Garbage-less Lunches

I may write a whole lot about food over at my other blog (It Ain't Meat, Babe), but I don't get much of a chance to write about how that food gets eaten. I usually leave that up to my readers. But personally, despite spending most of my time thinking about how the food gets prepared, I also have some systems in place for how it gets eaten.

First let me tell you that my day job necessitates a lot of travel. A LOT! I am rarely in my office. Some days I am working in rural communities two hours out of the city. Some days I'm in some far-flung suburb. Occasionally I am lucky enough to be working somewhere within walking or biking distance. As a result of this, I've become very good at packing a lunch. I know it's usually the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly thing to do. Not to mention the fact that vegan food is hard to come by in most places, especially if I'm looking for a quick lunch to eat while I'm traveling.

So I pack my lunch. But what do I pack it in?



Over my many years of lunch-bringing, I've figured out how to make everything involved with my lunch reusable. Lots of schools have garbage-less lunch programs in place, I figured why not have a one-woman garbage-less lunch policy in place for myself?

My first step was to find some glass containers with good lids. I try to use as little plastic as possible, period. Although we have no microwave at home, I do sometimes use one when I'm lunching elsewhere and I am loathe to microwave any of my food in a plastic container. (Why fuss around trying to figure out if one container or another is "microwave safe" when you can just avoid the potential danger all together?)

So far, in our house, we've tried three different kinds of glass containers (all have plastic lids). The little round one in the photo above is made by Anchor. We have larger versions as well and I have to say that they are the clear winners. They are union-made in the United States and they are reasonably priced, widely available, and oven safe. The lids fit tightly, even after a few dishwasher washings. They aren't completely leak-proof, but they aren't too bad if the food inside isn't too liquidy.

The other container in the photo is made by Pyrex and it is my least favourite of our three varieties. The sizes are kind of awkward, and the lids are freakishly tight at first and then loosen a lot when washed in the dishwasher. Though I must say, looking at their website it seems they've introduced a line of containers with "No-Leak Lids". I'd be anxious to give those a try.

My other favourite is the Glasslock containers (not pictured). The lids are almost completely leak-proof (why "almost"? Well, let's just say my purse smells a bit more like curried cauliflower than I'd like it too. However, my boss brings soup in one of these containers everyday and her briefcase is unscathed, so I may just have a slightly wonky specimen.) These are a little heavier than the Anchor containers and some of them are labelled "not safe for oven". They are also made in the U.S.A.



The other lunch item I never leave home without is my homemade cutlery holder. If you can sew in a straight line, you can make one of these. All it is, is a rectangle of fabric, folded over on one end with stitches making sections of the fork, knife, spoon, and napkin. I added a ribbon to one end so that after I fold down the top flap and roll it up, I can tie it closed. Some spare cutlery from a secondhand store and a cute cotton napkin complete the project. It doubles as a placemat if you want to be fancy. And at the end of the week you can throw it in the washer. I like it so much I'm slowly making similar ones for all my coworkers.

And last, but not least, (though totally unrelated to lunches, at least right now) I wanted to give you all a garden update. You may remember my last post about getting over my fear of starting seedlings from scratch. Well, get a load of those little seedings now:



They're big, healthy tomato plants! Growing happily in the garden. I can't wait until harvest time.

J.

Dig in!

if you are in the LA area and are in any way connected to a school (or community) garden come on down! it is sure to be worth your while...

Calling All Amateur Gardeners

Hello Sew Green readers! I'm Jennifer and I usually blog about vegetarian food over at It Ain't Meat, Babe. This is my first post for Sew Green so I decided to focus on my current non-cooking obsession: my garden. Enjoy!



My friend Shawn has been a gardener as long as I've known him. He comes from a family that planted, no joke, one hundred tomato plants every summer. And even when we were both in our early twenties, when all my other friends were more interested in booze and rock 'n roll, Shawn and his partner Katie were thinking about, talking about, and growing their own food.

For the past decade I've had sporadic container gardens. When my living situation allowed for it, I'd have some basil, lettuce, and tomato plants on the back deck. I always wanted to grow as much of my own food as possible, being very aware of the positive effects it would have on both the environment and my health. I liked those little container gardens just fine, but I dreamed of something bigger. Then I moved into a home with a vast yard and my lovely partner built a fence to keep the dogs out of the sunniest part of it. I finally had my chance. Last year was my first year as a full fledged, in-the-ground, gardener. I was terrified.

