Locally grown vegetables

 What can be better?

Locally grown vegetables

Anticipation

Sensitive garden fern

A Sensitive fern

Branches upward to the sky

Gracing our garden

Monarch on chives blossom

A monarch butterfly visited the chives in our backyard garden yesterday.  It added some nice color!

Expansion of local gardening efforts

Snap peas in the backyard garden

Did you know that in 1943 the United States had 20 million gardens that produced 8 million tons of food?  Up to 41 percent of all the vegetables consumed in the nation were produced in these Victory Gardens.  (City Bountiful: A century of community gardening in America, Laura Lawson).

With the nation's dependence upon oil, vast dependence upon corporate farming and unhealthy diets, I would vote that we reenact the Victory Garden movement.  There are indications that this movement has already begun.  Certainly First Lady Michelle Obama has been a great example, planting a vegetable garden in 2009 at the White House.  She has recently written a book "American Grown" that tells the stories of the White House garden among others.

I'm excited to be going to three days of workshops starting today on "The Business of Food".  Photos and stories sure to come in the days ahead.

Pictures from our vegetable garden.

Backyard garden

Raised bed gardens
(new this year)

Home and garden invaders

Rabbit by garden fence

Rabbits and beetles and mice, oh my!

Yesterday we were under attack by some of mother nature's cute little creatures.  It started with the Eastern Cottontail Rabbit that I had to chase out of our fenced garden.  I cornered the rabbit and then got him run out through the gate, which I had left open.

We recently added a couple of feet of plastic webbing to the lower section of the garden fence, since the rabbit had been squeezing its way through the metal garden fence earlier in the year.  Apparently I need to more closely adhere this webbing to the fence, as it appears that once more this rabbit has figured a way to sneak through.  I guess those green beans have quite an appeal.

Then it was on to the grape vines, where I removed many dozens of Japanese Beetles.  They seemed to love our grape leaves for some reason.  I've heard they leave pheromones on items they enjoy eating, as markers for others to come and feast.  To remove the beetles I brush them off the leaves into a pan of soapy water.  They quickly drown in the water.  From what I've been reading there seems to be a widespread infestation of Japanese Beetles throughout the region.

Finally, while working at her computer yesterday evening my wife  spotted our cat, Mimi, chasing a mouse in our house.  The cat expertly chased the mouse behind some furniture.  The mouse ran out the other side, into the awaiting jaws of our dog, May.  May then released the mouse for me to take outside and let go in the park.

While I have nothing personal against these creatures, I just wish they could stay out of my home and garden.  Maybe some signage is needed?

Garden stroll along Summit Avenue in St. Paul

Garden variety Rhino

Egg laying chickens

Clematis

Leashed dogs, perhaps for the rabbits?

House of Hope Community Garden

My wife and I, along with another couple, participated in a garden stroll along Summit Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota yesterday.  I'll put up pictures on the blog for the next couple of days.

Some of the homes had gardens that were extraordinary, and well planned.  Truth be told, a couple of gardens seem to have been less thought through and appeared hastily developed.

Fun to see some beautiful statuary and whimsical sculpture complementing the plants.

Water garden, complete with Koi

One backyard garden was very much like an urban farmstead, complete with vegetables, bees and chickens.  Neat to see this in the city.  Can't get much more local produce than from the back yard!

House of Hope Presbyterian Church developed a community vegetable garden in a large portion of their front lot. The produce will go to the Neighborhood House Food Shelf.  I admired the cedar fence.  In talking with one of the church members I discovered that being along historic Summit Avenue they were required they put in a tasteful, quality fence.

A gardener for a large beautiful garden, which took a full city lot, it sounded like the rabbits were some of the biggest beneficiaries of the plantings. She seemed to think of rabbits of her enemies.  I encouraged her to reread Watership Down, a story that tells of the lives of rabbits and the many challenges they face.

America's founding fathers grounded in farming

Blooming Hawthorn by backyard garden

There has been much controversy over the faith of America's founding fathers.  Seems many want to make them a bit more Christian and evangelical that others believed them to be.  Whatever their personal beliefs it appears a shared passion was farming.  I discovered reading a commentary, "The founding gardeners", by Andrea Wulf, that the first four presidents of the United States, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were all avid gardeners and loved their compost.

At Mount Vernon George Washington made a point to plant an American garden with no English trees.  He would be turning over in his grave to see the widespread invasion of European Buckthorn on American soil.

In 1818 James Madison gave a speech in which he indicated protection of the environment was vital to the long-term interests of the nation.  He noted "Vegetable matter which springs from the earth... must return to the earth."

Of all of the dirt that gets dug up and flung around in politics, I like Ms. Wulf's uncovering of our early president's private gardening lives the most. If only more of our leaders were as well grounded...

Andrea Wulf has written a book entitled "Founding Gardeners - The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation."

Rethinking American dream of lush green lawns

One of the assumptions many Americans have is that they should have a lush green yard with low cut grass.  These lawn must then be watered, fertilized and mowed on a regular basis. Anything other than grass should be eliminated.  This is not necessarily good for the environment. I remember a horticulturalist commenting that diversity of plants is a sign of a healthy lawn. An article in the StarTribune, "Saving the region's creeks and lakes, one lawn at a time", pointed out how many long held practices for lawn care are actually harmful for the environment.  Lawn mowers actually pollute at a far greater rate than automobiles.

