The Seattle Times has an interesting article about young adventure gardeners
With fresh ideas and techno savvy, a new generation will keep our gardens growing

Pull Quote: While the newest generation of plant savants may not be following in our footsteps, that doesn't mean they haven't popped the iPods out of their ears long enough to comprehend the natural world. Cyberspace is second nature, and the world small and navigable to this new generation of gardeners. They're brewing up an eco-fusion of plants and technology that'll set your head spinning.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Guerrilla Gardeners: When Push Comes to Shovel

Pull Quote: Although guerrilla gardeners have beautified median strips and other neglected plots throughout the Bay Area - to the delight of neighbors and motorists - their unsought attention to private land is not always welcome. At the core of guerrilla gardening is the stealth factor, albeit often in broad daylight: cultivating someone else's land without asking permission.

Carlos Gardel's House in the neighborhood of Abastos

I just spent a week in Buenos Aires, buying new tango shoes and taking lessons with some tango greats. It was a shoe shopping frenzy with tango filled nights (which, btw, had the added bonus of the movie star sighting of William DaFoe out canoodling with a very young girlfriend. He can act, but he can't dance tango yet. I tried to get Rene to wrench him and the lady apart and ask him to dance. While we both agreed that moment would make an excellent photo, she never did it. Rene and I strolled the streets of this design oriented city, and from the balconies, cemeteries, to restaurants and shops they use plants in ways that make this lovely city an even more pleasant experience.

I went by the botanical garden in Palermo. It's a little disheveled, but a good place to learn the names of the trees. People in Buenos Aires claim they have very cold winters, but from all the tropical and subtropical plants, I tend to doubt it. Maybe very cold for them.

If you're in to feral cats, this is a great botanical garden.. Perhaps it's the Italian influence, but there are prides of cats all over the grounds here.

Pretty residential door in Palermo Viejo.

A nice fountain in the garden of Olsen, a Scandinavian restaurant in Palermo Viejo.

Also at Olsen, this is a simple, nice modern touch.

We never learned what this is--it looks like a shrine of some sort. It's near railroad tracks and at night there's lots of young men hanging out here. We coined them, "The Bad Boys".

A purse store in Palermo Soho--even the stores use backyard plantings and atriums to create nice atmospheres.

We visited the famous Recoleta Cemetery, where Evita Peron was finally buried. It's like a miniature Belle Epoch village. Ferns seem to do very well growing from cracks on the crypts.

And this philodendron is thriving in a tomb.

Lovely window boxes on the streets of Recoleta.

We visited the Faena Hotel and Universe designed by Philippe Stark. We had both heard lots of comments, like the design was "totally over the top", but we didn't think it was all that. Garden-wise, some red impatiens in terra cotta planters aren't so interesting. Apparently, though, the bathrooms have transparent walls--so you can do all your private stuff with a intimate watching. Or if it's just not sexy at all, there's a red velvet curtain you can pull shut.

The Jacaranda trees were in bloom. So lovely!

There's a great park, the Costanera Sur, in Puerto Madero. Right next to rose garden set in geometric rectangles are these wonderful grasses.

They had a skateboarding park for the kids, with grass for padding the wipe outs.

As we made our way to a steak house (yet another), we passed these nice windows. They aren't terraces, rather, they're shutters, draw-bride style that people have put small terrace gardens on.

Etsy is an online emporium of handmade arts and crafts that has a remarkable array of creative things for sale. They just published an essay I wrote on DIY wedding flowers and tips on going organic and local when purchasing wedding flowers.

Also, for Etsy, the City Dirt Store
makes hand stamped "Just Married" packets with wildflower seeds to toss at the bride and groom. The flower seeds are mixed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Click Here for full article.

A pull quote:

Nobody wants to think of herself as a Bridezilla, but all the details can be daunting -- especially if you're someone who considers her or himself eco-sensitive. Are your wedding flowers filled with pesticides that are polluting the rivers and exploiting workers in Colombia? Does rice thrown for good luck really explode in the stomachs of songbirds? Ahhh, the horror of unintended consequences. Etsy has asked me to make these details a little easier. And since you're here, reading this, I'm assuming you like things creative and a little funky, so let's make this wedding planning fun.

