Garden Girl TV

February 2009 Garden Girl Ezine

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In this issue of Urban Sustainable Living with Patti Moreno

The Sustainable Home Front By Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

ORGANIC FLOWERS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND By Annie Spiegelman

FREE HEIRLOOM SEEDS

FEBRUARY SQUARE FOOT GARDENING TIPS Video

INCUBATION.......the beginning By Frederick J. Dunn

All About Cilantro By Dana Wright

SOLAR POWER PROJECT FOR $250! By Dan Rojas

City girl to Country Gal, a transformation in progress By Josephine Howland

New Craft Project Videos By Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

Ron Plans Ahead! by Ron Smith

The Last Word: WINTER SOIL by Mark Highland

From the Sustainable Home Front
by Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

I have been super busy. Fresh back from a television trade show, and then straight into a Garden trade show with maybe twenty four hours between the trips. I presented my products to the New England Garden Center industry at the New England Grows show where I was awarded the Best Retail Product award! That means I am two for two, the Garden Girl products also won the same award at the Independent Garden Center Show back in August.

This month I will be atNorth Haven Garden Center in Dallas Texas, signing DVD's and creating general gardening mischief so if you are up for it and can get there, come out and play! Click the link for details. Hope to see you there.

In my never ending desire to create a truly modern web magazine, I think that this issue is getting closer to being a new way of sharing forward thinking and good old common sense. This issue features more integrated video, from poultry expert and photographer Fred Dunn, and this month, I am pleased to introduce you to alternative energy pioneer Dan Rojas and his fantastic Youtube channel Green Power Science. Also the wit and spice of the Dirt Diva and her friends at Organic Bouquet, so as you are thinking about flowers for Valentine's Day, think organic and help protect our soil heritage. Don't forget to check out this month's Square Foot Gardening Tips with me and Mel and a companion article by Richard Davies.

You all know by now that I love to spin and I have a new 3 part video on spinning wool and making a scarf. This is a great project for beginners and I had a lot of fun making it!

Remember to please help support the efforts of our great video contributors by rating, commenting, favoriting, and subscribing to our video channels.

Oh I almost forgot! FREE STUFF! WIN MORE FREE STUFF!

If you'd like to contribute to the magazine, write me HERE. Please forward this email around to everyone you know and share a little green living inspiration with others.

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

Win Free Gardening Gloves from Pallina

The Ultimate High Tech Garden Glove. A $30 value!

The Vegan Glove

The patented Pallina Vegan Gloves are durable, breathable, formfitting and washable. Available in men's and women's models and sizes.

Teflon treated to repel dirt and water

Kevlar stitching insures durability

One-piece finger construction with no annoying seam at fingertips which allows better sensitivity for pulling weeds

LiquiCell thumb and fingers prevents blisters and adds comfort without loss of dexterity

Terry cloth wrist may be turned down in hot weather to be use as a brow wipe

bound seams

Internally reinforced finger tips enhances dexterity and durability

Grommet and carabiner for easy attachment to clothing

Non-slip silicon print on palm uses a proprietary pattern that adds durability and aids dexterity

Velcro closure prevents dirt and debris from entering glove

Doylon Spandex back with 4-way stretch for comfort and durability

We are giving away MULTIPLE PAIRS of these gloves this month only!

You will get your gloves directly from the manufacturer sized perfectly for you. Click here for more information.

To Enter the Contest you must do one of the following:

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Or
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THEN

Send me an Email HERE with the links to find your posts. Write 'glove contest' in the subject line and you are entered in the contest!! LIMIT OF TWO ENTRIES PER PERSON. The winners will be chosen at random and will be notified by March 1st.

ORGANIC FLOWERS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

By Annie Spiegelman www.dirtdiva.com

Wouldn't it be nice to receive a bouquet of flowers knowing that not one iota of nasty, knarly pesticide, fungicide, herbicide or chemical fertilizer was used in growing them? Fresh, fragrant organic bouquets could score some of you guys nice points with the ladies! For the rest of you guys I'm afraid it's too little too late . . .

You may be asking yourself why we need organic flowers if we're not going to be eating them. Choosing organic flowers encourages the use of farm practices that build healthy soil without the use of toxic pesticides or fertilizers and protects the workers in the fields and greenhouses from exposure to these harmful pesticides and fertilizers. The world's first online organic florist, Organic Bouquet, is headquartered in Northern California and is committed to the highest environmental and social standards. "Organic flowers are not about us. They are about the health of workers and the planet itself, "says Gerald Prolman, the company's visionary founder.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, seventy percent of all flowers sold in the United States are grown in Colombia and Ecuador. On average, each rose grower in Ecuador uses three poisons to kill worms, four to kill insects and six to control fungi. Many of these chemicals are tightly restricted in the United States because of their threat to human health. Nearly 60 percent of the floral workers surveyed experienced symptoms of chemical poisoning such as headaches, dizziness, hand-trembling and blurred vision. (Environmental Health Perspectives 2002) Many of the workers are exposed to these chemicals while working in greenhouses where over 100 different chemicals are regularly used in enclosed spaces.
More and more concerned citizens worldwide are becoming increasingly interested in the working conditions of farmers, and farming practices that preserve the environment for future generations.

See, sometimes it's not all about ME . . . but about "other people". And you thought the Dirt Diva was just a transparent, self-absorbed flower Queen. If you scratch the surface there is some substance. I swear.

Whenever I find another successful socially responsible company, I have a brief glimmer of hope for the world. In that moment of optimism, I decided to purchase some flowers for my home. I didn't really need them, but I knew I could write a far superior article if I had an actual organic floral bouquet sitting beside me on my desk. I ordered a bouquet of roses online from the "charitable bouquets" section. The cost was competitive-a dozen roses sells for $39.95. The Crown Majesty roses were a creamy, royal pink, looked great for over a week and a percent of my purchase was donated to Heifer International, a humanitarian organization working to end hunger worldwide. Organic Bouquet donates proceeds to many charitable organizations including Project Hope, Care, Working Assets and Amnesty International.

"This is an excellent example of how the private sector can promote economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems by reducing resource degradation, pollution and waste," says Brennan Van Dyke, Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. "It is this sort of inspiration and leadership that will hopefully allow mankind to meet the immense environmental challenges of the coming century."

Go to organicbouquet.com to order or call .1-877-899-2468

Free Heirloom Seeds for your garden!

That's right, free seeds for everyone that has a website or a blog and installs one of Urban Sustainable Living Ezine's RSS widgets on their site. To get your free seeds simply cut and paste one of these codes below into your site or blog:

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SIMPLY MAKE A POST ON A MESSAGE BOARD OR A FORUM or Comment on someones elses blog, RECOMMENDING OUR HUMBLE MAGAZINE www.urbansustainableliving.com AND ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SUBSCRIBE!

Then send me an EMAIL by replying to this email with the URL link where the widget or link appears and your mailing address. Three weeks or so later you will get a free packet of one of the following Heirloom Seeds from my collection: Giant of Italy Parsley, Genovese Basil, Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Rainbow selection of Carrots, and many more. Share our great sustainable living content with the world, install your widget today!

FEBRUARY SQUARE FOOT GARDENING TIPS

Click Here to Watch the Video

By Richard Davies
http://ft2garden.powweb.com/sinfonian/

Spring is in the air, even if there's still snow on the ground. Either that, or you're just getting the gardening itch, possibly with spring months off for you. Seed retailers know this is a common occurrence in winter, so they send out catalogs galore right before New Years. Such pretty pictures and tantalizing descriptions. I know I was tempted to buy countless varieties. Like most, I came to my senses and chose only the varieties that grow best in my area, from companies that have test farms in my climate. That way I know they'll do well here.

As Mel stated, you can save money by buying seeds rather than seedlings, so much so that you can buy 50 seeds for the cost of a single seedling in some cases. Last year, I went the seed route on everything, except my tomatoes. I just wasn't comfortable growing tomatoes from seed my first year gardening. This year, I'm taking the plunge.

So, assuming you went the seed route, whether or not you bought them from a rack, online or a catalog, you now have to plant them. Depending on your climate, you may start them indoors to get a jump on the season so you can transplant them outside closer to your Last Spring Frost. I know mine is much later than some gardening buddies in the South, and I'm not certain Southern California even gets frost in the winter.

The way I see it, you have tons of options on how to plant. You can plant indoors under lights, or a sunlit window, or you can go outdoors in cold climates with winter sowing or wait and direct sow. Confusing you yet? The beauty is there are options to meet anyone's needs and some techniques work better than others for different plants. For me, I'm going to go with a simple light system for my tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and maybe some greens. Once I decided to plant indoors, I had to decide where to plant them. Should I go with the popular peat pellets/pots, Dixie Cups, or a cool soil block maker. The answer is, whatever works for you and your budget. Once your seedlings are ready to be transplanted, make sure you ease them into the garden gently. Hardening off is a simple, time-consuming, yet necessary step to acclimate the plants to the wind and the cool spring temperatures.

Of course, not all seeds lend themselves well to indoor sowing, or winter sowing for that matter. Carrots are a great example. For those, my kids like to pick them from my hand and put a single seed into each hole they have poked with their finger. Tiny fingers easily pick up single carrot and lettuce seeds. That's my way of confirming that little kids love to help mommy or daddy in the garden. I'm even going to give them little gardens of their own this year to plant with whatever they want. I know my eldest will plant carrots, he's a fiend.

So, you've got the gardening itch and all those colorful catalogs only made it worse. Go out and do something about it, and involve your family. Someday your kids will take their youngsters out to their garden. Then we will have truly become what is needed going forward... a self-sufficient, sustainable culture.

Here is a gift that will warm up your Valentine for days in the future, delicous tea!

Click on the picture and get a great gift and help support our mission! From My Cup of Tea, buy now!

INCUBATION....

the beginning

By Frederick J. Dunn

When it comes to chicken ownership, most new comers purchase their birds from local hatcheries, receive them from friends, or buy in as day olds from mail order companies such as Murray McMurray, Stromberg's game birds, or any number of long standing respected names in the business.For the chicken, duck, guinea or other poultry enthusiast, once you own your birds and they are mature, you have other options to perpetuate your flock, or increase its number. If your birds are healthy, of pure stock and not too far from the APA Standard of Perfection (assuming your breed is in the standard), you may consider hatching your own. Selective breeding is how we preserve the traits we find most desirable. The flock owner has a responsibility not to breed from young, or stock demonstrating disqualifying/undesirable traits. A flock is strengthened or weakened by this informed selective breeding process.

Many of those reading this article, have some early memory of watching a chick hatch, possibly in pre-school, or elementary school. It's a memorable event, and for me, one that is as fresh as yesterday... watching that chick break from its seemingly lifeless encasement. A chick hatches and each time, it seems a miracle to those who've seen it. I hatch every week during the hatching season, here at Fred's Fine Fowl and it never gets old. Few things are more fascinating than witnessing the emergence of new life. I love handling warm bright eyed baby chicks!

YOU, can do it... there are two methods for hatching fertile eggs, one is to make use of a broody hen, the other and topic of this article, is artificial incubation. My Grandfather in Vermont, used a gas heated incubator and brooder, this gave way to something called the Electric Hen and now, more popular units like the Little Giant, Brower Top Hatch or Lyons incubators. Hobby incubators are widely available and very affordable, averaging from $45.00 for a still air unit, $75.00 for a forced air unit and extras like automatic turners may be added, bringing a fully outfitted forced air, automatic turning incubator, for $110.00 (prices are approximate).

What incubator is right for you? Well, budget is probably your primary concern... a table top incubator like the Lyons may run over $600.00 and not necessary for the hobbyist, styrofoam units may provide years of service, if properly cared for.
When looking at incubators, you may be baffled by some of the terms, so I will review the basics. A still air incubator will be the least expensive... still air, simply means that the air within the incubator is not moved by a fan, but by convection, heated air rising and fresh air coming through small vent holes. This is the least complicated and least stable incubator. Normally incubating at 102 deg. F. Air is stratified, with variances in temperature, depending on the level within the incubator. The top of an egg may be at 103, while the bottom of the same egg may be at 98 or 99 deg. F.