As anyone who has ever started a garden knows, it can be completely overwhelming. I didn’t know what to grow where, let alone which specific variety of organic tomato to order from which fancy seed catalogue. So, I played it safe and bought plants from a local nursery, not trying anything from seed. I found the thought of seeding my own plants wildly intimidating. With the plants from the nursery, I reasoned, all I had to do was keep them alive. Someone else had the daunting task of growing them from seed.



Truthfully, the selection of vegetable plants at the local nurseries and markets wasn't that great. And the food I grew was nice, but not as amazing as the heirloom vegetables I got at the neighbourhood farmer's market. It was enough to make me want to conquer my fears of seed starting as I moved into my second year of small-scale urban farming. I started reading up on how to seed my own plants.

One of the problems that a novice gardener faces is how to navigate a whole internet’s worth of contradictory gardening advice. Sites discussing seed starting were no exception. You need grow lights! You don't need grown lights! Start your seeds in paper towels! Just shove your seeds in the ground! Seed them in toilet paper rolls! Seed them in the largest pots possible! It was enough to make me put my head down on the table and weep.

Which is when I turned to Shawn. I figured with the years of gardening experience he had under his belt, he'd probably give me reasonable advice on the delicate art of seed starting.

He did. He told me one thing in particular that has been echoing in my head since I read it in the text of his advice-filled e-mail. The most important piece of advice anyone has given me since I began my gardening adventures.

He said, "Plants grow through f@#*ing cement."

In other words, relax. Plants know what they're doing.

Besides that priceless piece of advice, Shawn told me that for seed starting, a south facing window was going to be my best friend. Check! The window in our kitchen faces south and has a nice wide sill. He told me to get whatever potting soil mix I liked, then add my own compost (which, for our vegetarian household, is rich and plentiful), fill up some trays, cover them with one of those clear plastic domes, add water, and wait.

I nervously hovered over my seedlings for a few days, wondering if anything at all would pop out of all that soil. Then I forgot to check one day and by the time I remembered, about a dozen skinny green seedlings were poking their way up out of the dirt towards the light.


And that's where we are right now in this long and lovely gardening process. I removed the dome as soon as I saw green (also Shawn's suggestion) and I've been using a spray bottle full of water to gently dampen the trays of seedlings every day (again, Shawn). This weekend I planted another tray, this one full of basil seeds. I can't wait to see them start to poke up out of the soil. Finally, I'm confident that I can do this whole seed starting thing. I may be an amateur, but at least the plants know what they're doing.

-Jennifer

compost-fever

Last year I took a fabulous organic gardening class with John Lyons of The Woven Garden. Each monthly class held a different theme, and out of the four, two really resonated with me - the Gardening with Children session - and the Composting class.

I do love composting. (We have even considered a composting toilet for our cottage.) I love the idea that our waste is being turned into something more. I love the way our chickens go nuts when they are allowed near the pile. I even love the way it smells, clean and dirty at the same time (farm girl in me perhaps), and the way it feels as I shovel and mix it into our raised garden beds. I love how it has become commonplace - and how routine it has become for our kids to dump scrap into the small container under our kitchen sink, then trudge it out to the bin at the end of the day. (Though any advice on how to get a composting program into our public school would be most appreciated! This is one place where it isn't. And should be.) I love that we return our scraps to the earth to feed the food we are growing.




We have always kept a traditional compost bin in our yard for all of our green and brown waste. It was a bin that the City gave for free, in exchange for attending a Composting class, provided by the City's Department of Public Works. (Class schedule can be found here. It looks like you now pay for a bin, but at a very fair price.) Sitting in the farthest corner - near our pool we regularly dumped garden debris and kitchen waste into it. It is extremely dry where we live, and with our dry garden (not a lot of green - and lots of brown waste)we had to make sure it stayed moist. We added water - and D even added, um, urine. (Urine has long been considered a great compost activator.) It works pretty well. In landscaping our yard, we moved the bin closer to the house, and are in the process of reestablishing our pile. I think two bins may be the answer to better productivity. We will see.

The premise of composting is simple: the rotting green matter (lawn trimmings, kitchen scraps, chicken poop, etc.) you might have just thrown in the trash is piled up, together with dry material (dry leaves, newspaper - preferably not the glossy pages, and only if soy based inks have been used, unfinished cardboard, twigs, straw etc). The rotting material(about 1/3 of the mix) produces nitrogen and the dry (2/3), provides carbon. Magically it turns into food and soil for your plants. (Well, not really magically - "the course of decomposition of organic matter is affected by the presence of carbon and nitrogen. The C:N ratio represents the relative proportion of the two elements...Actually, the ratio of available carbon to available nitrogen is the important relationship because there may be some carbon present so resistant to biological attack that its presence is not significant." --from Compost Fundamentals) There are many things you can compost. And many you shouldn't. And of course some overlap of the two. (In the class I took, the final destination of the compost was considered. For example, laundry lint composted may be ok for your flower bed, but the treatments and detergents that may be present in the lint would not be desirable for our organic veggie bed.)