On the  home front, I must confess to considerable anxiety prior to taking out some of the sod in our front yard and planting red twigged dogwood a few years back.  I was the only one on our avenue to take out grass nearby the street and put in other plants. The red twigged dogwood have since thrived in this wet area of our yard.  And my neighbors have even commented on how the like it.

Since plants also do a great job of minimizing rain run off and filtering pollutants, there is a trend toward the development of rain gardens, both on private and commercial properties. These gardens are usually composed of native plants, which require minimal maintenance.

I would encourage all to reconsider the value of a traditional American lawn full of grass.  Go ahead, take out some grass and put in some native plants.  If you're looking for approval, you have mine!

Gardening update

We had a couple of master gardeners present at the "ground breaking" of the Victory Peace Garden.  The Victory-Robbins 4-H club will be the primary keepers of the garden on the grounds of Valley of Peace Lutheran Church.  An article about this project, "Growing in Faith", can be found on the Metro Lutheran's web page.

The master gardeners were volunteers with Hennepin County Extension. They've got a wonderful Hennepin County Master Gardeners website that provides a lot of valuable gardening information, even about bugs!

Home garden under snow

On the home front, our garden seems to be in the coolest area of our yard, as indicated by the snow cover.  Unfortunately, our back yard slope faces north, rather than south.  I'm hoping to get some cool weather plants growing soon in the cold frame (lower right hand corner of garden).  I've got a number of seeds that have already sprouted, growing under florescent lights in our basement.

Food shortages and vegetable gardens

I read with concern an article in today's StarTribune "Land O'Lakes makes case for more food".  It seems food scarcity and a corresponding rise in food prices have moved 44 million people in developing nations into poverty since June.

While most of us can't seemingly do much about the rise in the world's population or global climate change that is impacting farmers ability to keep up with demand, there are some things we might consider. Here in the US Victory Gardens were popular during World Wars I & II, in order to ease pressure on food production.  Why not encourage this once again?  First Lady Michele Obama is setting a great example by growing a vegetable garden at the White House.  Seems we  have lots of grass growing in yards around this country that would be great  for vegetables.  It is depressing to think the long journey most of the vegetables we purchase at the store have taken to get to our homes.

I was excited about getting a jump on the late growing season here in Minnesota by making a cold frame.  Just after I constructed the cold frame yesterday morning, entirely out of reused materials, the large glass pane of the shower door broke.  This occurred after the screws holding down the door's handle gave way.  I will likely be in the market for some Plexiglas to fix this problem.

We're also well underway planning a garden at our church with a local 4-H group.  I'm responsible for leading up the garden fence construction.

Thinking green, as in gardening!

Despite yesterday's high of 17 degrees Fahrenheit, and low of 3 below, I've got a case of spring fever.  What brought my fever on was a book I recently purchased "Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook" by Ron and Jennifer Kujawski.  They provide a wonderful list of things to do throughout the year to stay on schedule with a vegetable garden.  Each of the chapters has a place for the person who owns the book to fill in their activity date relative to the average date of last frost. Suggested gardening related activities are recommended based on these dates.

e.g.  My date: (Feb 19th)  10 weeks before average date of last frost.
       Recommended activities include:

• Sow seeds in doors for later transplants: broccoli, kohlrabi, and cabbage
• Store leftover seeds in cool, dry place
• Tune up power equipment

I was surprised to find the average (mean) frost-free date for Minneapolis to be April 30th (c/o National Climatic Data Center).  However it isn't until the third week of May that there is less than a 10% chance of frost c/o MN DNR Climatology Office state map.

One of the pre-gardening season recommendations  in the book is to build a cold frame. A variety of cold frame plans are available for free on the web.  I've saved a large tempered glass shower door from our old home that could be ideal for this purpose.  It has literally been lying around for 12 years, so I would love to finally reuse it for such a worthwhile purpose.  I also have some lumber that I've stored, left over from various projects, that could be utilized for a cold frame.

This afternoon I will be meeting with volunteers from 4-H to talk about developing a vegetable garden at our church.  Spring will come!

Nutrition and cooking education needed

An interesting article in today's StarTribune about a University of Minnesota researcher who is on a mission to educate children and families about healthy eating habits. The need for Americans to improve their diet and exercise habits is extraordinary. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures that 34 percent of adults in the US are obese, while another 34 percent are overweight. Big gulp!

Maybe it is time for schools to teach nutrition and meal preparation.  Many, perhaps most kids don't know how to prepare a well balanced meal.  Isn't this just as important to their health, and the health of our nation, as reading, writing and math, which thanks to our testing systems have become the preeminent subject matters?

It is extremely difficult to change habits, especially when those habits are being developed and reinforced in the home.  Questionable eating habits are also feed by a corporate marketing machine that has encouraged us all to "super size".  Seems we have.  Perhaps they can now move on to a "down size me" campaign?

Thankfully many schools have been removing pop machines from their buildings, despite their roles as cash cows.  If only they produced milk ;-) 

Pictures from the garden, above and below