Next up is the forced air incubator; forced air units have internal fans, which re-circulate the heated air, maintaining even temperatures at every level in the incubator. The source of heat may be a light bulb, or heating element with solid state controls. These units are operated at 99.5 deg. F in general and utilize more electricity than the still air units.

Incubating eggs requires that the eggs be turned circa 180 degrees several times each day. If this is a hatching unit at school, someone will have to come in several times a day during weekends and days where there is no school in session. At times, there is a custodian available? Or, you can purchase a unit with an automatic turner, automatic turners turn your eggs by rolling, or tilting them generally once each hour 24/7 and is the most dependable method for preventing the embryo from sticking to the side of the egg interior.
For complete and detailed guidance regarding incubation, I refer you to the DVD Regarding Chickens. Click the link to purchase.

There are also two video shorts posted for your convenience:

The Little Giant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGHAlV4ZQIU

The Brower Top Hatch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mRKAIC4lf4

Fredsfinefowl.com

My collection of rare heirloom seeds has been hand selected for maximum authentic taste and tested to ensure successful growth in the city and suburban areas. When you use fresh home grown ingredients, your meals are always delicious. Each collection contains open-pollinated and non-GMO seeds! Fresh From my Garden to Yours! The collection contains 6 different seeds and planting instructions. The entire collection is featured in season 2 of Urban Sustainable Living.

Retail Price: $12.99

Available Now at North Haven Gardens in Dallas, TX, Gardener's Supply in Burlington, VT, Thayer Nurseries in Milton, MA, Van Atta's Flower Shop in Haslett, MI.

All About Cilantro by Dana Wright

Cilantro, the leaves and stems of Coriandrum sativum, and Coriander, the seeds of the same plant, is native to Southwestern Asia and North Africa. Reaching 12 to 24 inches tall, this plant has long been used for a variety of medicinal and culinary purposes. The leaves, stems, seeds and roots are edible and each have their own uses. Used as an appetite stimulant, aiding in the secretion of gastric juices, and a topical remedy for rheumatism and join pain, Cilantro has seen its share of medicine cabinets.

Cilantro has been cultivated all over the world for thousands of years in countries such as Egypt, India and China. It was introduced to Mexico and Peru by the Spanish and is now a major part of the cuisine in those areas. It has been mentioned in Sanskrit texts and also the Bible. It is further mentioned in a The Tales of Arabian Nights as an aphrodisiac.

Cilantro isn't grown as widely in the home garden .as other culinary herbs. Perhaps this is because some think that it is too difficult to grow, but that is not necessarily the case. Coriander is the seed for the plant and it is made up of two seeds. The husk is very hard and it needs to be prepared before the seed can be planted to increase the chance of germination. Soak the seeds in water for 24 to 48 hours and then allow them to dry. After this, they can be planted indoors or sown outdoors. Cover with about ¼' of soil and allow to grow to about two inches high. Thin to 4 inches apart. This may seem a little crowded, but you want them to grow close together so that the roots are shaded sufficiently. This will help keep the plant from bolting in hot weather.

This plant doesn't like hot weather, when the soil reaches 75F it will bolt. This is a cool and sunny kind of plant so you want to let it get morning and afternoon sun, but you want it shielded for the hottest part of the day. Growing it in containers is probably best as it can be moved around as needed. I grow it in my kitchen window in a strawberry pot overflowing with herbs with no problems what so ever. This is an annual so make sure to save those seeds! Wait for the seeds to brown before harvesting and then store in an air tight container.

Although Cilantro and Coriander come from the same plant, they have two very different flavors and cannot be substituted for each other. Cilantro leaves look a lot like parsley and in fact, is akin to parsley, both being part of the carrot family. It has a very pungent odor and has a nice mix of parsley and citrus flavors to add into Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cuisine.
Choose unwilted leaves when gathering this herb to use in cooking. It stores well in a plastic bag for about a week in the refrigerator. Wash and pat dry before cooking with the fresh herb as the leaves tend to attract sand. Bruise the leaves with a mortar and pestle before adding into the dish to help the aroma and flavors come out.

Cilantro can be added to salsas and bean dips. It can be crushed into sour cream to give an added kick to tacos, burritos and chili. Sprinkle into Asian dishes to add a beautiful emerald green color and a wonderful flavor. It can also be added to dressings for salads. Add in slaw for an unusual kick.

The herb matches chicken, shellfish, lamb, pork and fish. It pairs well with avocado and tomatoes. Add it into sauces such as guacamole, tomato sauce and marinara. Pair with mayonnaise to give sandwiches a gourmet touch. Use it to spice up simple dishes like plain rice and yogurt.

Try this recipe from allrecipes.com for a vegetable dip, tortillas, toasted flat bread or even for cold shrimp.

Cilantro Lime Yogurt Dip

1 cup plain low-fat yogurt

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon sliced green onion tops

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

3/4 teaspoon lime zest

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir together ingredients and chill for at least an hour before use

Garden Girl's New DVD is available at garden centers NOW!

4 hours of video on 2 DVDs features how to build your own 500sqft garden and join the sustainable living revolution. Purchase a copy at North Haven Garden Center in Dallas, Texas, and Gardener's Supply in Burlington, VT, Thayer Nurseries in Milton, Mass, and Van Atta's Flower Shop in Haslett, MI

Retail Price: $19.99

SOLAR POWER PROJECT FOR $250! by Dan Rojas
I get asked several times a week about "DIY make your own solar panels". Many people see websites offering this information and assume it is a "from scratch process". The question is actually a bit deceiving and similar to "building your own computer". Making "solar cells" is a complex process using a form of silicon and can best be equated to "making an Intel Processor", not a likely DIY in your garage or backyard task. On the other hand, making a "solar panel" is more like "building a computer" where a pre-manufactured processor is combined with a custom ready to install hard drive etc.

To "build your own solar panels", you can buy pre-manufactured solar cells off the internet, buy the ribbon to hook them together, add a blocking diode, seal them behind glass and maybe save 20 cents a watt. While some people have been very happy with the results, in my opinion making your own panels has little advantage over factory sealed panels, so the "DYI Solar" term focuses on the installing process.

The "Harbor Freight Model", a 45 watt system with everything you need to get started is about $200 and well worth the expense for getting your feet wet. This kit is designed to charge 12 volt batteries and comes with a charging controller, two 12 volt compact florescent bulbs and a stand for your roof or yard. All the basic wiring is included. I like this kit because it is durable and produces enough power to charge batteries at a reasonable rate and direct power medium sized DC motors for demonstrations. These kits are also expandable.

So how do you get the power to your house? Your house runs on Alternating Current or AC power so an inverter that converts DC to AC is required. The process is pretty simple. Solar panels hook to the controller and the controller hooks to a deep cycle marine battery. You now have 12 volt DC ready to go. Next, you take the inverter and hook it to your battery. For simple installations you use an extension cord no more than 50 feet in length. This setup is usually good for applications requiring 200-500 watts or less. There are 12 volt inverters that can produce over 3000 watts but these at a full load will drain a single battery in less than an hour. The 45 watt Harbor Freight model charges a drained mid-range deep cycle battery to near full capacity in about 12 hours. So for more power, you need more panels, and for a longer charge, you need more batteries.

Installing solar directly into your house's electrical circuit breaker requires advanced professional electrical advice and installation. I have consulted a few electricians on the basics and they used their expertise to complete the project offering a solar only single outlet, by combining two of the 45 watt Harbor Freight Models. Remember, this type of installation requires a skilled electrician.

Even if you are using a simple extension cord for a small power application, keep in mind you are dealing with electricity and the risk of getting shocked or a fire hazard exists if done improperly. Read all the instructions that come with the kit you purchase and seek professional advice if you are in doubt. This system offers a low cost entry level solar alternative that produces usable power without draining your wallet.

Dan Rojas
GreenPowerScience.com

SOLAR TRAINING DIY SOLAR PANEL PV PHOTOVOLTAIC HARBOR FREIGHT SOLAR ENERGY SOLAR PANELS Please rate this video.

This easy system is affordable and there is no need to take out a 2nd mortgage:-)

Urban Sustainable Living

Buy One Now!

Garden Girl T-shirts are made out of Organic Cotton, Bamboo and Hemp featuring inspirational garden quotes. Spread the message of sustainable living everywhere you go.

Suggested Retail Price: $24.99

For Sale at North Haven Garden Center in Dallas, Texas, and Gardener's Supply in Burlington, VT, Thayer Nurseries in Milton, Mass, and Van Atta's Flower Shop in Haslett, MI

City girl to Country Gal, a transformation in progress

By Josephine Howland

I've been a city girl most of my life. I grew up just south of Boston, went to college in Boston, and spent seven years in NYC before moving back to Boston in 1987. Since I was very young, I dreamed about "living off the land" in NH. As a child we spent summer vacations in Randolph NH. There, we hiked the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, swam in the frigid rivers and I loved it!

My family always had a large vegetable garden. We learned young about compost piles and to treasure each issue of Organic Gardening. My mother, a dressmaker by trade, made our clothes and also canned a variety of produce that came from the garden. Whether it was a patio tomato in NYC or a small 2 x 5 plot inside Boston City limits a garden always made me feel at home.

Now, at 51 I'm getting closer to my dream. I live on 13.3 of mostlyforested acreage in NH dubbed Moose Hollow Farm. I have 23 chickens, 2 Nigerian dwarf goats, 3 cats and of course the more than occasional Moose wandering through the yard. I have grown vegetables and herbs each year since I've been here and hope to expand my garden this spring.

My pantry is stocked with jelly and jam made from the wild berries gathered on my property, relish my 81 year old Mom and I canned, even home canned local pears. The freezer is full from our chickens, local produce, and meat from local farmers, and wild game. If I wish to bake a pie I can go to the freezer and choose, pumpkin or maybe apple rhubarb...it's all there, all homegrown or local. My windowsill has fresh herbs to cut, and the chickens give me fresh eggs every day.

I am working towards being as self-sufficient as possible, including raising as much of our own food and working from the farm. There is a bucket of homemade laundry detergent near the washer. I am also in mid process of converting an old camp on my property into my sewing shop offering alterations and custom sewing and gift items I create.

I feel strongly that wherever you live, having control of where your food comes from will help you to save money, eat healthier, and avoid unwanted additives. Whether you choose to eat meat or not is up to you, but if you do eat meat, and are able to raise your own, or buy locally raised meat it truly is healthier for you, your community, and the planet. Here, no food goes to waste, as we pre-compost most kitchen scraps by feeding it to the goats or chicken, then use their waste in the garden.

I also enjoy giving new life to what others think of as trash. I built a goat shelter out of pallets; the chickens live in an old bob (ice fishing) house. I often transform castoff clothing items into usable items, or give new life to a piece of furniture by recovering it. Reduce, reuse, recycle, is about more than saving empty soda cans. Its amazing how proud of yourself you will be when you rewire that old lamp, or make a pillow out of an old skirt. Why spend hard earned money on poorly made plastic when you can repurpose something you already have, get at a yard sale or thrift store and end up with something so much better, with your own personal stamp? If you can't do it yourself, try to find someone who can. You'll still be repurposing the item, and helping the local economy and reducing waste while you're at it. Now, I think this nearly self-sufficient woman will go make a quiche with some of those fresh eggs I just gathered and chives from the windowsill. Won't you join me?

A Great Beginner Spinning Project By Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

Did you know that you would freeze to death before you starve to death? Well maybe you've never thought about it that way, but people throughout history thought a lot about it. Making clothing took up a large amount of women's time and up until the 50's many people still made their own clothing. Now out clothing comes from China or India. My mom made a lot of her clothing growing up and taught me how to knit and my grand mother taught me how to crochet. I love making quilts, but my favorite hobby is spinning and knitting. It is an essential part of my life. In these videos, I go through the process of making a garter stitch scarf with hand spun yarn. It's a great beginner project. My favorite part of a project like this is spinning the wool in a random pattern.

Enjoy and support your local fiber farm by purchasing your wool and yarn products from them.

Click here to watch the videos!