Alison O'Hara in Action

The gardening season is gearing up; for some people that means starting their seeds and plotting designs. For people working in the industry, it also means, "Will my boots last another season, or should I order a new pair?" There are two different worlds of gardeners--the ones who sweat and get really sore, and the ones who dead head a few geraniums and tend a tomato plant or two. These gardeners can dress like Martha Stewart and wear kaki pants and white tee-shirts while carrying baskets of cut flowers. But more commonly are those who look like freshly plucked vegetables after a day in the dirt.

Perusing comments on garden fashion on the web, most people claim to garden in blue jeans and gardening clogs. Jeans just couldn't be more uncomfortable. When gardening in the raining they get waterlogged and stay wet for days. Even after rains, when water shakes from the trees and bushes as your pruning means deep discomfort. And clogs? We dig up all sorts of nastiness in New York City. Bathtubs, aquariums, bed mattresses--one gardener in Brooklyn claimed to find a car buried in a backyard, and a homeowner on the Upper West Side told me that she found an Irish Shanty town from the 1800's in her backyard. And then there's the city wildlife. I am not poking around these yards in clogs. I want lace up boots with hard soles and stiff leather.

So to research the stylish and comfortable in garden fashion, I don't look to other gardeners, but rather, women who work in the outdoors and know how to layer. Alison O'Hara, owner and head operator of True North Kayak Adventures in Homer, Alaska is a pro. She always shows up to work looking sharp and ready for anything Alaska weather throws her that day. Here are her recommendations:

Alison swears by Patagonia Stretch Capilene Camis and Hipsters
as a first layer. The material is like a second skin, warm but really light and comfortable. They have all different colors and patterns.

As a mid layer she likes the Ibex Shak Jacket, made from a high tech wool fabric. The cut is very flattering and you could wear it to the garden and then out to lunch.

She also likes Patagonia's Women's El Cap Jacket.

As an outer layer she wears a Arc'teryx Velox hard shell

or if it's raining, a soft shell by Patagonia

The best 3 Season outdoor pants are by Prana Tenaya and these can be paired with stretch cap long underwear for colder weather.

Socks are Smartwool Smart Wool everyday.

And when out on the water, Alison always wears the Filson Tin Cloth Bush Hat As she says, " It's the Crocodile Dundee look, but is very sturdy with a wide brim for max sun protection. It also has a chin strap in case it's blustery. Oil cloth material keeps the rain off your noggin too."

For daily sunscreen she likes Nature's Gate Sport 30 because it's not shiny, oily or laden with chemicals.

Gretchen LeBuhn, San Francisco State University associate professor of biology, is soliciting the help of thousands of "citizen scientists" to collect data on the health of pollinating bees. This is the announcement from the website The Great Sunflower

By watching and recording the bees at sunflowers in your garden, you can help us understand the challenges that bees are facing.
It takes less than 30 minutes.
It's easy.
Free Sunflower seeds for planting.
No knowledge of bees required!
Enter your bee counts online or send us your paper form.
We would love to have you join us; let's help our most important pollinators together!

Visit The Great Sunflower
to learn more and to sign up, or call 650-725-9914. Kits are ready to send out to the first 10,000 participants in time for the plants to flower by National Pollinators Week, June 23 to 28.

I've always wondered if the moss milkshake was an urban legend...apparently not.

The Seattle Times

Q: What's a moss milkshake? Is it hard to grow moss as a ground cover?

A: Not if you have shade and acidic soil, as gardeners trying to grow lawn know all too well. Moss milkshakes encourage moss to grow, but they only work if you apply them in shady, somewhat damp conditions. Put a handful of moss (from the garden or nursery) into a blender. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, a can of beer OR a cup of buttermilk (either beer or buttermilk works fine). Blend until the moss is mixed with the liquid, then spread it over rocks and the ground where you want the moss to grow.

For a supremely mossy experience, visit the primeval-feeling moss garden at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island (www.bloedelreserve.org). To see how moss can be used to great garden effect, visit the Japanese Garden in Washington Park Arboretum (www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/japanesegarden.htm).