We are taking our home composting to the next level with vermicomposting. D built a worm-bin for my birthday (a gift that keeps on giving!) after I dropped many a hint. I sent him a link to this website, and he built a bin out of the scrap in his woodshop. (Though frankly the website prices are so reasonable if we had had to purchase the wood it might have been cheaper just to order it.) It is a little small. But we are excited by the possibilities. I have a friend who is gathering up some worms for us, and we are ready to get started!




The premise with vermicomposting is the same really - the C:N ratio though is a little less important as the worms do much of the work that would be done by the chemical reaction. In the end, you get a rich material to enhance your soil, as well as the possibility of making vermicompost tea - which some tout as a miracle worker for plant growth and protection against disease.




Resources:

Favourite books on my shelf with sections on Home Composting include:
Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School

A Slice of Organic Life by Sheherasade Goldsmith

Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler

Really if you "google" composting / vermicomposting you will be overwhelmed by available material. There is lots out there to guide you.

A few on-line highlights:
Design Sponge did a wonderful recent post on composting

Groovy Green has straight-forward instructions on building a simple worm bin.

The Gaiam site has lots of information on choosing the composter that is right for you, and how to get started.

I love this idea: Host a community Build a Worm Bin Day!

Say no more. Composting 101


If you are interested in taking a class from John Lyons - and I highly recommend any class he is giving - his schedule can be found here.


Oh, and one last thing; with Thanksgiving around the corner, don't forget to re-read FPea's great post here on composting your holiday party!

Happy Holidays!

keeping the harvest

Fall harvest time is just about here! The nip in the morning air, and the new crop of greens, lettuces, sweet potatoes and cruciferous vegetables at the farmer's market and in our garden get me thinking about all the good things I want to cook this fall. I'm also getting a bit wistful already thinking about how much I will miss the fresh veggies this winter, and scheming about how to put some veggies up for those thin months.

Last week we got an inspiring email from the wonderful farmer who runs our CSA, Wild Onion Farms, about easy ways to save some of the harvest for winter. Here's what she said:

"Here's a few tips on how to easily put away some real fall food for later, without any special equipment or a lot of long sweaty hours in the kitchen:

• I've cured the sweet potatoes and butternut squash for storage already. If you want to stock up on these, the squash will last another 1-2 months, the potatoes will last 'til spring. Store them in a cool, dry, dark place (50-60 degrees is ideal). A chilly basement or garage is good. If you want to extend the butternut squash, go ahead and bake up a huge batch, put it in freezer bags, and stash it away in your freezer.
• Basil can easily be frozen: chop it up in a food processor and throw in little bags in the freezer, or go ahead and make a big batch of pesto and freeze that in individual portions (omit the cheese, it doesn't freeze well).
• Peppers, hot or sweet, can be chopped up, tossed in freezer bags, and chucked in the freezer. Nothing more. They won't retain their texture, but it won't matter if you're adding them to winter soups, stews, or sauces.
• Okra can be stashed away by cutting it up into slices, dip it into boiling water for a minute, drain, pat dry, and pack into freezer bags or containers.
• Cooking greens of any sort are really easy to freeze as well. Wash, chop, blanch in boiling water for a minute. Drain them, squeeze any excess water out, and pack away into the freezer.
• You can also cook up large batches of any of your favorite dishes, from garlicky greens to grilled eggplant, and tuck extra portions away in the deep freeze to enjoy months from now.
• Most root vegetables (beets, carrots, radishes, turnips), once you've removed the tops and placed them in plastic bags in the fridge, will last for months."

- Elizabeth Haarer, Wild Onion Farm (shared with permission)

I've been working on some of these easy harvest-extenders, and thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes, too.

Last week I made up a batch of Vietnamese-style hot chili sauce with the hot peppers in our garden, using this recipe. I had plenty to make a jar for us and share a big jar with my sister. This would make a great gift for someone who likes to cook and loves hot food.

Here's a link to my method for making big batches of savory vegetable stock - it's a great way to use up your veggie odds and ends, and makes a delicious, hearty, nutritious broth for winter recipes.