Ron Plans Ahead! by Ron Smith

One project that is needed is a larger firewood shed. It has become painfully evident this winter that we don't have enough dry wood storage space. That means wood gathering in the dead of winter, not a fun task! Since woodburning is one of the things that has worked out well here for comfort and utility cost reduction, it will be a priority project. The tentative plan now is to build a 16' x 5' shed w/tin roof.

The next project will be doubling the size of our garden. We plan on planting roughly a 250 sq. ft. area. As it stands now we will be planting sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, and onions. We have installed two 4'x4' raised beds. One has spices already planted in it and the other will be for onions. We have two compost bins in operation and hope to get some product to use this spring. We also planted a blueberry bush this fall and mulched it with pine needles, a tip Garden Girl had on one of her videos! We put in a shelf in front of a patio door to use as a plant starter area. We have been gathering containers to use for this purpose that would otherwise have went to the trash...another tip learned from a Garden Girl clip.

We also plan on trying our hand at water harvesting with a rain barrel next year. We found plans on the internet that seem fairly simple and much cheaper than buying one ready made. Another way to cut a utility bill! We have several alt. energy projects planned and hope to move forward on those. It seems our investment in an alternative energy system is paying off, last night as I was composing this letter we had a power outage and I lost my work! So I turned on my system and was able to have lights and heat from my wood burner until bedtime. Talk about good timing!

My wife thought at first, I had lost it when I started the solar installation in our yard but when situations like last night happen , I am the king of our castle! I have noticed the price of solar panels have dropped from about four dollars per watt down to about $2.58 recently. Another solar panel might just be in this year's plan. Have fun and enjoy! Ron Smith

WINTER SOIL
by: Mark Highland

In the depths of winter when days are short and nights are long, I keep my mind occupied with daydreams of spring moments in the garden. Planting the first rows of carrots, watching crocus bloom, even pulling the first weed of the year holds a special place in time as Mother Nature awakens from winter slumber.

My garden is in West Chester, Pennsylvania. A Zone 6 for all you science types out there. Like many gardeners on the East Coast, my garden is currently covered by a few inches of snow. The garden was "put to bed" last November after the last summer veggies were removed. My garden soil is currently sleeping under that snow, waiting for spring to emerge and temperatures to rise. In spring, the sun warms the soil and activates the hibernating soil biology; the "good bugs" that live in the soil, help recycle nutrients, and protect plant roots.

Let's talk soil science for a minute. For every ten degree rise in temperature, cellular reactions increase two-fold. This means the warmer the soil, the faster the soil biology will move about, consume and recycle nutrients, and interact with plant roots. This phenomenon is why raised beds are preferred in northern areas with shorter growing seasons. For those of us in the middle or south, raised beds improve drainage and jump start the growing season by a week or two.

The growing season begins after soil temperatures reach 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Plants adapted to thrive in cooler climates begin growing before those adapted to warmer climates. This is why we sow spinach or beets in early spring, but wait until Mother's Day to plant tomato or pepper starts in the garden. The vast majority of plants need soil temperatures above 50 degrees F before roots start growing. The exception to the rule is hardy evergreen plants, adapted to grow all year long. However, in the veggie garden, plant growth grinds to a stop after the first few hard freezes.

Bare soil freezes faster than soil covered with living plants. Cover crops like winter rye or oats make a protective mat on the soil surface to slow the rate of soil cooling. Here in PA, I sow seeds underneath fall veggies about 60-45 days before the first frost date. Cover crops are turned over into the garden in spring, adding choice organic matter to feed the soil microbiology. Use your shovel to dig and turn over cover crops about 14 days before planting time to allow the fresh organic matter to decompose into the soil.

So how can you prepare for spring? Continue flipping through seed catalogs, dog-earing pages, dreaming of summer sun and ripe tomatoes. The soil will continue hibernating until we have enough hours of sunlight to wake the soil from winter slumber. My advice to speed things up, besides cover cropping and raised beds, is to wait on applying mulch to garden beds until soil temperatures reach at least 65 degrees F. Small soil thermometers cost about ten dollars and are found in many greenhouse supply catalogs.

These suggestions for increasing the productivity of your veggie garden require a little work, but beautiful soil is worth every minute of maintenance. You will thank me later when your harvest doubles from building raised beds, sowing cover crops, and mulching at appropriate times. So keep day-dreaming and be ready to kick-start next season when the soil thaws and comes to life!

Don't forget to visit OrganicMechanicSoil.com

How to test your garden soil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx7JjPmsaZc

How to make compost tea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_1Jy5GPno

Please continue to share my videos and website with everyone. Click here to go to my YouTube Channel where you can see over 90 videos from Garden Girl TV. Don't forget to rate the videos, comment on the videos, and subscribe to my YouTube Channel so you'll know right away when a new video is available for viewing. Thank you all again, from the sustainable home front. And don't forget it all began in a garden...

Besos(kisses),

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

GardenGirlTV.com

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Square Foot Gardening Tips: March

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More Tips from Mel Bartholomew and Patti Moreno the Garden Girl.

How to Make Thai Cabbage Salad

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Patti's Ezine - January 2009

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In this issue of Urban Sustainable Living with Patti Moreno

The Sustainable Home Front by Patti Moreno

Square Foot Gardening by Sinfonian Barelytone

FREE HEIRLOOM SEEDS

A Fresh Start fo the New Year by Cynthia McKenna LPC, NCC

Compost Queen by Annie Spiegleman

What Does Local Food Look Like? by Luci Fenandez

Growing Mint by Dana Wright

A Goat Farm Under 2 Acres By Jacquie Jenkins

The Chicken and the Egg it Produces by Frederick J. Dunn

What I Didn't Learn in Medical School, Part 1 by Kathryn Hayward, M.D.

The Last Word: Easy Plantin', Plantin' it Easy by Mark Highland

From the Sustainable Home Front

Xmas is over (thank God) and the New Year is upon us. For many of us, it has been a difficult year and for me, filled with lots of ups and downs. But now that 2009 is here, I am hopeful that it will be a new chapter for me and anyone else that needs to turn the page as well. This year I'll be working on my book and editing 20 new hours of programming to bring to you information on all things sustainable.

This month I have NEW VIDEOS for you to see. Check out my automated indoor hydroponic seed starting video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQL0MLvWwqE

Please watch the videos, rate them, bookmark and write a comment. I am so sick of mindless content featured on youtube that I want to ask you to help in boosting this content to the top of the page! If you enjoy the free videos I make, show your support by leaving lots comments.

And don't forget to watch, January Square foot gardening tips from Mel Bartholomew with his lovely sidekick me =):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqVUnU3_c4

Not that I needed another project, but I started a blog for all the best green living video I find on the web You can find it at

http://www.thegreenlivingtvnetwork.com/

Feel free to write me HERE if you would like to contribute to the new blog or this Ezine and forward this email around to everyone you know and share a little green living inspiration with others.

I am super pleased to bring you this issue of Urban Sustainable Living. It is jam packed with helpful and sometimes even funny articles this month. Cynthia McKenna tackles the world of resolutions and Annie Spiegleman contributes a hilarious article on compost(yes compost can be funny).

In this month's contest. I am giving away FREE SEEDS from my heirloom seed collection, so be sure to check that out below as well. HAVE A HAPPY HEALTHY NEW YEAR and come and share your thoughts with all of us at www.gardengirltv.com/messageboard.

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl
P.S. Check out my Home Page's new look! Click here. GardenGirlTV.com

Square Foot Gardening
By Sinfonian Barelytone

Everyone I know that's read Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening loves it. We all use it. However, contrary to what Mel would like, nobody I know follows it to the letter. I believe that is because there are 100 ways to grow a tomato, probably more. So everyone gardens ever so slightly different, yet everyone's tomatoes taste far better than store-bought anyway. That's the long way of saying I don't follow SFG to the letter (90% I'd guess), and I think you'll find neither does Patti the Garden Girl. That doesn't mean that Mel wasn't way ahead of his time, nor that his method isn't amazing. Reading the first half of his book will tell you that it is, and I agree.

SFG took a guy who killed houseplants and allowed him to grow roughly 50% of his family's produce needs his first year. It's phenomenal! My first year I grew three varieties of leaf lettuce (multiple successions), spinach, tons of radishes and carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, three varieties of peas, bush and pole beans, two varieties of tomatoes, three varieties of cucumbers, green onions, and two varieties of corn. All that in 130 measly square feet of raised beds.

The beauty of SFG is you plant very intensively. The onions, carrots and radishes are planted 16 per SF. Spinach is 9 per SF. See how you can get a ton of food in a small space? Heck, I believe Mel when he says you can feed a salad a day for a season for a family from a 4x4 box.

The other secret is succession planting. You plant some, then later you plant more so you have constant supply. And when you rip something out, sprinkle some more compost on the square and replant something else. I could have been better at this, but I had trouble ripping out perfectly good plants to plant something else.

I really should touch on Mel's Mix. There is a ton of debate about it. Essentially it's 1/3 diverse compost from many sources, 1/3 peat moss (buy Canadian so it's renewable), and 1/3 vermiculite. The amazing thing about Mel's Mix is that it drains like a sink and retains water like a sponge. The downside is that it is fairly expensive and work intensive. I spent close to $500 for 6 cubic yards to fill my beds 16 inches deep. Now, while I highly recommend it if you can't afford it, I'm big on gardening on the cheap (but that's another article). Mel himself teaches in third-world countries that straight compost can be used quite effectively in SFG. Again, there's 100 ways to grow a tomato...

What I like to say when debating SFG compared to traditional row planting, is that row gardening is great if you have acreage and want to use it all for your garden, but if you're an urban or suburban gardener with limited space (like my 260 SF), then raised beds and SFG in some fashion, may be right for you too! So pick up a copy of his book from the store or your local library, and above all, enjoy your garden!

By Sinfonian Barelytone

Talk to him over at the message board!

Check out his blog: ft2garden.powweb.com/sinfonian/

Free Heirloom Seeds for your garden?

Then send me an EMAIL by replying to this email with the URL link where the widget appears and your mailing address. Three weeks or so later you will get a free packet of one of the following Heirloom Seeds from my collection: Giant of Italy Parsley, Genovese Basil, Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Rainbow selection of Carrots, and many more. Share our great sustainable living content with the world, install your widget today!

A Fresh Start for the New Year

By Cynthia McKenna LPC, NCC

It seems natural to use the turning of the year to take stock of life - to consider what could be different in the coming year. Many of us make resolutions that focus on something that is "wrong" with us. This resolution-making is also loaded with guilt, because if you don't achieve what you set out to do, you can feel a sense of failure. As we sit at this transitional point, I want to offer you a different approach to making your resolutions.

Instead of simply focusing on one "problem" you want to fix, what would happen if you could look at your life in a holistic manner? What changes would seem most important if you evaluated with an eye toward increasing balance and clarity. What successes would you celebrate? Would you find areas of your life that you are neglecting? Rather than simply focusing on getting up early to exercise or losing those 15 pounds, take this opportunity to think about the life you would like to have and take steps to begin to live into that life.

Start by looking at your life in terms of broad aspects or categories. Here are some examples: Physical Environment, Career, Money, Health, Relationships, Personal Growth, Fun and Recreation, Emotional Balance. These are aspects that contribute to your overall sense of well-being and also can influence your health both emotionally and physically. Feel free to add categories that seem most relevant to you.

Next, ask yourself, "What am I doing in each area that helps me live the life I want to live? You list might look like this:

Physical environment

I clean off my desk at the end of the day

I have enough light to do my work

I live in an apartment that I love

Money

I save 10 % of my income
I contribute regularly to my retirement plan
I pay my bills on time

Relationships
I tell my partner "I love you" everyday
I don't gosip
I return letters, emails and phone calls promptly.

Notice if some of your categories have only a few items while others have many things listed. This gives you some feedback on parts of yourself that you may be neglecting.