Last winter I came across an interesting post on The Ethicurean
by a woman who was designing a garden-or rather, a small homestead on her garage roof. She had sketched out raised beds, places for chicken coops and a beehive. Even though this could go very wrong, I admired her vision.

Just last week, an article, Turning a Garage Roof to a Green Roof ran in the New Tribune about a woman who created a green roof out of succulents and broken ceramic and terra cotta pots on her garage to create an elevated landscape.

I'd love to see this become a trend.

Some Great Information about joining a Brooklyn Community Garden by Brooklyn Based.

A Plot of Your Own by Brooklyn Based

Brooklyn has the greenest thumb of all five boroughs, if you measure that by our 349 community gardens (Manhattan comes in second with 204). The Brooklyn Queens Land Trust defines a community garden as "a shared green space which is planned, designed, built and maintained by some community members for the use and enjoyment of the entire community," but how each garden interprets that definition varies greatly.

At the Garden of Union in Park Slope, no one gets an individual plot, and the produce grown is divvied among members. Clinton Hill's Hollenback Garden assigns separate plots, but requires its members to attend four meetings and four group "workdays" a year and spend two hours a month hosting the garden's weekly "open hours," the 10-hour period all gardens are open to the public. The rules are strict because there's a waiting list to get in next year.

Getting In
The Green Thumb website (greenthumbnyc.org), part of the city Parks and Recreation department, allows you to enter your street address or zip code to find the gardens nearest your home (or office). You then call Green Thumb (212-788-8070) to get the name, phone and email of the garden’s coordinator for details on how to join.

If your heart's set on joining a garden with a waiting list, you typically need to invest some sweat equity for admission. This Saturday, for instance, Hollenback is hosting a workday starting at 11 am, open to interested parties.

Once you're in, you're expected to abide by the garden's rules -- and not be an idiot. "We've only asked one to person to leave in 10 years," said Wayne Tobias, co-coordinator of the St. Mark's Avenue Block Association garden, "and that was because she would go into other people's plots and dig their flowers up."

Learn how to raise chickens, get free compost, and more

here.

Gizmodo comments on the award winning Rake n Take

You'd expect first place in the 2008 Dyson awards to go something totally insane, like a vacuum that cleans your carpet and your colon simultaneously. But it actually went to this deceptively simple gadget designed by Ryan Jansen, the Rake n Take, which takes a lot of the suck out of raking leaves. Pulling up on the handle clamps whatever you're raking, so you you don't have to stoop and scoop. It would also be great for clearing your disgusting roommate's biohazardous socks out of your living room. Check it out in action after the jump.

Go here to see the video: Gizmodo

Go Green Expo in New York

New York
Go Green Expo

April 26-27, 2008, The Hilton New York
Saturday 10am-6pm • Sunday 10am-3pm

This inaugural expo will take place at the Hilton New York Hotel on 6th Avenue at 53rd Street. Go Green Expo will feature the latest eco-friendly products & services that all New Yorkers can learn about as well purchase to help reduce their environmental impact and lead a "greener" life.

GREEN ROOFS GREEN HOMES:

Please join us on April 26 to learn great ways to green your house!
Contact dsalomon@lagcc.cuny.edu for more information

New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education
presents:

Anatomy of a Brownstone: Green Roofs, Green Homes
A seminar devoted to the art and science of sustainable homes, NYC
style

Saturday, April 26 Atrium Amphitheatre 300 Jay Street
2 sessions, (morning and afternoon) $40
10 am to 12 pm 300 Jay Street, Downtown Brooklyn
2 pm to 4 pm 93 Nevins Street, Boerum Hill Brooklyn

Learn about green roofs, energy audits, whole house design, and
sustainable building products from experts and professionals in the
green design and build community. Discover how to save energy, reduce
waste, and increase the overall comfort of your home.