Elizabeth mentioned garlicky greens in her email, and it got me thinking about this wonderful recipe from my dear friend Anne, who loves to have cooking (and eating) parties with friends. If you're not from the Southern U.S., you might not know how wonderful collards can be -- and even if you are from the south, you might have only had them cooked to death with a hamhock. This is a great way to find a new (and vegetarian) appreciation for a humble green leaf:

Sauteed Collards (or any other hearty green you like)

Ingredients: 1 bunch of collards for 2-3 people
4-6 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil

Rinse collards and remove the ribs from the middle of the leaves. Then stack the leaves in a pile and roll them up like a cigar. Then thinly slice them.

Peel the garlic and slice each clove in half long-ways unless really large, then slice into thirds.

Heat the oil over medium heat. When hot, add the garlic and cook until just getting golden, and remove. Do not let them get brown or they will make the oil a bad (burnt) flavor. Now turn up the heat to medium high and add the collards with whatever liquid clings to the leaves. Stir them with a wooden spoon or tongs, being sure to bring up the ones from the bottom so everything gets cooked. I like them crunchy, but you can cook them to your liking. Just before serving, add the garlic back in and stir them up.

I like to serve these with plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and some apple cider vinegar on the side for purists. Have fun cooking up your harvest this fall!

seedling pots for an urban garden

we recently did some renovation in our backyard. we've always been weekend gardeners planting tomatoes and peppers and other veggies in planters every summer. this is the year, though, that my husband decided to get more serious about our gardening patch. he's now decided that he wants to try doing some farming all year round.

we definitely live in an urban environment - our neighborhood is mixed use with warehouses a stones throw away. we used to joke that hummingbirds and butterflies would make a pitstop in our yard flying from more vegetated areas.

[side note - is seems like we're not the only ones thinking urban gardening. i'm sure you already have heard - but check out the white house's new veggie patch.]

we try to have our backyard reflect our tastes and needs. so my husband built these fenced in vegetable areas. we have dogs and cats and so we wanted to be able to protect the plants from animal [and kid] invasions. he also set up a drip system that runs on a timer so that we can be as economical as possible with our water usage.




in the spirit of re-using we put our tomatoes and anaheim peppers in an old clawfoot tub that we rescued from a neighbor's remodel.

Newspaper pots
Originally uploaded by Clementine's Shoes

the other day i was looking at Clementine's shoes' blog and she had posted some newspaper origami pots she had made for seedlings.

Newspaper pots
Originally uploaded by Clementine's Shoes

what a great idea i thought. if we are going to try and have carrots and onions and broccoli and fava beans and lettuce going throughout the winter starting from seed we'll have to start plants continually. i was trying to think of an easy, eco-friendly way to do this lo and behold ! here it is. we get the Sunday Times - why not turn it into our start pots?? She links to it in her post, but here are the blow by blow directions . i have saved a bunch of the plastic started pots you get from garden stores, but those eventually fall apart - and i personally hate the "bio-degradeable" brown started pots you can get. they always seem to crack and break and never seem to fully degrade. newspaper is the ticket!

when i emailed Clementine's Shoes to ask her if i could re-post her pictures she mentioned that she also knew that people used toilet paper rolls as starter pots too.
indeed they do .

happy gardening. i can't wait to taste our beets!

Book Review: Farm City

Photo of her allotment garden graciously provided by Kim. Click the photo to see more of her garden photos on Flickr.

Within the first 25 pages of Farm City, I had laughed out loud numerous times and gotten teary once, a sure sign to me that this would be a good book. And it was. Novella Carpenter tells the tale of how she became an urban farmer, harvesting fruits, veggies, honey, eggs, rabbits, turkeys and pigs in an economically down-and-out part of downtown Oakland, California. She weaves research discoveries in with life discoveries, interactions with those around her, and her family history. It is an entertaining (guffawing on public transportation) and inspiring read, and it is intense.

Carpenter, like most farmers, I am guessing, has (or has developed) a certain toughness. She's a brave, can-do kind of gal. A pioneer. I admire her seeming ability to connect with all kinds of people and animals and yet retain a level of detachment. It was at times uncomfortable for me to read the descriptions of the killing of her meat animals. Her descriptions certainly demonstrate though, the huge effort it takes to carefully raise, kill and process an animal.

Now and then in my over my 25 years as a vegetarian, I have considered eating meat again. I would only eat meat if I could do it responsibly—knowing the animal was raised humanely and in a way natural to the animal (ie not feeding a cow corn for ex), knowing the animal was killed in a respectful way, and knowing neither the animal nor the meat have been trucked too many miles. I can fully appreciate the satisfaction Carpenter derives from eating and sharing meat that she has spent time, labor, struggle and enjoyment producing. The eating must become so much more meaningful, so much more thoughtful and valued, even ceremonial. Carpenter's tale proves there is much knowledge and wisdom to be gained from each part of the farming process. (Nevertheless, and despite enticing bacon and sausage aromas, I don't think I'll be converting to meat eating any time soon.)