Now, look at these categories and ask, "What could I be doing to make my life the way I want it to be? What qualities of a full and meaningful life do you want to include in your list? These are things you aren't doing yet, but that you value and want to work toward. For example:

Physical Environment
I recycle regularly
I keep my garden weeded and watered
My closet is tidy and inviting

Money
I have enough in savings to live for 6 months
I have a budget for my expenses and I stick to it
I contribute time or money to charity on a regular basis

Relationships
I call my parents weekly
I can ask for what I want and/or need
I spend some down-time with friends regularly

Try to add small changes as well as large ones, it will help you see success sooner and keep you motivated.

In starting with the big picture, you gain a vision of where you want your life to be and what steps you can take in order to make that happen. You now have some concrete feedback on what you can do to improve your life. As you begin to make changes, you will know that you are working toward your goal.

What if you really do want to lose 15 pounds or start a regular exercise program? Go back to your categories and add the steps needed to make those changes happen. For example:

Physical environment
I keep healthful foods in the house
I allow myself an occasional treat
I subscribe to a health magazine
Health
My weight is within a healthy range
My blood pressure is lower
I drink plenty of water to keep my body healthy
Fun & Recreation
I have a CD player or I-Pod to help with my workouts
I invite friends to go walking with me
I play outside with my kids

You have just taken your goal of losing 15 lbs and made it concrete. You have actions that you can see and measure. And, you are working on your goal from a variety of perspectives, rather than just focusing on the number on the scale. By making small changes in a variety of areas, you will be more likely to achieve your goals. You will have the opportunity to celebrate your successes more often, and, know that you are working toward living the life you want to live.

Cynthia McKenna, LPC, NCC, is a gardener and writer who lives in South Texas. Cynthia is also a therapist who helps women reduce anxiety and depression and find ways to live their fullest lives. You can visit her on the web at http://www.counselingblog.com/

Compost Queen

by Annie Spiegelman
thedirtdiva@earthlink.net and DirtDiva.com

Last spring my compost pile was a total bust. The decaying vegetable and plant matter was either too dry and clumpy or too damp and lumpy. The residing worms, fungi and other microbial tenants collectively and bitterly revolted, calling their agents and complaining about the atrocious working conditions. They wanted out and they snitched on me. Being a diva and an experienced Master Gardener, I knew this "situation" was unacceptable. I was paranoid the president of our local Master Gardener chapter, if she found out, would rip my MG trowel-shaped nametag from my organic cotton t-shirt and accuse me of impersonating a 'real' gardener. To preserve my dignity while advancing my own legacy, I decided to sign up for the San Francisco Botanical Garden's latest 'dirt' class, taught by Zen Gardening Master and author, Wendy Johnson. I was determined and convinced Wendy's scientific and sagely advice would assure me the perfect, mother-of-all compost piles by the end of 2008.

The soil class was taught at Green Gulch Farm, an organic farm and Buddhist Zen Center located in Mill Valley, CA. While us attendees were busy getting our hands dirty in the fields of greens, there were also Buddhist monks in saffron robes passing nearby. Some were fulfilling their vows of silence while others happily praised the new rooftop garden planted on top of the adobe tool shed. "At Green Gulch, we don't proselytize about Zen, but we certainly do preach the gospel of hot compost," says Wendy. At the farm, there are a number of large, steamy compost piles spread around the property. The compost mantra is simple yet precise: 'Farm girls must sing." F is for food', G is for greens, M is for manure and S is for straw. Remember that and you've taken your first steps towards garden nirvana. Mix and match, turn and moisten, and you shall succeed, our teacher promised. After 3hours of working in the garden and taking notes on bat turds, worm poop, horse manure and friendly fungi and bacteria, Wendy reminded us of the importance of taking time to sit quietly in our gardens and do absolutely nothing. Nada. She was staring right at me when she said this. She must have sensed I'm from New York City. I'll show her, I thought to myself! I know how to go deep inside and relax. So, on my way out of the class, I sat on a garden bench and soaked in the sun while meditating on the gratitude and connection I felt for compost queens the world over. My heart goes out to you if your inner dialogue sounds anything like mine . . . " This place is too WEIRD. Oh, look, Crabapple trees. How fancy! Wait, I'm supposed to be observing my breath. Breathe in, breathe out. And just why is it my best friends sometimes get on my nerves? Is it them or me? Them, I'm quite sure. Yikes, here comes a Zen monk right towards me. Are these voices in my head bothering him? Okay, breathe and STOP thinking already. Focus, focus. Why do they shave their head, anyways? Do they use hair samples to test for drugs?. Quiet, quiet. Non-judgment and compassion I beckon you NOW! Jesus, hurry UP! With all that mercury in tuna, I don't know what to eat for lunch. Wouldn't it be hilarious to have a Starbucks here? There's definitely a conspiracy of silence spying on me right this minute. When does Oprah sleep? Did she ever marry what's his name?"

And with that, I picked up my few belongings and hit the road running. I went home and immediately started two new compost piles. One in a Smith and Hawken plastic bin and one out in the open air. I had a successful worm box already which was doing fine, so I left that one alone and focused on the two new piles. I went to the neighbor down the road, with the horses. She hugged me for enthusiastically asking her if I could take a load of her horse manure. I think she felt sorry for me.I went to my local Peet's coffee and asked them to bag up their coffee grounds every Sunday for me. They wore the face of pity, as well. I watered, turned and pampered my two new piles and by September I had created the most fabulous homemade compost I had ever crafted. I almost had tears in my eyes when I saw the dark crumbly soil-like material at the bottom of the pile. It was as if those microorganisms were hiding in the dark with their party-hats on, waiting for me to come home from work so they could all yell "SURPRISE!" I quickly became the stage-mother of one big, glitzy family and decided to take the show on the road, "Fungi, Bacteria and Earthworms-The Musical!" I traveled around the Bay Area giving out buckets loaded with decaying leftovers, wrapped in Christmas ribbons, as holiday gifts. The relatives were a bit surprised and grateful yet wore that face of pity and concern. That's okay, I reminded them. We're all in this together. Recycling. Reusing. Re-gifting. This is the season of sharing. Feel free to toss in the fruitcake. Add manure, straw and water. Stab with pitchfork.

Retail Price: $12.99

Available Now at North Haven Gardens in Dallas, TX, Gardener's Supply in Burlington, VT, Thayer Nurseries in Milton, MA, Van Atta's Flower Shop in Haslett, MI.

What does local food look like?
By Luci Fernandez

One topic that has been making the news on a regular basis is local food. The term localvore (or locavore) is defined as someone who eats regularly from their local foodshed (usually defined as within a 100 to 250 mile radius). But for those just starting their locavore journey, the question is 'how does one start'?

Look out your window. What do you see? Do you see an endless expanse of lawn? This is your first potential source of local food. Start small; for example, plant an herb garden with hardy herbs to withstand the learning curve you will undergo. Just being able to add fresh herbs to your home cooking makes it special. You can impress your friends by saying, "Oh, I just picked the parsley from the garden today!" You say you don't have a lawn to rehab, well then start with container herbs on a sunny kitchen windowsill. I didn't know much about growing vegetables when I started tearing up my front lawn, but if I had waited until I knew everything, I would have never started! Making mistakes has been my best teacher!

Meet a farmer. When is the last time you shook the hand of someone who grew something you ate (and said thank-you)? Think about how much we depend on these folks who grow the stuff we love to eat. Find a local farmer's market and talk to these folks. Ask them how they grow their crops, how they treat their animals, why they do what they do. And they buy from them!! Buying directly from the farmer puts more money back in their pocket than when you buy products from the grocery store. If you don't have a local farmer's market, talk to your local government officials to help sponsor a location for one. We started one last year after many years of dormancy.

Just because, it didn't work before, doesn't mean you can't try again.

Challenge your grocery store produce manager. We recently found out that our local chain grocery store was placing 'locally grown' signs on produce willy-nilly. When asked what his definition of locally grown was - he said 'anything grown in the US'. I guess he hasn't read the definition of 'locally grown.' Don't be shy about questioning your local produce manager and asking them to support locally grown produce.

Start a food co-operative grocery store. Ok, this one might be a little harder to accomplish. We are in the early stages of developing a grocery co-operative grocery store in our town to support locally grown and raised products and to support the local economy. Locally grown and local economies go hand-in-hand in supporting each other. This effort will involve more than just yourself. Find out if there is a locally buying club. Talk to them about joining efforts. Are there any community groups working on local food issues? Partner with them to get the word out to the community. We are partnering with the local sustainability not-for-profit organization and we will be using films about food issues to stir up interest in the community.

As you can see, there are many facets to locally grown food. You are only limited by your imagination and ability to challenge to status-quo of where our food comes from. If we are what we eat, then I want to make sure that what I eat is the best I can get! Bon appétit!!

Luci is a native of New York City, Luci has lived from the east coast to the west coast. Luci currently works as a Sustainability Planner for Ft. Bragg. She previously served as an Army Officer for 5 years and worked as a registered nurse for 10 years. She has been active in local sustainability issues since returning to Fayetteville NC. She volunteers with Sustainable Sandhills, a local sustainability focused organization and served on the City of Fayetteville Recycling Task Force.

Garden Girl's New DVD is available at garden centers NOW!

Retail Price: $19.99

Growing Mint by Dana Wright alotgreener.blogspot.com

Mint, a member of the Lamiaceae or Labiatae family, is as easy to grow as it is to incorporate into all sorts of recipes. This cold hardy perennial is great for beginners and can be grown in a window or even under cover to extend the growing season. It's fragrant scent and beautiful leaves are an attractive addition to any garden. Make sure to give mint a wide berth when planting in early spring as it can easily choke off other plants. It can grow in all sorts of conditions but usually prefers slightly moist soil with some shade. An easy way to keep mint under control is to surround it with metal or plastic about a foot into the ground. This will not completely stop the spread of mint, but it will help to keep it under control.

Used in teas to aid in digestion and ailments of the digestive track, facial sprays to sooth, calm and refresh, and of course in the kitchen in all manner of foods and drinks such as Mint Julep, an additive to plain iced tea for a cool summer treat and as a flavor enhancer to herbal teas. And while it is sometimes shied away from due to the fact that it can very easily take over one's garden, once it is there, what else can you do with it?

Well, make pesto, of course!

Pesto is an easy and refreshing way to add big flavor and that ever loved garden freshness to all manner of dishes ranging from pasta to poultry. A simple sauce to concoct, basil has long been the pesto herb of choice. But like the tired dishes that pesto is used to step up, sometimes the pesto itself needs to step up. While our beloved basil can never be replaced as a favorite in either garden or kitchen, there is something to be said about the revitalizing change that a mintalicious pesto can bring to the table.

It is amazing the difference mint can make in dishes that use pesto. Use it on plain pasta, or as a dip for garden fresh vegetables, a cool spread on warm bread right out of the oven or as a garnish for a baked or broiled chicken, quail or duck. Replace mayonnaise with a mint pesto on sandwiches for a mouth watering change of pace or even to replace herbal dipping oil for breads.

Long has mint and lamb been paired together, too. A nice change of pace for plain ole burgers is to work a fresh mint pesto into ground lamb for a flavor upgrade to this all American favorite. Make into patties and grill like a regular burger for a change of pace worthy of a casual dinner party. Add garden fresh vegetables to the grill and brush with this sauce for an unusual kick. Use the pesto as a garnish for roasted lamb and even for grilled favorites like chicken, lamb chops, sea food, pork and fish. Just brush it on right after your main course of choice comes off the grill.

The next time you are staring at your dinner menu wondering what you can do to have a pleasant change, consider the humble mint sprig for a wondrous change of events!

To Watch Patti's Video on Sun brewed Mint Iced Tea click the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59m0iC9vgJI

A Goat Farm under 2 Acres
By Jacquie Jenkins

I'm a wife and stay at home mom of three. I've always wanted my own land but I grew up in south Florida where open land was few and expensive.But in 2004 we moved to central Florida and bought a house with 1.73 acres. I was going to landscape the whole thing because as a city girl I thought you had to have a lot of land to have a farm.

Then I found the Urban Sustainable Living website and everything changed. I saw that it could be done on a smaller scale and I started researching how to make our property productive.

Chickens and eggs were the first and most obvious option. A milk cow needs more land then I had. Then I found milk goats. Further research produced Kinder goats, a cross of nubian and pygmy goats, which are excellent for milk and meat. But I had no money for goats.