How your home uses and loses energy 10 to 10:30
F.L. Andrew Padian of Steven Winter Associates, Inc., will show the
important steps to quantifying the energy usage in a building

Raising the Green Roof 10:30 to 11:00
A "green roof" is a layer of soil and foliage on top of a building.
Rob Crauderueff, Sustainable Alternatives Coordinator, Sustainable South
Bronx, will explain how green roofs are installed and maintained and how
they can help your budget and the environment
http://www.ssbx.org/contact.html

Panel Discussion: Small and large ways to green your home 11:00 to
12:00
Gita Nandan, GreenHome NYC
Rolf Grimstead Developer, 93 Nevins "Health House"

Robert Pollitzer, Green Builder GreenStreet Inc

Jeff Honerkamp, CEO Honerkamp Lumber, LEED supplier

Kris Reed, Brooklyn Center for Economic Development

Green House Tour 93 Nevins Street, Boerum Hill Brooklyn 2:00pm to
4:00pm
Rolf Grimstead, a Brooklyn Community Developer, and Robert Pollitzer,
of Greenstreets Inc, a Brooklyn based green design and build firm, will
lead visitors on a tour NYC's first "Health House" 93 Nevins has
been systematically transformed from a toxic dumpsite to a comfortable
and healthy multi family dwelling.

The question here should be, "Why do my plants always die when I go on vacation?" Here are some solutions from Real Simple.

Question:
Do you have a solution for watering plants while you're away?

Answer:
# If you'll be gone for more than a weekend: Give plants a thorough soaking before you leave. Move plants out of direct sunlight, and group them together in one cool, medium-light area to cut back on their water needs.

# If you'll be gone for four to five days or more: Try DriWater Gel Pacs ($2 each, www.driwater.com for store locations) or Water Maid Wicks (available at plant stores, or $2.50 for five, 800-343-8114, ext. 20). You can also use a very long cotton shoestring. Soak it in water until saturated. Water the plant thoroughly, then place one end of the shoestring into the soil at least an inch deep, making sure the soil and the string have good contact. Place the other end in a 16- to 32-ounce container filled with clean water, making sure to keep the flowerpot at a lower level than the water. The water will slowly wick into the soil as it dries out and keep the plant moist for a week or two. For large plants, use more than shoestring or wick.

# Terra-cotta cones can also help plants get plenty of water. These nifty devices consist of a cylinder with a cork ring on top. Push the top of the cone into the mouth of a plastic soda bottle filled with water. Invert the cone and the bottle and place the cone into the soil of your plant. The terra-cotta will absorb the water from the bottle and release it slowly into the soil. Terra-cotta cones cost $12.50 for three and can be found at Gardener's Supply Company (www.gardeners.com).

Swing by the Green Oasis Garden Sunday, April 13th at 1:00 to learn about honeybees. If weather is permitting, and that means over 55 degrees, then beekeepers will inspect, clean and add food patties. The public is welcome to watch or help.

Sunday, April 13 at 1:00PM
Green Oasis Garden
E. 8th Street (between C & D)
New York NY 10009

Vanilla Honey Bee

If you can't make that, but want to do your part, there's a very easy and delicious option. Haagen-Dazs has created the flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, in honor of the little pollinators. Their other bee reliant flavors include such varieties as Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan, Strawberry Cheesecake and Vanilla Swiss Almond. Whenever you purchase any of these, or other bee reliant flavors Haagen-Dazs donates money to bee research at the University of California Davis and Pennsylvania State University.
Visit Help The Honey Bees for more information.

Sunday, April 13th is the second Brooklyn Flea at Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Aves. at the schoolyard of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene.
Open 10am-5pm every Sunday

City Dirt will be there selling eco pots and indoor edibles like herbs, meyer lemons and fig trees. Tomorrow, I will have Chicago Hardy figs that can be planted outdoors. They die back every winter and come back to about 2-3 feet tall in the summer. Their fruit ripens in late summer or early fall.

I happened on this lovely antique shop, Antiques de Provence recently. It's on 623 Royal Street in New Orlean's French Quarter. The olive jars, fountains and furniture are from Provence, c. 1800's.

Date: Saturday, April 19th
Time: 3-6 pm
Place: Eyebeam Gallery 540 W. 21st Street (between 10th & 11th) New York, New York

This Saturday the programming around the sustainability exhibition, Feedback, will have artists and community environmental groups giving demonstrations. Leah Gauthier will have a sow-in where you can help her plant and distribute 100's of rare seedlings.
Brooke Singer will conduct toxic tours, Matalie Jeremijenko will lead a surface-level noPARK action, and the Lower East Side Ecology Center will be demonstrating worm bins.

