.

Another robust outlet for finding a variety of organic seeds is Local Harvest, a non-profit organization that promotes information about local and organically grown food across the country. They have a lengthy list of seeds that can be purchased on their Web site.

Green People is a directory of eco-friendly products, and they have a large selection of organic seed-producing companies on their Web site. The list is broken down by region and state.

PHOTO CREDITS:

Top photo of rack of seeds: © Atman | Dreamstime.com

Photo of hands holding seeds: Great Harvest Organics

Photo of sprouts: Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Bottom photo of pumpkin seeds: © Bayaryasar | Dreamstime.com

Copyright © 2008 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

TruGreen, the largest lawn care services provider in the U.S., announced it is going greener by introducing a new lawn care program that will emphasize organic lawn products.

TruGreen said its “Go greener” service will be tested in 38 markets this spring before rolling out nationally in 2010. However, the company says its new natural, organic products will be immediately available nationwide on request.

While TruGreen is not going to be completely organic, the new “Targeted Lawn Care” suite of services will be more Earth friendly. That shift in company philosophy resulted from customer research and is evidenced by TruGreen dropping the “ChemLawn” branding it had widely used.

In 2008, TruGreen joined the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, an EPA maintained group of businesses committed to reducing the amount of pesticides in the environment. TruGreen executives say the company’s new vision is to develop programs that meet consumer needs for a healthier, sustainable landscape, promote the environmental benefits of lawns and landscapes, and reduce overall use of pesticides.

The company says its Targeted Lawn Care program announced today will include these service options:

• Targeted Lawn Care: a customized lawn inspection at every application with “new, proprietary technology that controls weeds only when and where needed”
• TruPerformance: A fertilizer with Targeted Lawn Care weed control
• TruBlend: A blend of 100 percent natural, organic fertilizer and traditional fertilizer with weed control
• TruNatural: A 100 percent natural, organic fertilizer

“Targeted Lawn Care is a common-sense approach to caring for your lawn. Our programs are designed to be environmentally responsible, and TruGreen’s professionally trained route managers make certain our products stay on lawns and out of our waterways,” Kirk Hurto, Ph.D., TruGreen’s vice president of technical services, said in a statement. “We’re committed to reducing the use of pesticides, and our specialized TLC delivery system helps to ensure this reduction goal while still providing effective results. It’s doing the right thing for the environment – and for our customers.”

TruGreen said the new programs will roll out in 16 states in 2009 before going national in 2010. Here are the pilot markets:

Northwest: Portland; Seattle

Midwest: Merrillville, Ind.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Cary/Elgin, Ill.; West Chicago; Crestwood, Ill.; Hickory Hills, Ill.; Lake Forest, Ill.; Naperville, Ill.; Park Ridge, Ill.; Rockford, Ill.; Wheeling, Ill.; Appleton, Wis.; Madison, Wis.; Milwaukee

Southeast: Savannah, Ga.; Charlotte, N.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Greensboro, N.C.; Lake Norman, N.C.; Raleigh, N.C.; Augusta, S.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Columbia, S.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Newport News, Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Virginia Beach, Va.

Northeast: Hartford, Conn.; Rocky Hill, Conn.; Boston; Springfield, Mass.; Manchester, N.H.; Binghamton, N.Y.; Providence, R.I.; Burlington, Vt.

You can read TruGreen’s product use statement on it web site.

Related video:

• This video from TruGreen introduces the company’s new lawn care program

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It seems that the iconic American wide, grassy lawn, which has lately been encroached upon by rock beds and strips of native flowers designed to cut down on watering, is undergoing more surgery. It is now giving up real estate to another pursuit: Homeowners are claiming portions of their lawns for produce production.

Landscapers have noted the emergence of these small scale agricultural endeavors, with a new survey by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) finding that about 20 percent of residential landscape architects report they are replacing part or all of traditional grass lawns with food/vegetable gardens.

“Not only do you benefit from fresh produce, but these gardens offer lower maintenance time and utility costs compared to turf grass while substantially increasing the sustainability of a home,” said ASLA President Angela Dye in a news release. “Plus, there’s nothing more convenient or sustainable than home-grown food.”

Actually, it’s not so sustainable once it gets inside. Munchkins and others gobble it up.

Thinking of digging in? The ASLA advises that you “don’t spend a dime on mulch when you can reuse your leftover leaves from the fall” and suggests using nitrogen-rich grass clippings as a mulch and weed suppressant atop the veggie bed.

The trend tracks with earlier findings by the National Gardening Association that growing food is a growing enterprise.

For more info on sustainable garden design see the ASLA website.
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media