On a whim I posted on a goat forum asking if I could trade work for the use of a nubian doe. I had never worked on a farm before but figured it would be a great opportunity to learn. I got a response from a lady about a half an hour from me. She and her husband owned a goat farm.

I started working there and they offered me a mixed breed doe to use as a milker. Then they offered me two nubian does to start my kinder herd. They also bred all three does to a couple of very handsome spotted nubian bucks I'd admired while there. That way I could have babies to keep or sell and I could milk all three does sooner then if I waited to get a pygmy buck.

When I worked off my does, they kept me on a couple more weeks and paid me so I could buy supplies for fencing. They even gave me some posts to help cut down my costs and let me use some of their fencing tools. I will always appreciate their generosity.

After a couple more weeks of hard work, I am finally done with the goat shelter and fencing. I won't be bringing my girls home until after Thanksgiving but except for a couple minor details everything is ready and waiting.

This was a story about how I got into goats. But I was asked WHY I got into goats. The benefits of raising my own milk and meat animals is the main one, of course. But there's also the fact that goats can be such loving, funny, and endearing animals. The entertainment value alone is worth it. I mean, what's cuter than a baby goat bouncing around? Add to that the educational value for my kids of how to care for animals, knowledge of where food comes from, and the experience of witnessing birth. Also the personal satisfaction of being able to use my property in such a productive way. And lastly, just because I love animals. =)

Click the link to see Patti Shearing her Pygora goats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez02uZnU1UQ

Check out Jaquie's Blog:
http://silvermoon-acres.blogspot.com/

Urban Sustainable Living

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Garden Girl T-shirts are made out of Organic Cotton, Bamboo and Hemp featuring inspirational garden quotes. Spread the message of sustainable living everywhere you go.

Suggested Retail Price: $24.99

For Sale at North Haven Garden Center in Dallas, Texas, and Gardener's Supply in Burlington, VT, Thayer Nurseries in Milton, Mass, and Van Atta's Flower Shop in Haslett, MI

The Chicken and the Egg it Produces

By Frederick J. Dunn

Though without a doubt, the chicken is the most universally eaten of all meats, I will focus here, upon the egg it produces. A rooster may be dispensed with, with very little deliberation or ceremony and then made a meal of. However, when one considers the little hen, no matter her disposition, one stops and considers weather or not she still produces eggs. Her value, lies mostly, in the number, size and shape of the eggs she produces.

When a female chick hatches, the number of eggs she is capable of laying in her life time, is already known, or at least within her. Samuel Butler once remarked "the hen is only an eggs way of making another egg?", this gives me pause. My point is, that the egg or the chicken/hen, are merely points in a life cycle, an endless loop.

Why do I mention all of this about the hen and the egg? Well, it leads nicely into the quality of the egg produced and when exactly this quality aspect becomes important. A chick may hatch, already deficient, if its parents (hen or rooster) were not in premium health at the point of fertilization. So, quality of life, physical accommodations and quality of feed, all contribute to what we ourselves may one day eat.

It's very simple really, what the chicken eats and is exposed to, we eventually eat and are exposed to as well. Those of you who are reading this article, probably are already on a quest to improve your immediate environment and obtain the very best in nutrition for yourself and those you care for.

Some quick Facts about chickens and eggs:

The color of an egg shell has nothing to do with the hens diet at all, rather it is dictated by the specific breed of chicken laying the egg. People often think I'm pulling their leg when I state that you can often tell the color of the egg your hen will produce by looking at her ear lobes. A red eared chicken will lay a brown egg, a white ear lobed chicken will lay a white egg. There are some exceptions to this general guide, but for the most part it is the case. Easter egg chickens are of course exceptions to this rule (Ameraucanas and Araucanas respectively), as they lay various shades of green, pink, blue and anything in-between.

It takes a hen approximately 25 hours to produce an egg and she lays her egg during day light, or when a coop light remains on.

Brown shelled eggs are most popular in England, while white shelled eggs are most preferred in the United States. Some people seem to think a brown egg shell means more organic, or healthier than a white shelled egg, however this simply not supported by science.

Hens lay with greatest frequency, when they have at least 14 hours of light (artificial or natural).

A hen will lay eggs, even in the absence of a rooster. Eggs from the grocery store, will not hatch if you put them in an incubator, as they are not fertile.

Ok, now let's get on with the current nutritional findings, regarding battery hens and the eggs they produce, as compared with free ranging hens and the nutritional values found in their eggs. I will not deal, in this article, with the value of eggs to humans as a food, though nutritionists celebrate the chicken egg broadly, as one of the most complete and high quality animal proteins one can obtain.

Watch for "spin" in how eggs are presented to the consumer. I will simply present my observations here and will protect myself by not taking a side. The egg lobby is powerful and well connected and they seem not to want anyone else rearing chickens and selling eggs, other than the huge corporate enterprises.

First, I take you to the Incredible Egg Site, you've certainly seen their adds on TV.

This is the industry voice. If one looks at their nutrition page, the message is interesting, you see what appears to be whole grain bread, dark shelled spotted eggs, wheat grasses and a nice cup with milk in it, all surrounded with organic feeling natural colors.

This image here is of one of the farms that support the egg industry. On the site it lists its nutritional value, one particular percentage which jumps out at me, is the 70 calorie per egg, 40 calories are from fat. Another startling percentage, is that each egg is 71% Cholesterol. They make no egg to egg comparison with free range eggs.

As it turns out, all those choices of eggs at your supermarket aren't providing you much of a choice at all. Recent tests conducted by Mother Earth News magazine have shown once again that eggs from chickens that range freely on pasture provide clear nutritional benefits over eggs from confinement operations. Mother Earth News collected samples from 14 pastured flocks across the country and had them tested at an accredited laboratory. The results were compared to official US Department of Agriculture data for commercial eggs. Results showed the pastured eggs contained an amazing: · 1/3 less cholesterol than commercial eggs · 1/4 less saturated fat · 2/3 more vitamin A · 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids · 7 times more beta carotene Full results of the tests are available in the October/November 2007 issue of Mother Earth News.

So far, pastured egg producers are kicking the commercial industry's butt! Woo hoo, go free range! I hope this information has been useful to you and that you will consider rearing a small flock of hens to work your gardens, provide nutritious eggs, add animation to your urban plot and of course, recycle all those fruits and veggies that would otherwise go to waste, or take months to break down in your compost bin.

Until next time, giving chickens and their eggs a voice.

Frederick Dunn Author of Regarding Chickens www.FredsFineFowl.com

What I Didn't Learn in Medical School, Part 1
by Kathryn Hayward, M.D.

You read the Garden Girl e-zine for ideas about how to live more healthfully in your urban environment. Likewise, you probably go to your doctor for guidance with your health.

Does your doctor help you improve your health, or only have time to focus on disease? Is the US medical system a "health care system" or a "disease care system"?

Before reading further, close your eyes and ask yourself this question: "What is health?" Then go to the message board of the Garden Girl e-zine and share your definition of health with the other readers.

Now write another message on the board, answering this question: "What advice has my doctor given me recently that has helped me be healthy?"

On my first day at Boston University School of Medicine in 1982, the Dean told our nervous audience of 168 students, "in the next four years, you are going to learn 10,000 new words. You each have a good memory, or else you would not be here. Your memory will be stretched to the maximum here."

He was right. We learned a lot of words that ended in "itis" (appendicitis, tonsillitis), which means "inflammation of" (appendix, tonsils). We learned thousands of drug names, and oftentimes two names for the same drug (Prilosec, Omeprazole). When we started caring for patients, we learned how confusing this is. It's like giving your child two different names (Sam, Ben) and never creating a predictable pattern which you use when you call him.

We learned about diseases of organs, names of bacteria and viruses that infect people, and how to surgically remove parts of bodies, fix broken bones and stitch up lacerations.

After four years, I began internal medicine residency at Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Mass. On the first day, our Chief Resident strode into the auditorium and looked at our nervous group of interns with no glint of a smile or compassion. Silently, she turned to the blackboard and drew a large circle. She turned and solemnly looked us up and down. "This is you." Turning to the board, she drew a dozen arrows sticking out from the periphery of the circle, each of different lengths. She turned back to us. "These are all the things calling for your attention at the same time. A nurse needs an order. A family wants to talk to you. A patient can't breathe. In the next three years, you will learn that even though this (she circled the longest arrow) is screaming the loudest for your attention, this (she pointed to the shortest arrow) is the sickest patient.

Go back to the message board and answer this final question: In those seven years of medical training, how much do young doctors learn about how to help patients with their health?
Next month I'll share my experience.

Click below to go to the Garden Girl TV Forum message boards:

MESSAGE BOARDS

Dr. Kathryn Hayward is a Board certified primary care internist and Associate Physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. In addition to caring for patients with complex medical problems, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, she has developed integrative medicine programs for weight management and has been an investigator in national trials for diabetes prevention and treatment.

The Last Word: Easy Plantin', Plantin' it Easy

by Mark Highland
www.organicmechanicsoil.com

I love plant sales. I love plant swaps. I just love finding little treasures picked up at spring plant sales, friends homes, or my favorite local garden center. I am usually so excited to plant that I set everything out in the beds as soon as I get home. After a warm up of tea or coffee and grabbing my gloves I'm ready to plant. I get out there, carefully move mulch aside, and plant. Remembering to move the mulch aside allows you to plant at the appropriate height, so you don't bury your root ball or tree trunk root flare.

After about the 5th-6th plant I usually realize, "Great! I forgot to mix compost in the planting hole." It is about this time when I used to despair, knowing my plants would either have to be re-planted, or struggle a little bit in the non-amended soil. Now, I have a trick to make sure there is always compost in the planting hole, and I don't even have to think about it.

I use compost as mulch in the garden. That's right. Compost as mulch. A two to three inch layer of compost holds moisture and cools plant roots, but also releases nutrients slowly into the ground through a process called nutrient cycling. Nutrient cycling happens as a result of the soil biological activity, which is essentially critters eating other critters. Although small, microscopic in-fact, these little soil organisms can add a lot of fertility to a garden.

But I digress. My point...using compost as mulch allows me to move aside my mulch before planting, but as I dig the planting hole, I mix the compost layer with the native soil. No extra work required since the compost is already in place right where I need it. Plus, using compost as mulch starts a process of creating healthy soil. After 8 months the soil under a three-inch compost layer is more crumbly and soft then areas with only a half-inch compost layer.

Don't forget to check out the new videos Mark and Patti made here:

How to test your garden soil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx7JjPmsaZc

How to make compost tea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_1Jy5GPno

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

GardenGirlTV.com

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Square Foot Gardening Tips: February

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Square Foot Gardening Tips: February

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How to Make Your Own Worm Bin

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Square Foot Gardening Tips: January

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Square Foot Gardening Tips from Mel Bartholomew and Patti Moreno the Garden Girl.

Easy Hydroponic Seed Starting Factory

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December Ezine

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From the Sustainable Home Front

I am super proud to bring you issue two of Urban Sustainable Living, it is probably too long for a traditional email, but will be a great resource later, on the website. This issue is jam packed with information from planning next year's garden to delicious holiday recipes. In my garden, my Asian greens and Four Season lettuce is doing great under my hoop houses and I have started to prepare for Mel of Square Foot Gardening's arrival and our three day shoot together.

Check out my new video with Mark Highland where we use a soil test kit over on the Fine Gardening blog here. Please leave a comment and show your support for sustainable living.

I am also super busy launching my retail line of products. My products are only available at stores, as I do my part to support local, family owned garden centers. If you live in the Dallas Area, you can by my DVDs and other great stuff at North Haven Garden Center, and if you live in Vermont go to Gardener's Supply in Burlington. If your local Garden Center doesn't carry my products ask them to check out my line and contact me.

Have a happy holiday season this year and come and share your thoughts with all of us at www.gardengirltv.com/messageboard.

Thank you and enjoy! Patti Moreno the Garden Girl

Cover Photo Fred Dunn www.fredsfinefowl.com

Welcome to the Ezine!