These are nice little lounge spaces outside of Hotel W in New Orleans. Simple and chic. Though I'm not sure how much street side lounging I'd want to do in a city with such high crime rates...

Here's a frightening story about a pharmaceutical company that is patenting and buying up seeds. World domination of food sources? Read the full story here: Monsanto's Harvest of Fear

Pull Quote:
Monsanto developed G.M. seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, offering farmers a convenient way to spray fields with weed killer without affecting crops. Monsanto then patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office had refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. "It's not like describing a widget," says Joseph Mendelson III, the legal director of the Center for Food Safety, which has tracked Monsanto's activities in rural America for years.

Gardeners will throw away an estimated 200 million pounds of plastic pots this year. Bonnie plants is trying to change that by using a biodegradable Bonnie Plants Peat Pots that you plunk right into the ground. They dissolve into compost and the plants go on their way.

The farmers around the country might be laughing that people are actually buying pots made of cow manure, but it really is a good idea. Cow Pots are biodegradable planting pot made from composted cow manure. Created by a dairy farmer in Northwestern Connecticut.

I'm definitely making my way to The New York Botanical Garden for this:

Darwin's Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure explores the untold story of Darwin's botanical influences, his research, and his contribution to our understanding of plants, and ultimately, of life in general. The exhibition is featured in three Botanical Garden venues and includes an "evolutionary tour" of living plants that demonstrate key points on the tree of life, which links all living beings through a common ancestry.

A symposium with leading Darwin scholars headlines the list of events and programs scheduled throughout the duration of the show.

Opens April 25th.

Here's an interesting article on Mulch in The Daily Times

by Laura D'Alessandro

Gardeners asked to avoid using cypress mulch

OCEAN CITY -- Gardeners should avoid purchasing cypress mulch to help protect Gulf of Mexico's wetlands, said representatives of the Assateague Coastal Trust on Friday.

"Worcester County and the Pocomoke River watershed are the most northern cypress swamps in the nation," said Joe Fehr, past president of Assateague Coastal Trust.

Fehr said in Maryland, cypress trees are protected from clear cutting though many of them were destroyed a century ago before the law was enacted.

"Since the cypress tree has such a specific habitat and is slow to germinate, they were replaced with maple and gum trees," Fehr said. "And contrary to popular belief, cypress trees are not a sustainable product because they are so hard to grow."

Cypress trees are not protected in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida where they are clear cut for mulch. Fehr said this further destroys their sensitive habitat and prevents new trees from taking root.

Read the full article here: The Daily Times

If you're in and around the Catskills, here's a great CSA deal from Rusty Plough Farm--you get what you like and how much. For those of you who are further away, Community Supported Agriculture is still the way to go.

Here's a message from Rusty Plough Farm: Visit Farm to City to learn more.

IT'S LOCAL, IT'S ORGANIC, YOU GET TO ORDER ON-LINE WHAT YOU NEED, IT'S BEING SERVED IN A HISTORIC 1840's BARN - WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? We received many inquiries about the CSA pickup at the nursery this season, but not much in the way of money. The farmers need your financial support to make this work. Now, I repeat- NOW- is the time to send in your $300 to Nadia at Rusty Plough Farm. Remember, this is not your old style CSA where you are given a box of kale and swiss chard and told to make a fabulous dinner with it. Rondout Valley growers let you pick what you like and decide how much you need. Going away for June? - no problem, just don't order. Having a big picnic in August? - get extra tomatoes and lettuce. Help us make this partnership between farmers and families a success.

And across the U.S. visit the Local Harvest Website to find a CSA near you.

