The Perfect Gardening Day
I’m sure the perfect gardening day is different for everyone. My perfect day was yesterday. High of 75, overcast with rain the night before.
Why is this the perfect day?
The rain softens up the soil for weeding, so I spent the day weeding most of the flowerbeds.
75 degrees is perfect for me, I don’t mind it being hot (high 80’s is my limit if I can be in the shade), but I much prefer it to be in the 70’s. I always know it’s going to be a good day when I have to wear a sweatshirt for the first hour or so while working outside.
I must say, I hauled so many buckets of weeds I was able to fill up my compost bins with weeds, next year they’ll improve the soil in the same beds they were pulled from.
Share this:
My Mom’s Garden
I think I caught the gardening bug from my mom. She’s always been an avid gardener, both ornamental & edible. When I was young we had a HUGE vegetable garden at my grandparents house out in the country. We worked in the garden all summer and then canned and preserved all the produce we grew. About 15 years ago my parents moved to a new house with a nice-sized city lot. There was a ton of room for gardens. They have an orchard, a small garden and many ornamental beds. I think this bed was the first one put it – it’s called “The Garden of Eden”. It’s in a small fairly wet area of their yard. It looks great throughout the summer with things blooming all the time. This photo was taken on July 11.
A few more of my mom’s flowers.
Mr. Chiots loves these plants. I’m going to get a start from my mom.
Share this:
Something Fun
While at a meeting in Cleveland on Sunday Mr Chiots and I spotted our first Smart Car out and about (we first saw them at the Cleveland Auto Show this winter). Always brings a smile to your face when you spot something like this!
I wonder how many bags of compost will fit in it?
Share this:
Organic Weed & Feed
We try not to use lawn chemicals or pesticides here at Chiot’s Run, I believe that we really need to reduce our use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides before we do too much damage to the natural ecosystem. I read a book recently that streams were more polluted in residential areas than in agricultural areas because homeowners use far too many and too much product when the treat their lawns.
We live in a lake community and phosphate use has been banned, so the first year we lived here I bought phosphate-free weed & feed. I started reading about how much damage those products do to the environment and decided not to use them. For several years, I didn’t use anything on the lawn, I didn’t want to pollute the lake or any of the surrounding streams.
I finally found out about corn gluten meal, it’s a natural pre-emergent (meaning it inhibits seed germination) and it’s nitrogen rich (just what grass needs to be green and lush). So I ordered some bags of corn gluten from my local garden center. It’s actually cheaper than regular lawn chemicals if you can find a good source (I paid $29.99 for a 40lb bag – last year I paid $19.99 for a 40lb bag). It is applied just like regular fertilizer but you don’t have to worry about chemical burns on the lawn, so you can apply anytime. (In some cases you can buy it from you local farm supply store since it is also used as animal feed). Corn gluten is applied at 20 – 40 lbs per 1000sq ft and needs to be applied every 4-6 weeks depending on rain fall.
It is applied with a lawn spreader just like your normal weed and feed products. It’s also high in nitrogen so it greens up the grass beautifully!
It worked great the first year I applied it. I have also read that it starts working better and better each year. I must say, my front lawn has never looked better! I apply it 3 times per summer, once when the Forsythia is blooming, once again at the beginning of July, and then once again in early September.
Share this:
100 Foot Diet Press Release
Path to Freedom requested this press release to be posted on blogs or printed and distributed. Here it is:
PASADENA, CA. – July 7, 2008 – Think of it as Facebook meets the Farmer’s Almanac: A social networking site for backyard pioneers who want to fight soaring food prices and global warming by growing their own food. At FreedomGardens.org, novice and expert growers from all over the world can gather to post success stories, ask questions, and challenge one another to ever-increasing levels of self-sustained living.
The site is backed by the example of its founders, the Dervaes family, the urban-dwelling “eco-pioneers” who have been growing most of their own food since 2001. On their one-fifth acre residential lot in Pasadena, Jules Dervaes and his three adult children, Anais, Justin, and Jordanne, grow over 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers-with enough left over to run an award-winning “green” business selling fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.
Few can match that output, but the Dervaeses say that by growing at least a portion of what they eat, “Freedom Gardeners” everywhere can take back control from the corporate food system. In the process, they can improve their health, reduce their ecological footprint, and save money. With food price inflation at the highest levels since 1990, the latter may be the most compelling reason to join what the Dervaeses call their “homegrown revolution(TM).”
To motivate new gardeners and focus their efforts, Freedom Gardens offers challenges like the 100-Foot Diet. With a nod to the 100-Mile Diet and other “eat local” initiatives, the 100-Foot Diet urges people to garden in whatever space they have available, be it a small patio or a spacious backyard, then prepare at least one meal a week using as many homegrown ingredients, and as few store-bought ingredients, as possible.
Mr. Dervaes uses the illustration of a target to explain the 100-Foot Diet in the context of the global food economy and the distance food travels from field to plate. “The outer ring of the target is overseas, while the circle at 1,500 miles represents the average distance produce in a grocery store travels. The 100-mile diet is getting you closer to the center. But, the 100-foot diet is actually bringing you right back to your home, and that is the bull’s-eye,” he says. “We want people to look for food security in their own backyard.”
Freedom Gardens is an offshoot of the family’s first website, PathtoFreedom.com, a seven year-old sustainable living blog that gets 5 million hits per month from 125 different countries. The new, more interactive site uses social networking software to connect visitors with other gardeners in their area. They can share tips about local climate and soil issues, display which challenges they are participating in on their profiles, and find others nearby doing the same challenge.
“We are providing the setting for ‘over-the-fence’ chats,” says Mr. Dervaes. “Neighbors can help each other more than we can from our particular locale. Through the website, we facilitate their getting together.”
Growing your own diet is not easy, but the Dervaeses are living proof that it is not impossible either. In their first year of full-time gardening, the family’s harvest was over 2,300 pounds; by 2003, their yearly take had reached over 6,000 pounds. This year they have challenged themselves to reach a new all-time high: 10,000 pounds from a one-tenth acre urban garden.
The Dervaes family has received several local awards and congressional recognition for their environmental contributions and outreach efforts. They have been the subject of numerous articles in newspapers around the country, including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, and were recently featured on ABC’s Nightline and CNN.
About Freedom Gardens
Launched in May 2008, Freedom Gardens is a social networking website for gardeners and homegrown food enthusiasts. The site’s founders, the Dervaes family, draw on years of personal experience on their model urban homestead to help others take back control of their diets and their budgets by growing more of their own food. For more information, please visit www.freedomgardens.org.