Farm City is an engaging mixture of storytelling and information sharing. Living in the Bay Area, one hears so many rumors and sensationalistic news bits about the "bad" parts of Oakland. It is refreshing to get a more realistic and personal perspective on living in one of these infamous neighborhoods. Also fascinating are the tidbits about animal behavior/biology and about the long history of gardens and farms within cities all over the world.

With so many people struggling to buy healthy food, it is strange that public spaces, backyards and abandoned lots are not filled with edibles instead of (or at least alongside) decorative flowers. There could be so many more gardens and so much more fresh produce shared/consumed. Hopefully—especially if this economic situation continues—we will have another big Victory Garden-esque garden and farm b(l)oom. And actually, here in the Bay Area, San Francisco Mayor Newsom recently issued a sustainable food mandate that addresses the use of public space for food production!


Veggies growing in the SF Rainbow Grocery parking lot, above and below


Find out more about urban farming on Novella Carpenter's blog. Note her links to other urban farms. Maybe there is one near you...

Other potential summer reading:

Our Life in Gardens by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd
Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness by Lisa Hamilton

(books found on Civil Eats, my favorite agriculture/food-related blog)

Green and Tasty Reading

I was just rereading Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer while waiting for the books I've requested to be delivered to my library branch. Prodigal Summer is one of my favorite feel-good novels. And it has strong environmental/sustainability/nature themes. I thought I'd check Barbara's website to see what she has been writing lately, and I found this! Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

I thought our Sew Green friends might be interested. I plan on reading it as soon as I can get it at my local library branch. Hell, I might even buy it, because I have a feeling, in addition to being funny and excellent, it will come in handy.

Copied from her website:

"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.

Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."

Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

SO I guess that's two green book recommendations really, a novel and non-fiction by Barbara Kingsolver. Have any of you already read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle?

catching rain

We have a thirsty garden.



Growing our own veggies has saved us a lot of money at the grocery store this spring. Between the big bag of goodies from the CSA farm every week, and all the lettuce, carrots, beets, broccoli and mixed greens in our garden, we've hardly bought any fresh produce since March.

But the big savings on the grocery bill are being eaten into by the rather obscene city water bill. It's been a dry, dry spring here in North Carolina (USA). We've only received about half our normal rainfall, and are experiencing "moderate" drought conditions. As a result, we've been watering the garden just about every day.

We've done a lot of things to make the garden water-efficient: it's laid out in small, square blocks rather than rows, so no water or nutrients are wasted in the rows between plants. The soil is loaded with compost, because healthy soil high in organic matter retains more moisture, and we've even mixed in a bag of vermiculite to further stretch the water resources. But all that hasn't been enough in times of drought to keep us from needing to water daily.

Enter the rain barrel. We've known for a while that this would be a good idea, but it was just an abstract idea until we got the last water bill. Ugh! One water bill would easily cover the cost of a rain barrel, so off we went to the garden store.

For those who've never used one of these things, it's quite simple. You just detatch the bottom part of your gutter down-spout and route it into the top of the rain barrel. It then catches the water spilling off your roof in a rainstorm -- rather than running into the storm drains and the local creek, it runs into your rain barrel.



This barrel holds 60 gallons of water, and is made of an old pickle barrel. The screen on top keeps out mosquitoes, flotsam and jetsam, and a spout at the bottom lets you attach a hose or fill up a watering can.

My partner, HWWLLB, installed the barrel and we hopefully looked up into a hot, blue, cloudless sky, wondering when we'd get a chance to use it. Not a drop in sight, but a thirsty garden shimmered in the heat behind us. Later that night, we were awakened by the sound of thunder. HWWLLB ran around the house peering out the windows. It's raining! It's raining!

Normally the little splatter of rain that accompanies a chance thunderstorm does little more for the garden than a quick perk-up. But when we went outside the next morning, the barrel was running over. From our little roof, it took just slightly more than 1/4 inch of rain to fill the 60-gallon barrel. In general, 1 inch of rain on a 1000 sq ft roof yields 625 gallons of water. To calculate the yield of a roof, multiply the square footage of the roof by 625, then divide by 1,000. That's how much water runs off your roof in a rainstorm that generates one inch of rain.

Hm... looking around, we have 5 more downspouts - 3 more on the house and 2 on the shed. I think we need a few more rain barrels! I'm thinking of making the rest of them myself. I did build one once from directions in a back-issue of Mother Earth News (using a trash can), but we had to dismantle it at the request of our nutty former land-lady. If you know of good instructions for making your own rain barrel, please post a link!