Currently there are at least 1,200 farms nationwide that offer CSAs, or Community Supported Agriculture Programs, according to the Robyn Van En Center for CSA Resources. That's more than double the number listed by the organization six years ago. Whether family run farms, urban farming experiments, Christian initiatives or University Agriculture projects, organic farmers are able to cut out market time and expenses and get produce to customers the same day it's picked though CSA's. And the communities they serve are as varied as the farms: from affluent counties in Northern California and sections of Dallas to areas of Brooklyn that have very few grocery stores and limited access to organic food, or to Waco, Texas where the produce used to support a local food bank.
A small number of volunteer hours are required by each member and these can be fulfilled by working on the farm, or helping to organize in their neighborhoods a few hours a week. This element creates a connection to surrounding rural areas and with their city neighbors. A full share in a CSA usually costs from $300 to $500 for a season, and they tend to span from June through November. Many CSA's are starting to run waiting lists, and although the food costs slightly less than that at a grocery store, their growing popularity seems to stem from the idea of supporting community, both rural and urban. As well, culinary horizons are expanding-- those who have never cooked with kohlrabi or tomatillos before, are also in it for the adventure.
.
The Canvas Ranch in Petaluma, a small family ranch in Petaluma provides produce for Sonoma and Marin counties. Shares (approx. June-November--24 weeks)
In addition to the vegetables, they offer weekly add-on options:
Eggs: A half-dozen free-range Araucana eggs (the famous pale blue and green colors).
Flowers: asters to zinnias, including lavender and sunflowers.
Fruit: Three or four different kinds of fruit each week, some from farm and some from neighbors.
Artisan Cheese and Honey or Bread: One of the most popular add-ons. Each month you will receive a selection of cheeses from small, local dairies and either organic bread or honey from our resident bees.

Typical Summer Share: Summer Squash, French Filet Beans, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Corn, Lettuce, Basil.

The Sixth Street Community Center CSA has been in operation since 1996. They operate year round and while their produce comes from New Jersey, they are the first, and only so far to partner with a fishery. They joined with Prime Select Seafoods, a fishery in Cordova, Alaska to become the first CSA in the country to offer wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, cod and rockfish. The CSA also operates a Seeds To Supper Program, sending city youth to help on the farms in Sussex County and in urban gardens. They also plan to open a Soul Food Café.

Typical July Produce: beets, broccoli, cucumbers, greens, oriental greens, sun chokes, snap peas, melons, herbs.

The Clinton Hill CSA charges fees on a sliding scale. Families of 2 or more who earn over $30,000.00 a year pay $390, while those who earn below this, pay $240.00. Payments can be made in lump sums, or weekly payments can be made with food stamps. This CSA sold out quickly and there's a waiting list. According to their website, "A recent study of food access in New York City found that neighborhoods like ours are egregiously under-served. While Brooklyn Heights and the Upper East Side have 1 grocery store for every 7,000 residents, Bedford-Stuyvesant has 1 grocery store for every 63,000 residents!"
Add-ons include:
Fruit Share: full or half
Flower Share: organic bouquets
Egg Share: Free range eggs,
Meat Share: grass-fed, free-range beef, chicken, lamb, and pork from independent meat farmers upstate. Also can order sheep's milk feta cheese and yogurt.
There is also a Fort Greene Clinton Hill Wine Co-op that operates with the CSA.

Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture
The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture is a non-profit organization established to promote community-based, small-scale, entrepreneurial farming in urban Kansas City. They do this through providing education and technical assistance to people interested in urban farming, through research and policy development aimed at making urban farming an integral part of a lively and viable cityscape, and through working with communities to embrace and support urban farms.

Shares are set up as a "Full Share" which, generally speaking, is enough vegetables to feed a vegetarian couple for one week, or to provide most of the vegetables for a family that eats a more typical amount of produce, and a "Two-Thirds Share" which is designed for a couple who eat 1-2 servings of vegetables with each meal. The cost of the Shares represent a savings of 10-30% off our Farmers' Market prices, with the volume and prices reflecting the season's abundances and shortfalls. (Shares for 2005 sold out).

Typical July Share: Basil, tomatoes, leeks, summer squash, kale, garlic

Piggy Back Ridge Farms that makes CSA deliveries to farmers markets in Dallas, Texas. In 2001, they started using all mushroom compost, without chemical fertilizers or insecticides. Rather, they use biological control, where good bugs eat bad bugs. They accept WIC, and will let people trade work for produce.

