Store Wars!

The struggle continues between local, organic and corporate conventional agriculture. Join CukeSkywalker and ObieOneCanoli in this great production of the Free Range Studios for The Organic Trade Association - Store Wars! See the video here!
May the Farm be with you!

Winter gardens get the fame they need!

Here at the Gardens Project we LOVE winter gardening and feel that it just does not get as much love and attention as summer gardening does. Summer gardening bears the fruits that we all love and enjoy: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Melons, and other juicy and sweet fruits that we so love. Who doesn't love spending a hot summer day with chilled watermelon slices?! Winter gardening is the time for Chards, Kale, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower; vegetables that just aren't as sweet and juicy as their summer counterparts. But, still enjoyable! Winter vegetables make great soups for rainy and chilly days.

But, this winter, winter gardens are getting the publicity they need. While Obama is occupied in Copenhagen with Climate Change talks, the White House staff and USDA are busy preparing the White House garden for the winter. The USDA is promoting their "know your farmer, know your food" campaign where "every family needs a farmer". Part of that campaign is providing funding for farmers to extend their seasons by hoop houses and other winter infrastructure. The volunteers at the White House are also planting rye, a resilient cover crop that will add nutrients back into the soil. The USDA is stating that the White House garden is a more sustainable garden - helping water quality, improving the soil quality, and reducing the impact of climate change. Isn't that nifty? Lets hope USDA passes that message on to Obama ..

You can check out the White House youtube video here. Hopefully this will help give winter gardening the boost it needs to reach the fame and status of summer gardening.

P.S. If you haven't heard yet, Kale is a superfood!

Thanksgiving in the Plowshares Garden

Thanksgiving in the Plowshares garden proved to be one of the happiest days for all involved.

The weather was gorgeous. People were rejoicing. Clients coming to eat, Mexican families from the neighborhood, and my partner Ed and I planted nearly 150 plants. Among those were: garlic, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage and chard. Many of those plants came from Lovin' Blooms in Philo. Kevin from Navarro donated the pink hollyhocks which went along the north fence.

It was really a group effort. The wheelbarrow was flat and was needed to haul compost. Somebody offered to take it in their truck to the gas station. Meanwhile, the kids helped plant garlic learning alongside the adults as the next bed was double dug and filled in with amendments. Fresh hay was laid all around the baby plants to make sure they were warm and fed.

We all worked steadily for 3 days and by the last day nobody seemed to want to leave. Stories of gardens and childhood farms blew out with the west wind. There was a sense of accomplishment and a job well done. I think we could've planted a small farm there was so much enthusiasm! Who knows? Maybe we will.


Julie Drucker

Gardening and Climate Change

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Copenhagen, The Gardens Project would like to take a moment to contemplate the interaction between climate change and gardening: how the simple and beautiful act of gardening helps combat the behemoth that is climate change and how, unmitigated, the behemoth will affect gardening for all of us in the future.

Climate change can seem like a daunting problem, one so big that we don’t know where to begin to address it. Here’s our big idea: the garden.

Our modern food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change because it relies on fossil fuels and chemicals to grow, process, distribute, and dispose of food. Agriculture is responsible for 25% of CO2 emissions and 65% of methane emissions. By growing food for you and yours, you can change all this. Here are a few steps you can take, in the garden, on the long walk back towards a balanced and harmonious world:

- Grow your own food – then it won’t have to be trucked or flown in thousands of miles. Alternatively, frequent the farmers market.

- Grow organically – synthetic fertilizers require loads of fossil fuels to be created. You can get the same results with compost and mulch. You’ll feel better, and so will your grandkids.

- Compost – divert yard and food waste, like leaves and apple cores, from trucks that head to the landfill or the incinerator. Keep it local. Turn it into compost instead.

- Install a garden ornament – the clothes line! They’re beautiful, they’re quaint, they dry your clothes real good without using electricity.

- Eat less meat, more veggies – according to the UN, the production of meat leads to vast deforestation, huge energy inefficiencies compared to the production of grains, and loads of greenhouse gas emissions. Save the planet. Go veg.

If we don’t take steps like these now, climate change may drastically affect our gardening by changing weather patterns – making our specific knowledge of local horticulture less and less relevant, increasing droughts and deluges, pests and weeds, and the chances that our plants will die and we can’t do anything about it. The prospects are frightening. Don’t let it happen! Take the leap and grow a garden! If you already have one, do all those things you’ve always been meaning to. It’s good for the soil, it’s good for the soul!

Kale to the rescue!

As you're doing your vegetable shopping this winter you may pass by some weird looking curly, leafy, greenish-blueish vegetable and you may ask yourself, "What the heck is that?!" Well, its probably Kale. If you ask me, Kale is a funny looking vegetable, but when sauteed with a little garlic and pepper.. its amazing. Not only does it taste great, but it is a highly regarded superfood - quite the title for a funny looking vegetable. Superfoods are foods that can lower your cholesterol, reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer, and some say they can even put you in a better mood. Kale got its superfood status by being high in antioxidants, vitamin C, Calcium, Fiber, and Iron. Wooza!! Not only that, but winter is a great time to enjoy this food. Kale, which is part of the brassica family, grows well in the winter and the flavor is even improved with a freeze.

Not sure how to cook with this superfood? I recently made an amazing Polenta with Kale and Portabella mushroom dish that I tested on Lucy who gives it a ten on the Richter scale. Check out our Polenta with Kale and Portabella mushrooms on our recipe page, or just saute it with some garlic and olive oil to enjoy as a side dish. You can also use it as an addition to your soups, morning eggs, or omelet.
Enjoy your kale!

Peas and Carrots,

Ukiah's got an Onion Habit

For the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, Oak Valley Nursery was the destination for Ukiahns needing to get their fix - their onion fix. The nursery sold 28,000 onion seedlings in three days to gardeners of all shapes and sizes, colors and ages, ideologies and gardening philosophies, but who all had one thing in common - they need to grow onions this winter.

In late October and early November, you could feel the gardening community getting antsy. "Do you know where I can get some onions, man?" it would ask, with a paranoid look in its eyes and a twitch. People were starting to get desperate - contemplating traveling long distances for the little allium cepas and bemoaning the prospect of a winter with no onions in their garden - until those three little words started circulating: Oak Valley Nursery.

And then they arrived! 16,000 onion seedlings in one day! 12,000 another! The phone was ringing off the hook with the callers pleading "did you get them? did you get the onions yet?" and people darkening the nursery's door, giddy at the thought of getting their onion fix.

John Jensen, proprietor of Oak Valley Nursery, attributes this general sense of desperation for our fine-bulbed-friends to the fact that Mill Creek Nursery recently retired, leaving one less onion-dealer in a town crazy for onions. Jensen has 10,000 seedlings growing in the nursery now that will be ready in a couple of weeks. Next year, he plans to distribute 100,000, since it seems Ukiah's onion habit is simply insatiable.

Mendocino College Spring Courses

Do you want to learn about pruning, mushroom identification, the spring vegetable garden or other garden, food, and agriculture related subjects? Here's your chance! Mendocino College's agriculture department is offering exciting courses this spring semester. There is something for everyone - from the beginning gardener to the practiced green-thumb, from full-semester courses to two-day workshops.

Search their course catalog by clicking here, or go to the "How To: Take Courses" section of our website to see a complete listing of Spring gardening and agriculture classes at Mendocino College.

Knowledge is power! Let's get learnin' and let's get growin'! <3