The Sustainable Home Front

A brand new garden

Alternative Energy

Staying Balanced through the Holidays

Little House in the Suburbs

Pumpkin Pie

The Chicken

A Real Estate Lender Plants a Garden!!!

I'm a 36 year old commercial real estate lender in the Seattle area with two young boys and a stay-at-home wife. Growing up, my mother had two raised beds in our small back yard where she grew tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, among other things. But I was never into gardening. I have a ¼ acre lot that I hated to mow, let alone landscape and I can't even keep houseplants alive. So how did a black thumb turn into an avid gardener? My garden all started from a discussion with my older brother.

A year ago I had a 250 SF area of my yard that used to be a dog run. In the decade since we owned our home, we never really went back there and it became blighted with foot tall and deep weeds, a crab apple tree and morning glories galore! Talking it over with my brother, who had picked up the gardening bug and had three raised beds in his yard, he suggested I turn the area into a garden.The area had a perfect southern exposure and was already fenced in. At first I laughed at him, but the idea kind of grew on me.

About that same time, I was speaking to my best friends from college about starting a garden. My buddy recommended that I read Mel's Square Foot Gardening book. My brother was very skeptical, but I read it anyway and was hooked! It was so easy, anyone could do it.
Finally, as if I needed further encouragement, I had enrolled in a blood pressure reduction program at work. The health counselor went through all the standard litany of methods to reduce blood pressure, but I was already doing them all. It ended up boiling down to stress reduction. With a stressful job and a young family, I had no time for stress relieving hobbies. So when I suggested gardening, the counselor was very excited. Gardening is a great stress relief and the byproduct is nutritious fruits and vegetables.

So I turned to the internet to research gardening. I've found that I'm really good at research, and I am a quick learner. That and I love helping people, so I try to answer questions on various gardening forums whenever I can, of course while I'm learning from others.I write about my mistakes, my challenges, and how I overcome them. I've made more mistakes in my first season gardening than I can count. The funny thing is, the garden grew anyway! Mostly though, along the way this season I've made lasting friends, dozens of them. Gardeners are the friendliest, most helpful people on the planet. It's not a competition, it's a camaraderie.
By Sinfonian Barelytone
Talk to him over at the message board!

Alternative Energy Projects for the Homestead
My wife and I became interested in alt. energy in 1995 when we first got access to the internet at home. I had seen solar panels installed at some buildings here in West Virginia, and was fascinated by the idea of self generated power that I knew was clean and green. After researching solar and wind power over the years we finally decided to try solar power first. Having a little working knowledge of electricity also helped. We watched videos of self installations and gained enough confidence to try it. We started small with one 80 watt panel and two 12v batteries and had success!

Once we were successful with this project, it gave us encouragement to try some other projects including a small wind generator and a bicycle powered generator. I don't know how best to explain it but once we saw the working end result of our labor we were quickly enticed to do more. There is just something wonderful and gratifying about generating some of your own power, especially when you did the installation yourself.

Saving money was also an incentive for all of our alternative energy projects. Initially we realized a small savings on our power bill but were able to capitalize on the Federal tax break of 30% on the purchase price of our solar panels. The savings have became larger as we expanded the system and began practicing reduced consumption methods such as compact fluorescent lighting and reducing "Phantom Loads".
The whole experience has taught us self confidence and a much greater working knowledge of alternative energy, and how to be more self reliant. We have some alt. energy projects still on the drawing board and are looking forward to 2009.

Have fun and enjoy!

Ron and Pam Smith

Staying Balanced Through
The Holidays

By Cynthia McKenna

The holidays are coming! There are usually lots of opportunities to gather, see friends and family, eat great food, and generally celebrate. However, the holidays can also bring on added stress and grief if we lose sight of our goals and get swept up in the many demands that come our way. Navigating through this season can be tough. Here are some steps to help you maintain a sense of balance and hopefully have more space for delight and joy.
Food

This is a season for eating. There are special meals, extravagant desserts, and lots of snack foods to enjoy. The downside is that it is not uncommon for people to gain 5 or even 10 pounds during the holidays.

Here are some ways to avoid the gift of extra weight this season:

Plan what you want to eat before you get to the food. Think about what foods really appeal to you, and how much you want to have. It might even help to tell your partner or companion what you are planning to eat.

Eat slowly. Take the time to really savor each bite. Pay attention to the colors, textures, and aromas that make foods special.

Concentrate on conversation. If you are at a party or similar event, allow yourself to indulge in the company of others. Take the opportunity to get to know someone new. Introduce yourself and perhaps make a new friend or rekindle an old friendship. When you are having a good time, you might not be so tempted to overeat.

Alcohol has a lot of calories and carbohydrates. Try alternatives like juice or sparkling water. Put good things into your body as often as possible.

Keep exercising through the holidays. Exercise burns calories, helps you release stress and brings oxygen into your body. Make your self-care a priority, even during this busy time.

Finances

For many of us, this is a gift giving season. If your family traditions include gifts during the season, these ideas can help.

Talk with your partner about what you both want to spend and can afford to spend this season. Gift buying is easier to manage when you start with your goal in mind.

Recognize that advertisers and the media really want you to spend - that is their goal. If you have children, you can use the media blitz as an opportunity to teach them about media pressure. You can make a game out of identifying what the commercials are telling you to buy or do. Older kids can identify what advertisers are promising you with their products (happiness, love, etc).

In some families, there is a myth that the size or cost of a gift represents how much you love the person you are gifting. This can be a trap for over-spending. If you recognize this in yourself, or in your family, perhaps you can begin to think about gifts as tokens of affection rather than symbols of how much a person means to us. If you stop to think about it, we can't ever really give someone a gift that is equal to our love for them. A gift is a chance to say, "I am thinking about you and celebrating our relationship." This is a good time to celebrate the gifts we give daily: love, kindness, compassion, and laughter.

Consider using food from your garden as gifts. Make a compound butter combining one stick of butter and fresh or dried herbs (try basil, oregano, thyme, or even lemon juice and capers) put butter mixture on wax paper and roll into a tube, refrigerate or freeze.

Look for locally grown foods for gifts. I live just down the road from a pecan orchard and family and friends now look forward to getting their pecans for the holidays. My mom always sends my sister and I roasted and peeled green chili from New Mexico. Simple gifts, but they bring a lot of joy (and good flavors!)

Family
Some people have great relationships with their families and cannot wait to get together for the holidays. For others, families are both a source of joy and stress. Navigating the family demands during the holidays can be tricky.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Begin by talking with your partner about what the holidays mean to each of you. What are your own desires and expectations? What foods or activities are really important and which ones don't mean so much? In answering these questions, you begin to get a vision of how you two would like to spend the holidays. With this understanding and vision in mind, you can make better decisions with regards to family expectations.

If your family always gets into arguments during the holidays, there is every reason to expect arguing this year, too. It is easy to get caught up in wishing that the family were different, or somehow better, or... This wishing is okay, but it can ruin our holidays if we are focusing on the ways people don't measure up. Recognize (and maybe say out loud) that no family is perfect. You might try saying to yourself, "Yes, that is how Grandpa always is," or even sigh with relief that you have moved out of the dysfunction and now are only a visitor.

Plan some time for you and your partner to be alone. Actually schedule it on the calendar. Get a babysitter and take time for yourselves. It is so easy to get caught up in trying to see all the family members or attend all the parties and forget to nurture ourselves. Check in with each other, enjoy each other and celebrate the life you are building together.

Here is a wish for you and your family to have safe and happy holidays.
~Cynthia

Cynthia McKenna, LPC, NCC, is a gardener and writer who lives in South Texas. Cynthia is also a therapist who helps women reduce anxiety and depression and find ways to live their fullest lives. You can visit her on the web at http://www.cynthiamckennacounseling.com

Little House in the Suburbs
By Luci Fernandez

I get plenty of quizzical looks from neighbors as they walk past my house in an older neighborhood in North Carolina, "What is she doing with her front yard?" I didn't really have a well-thought plan when I started on my urban homestead venture a couple of years ago. Over the past few years, I have sought to get a deeper connection to where our food comes from and to teach my children that an awareness of what we eat and how we live are very important things to know and understand. My work in the energy field has given me awareness into how much energy we use to get our food from the farm to the table in this country. I wanted to take action, producing at least some of your own food is key factor in reducing one's carbon footprint. Replacing the front lawn was a top priority because lawns represent a tremendous amount of waste - high water and chemical usage on potentially usable land for growing food. This step would definitely make an impact and get other folks thinking, 'hmm, why is she doing that?".....
One of my first projects was to plant Provence lavender alongside the front walk leading to the front door. I planted 2 dozen of these in the early spring. The lavender took wonderfully to the very sunny spot and sandy soil. I harvested my first lavender harvest that summer to use in sachets. The heady aroma as you come up the walk is most enticing-my own little piece of Provence in the burbs! I also planted a small herb garden near the kitchen door; I included thyme, mint, dill, basil and rosemary. I now have fresh herbs throughout the year for my cooking.
Chickens were the next project. I got two chickens from my college roommate, who was on the same path as me, learning to become more self-sufficient. These are good egg layers with a good temperament. I haven't had store-bought eggs in over a year. I had a combination chicken coop/garden shed built in the shady backyard. Our ordinances allow up to 10 fowl within city limits. I added two more chickens to my flock this past summer, a white Orpington and a Sussex. I have convinced a few neighbors that backyard chickens are a great way to have local food and they are great for the kids to learn about (I end up giving impromptu tours of the chickens!).

In the backyard, in addition to the chickens, I have established my compost area. All my kitchen waste goes to one of 4 zones: the regular compost bin, the chickens, the red-wriggler worms or the Solar Cone in the front yard (only meat goes in here). I will use the compost to amend the soil in the raised beds I have built in the front yard.

This past spring, my husband and I built raised beds for the front yard. I planted tomatoes, beans, lettuce, watermelon, green beans, peppers and eggplants. My soil in these beds will benefit from the compost that includes the chicken poop - next year I expect a bumper crop!

Summer, I added my first bee-hive. I have yet to harvest the honey. The honey bees loved the lavender blossoms in the front yard. My plant selection for the flower beds includes plants that are attractive to insects. I have seen many butterflies, hummingbirds and bumble bees all enjoying the flowers over the summer. This fall I am growing cabbage and fall lettuce. My tomato plant, eggplant and peppers are still producing fruit. I will plant two fruit trees and blueberry bushes this fall to increase my fruit production.

Having had very little gardening experience prior to this, I am happy that I have been able to incorporate so much of what I have learned from others. If I can inspire others to incorporate producing their own food into their daily life and leading a more eco-conscious life, then I have been successful!

Holiday Treat
By Dana Wright

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

9 inch pie
1/2 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
2/3 cups milk
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
1/8 t cloves

50 min bake time.

To Prepare Pie Crust
Evenly brush sides, then bottom of a graham cracker crust with 1 beaten egg yolk. Bake crust for 5 minutes at 375 degrees and remove from oven. (Put the leftover egg white plus any leftover egg yolk in pumpkin pie filling).

To Prepare the Pumpkin
Use any firm pumpkin flesh scraped from your pumpkin. Don't use the skin or seeds. Boil until soft (like you would potatoes). Drain and mash. Firmly pack pumpkin when measuring, being sure to drain off any excess liquid.

To Prepare Pie Filling
Combine pumpkin, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves in blender or mixer. Blend until smooth. Pour into prepared crust and bank at 375 degrees F.

10 inch Pie
1 1/2 c pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
3/8 t salt
3/8 t ginger
3/8 t nutmeg
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves

65 min bake time.

(Photo courtesy of www.pumpkinpie.com)

Check out more Recipe's on our message board and if you have questions, leave them for Dana aka Garden Green

Tale of a New Garden or, My Fun With Excel

We moved to a new house this year, so my gardening plans had to change. I had experience with container gardening in Florida (note to self: use an automatic watering system next time or the plants will die again). Here, I have a Backyard. In case you city types aren't familiar with these incredible spaces, a Backyard is an outdoor expanse of ground, all in one place, usually covered with a green substance called grass. It is not green-colored substrate like the running track at the gym. As soon as I saw my new Backyard, ideas started swirling in my head-swingsets, kiddie pools, fancy-schmancy multi-level decks.....