And there's good news... a passing thunderstorm in the forecast. My barrel runneth over.

Interview with David Tracey::author of Guerilla Gardening

Hello sew greens!
Today I wanted to share with you an interview I recently did with the author of the new book "Guerilla Gardening", David Tracey. He is a journalist and environmental designer living in Vancouver, Canada. His book is all about taking your surroundings into your own hands and beautifying it in the most earth loving way. He was kind enough to take some time to talk about himself and the book. Below is our friendly chat, enjoy!


Ashley:
Ok, so first why don't you just tell me more about yourself and what you do for a living?

David:
It's a bit of a complicated question, actually. I'll make it short as I can: I'm a journalist, also an environmental designer.

Ashley:
What do you do as an environmental designer?

David:
Well I studied landscape architecture in grad school, so I learned to do eco-restoration, site design, edible landscaping... a variety of things. I'm also now working on a project to help get more community gardens in Vancouver, particularly among vulnerable populations. We're working with provincial health and city officials. Also, I'm the executive director of Tree City, an ecological engagement group that gets people involved in their own environment through trees.

Ashley:
That's wonderful, do you feel like Vancouver is accepting of the work you're doing?

David:
Yes, mostly. It's a good time to be here and doing green things because there's a convergence going on, but it's a struggle too... the conservative elements and profiteers are no less voracious here.

Ashley:
So what inspired you to go into "guerrilla gardening"?

David:
I got interested in engaged ecology, the idea that people in cities were losing their sense of place. I wanted to find a way to help everyone get back in touch with the land, and a lot of the people I'm thinking of are not landowners. It's not just low income -- even modern condo dwellers may have expensive places but nowhere to put their hands into the earth. I was also interested in the changing notion of public and private. We're now in an era of intense privatization of everything. I see it more and more, not just with gated communities and private security firms which now outnumber the public police in most north American cities. It's also happening in our minds. We're being encouraged to accept corporate advertising as the arbiters of style and beauty. So to combine a way to get people back in touch with their own shared environment, and to think about what public really means, guerrilla gardening seemed an ideal fit.

Ashley:
I get a sense that to be a guerrilla gardener you have to do a little sneaking around, do you feel this is true?

David:
I don't think it is true about sneaking, although that can be a big part of the appeal. A lot of the best work can be done after you get permission. In the book I define it as "gardening public space with or without permission." I tried to take as open-sourced an approach as possible... even that definition I wouldn't claim as definitive. I wanted instead to make the point that because guerrilla gardening is autonomy in green, everyone should be able to discover what it is for themselves... and no one should be discouraged from doing a guerrilla garden just because the landowner (city or private or whomever) agrees...

Ashley:
I would be slightly intimidated by it. I was glad to read in some of the marketing for the book that "handling officials" has a section. Plus, I would think you would want people to overcome any fear of legalities.

David:
The legal part is more of a fear than a reality, though. It's highly unlikely you'd be arrested for flowering. Although I do have a story of a guy in Montreal who did get busted for graffiti work involving public space issues.

Ashley:
So basically everyone has a right to the earth.

David:
I think so. We all create the city, we all share the air, water, etc. So whose kids don't have a right to breathe clean air?

Ashley:
So what are some other benefits to guerrilla gardening other than visual gratification?

David:
That list can go on and on. It's fun. It can be a community building thing, good exercise, a political lesson in public space, increase biodiversity, lesson in storm water runoff and an environmentally educational tool for green propaganda.

Ashley:
So is there anything you would expect your readers to know before reading the book?

David:
No, not really. I wrote it to be a "manualfesto" so it's a combination of a rant and some practical advice for anyone whether you're a beginning gardener or a pro.

Ashley:
Are you an avid gardener?

David:
Yes, I've loved gardening since I was a kid. I only wish I had more time to do it...the usual excuse. It's almost more of a need than a desire. I know if I don't do at least something every year I get this gnawing sense of regret like...there's a growing season gone. I love plants of all kinds, and am still fascinated by the whole process -- photosynthesis is astounding -- but if I can grow stuff AND eat it too? That's as good as it gets.

Ashley:
So I'm assuming there are guerrilla gardening groups? How would someone get involved with one of those?

David:
There are, some that put the word out and want members, some you never hear of. You and your two friends can go out tonight and plant a parking strip and create a guerrilla gardening group. One example of how to do it is the group that just started up in Vancouver through meetup.com... they're now holding monthly meetings, doing workshops, and sound like they're off to some great stuff.

So hopefully this has given you, our readers, a little inspiration to go out and put your hands in the earth. Plant on!

