Eco-friendly Dog Gear {Birthday Giveaway}

As I was thinking about my life and readers, I considered 'how about something for the four legged beasts?' My dogs keep me company on walks in the alleys, bark at strangers, and eat cooking leavings off the kitchen floor. They also eat my tomatoes, birthday cakes, and everything else passable. They are, in part, evil.

But even evil dogs deserve a nice fresh collar and leash once in awhile. Today's birthday giveaway is a OLovesM leash made from reclaimed Chaco sandal straps, a biodegradable poop bag dispenser, and a collar in your choice of size medium or small.

Comment below with your dog's name to enter.

Giveaway Details

Contest entries close at 12:01 AM EST on Tuesday, October 11, 2011. One winner will be selected with random.org. The winner will have 24 hours to respond to email notification with their mailing address for delivery of the gift card.

Winners must have a US address. Only one entry per person please. Retail value of dog gear gift pack is $30.

Disclosure: I am personally sponsoring this giveaway. Opinions are my own and shipping is also covered by me.

Additional Birthday Giveaways:

Kroger Giftcard (ends October 10, 2011)

Save Seeds for Better Budget Gardens

Trash or Treasure? In this pile of salsa-making scraps, what do you see? Trash? Compost?

How about the genetic code necessary to plant a whole garden of peppers next year?

By taking a little bit of time now, in the height of the harvest season, home gardeners can save seeds for next year.

Which Seeds

Most popular Mid Western garden seeds are easily saved. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash take little more than a piece of paper towel and a few days time. Others, like lettuces, radish, and cucumber, take a little more care but can still be preserved.

All seeds that you wish to save must come from open-pollinated vegetables, not hybrids. Hybrids are bred to not have viable seeds. The term 'heirloom' has little technical definition, so it will not help you determine whether the seeds will be viable.

If you are saving from your own grown seeds, check the original seed packet to note whether it is open-pollinated. If you buy from a farmer at the market, ask whether it is a hybrid variety or not. Most organic vegetables are open-pollinated.

How to Save

Choose a fully ripe vegetable from which to save seeds. Remove the seeds from the flesh. In the case of fruits with pulp around the seeds, like tomatoes and pumpkins, rinse or carefully pick the pulp off the seed.

Lay the seeds in a single layer on top of a labeled paper towel lined plate. Place the plate in a dry spot for 1-5 days or until the seeds are fully dry.

Herbs and lettuces produce flowers that contain their seeds. To collect these, allow the flower to fully mature and dry on the plant. Bring it inside, allow to dry a few more days, and shake the seeds out.

Transfer dry seeds to a small paper envelope. If the seeds are stuck to the paper, such as is often the case with tomatoes, it's ok to leave the paper attached. Label the envelope with the variety and date. Store in a cool dry place until spring.

Risks of Using Saved Seeds

There are two possible risks of using saved seeds. First, if you accidentally save a hybridized seed, the plant may grow and grow but never produce fruit. Boo! Second, it is possible to concentrate poor characteristics. I believe this happened with my Amish paste tomatoes, seeds I saved for four years. Each year I get more and more blossom end rot so I'm going to scrap the variety and buy new next year.

Reasons to Save Seeds

Even with the possible risks, saving seeds is something every gardener should consider. It saves money. For the price of a single pepper at the farmer's market, you can save enough seeds to plant a whole row of your own pepper plants the following year.

By sharing produce or seeds with friends, gardeners can collect a huge variety of seeds for little to no cost. We have two varieties of pumpkins growing this year that cost us nothing - each seed is from squash we traded last year with friends.

Open-pollinated varieties can concentrate local-specific positive characteristics.  It is very possible that through saving seeds year after year you will create a better plant than what you might be able to buy in a seed catalog.

Do you save seeds? If so, what are your best tips? If not, will you start this year?

  Added to Simple Lives Thursday 54.

Growing Sesame

Every year I commit to growing something completely new to me. This year, that distinction went to sesame.

I sprinkled seeds, liberated from Franklin Park Conservatory, in rich soil in mid May. They sprouted and grew to three feet tall. A string of pentagonal buds formed into sweet white flowers. Below the flowers, strings of five pointed pods grew around the stem.

The pods are swollen and dark green now. In time they will dry to brown. I'll pluck the pods from the plant and shake out the dry seeds for eating or saving for next year.

I imagine the harvest of sesame seeds will be minimal, yet I will certainly plant sesame again. It is a tall attractive addition to a flower border and an unusual edible to tuck into sunny spaces.

Are you growing anything unusual this year? How's it going?

Growing Independence

"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to it's liberty and interests by the most lasting bands." - Thomas Jefferson, 1785

TJ makes a pretty strong statement there. Are we gardeners truly the most valuable citizens?

We are surely vigorous. Gardeners turn soil, move hoses, bend to pick weeds, and carry harvest. Observing our plants and nature keeps us mentally fit.

We are surely independent. Many of us garden specifically to reduce our dependence on mass produced food.

We are often virtuous because the moral truth of the garden cannot be denied. The seeds sprout or not. The weather contributes rain or drought. Bees pollinate or flowers do not produce fruit. Gardeners persist with hope in spite of the challenges.

We are surely tied to our country. We work with the land the revolutionaries fought over.

Gardeners may not reflect deeply about the deeper meanings of our work in the day to day tasks of weeding, watering, and harvesting. To raise flowers and food is an act of liberty in any country, but particularly in America because the Founding Gardeners shaped the nation to make it possible.

From my garden to yours, happy Fourth of July!

Will Allen is Coming to Columbus!!

Have you heard? Two weeks from today, Will Allen will be here with staff from Growing Power to educate and inspire central Ohio gardeners and food lovers! Who is Will Allen?