The World Hunger Relief Farm near Waco, Texas is a Christian Operation, that uses the farm to educate youth about World Hunger, and they run a CSA program. Vegetables, fruit, herbs and cut flowers are harvested the morning of each pick-up day. Members can collect their produce either at the farm or at the drop site in Waco. Members are eligible to order additional items for an extra charge including grass-fed beef and goat meat, Grade-A goat milk, farm fresh eggs, our award winning honey, organic whole-wheat flour, and fair-trade coffee from the Village Store. The CSA memberships helps address local hunger as they donate 10% of their produce to Caritas local food bank.

There's a great essay in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine by Michael Pollan. It's a little depressing and scary as environmentalism tends to be, but the primary solution to our problems he cites as starting a vegetable garden. Gardening is not only is exercise, but it's also better for your body, good for the planet, and it changes our attitudes as it connects us to a process outside of our specialty. To go to the full article click here: Why Bother

Here's a pull quote:

But the act I want to talk about is growing some -- even just a little -- of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don't -- if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade -- look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it's one of the most powerful things an individual can do -- to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

I had a table this week at the Brooklyn Flea with an ipe window box and an aluminum planter, both with flowerless plantings to try and get New Yorkers off the impatiens-in-plastic planters look they are so fond of.

A guy across the way from me, Mohawk Studios welds furniture out of found objects. He also makes ants, wasps, scorpions, and crabs out of metal objects. A couple from Park Slope bought a bunch of them, and explained to me that birds loved them. The glinting of the metal attracted lots of birds to their backyard garden.

At another booth, not far away, at Olde Good Things, this antique garden table and chairs caught my eye.

And I loved these mirrors framed with pressed tin.

at Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Aves. at the schoolyard of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene.
Open 10am-5pm every Sunday

I had a second take outside the Midtown New York Public Library. At first I thought these were abnormally green vines, then that they were plastic, and upon closer look, realized they were stone walls painted with vines and evergreens.

EDINBURGH, Scotland, April 20 (UPI) -- Garden allotments have become so popular in Scotland that waiting lists are approaching a decade in Edinburgh and Glasgow, an official said.

The allotments, patches of land where people who live without yards can grow flowers or vegetables, dropped in popularity after World War II, when even public parks became vegetable gardens. The yearning for organic produce has made them popular again.

Clickhere for full article.

The Huffington Post

NEW YORK -- One million new trees will join the urban landscape of New York City by the year 2017 to reduce air pollution, cool temperatures and help improve the city's long term sustainability, officials said Saturday.
The tree program is one of 127 environmental proposals that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was set to outline Sunday in a speech at the Museum of Natural History, timed with the observance of Earth Day.

If you want to order a tree for your block, the City of New York Parks Department Website offers this advice.

There are two ways to have a tree planted in front of your property. The first option for planting trees is to contact your local community board, which submits a list of tree requests twice a year to Parks. Please note that a request form signed by the property owner is necessary in order to receive a tree. These trees are planted on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is usually a greater demand for trees than we can service in any one season, so there may be a one to two season lag time between the request and the planting. To identify your community board, consult the blue pages of the telephone book or call 311 .

Your second option is to apply for a free permit through your Borough Forestry Office and arrange for a private planting at your own expense. If a sidewalk tree pit needs to be excavated, you must also obtain a permit from the Department of Transportation (DOT). The Borough DOT permit offices are: Bronx (718) 931-3388; Brooklyn (718) 780-8088; Manhattan (212 442-7949; Queens (718) 286-2731; and Staten Island (718) 816-2367.

Farmlabs latest Junker Garden is a transformed 1990 Mercedes Benz 300s, planted with Australian tree ferns and irrigated by a misting system.

Sprout Home is having its one year birthday party on Sunday May 4th from 11am to 7pm. Come enjoy food, drinks and music by TapirDJ. Sponsored by Dokebi Bar and Grill.

We will be offering special discounts that day only!

Please feel free to invite others.

Sprout Home
44 Grand Street
Brooklyn NY 11211
718-388-4440

www.sprouthome.com
nyinfo@sprouthome.com
Open everyday 11-7

On Earth Day, a friend gave me a bottle of cologne that literally smells like dirt. Fresh, fertile, newly turned spring dirt. As if I wasn't always trying to wash off that smell..but really, it's pretty amazing.

A description from the Deme