That concludes our little chat. Please check out the new book Guerilla Gardening and if you would like to know more about David, here is his website::Davidtracey.ca

Related links that David is involved with worth giving a look:
Eco urbanist
Tree city

Green car parking

My mind is bubbling with excited thoughts and plans. I want to build a green driveway from old bits of dry ski slope! It's such sturdy stuff and looks great once the grass begins to grow through and disguise it.

I often see piles discarded locally, but now they've started using it to stabilise the hill paths and prevent erosion near the ski slope itself, it works really well. That's the kind of re-use I like, where the new use it even better than the original one. The slope is 20 minutes walk from my house, on the Pentland Hills overlooking Edinburgh. Here's where I sit to catch my breath and make my cunning reclamation plans...



People think I'm lucky to have a drive already in my garden, but to me it's lifeless space that could be inhabited by plants and herbs for the insects to enjoy. Scented ones too, since it's good to treat your nose as well as your eyes.

I'm also concerned by water run-off which creates flood problems as more and more people pave their gardens to park their cars. Such a sad loss of habitat. I'm really into green carparks, paving, roofs etc. as a way to lessen our impact in built environments.

The first green carpark I saw in the late 80's was the concrete type which looked similar to this. I was VERY excited to discover it. Modern ones mostly use grid systems made from recycled polyethylene, like this Australian kind. Our local Ikea has a small section for about 20 cars. I'd like to see entire car parks look that way - where suitable*.



I'll be using ski slope if I can, but for those of you who don't have that option but are interested in the idea, have a look at Paving Expert. They explain different types plus preparation needed to install them so they'll stay put. They also advise on grasses for each use - walking, heavy traffic etc. It's a UK site so grasses & suppliers will differ elsewhere but it gives a good overview of things to consider before doing a further search in your own area. They have UK supplier links and this one has pricing for green paths to give you an idea of costs. It seemed no worse than the cost of decent quality paving in the UK.

For many, grass is not an eco option on account of water use but many of these systems also hold dry materials so I'm guessing you could plant low growing drought tolerant succulents etc. such as those used for green roofs (more on that later). Anyone tried that? It also stops dry material being lost onto the road.

Others hold gravel or stones, but having seen a beautiful Scottish river scraped for it's stones and left lifeless, and coutryside quarried for gravel and left scarred and barren - I would not advocate their use unless they were reclaimed. Plus they are incredibly energy intensive and often have huge mileage to get to you.

I'd love to hear from any of you have tried any of these options, and especially from anyone who has successfully improvised. I will keep you posted on my own attempts.

*this tends not to work on slopes and boggy areas.

ps. I forgot to say that they help prevent 'urban heat islands'. Read more about that here.

Victory Gardens 2007+

I am so inspired by my Sew Green collaborators and by you commenters. So much to learn from all of you!

As far as i can tell, my backyard really really wants to become a garden. That concrete is bursting green at the seams!

When I was little, my parents grew corn, tomatoes, squash and dill in the backyard. We also had (and still have) many fruit trees. It was so satisfying to walk around in the sun, most plants taller than me, and just pluck and eat from the world around me. My grandparents in Sweden grew potatoes, carrots and many kinds of berries. My grandmother made all sorts of jams and drinks from the berries, decidedly the most delicious berries I've ever eaten.


Mormor and morfar preparing to plant

I went to the SFMOMA last week, and was so inspired by an art-political-environmental-gardening project called Victory Gardens 2007+ being shown, that I wanted to share it with you. I admit I was drawn to the project because of the beautiful posters the artist, Amy Franceschini, had made advertising the various gardening events. I’m a sucker for nice graphic design, words and color (as I’m sure many of us are). I love that this project brings together artists, gardeners, scientists, politicians, environmentalists, ordinary citizens.

Here is the website about Victory Gardens 2007+: http://www.futurefarmers.com/victorygardens/
(On the right side of this page at the bottom, you can see one of the posters I was drawn in by at the museum, though it’s more beautiful in person.)

Victory Gardens 2007+ is based on a historical community gardening model established in 1941 in the US.

Victory Gardens, also called "war gardens" or ""food gardens for defense,” were gardens planted both at private residences and on public land during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. These gardens produced up to 41 percent of all the vegetable produce that was consumed in the nation.

In 1943's San Francisco, there were 800 gardens for food production in the Golden Gate Park alone! Read more about the history here: http://www.futurefarmers.com/victorygardens/history.html

Today’s Victory Gardens program draws on the historical one and

puts a new spin on the meaning of “victory.” In this program, “victory” is:
- independence from corporate food systems
- community involvement
- getting people closer to the natural environment.