Forget big, space-hogging decks. No swingset, that's what the park around the corner is for. Kiddie pool? Only if it'll fit in the space left when I'm done with my new Idea. I want raised beds, chickens, rabbits and lots of other things I don't know about yet. I want a new garage-but that's a whole separate story.

We moved in April, so it was difficult to get seeds started and into the ground at the right times, but we managed to have a little garden. I couldn't do it Patti-style yet due to time and budget constraints, so we decided to just do something. We put in a plot in the ground, out of which we were able to get a pretty decent amount of veggies. In an attempt to utilize every bit of space in our yard, we tried some crazy things just to see if they would work, as shown by this picture to the right.

Yes, that is corn growing in the one-inch space between the driveway and the chain link fence, true urban style! We also used the fence on the other side of the yard for snap peas and melon.

I wasn't happy, though. I started playing with Microsoft's Excel program, toying with square foot gardening spacings, filling up the eight raised beds I plan to have next year. I believe I have found a pretty good mix of tried-and-true vegetables that my family likes as well as some new ones that sound intriguing. I came up with something like the chart to the left. I'm in NE Ohio (zone 5/6), so I had to be creative with placing some of the specific vegetables since some of my beds will be partially shaded for the latter part of the day (until I can get this great big tree out of the way). I have lots of asparagus-we love asparagus-in bed 1 and pole beans in bed 2. Along the left sides of beds 3, 5 & 7 are summer squash & zucchini, which will be trellised up to the edge of the neighbor's garage. The rest of those beds contain peppers (sweet and hot), bush beans (green and wax), brussels sprouts, eggplant, cucumbers and cantaloupe. Beds 4, 6 and 8 have more tomatoes, okra, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, onions, beets, pumpkin, winter squash, watermelon, snap peas, parsnips, garlic and carrots. I also have 3 separate, smaller boxes that will contain lettuces, greens and Junior's garden. Phew!

It's impossible to see the details with the picture so small, but I am very excited to see this jungle growing!

Please follow this link to our message board where I posted a more readable link!

The Chicken
Woven into the human experience throughout modern history.

By Frederick J. Dunn w

A source of science, social observation, inspiring to poets like Robert Frost, a nutritional necessity or merely a pet that produces, this is gallus domesticus. The modest chicken, historically so common in the door yard, has been, is, and should continue to be, commonplace in neighborhoods throughout the world.

Take any period movie from the shelf or video rental store. how often are chickens seen just getting out of the way of the wagon wheel, picking through trash on the streets of old England, moving aside from the broom of a 12th century hand maiden? The chicken has been at arms length in many households around the world. Their availability for immediate observation has been the source for human/chicken comparisons and deep thinkers watch at length, contemplating the origins of such a useful bird. Any scholar would be hard pressed, to truly pin down the first domestication of this diverse and often stunningly beautiful bird. They are written into documents as a domesticated animal, extending back as far as 3000 B.C.!

Modern science and efficient mass management, have made the egg protein, among the most beneficial and affordable foods to occupy a grocery cooler shelf. Thus, successfully removing this long domesticated bird, from the warm hands of our children and daily lives. Today, many people have never even seen a chicken in the flesh, save that it be already dressed and packaged in the meat department.

So, what is it about the domestic chicken, which makes it such a wonderful companion bird on the human homestead? Why is it tailor made for urban settings? For these answers, we simply go the chicken's inherent behavior.

What's a chicken in the first place? Don't worry, you won't receive a genetic history here, I leave that to Darwin and other genetic researchers of days gone by... A chicken is originally jungle fowl and was probably first observed by hunters. The chicken was easy to find, because, unlike most of our native wild birds today, chickens are gallinaceous, which means, among other things, that chickens are resident birds. They could be found in the same nesting area time and again, where their eggs and even offspring could be harvested/collected, with relative ease. This fundamental instinct in the chicken, makes the domesticated version, easy to keep and manage in nearly any homestead (city or country). People like to keep their animals, chickens included, in predictable and easy to maintain domiciles, convenient to their own living quarters. In some cultures, the chicken even occupies the same living space as its owner.

People and chickens are symbiotic, people cast off uneaten food and other waste material, which the chicken thrives on. In return, the chicken, being highly prolific and predictable, produces eggs or chicks in great numbers. Chickens were among the first homestead recycling systems. Many people enjoy the company of a bird which is not only useful for utility, but also fills a need for companionship in many cases. Chickens have specific vocabularies, the hen more than the rooster, and do murmur, cluck and chatter away at their keepers. In turn, some keepers talk frequently to their birds. The rooster is an alarm clock and would crow with great regularity. Chickens in all their adaptability, even come to tolerate being held and some actually insist on lap sitting, or perching on the arm of someone snapping beans on the porch. Put up a small chicken residence (coop) and chickens would return to the building they were raised in, even if given free range, the birds returned unaided, to their home by night fall. Birds, so easily conditioned and so hearty in their ability to subsist on forage, were bound to be a part of the human homestead from the start.

Today, there is a breed of chicken for virtually any environment and a personality tailored to that of its potential keeper/owner. From the Jersey Giant, to the tiny Serama, people have bred the chicken to nearly every foreseeable form and disposition suited to a particular end use.
I would suggest, that bringing back this meaningful and indeed, beautiful bird, to our backyards and into the joyful care of our children, will serve to enhance and indeed improve, the overall life experience once known to virtually everyone. Every person should know the joyful shriek of a child, gathering a fresh egg, still warm from the hen and carefully delivering the same to your kitchen counter. Few pets are so inexpensively kept, so easily reared, so responsive to human interaction and ever so adaptable to virtually any climate. From the Great Wall of China to the Pyramids of Giza, all were built with domesticated chickens in their shadow and eggs in their stomachs of those who did the work.
www.fredsfinefowl.com
w

The Last Word: Organic Soil
by Mark Highland
www.organicmechanicsoil.com

Creating rich, living soil that crumbles like chocolate cake may sound like the most daunting task to undertake in any garden. It reality, it is not that hard. Anywhere new home construction takes place, you can be almost certain you do not have good garden soil. There are exceptions to this rule, but how many of you actually measured the inches of soil before you bought the house. ;-) Rehabilitating soil takes a few weekends, some elbow grease, and usually, lots and lots of compost. You can make compost yourself at home, or for larger projects find bagged goods at your local independent garden center.

Soils are influenced by the parent material, so in college I gardened in sandy soils in Florida. I moved onto the volcanic soils of Oregon, then moved back to the east coast to the clay soils of Pennsylvania. While these soils are fundamentally different, they all equalize in the vegetable garden. Adding organic matter or compost enhances soil food web productivity and gives life to the garden. To begin understanding your soil, get out there and grab a small handful, 4 Tablespoons for you techies, put a splash of water on the soil and ball it up in your hand. Now try to make a ribbon with it. If you get lots of cracks, you have lots of sand. Smooth ribbons, no cracks, you have clay soils. Now rub your fingers together, feel like flour? It means you likely have a good bit of silt as well. This test gives a measure of soil texture. Texture describes the soils ability to provide water and oxygen for roots. That "garden-of-eden" soil I described would not form ribbons too well because of the high organic matter content desirable in a vegetable garden. Highly organic, living soils have excellent soil texture since they hold moisture well yet allow air into soils for roots to breathe.

Soil testing shows a profile of the soil's nutrient reserves and provides advice on adding soil amendments and minerals to balance soil nutrition. Soil tests are available through your local land-grant university, which involves sending about two cups in for testing. Search online to find sample or submission forms for cooperative extension programs in your county. Those who favor instant gratification can head down to the local garden center and pick up small rapid test kits for pH, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium. pH tells you about nutrient availability in soils. Plants like azaleas or blueberries prefer acidic soils (5.0); however, the vast majority of plants are happy in soils closer to neutral (7.0). Knowing pH tells you how much lime to add if any is needed. Lime raises pH of soil, a perennial problem since rain in North America is on the acidic side. Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K) are the big three nutrients found on any bag of fertilizer. These nutrients help plants grow and produce fruit. "N for shoots, P for fruits, and K for roots" is the easy way to remember what fertilizers to use at different stages in a plant's life. Organic nutrients will always have low numbers as compared to chemical nutrients - but organics pack a bigger punch in the long run.

My hands-on test for soil quality involves seeing how far a trowel sinks into the soil with nothing but dead weight pushing it down. Do this test in early spring, as the ground gets harder naturally as summer begins to dry things up. Just an inch is hard-pan soil, needing amendment. If it sinks to the hilt easily, that's good garden soil.

DIY soil warriors can start by getting two indispensable tools, a shovel and a digging fork. Now is not the time to skimp on quality as these tools do the work in soil. Drop forged steel makes long lasting tools. Plunge the shovel one length deep, make a circle and turn over the shovel of earth. The next plunge should be about 5 inches away, making a half-moon shape of soil to turn over. Continue this process along the edge of your new garden bed. Go back and slice through each clump of turned over soil to begin breaking it up in rough chunks. Continue this process in strips until the entire garden bed area has been turned over once. Now add compost over top. Add three to six inches at once, then plunge digging fork to maximum depth, turn over forkful of soil to mix compost with native soil, and repeat across entire garden bed. Sounds like a lot but only takes a few hours to finish about 100 square feet. You can do it! Get a soil test, get a good digging shovel, get lots of compost, and get started making great garden soil!

Don't forget to check out the new videos Mark and I made here:

How to test your garden soil:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx7JjPmsaZc

How to make compost tea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_1Jy5GPno

Please continue to share my videos and website with everyone. Thank you all again, from the sustainable home front. And don't forget it all started in a garden...

Besos(kisses),

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

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October Ezine

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Welcome to the Ezine!

The Sustainable Home Front

Fall Asian Garden Video on Fine Gardening

Wild about Gardening

P.Diddy Flies commercial

Why I home School

The Chicken

Win Free Stuff!

Flip that House Immoral?

Energy Tips

The Last Word

The Sustainable Home Front
Welcome to the first edition of Urban Sustainable Living the ezine. I've recruited a diverse group of people to shere their knowledge and experience with you about all things sustainable. You'll find articles from them below. You can also meet them on my message board. I have also uploaded some great new videos this month. You can find links below. Please check them out and share them with your friends.

I have found myself watching the television news lately about the financial collapse like it is some sort of natural disaster, and take great solace when I get out in the garden on these crisp autumn days. The stories from my grandparents about the great depression are very much ringing in my ears and the importance of gardening and sustainable living becomes more important as the financial crisis continues to shake itself out through the global economy.

There's lot's to check out this month and please remember to forward this e-zine along to anyone that may be interested. Feel free to comment on the new message board and share what you have learned to help inspire others.

Thanks you all,

Patti the Garden Girl

New Garden Girl Videos Now online!

Check out my brand new Fall Asian Garden video on Fine Gardening Magazine's Blog.

This video shows me turning over my garden beds and starting my fall crop of Asian Greens. I love Asian Greens and here I am planting a Siamese Dragon Mix. Fall and winter doesn't mean the gardening season is over. Check out Eliot Coleman's book Four Season Gardening for a lot more on cold weather gardens.

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/videos/index.aspx?id=102432&c=5
My Omelette Video
I swear, since owning an egg laying flock, I have tried to make everything I can with eggs. So here is a video starting with the basics, the cheese omelette. This is a simple, quick, and flavorful recipe. I hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TvQYiHCAEA
Making Newspaper Pots

My daughter Alejandra takes you through this great project, using recycled newspaper to make biodegradable pots for my seedlings. If a 10 year old can do it you can too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqywwIr5-aI

Wild about Gardening
~by Cynthia McKenna

I grew up in the high desert of Albuquerque - that translates to very little rain. I can well remember watching my mom mound the dirt around the cucumber plants to help retain water. I can also remember complete strangers showing up at our doorstep to praise mom for her beautiful gardens. Now a lively 85, mom is still gardening. I inherited her love for dirt and plants, and the anticipation of things to come runs through my bones.