Some interesting info from the website:

Seed banks represent genetic reservoirs of adaptive traits. By knowing the conditions under which the seed's ancestors have developed, botanists can identify characteristics signaling where else a plant might thrive...The Svalbord Global Seed Vault is located in Norway and has the mission to store as many seeds known to humans as possible, under the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

There is so much to gardening that I have no experience with. But, I think home and community gardening will become more and more important as we try to get out of the mess we've gotten into with corporate farming, soil pollution and overuse, pesticides, food contamination, long distance food transportation, packaging, superfund sites, etc.

What are some of your community gardening experiences like? Send us links to your community gardens or city gardening efforts.

Other topics I’m hoping to learn/do more about through Sew Green are:

Superfund sites and electronics waste/cleanup
Milk (Seems like a simple topic, but I think one can investigate milk production from many angles.)
Paper (Chlorine use, getting institutions/entities to switch to chlorine free, recycled paper)
Plastic (So much cool stuff is made with plastic. What are the consequences/alternatives?)
Clothing/textile industry
Water
Art for environmental change

the simple life...

when i think about what is the most beneficial action i can take to reduce my impact upon the earth, it would have to be to live simply.

i have been inspired by draft-dodgers, hippies, and back-to-the-landers, ever since i was young. growing up on vancouver island, on the extreme west coast, i bore witness to many of these people as they chose to live what was then considered an "alternative lifestyle." entire families living in handbuilt surfing shacks on sombrio beach, vietnam dodgers living in their cabins or on their boats in some of the many remote coves that are dotted up and down the island. they all shared a common goal, to live simply with nature.

we are trying to do this in our own little way, here in our home smack in the middle of downtown vancouver, the second most expensive city in north america. we made a conscious decision to live with walking distance of work, and most amenities. we have space and light within our home, and finally a teeny, tiny, yard that we can start a small herb and food garden in. the yard is concrete, and because we are renters, we can't really have anything permanant, so we are building containers that will hold the garden above the ground.

as with tracy's quest to have a natural californian landscape around her house, i'll keep you posted on how our garden grows in future posts.

here are some links to my favourite books and blogs on simple living. i treasure them. i hope you will too.

the good life
radical simplicity
the path to freedom
lichenology
handbuilt shelter
you grow girl

the grass is always greener

we live in a 1955 development in the san fernando valley of los angeles. the average temperature here in the summer is 95F (35C). (though last summer we set a record going for 21 days straight with temps over 100 degrees fahrenheit and setting an all time record of 119F (48C) on July 22 and this winter has also been the warmest on record.) average annual precipitation sits at 18 inches. (the national average is about 39 inches.)

when i first moved to my neighborhood, i wondered: how does everyone keep their lawn looking so good? (and why are we so obsessed with keeping it this way?)



then i learned. it is estimated that the average southern california family uses 500 gallons of water a day. (500 gallons!! i think that is about 1900 litres. just think of all those milk jugs lined up...) 30% of that in the house. that leaves 70% going to watering the lawn and filling the swimming pool. i am told the figure for outdoor use is likely higher in the valley, where we receive less precipitation, and the mercury rises higher. i cannot fathom that amount of water being poured onto the ground. besides that, think of the run-off, and all the pesticides and fertilizers it is carrying out of the valley, under the santa monica mountains, and into the pacific ocean.

the history of the lawn in the u.s. relates to the housing boom that our home was part of. that ideal of suburban perfection. but it goes back further than that. back to english manor homes with grand entrances. where vegetable gardens were hidden and idyllic landscapes were constructed. lawn = success. (and it better be green!)

when we purchased our house almost six yrs ago, we talked about doing it differently. we do have a pool. (solar powered, and i dare say a must with days in the 100s.) but we don't have a lawn. well, actually we do. but it hasn't been watered. leaving it to look much more brown than green.

i like green.

so, our goal this summer is to tear it out. cap off our sprinkler system. and go native. (plus some raised veggie beds.) socal native plants are adapted to winter rains and summer drought. once established, they should need very little water other than that provided by mother nature. and we should see a considerable decrease in our water consumption.

so we are at the beginning of the journey. we have a basic plant list in hand. a rough plan drawn. and are planning a trip here to check out some specimens "in person". pointers are always welcome!

and i'll let you know how it goes...

inspiring me...
california native plant society
the american lawn
edible estates los angeles
heat wave
l.a. county dept. of public works : how to save water outside the home

update - links from the comments that i should have included! thank you thank you!
beyond pesticides
theodore payne nursery
xeriscaping
las pilitas nursery (we developed our list from this one, i love it - you can put your zip in and get the plants for your area)