I've had a tiny apartment garden that was pretty successful. I even had a secret compost pile hidden near the apartment manager's office. Late at night, I would sneak out, dig a hole behind the overgrown hedge, and bury my kitchen scraps. This composting was so much fun - partly because it was clandestine, but also because it produced beautiful soil with very little effort.

Now I live in the country, and gardening in the country is a whole new ball game. I have ample space to try 20 varieties of tomatoes instead of just growing one tomato in a container on the porch. There is room for pumpkin vines and giant Jerusalem artichoke plants. Strawberries share space with sage and thyme. It is all so lovely. But here is the rub: Living in the country means living with wild animals and wild animals are very interested in my garden.

My country garden has been raided by: raccoons, possums, deer - white tail and axis, a porcupine with a penchant for Mortgage Lifter tomatoes. Tallulah - my yellow Labrador retriever, and most recently, some really dedicated earthworm-loving armadillos.

So my gardening questions have evolved from, "What varieties of lettuce I should plant this fall," to "How can I create an organic garden that provides food for my family and keep out the __________?" (Fill in the creature of your choice.)

To me, part of organic gardening means seeking peace with nature. I've come to the place where losing some plants to the local animals doesn't devastate me. I built a garden that has a good fence, and rock bottom to help keep out those armadillos. Gardening in the country is a delight. However, I never imaged my biggest challenges would be the wild animals that I love. I just don't love them in my garden.

I have found that there is a gift in these garden visitors. Their destruction and persistence has caused me to talk with neighbors and gather the local wisdom. Lots of people have had successful gardens here, and I now have the regular opportunity to talk with them about what works, what they tried, how they managed the land and the creatures. By reaching out, I have become a better gardener and made new friends.

********
Cynthia McKenna is a therapist and Episcopal priest. When she's not working, she can often be found in her vegetable garden, water garden or relaxing with her three cats and three Labrador retrievers.

http://www.cynthiamckennacounseling.com/Home.html

Welcome to the Apocalypse: Even P. Diddy Can't Fly His Jet These Days

P. Diddy, aka Sean Combs, doesn't have the money to fly his private jet these days. Diddy is a victim of the high cost of gas. Clearly the apocalypse is truly upon us, when rich guys are upset and suddenly have to fly commercial. Diddy begs the next president to do something as his lifestyle has been so drastically changed.

"Gas prices are too motherf******g high," he ranted to fans in a recent YouTube video, which was shot by a member of his entourage as he wandered through an airport terminal.

"As you know, I do have my own jet, but I've been having to fly back and forth to LA pursuing my acting career. Now, if I'm flying back and forth twice a month, that's like $200,000, $250,000 round trip. I'm back on American Airlines." Even

An interesting take on the effects of Peak Oil on all of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yh1NHRP3NA

Why I Home School
Abbey Lehman

When we found out that I was pregnant with our son, my husband and I lived in a school district that was known not for its prestigious awards and accomplishments, but for its bumbling mistakes and embarrassingly low graduation rates. We knew immediately that we would not be sending him to the public schools if we hadn't moved by the time he was five, but we weren't sure what we *would* be doing. We didn't give it much thought until well after he was born.

Two years later, Junior was amazing us daily with his ability to understand learn and mimic. We thought we had a genius on our hands, but what parent doesn't? We started thinking about the options we thought we had-Catholic school and private school. We hadn't really "heard" of homeschooling yet-it was mostly in one ear and out the other when we heard the word. One day while speaking with my mom, she mentioned that she had considered homeschooling my sister and I when we were young, but had allowed her family to talk her out of it. Looking bad, she wished she had at least given it a shot, since the public school system hadn't done wonders for Sis and me. I got to thinking about it and I hit the internet that evening.

WOW was all I could say! There was SO much information out there; I didn't even know where to start reading about it, much less doing it! I read as much as I could, soaking up testimonials, studies, analyses, message board posts-everything. I started talking to Hubby about it daily, quoting this and that at him, and overloading him with information. He basically told me to back off, since he couldn't even think straight with so much at once (what can I say, I tend to hyperfocus J )!

We temporarily dropped the topic when we transferred to Florida for work right after Junior turned three. We were there for two and half years, enough time for Junior to be in daycare for the very first time (another bad experience, story at eleven) and for him to enroll in *gasp* Public School. Unfortunately, Hubby and I were both working full time and needed to remain that way, so we didn't have the option of homeschooling. I had "worked on" Hubby since discovering homeschooling and he was s-l-o-w-l-y coming around to it, especially when he saw Junior reading at four-all from what I was doing in the evenings with him.

Junior's Kindergarten teacher was wonderful-thank you God-so he did as well as I could expect. He was actually pretty bored, since Teacher said he didn't leave Kindergarten knowing anything more than what he knew going in-he was already at a first grade level. She cried when we pulled him at the end of February to move home to Ohio because she was losing her best test scores in Junior and had just received a new student who only knew the letter "X" and the number "3".

Since we were moving near the end of the school year and because Ohio's compulsory attendance age is six, we decided that we would "try on" homeschooling that March through that August and see what we thought before we decided whether or not to enroll Junior in public school. I only needed to work two days per week at that point due to Hubby's better job, so it worked out perfectly.

The rest is history J we love it so much that we wouldn't think of doing it any other way, even if I had to back to work full time. There are a number of things that we really see as being the BIG reasons that we, as a family, love homeschooling. First, we live on OUR schedule, not the schedule of some random, make-it-all-fit, stressed out administrator. Hubby works third shift now (as do I, on my two days), so this is a biggie for him. Junior and I are NOT, I repeat, NOT morning people, so this works out so well for us I can't even tell ya. Next, we can progress in each individual subject at the rate that is best for Junior, not the rest of his class. He excels in reading dramatically, so he's reading the same books that the fifth grader next door reads. He can stand in front of our family picture collage on the living room wall, knowing the age of one person in each picture and figure out the rest. *I* can't even do that without some serious brain crunching. He can follow a recipe by himself, figuring out doubling or halving as he goes. He's very uncoordinated, however, so the simple P.E. stuff is more his speed. His handwriting is a lot like his daddy's, too-almost scribbles-so getting him to write is an exercise in extreme patience, and even then it's iffy. Finally, our third main reason that locks us into homeschooling forever is that he's not learning how to gun someone down at school, how to most efficiently get through the metal detector lines, or how to get through life doing the bare minimum, which is the philosophy most schools teach these days, however subconscious it is.

If you haven't made the decision yet to homeschool your child(ren), please note: The style, the curriculum or where you fall on the school-at-home (classic) to no-structure-at-all (unschooling) spectrum is not the most important part of your decision. Homeschooling is about you and your children doing what is best for your family. Some families even go back and forth, doing public school some years and homeschooling other years, depending how the needs of the family. And that is the best part of homeschooling-the freedom to do what is best for you and yours.

You can reach Abbey at our messageboard www.gardengirltv.com/messageboard

The Chicken, a domesticated bird, yesterday, today, and the role it may play in our future.

Frederick Dunn, Of Fred's Fine Fowl

As I'm writing this article, Oprah Winfrey is having a discussion on her program, regarding the label "free range" and where your food comes from. Chickens among other farm animals are in the main stream media frequently these days. Knowing where your food comes from is key to modern health and animal well being.

It's important, in my thinking, to understand how the chicken has made almost universal contributions to human well being, throughout history and nearly every culture of the world. They are in our language, consider how often a term, relevant to chickens, is used in everyday speech. Like it or not, the chicken is apart of us.

In this country (the United States), there has been a profound rise and fall, in poultry management and related poultry/egg health and nutrition through the years. Like anything else, when money drives the machine, surpassing all else, something will suffer in the end.

Though I will focus on chickens in this and articles to come, the underlying theme is, locally managed smaller flocks are as always, healthier, happier and more sensible regarding animal and human well being. Around the turn of the century (1900) somewhere around 40% of American families, or more, had backyard farm operations on a large or small scale. The casual observer knows, that rural America is dotted with one decaying farm after another, no longer worked. Large scale industry and importation have taken the place of the local family farm.

Patti Moreno and others have it right, use everything you have available and reduce waste. Urban "Sustainable" Living, has a place for the domestic chicken (gallus domesticus) and it's relatives. It would be naïve to assume that everyone could be sustained by moving to the country and returning to the traditional family farm. However, what can be done, is bring manageable portions of agriculture to your own backyard. This is the current movement for the domestic chicken as well and it's exciting to see how many people are interested in bringing their food resources home "to roost".

Consider the chicken's life in large scale industry, as compared to small scale micro-farms. This would not and could not, be for everyone everywhere. But won't you take a moment and learn about what the chicken really is and the contribution it has, does, and can make in modern American society?

Frederick Dunn is the Author of Regarding Chickens. Meet him at Garden Girl's message board and check out his website: http://www.fredsfinefowl.com/

Win Free Stuff!!!!

Want to win a DVD?

Email me a Article about your Sustainable Life and win my DVD. There will be Five prizes so get yours in early!

Nature Hills is having a great contest as well. Click & find out more!

http://www.naturehills.com/green_america_awards.aspx

Flip that House is Immoral TV

For those that don't have cable TV, there is show called Flip that House:

(http://www.actualreality.tv/production.html?production=flip)

If you own cable than I am sure you have seen it. The show follows as someone, usually a new family, buying a house, re-designing and cleaning it up and then re-selling it at a profit. They never actually show someone selling the house, just a realtor telling the person, or victim, what they think the house is worth.

The show is produced by R.J. Cutler of Actual Reality TV, basically is a slow motion car crash of the current American economic collapse. What I really challenge the producers, but more importantly the sponsors of that show is to show me what happened to those people and houses. I bet it is safe to say that there were many unhappy endings involved.

Hey RJ, maybe you should do a show called "BailOut" and it is about how we the American people put together a class action suit demanding our 700 billion back from you and the Discovery Channel network and your sponsors. You know, something like a tobacco lawsuit, because you probably new that people were getting into trouble and this would surely lead the economy into crisis.

This type of programming, and they have produced dozens of spin-offs, worked hand in hand with wall street, selling a giant pyramid scheme that has blown up in all of our faces. So write your congressman and ask them look into weather or not the Discovery Channel hid the true facts of what happened with their people and homes on "Flip that House".

To send comments to the Discovery Channel encouraging them to Yank it from their programming:
http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations
To send comments to RJ Cutler: showfeedback@arp.tv
To Contact your congressman check this guide: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

A few things we can all do to save energy and money!

Open blinds and Shades on cold days. By letting the sun in, you will get simple passive solar energy from the sun. Be sure to close them after the sun goes down.

Use a pressure cooker or slow cooker, and try to cook more one pot meals. That will save energy from using all the burners on your stove.

Use LED lights this Holliday Season. LED lights are much more efficient and look nice too.

Lower the temperature of your thermostat and where knitted hats and sweaters in the house.

The Last Word!

Mark Highland the Organic Mechanic's

Top 10 methods to build healthy soils

1. Compost! Make compost from garden debris / kitchen scraps and carbon (leaves, paper, straw)

2. Use compost as mulch 2x / year. 1"-2" in spring and again in fall - this builds soil organic matter.

3. Cover crops - leaving green understory plants vs. cover cropping for nutrients.

4. Compost tea. Brewed aerobically, research has shown it to improve plant health and disease resistance.

5. Stop tilling! Tilling destroys soil structure. Double dig new beds instead.

6. Raised beds warm up earlier in spring, created from scratch you have control over growing medium.

7. No pesticides, chemicals that harm soil flora and fauna and beneficial insects.

8. Harvest rainwater to use in your garden - replenish the local water table and encourage local soil biota.

9. Remineralize - Adding ground rock dusts, paramagnetic or otherwise, adds key micronutrients and essential elements vital to healthy plants.

10. Plant more plants! The annual growth cycle adds beneficial organic matter to soils as roots decompose.

Please continue to share my videos and website with everyone. Thank you all again, from the sustainable home front. And don't forget it all started in a garden...

Besos(kisses),

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

My goat Asher had a boy!

Isn't he cute?

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