The New York Times magazine article 'Street Farmer' provided my first introduction to Allen and his company Growing Power. From the cover photo of his strong hands holding precious garden worms to the thoughtful questions raised and answered by Allen's work in urban agriculture, the Times tells all.

That is, everything up to the publication date of July 2009. In the intervening years, Will Allen's fame and funding has grown. In 2010 he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people and serves as an advisor to the Obama whitehouse on matters of garden and food education, among other accolades.

I am thrilled that Stiletto Gardener of Columbus Ohio is the newest Regional Outreach Training Center for Will Allen's Growing Power initiative. Ameena Salahuddin, the Stiletto Gardener, is leading the way for Will Allen to train hundreds of gardeners here in central Ohio over the next five years.

Learn from Growing Power

Allen's first visit will be July 15 - 17, 2011. He will give a keynote address on Friday night and a two-day workshop on Saturday and Sunday.

The keynote address will be held at 6 pm at Franklin Park Conservatory. Tickets for this event are $35 per person.

A semi-private reception at 5 pm will allow visitors to meet Allen personally. Tickets for the reception, including keynote address, are $50 and selling fast.

The Saturday and Sunday intensive is a series of workshops on hoop house building, composting, aquaponics, vermiculture, and microgreen production. Held at Stiletto Gardener's site in Blacklick, the workshop costs $170 per person. The workshop ticket includes lunch and the keynote address.

Buy tickets to the Will Allen keynote or workshop online or by contacting Ameena at 614-859-4105.

Will I see you there?

Photo by Pete Amland (UWM Photographic Services)

Summer Solstice Garden Update

After a spring devoid of garden success (sparrows ate the peas, springs crops like radishes bolted too quickly, lettuces were slow to grow), I welcome summer. Warmer temperatures and less torrential rain will surely help our sustainable garden grow.

Grapes, tomatoes, and peppers bend with fruit and hope for autumn harvest. Greens and herbs grow by inches overnight.

Insects exchange flower dust for nectar in the symbiotic relationship that creates so much of our food: pollination. Thank you, bees and butterflies, for this gift.

Beans climb and slowly reveal their flowers. Cucumber and squash plants also hide petals under their shady leaves. We pick small handfuls of warm, soft ripe raspberries daily, coveted by child, chickens, and hounds alike.

How does your garden grow?

Swainway Urban Farm

Innovative. Compact. Sustainable. Friendly. Swainway Urban Farm is a new model for growing.

Settled on a large lot in Clintonville Ohio, Joseph Swainway and partner Jess Billings (of Jess Bee Natural lip balm fame) have a half acre empire dedicated to growing edibles in an earth friendly way.

Their farm grew out of a desire to provide themselves with healthy fresh food. As their interest deepened, their garden grew to the point of being able to give and sell the excess to friends and family. Soon, restaurants came calling and Swainway Urban Farm was born.

In 2011 the farm applied for and received Organic status by the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association.

Minimizing garden inputs is one goal of the farm. Joseph maintains several large compost heaps designed to produce rich organic matter to return to the soil. Part of the motivation for growing edible mushrooms was to use the spent mushroom beds in the compost. The enzymes found in the mushroom compost 'closes the loop', as these nutrients are unavailable from traditional plant compost.

The farm was also founded to be an educational resource for home growers and healthy eaters. Jess and Joseph are eager to share gardening and cooking advice at their Clintonville Farmer's Market stand. They are participants in the Clintonville Farmer's Market children's program where kids visit and help work on the farm. On August 7 from 2-4 pm the farm will be open for a tour through OEFFA.

Joseph and Jess gave intern Keara and I a tour in mid-April. The farm was in the midst of seedling production. Heirloom seed starts grew under artificial light and then were transfered to the large greenhouse. They were transplanted into four inch pots for selling at the Clintonville Farmer's Market and Clintonville Community Market.

Joseph and Jess also grow a wide variety of produce for restaurant chefs and farmer's market shoppers. From early spring through the fall, the farm provides radish, kale, and pea shoots. Shitake mushrooms have been a popular item for years and this spring Joseph debuted oyster mushrooms. Lettuces, herbs, greens, tomatoes, carrots, and more are available seasonally.

Keara had this to say about visiting Swainway: "Rachel introduced me to two amazing, hard working farmers, Jess and Joseph. They live in an urban area and yet are still driven to have the most sustainable lifestyle possible. I was in awe of their backyard as they used every inch they could for gardening purposes.

Never before had I thought that such comprehensive farming was possible in urban Columbus. Seeing how they went about it I could tell they put an enormous amount of work into their extensive garden. Jesse and Joseph obviously care deeply about a healthy lifestyle for themselves as well as the Earth. Witnessing how they live makes me want to let everyone know that even though you might live on a street by a busy city with long rows of houses adjoining your house doesn’t mean that you can’t have a significant farm in your backyard."

Added to Hearth and Soul 51.

How To Fence Raised Beds

The chickens eye the tomatoes, the dogs walk all over the bean bed, and the squirrels want into everything. What's a space intensive gardener to do? Fence around the beds. Yet every spring I resist. Fencing is ugly and expensive. It is a pain (literally, I have a hole healing in my finger from a wire poke) to install and remove. Grass is hard to cut around the edges.

This year I was intentional about planning and installing fencing. I finally have the perfect balance of function and aesthetics. Here's how I fence our raised beds:

1) Use the same style throughout the garden. My cousin Todd of Combs Landscape Design advised that if all the fencing is the same, it disappears visually. I prefer vinyl coated wire fencing because it is less apt to poke fingers during installation and removal.

2) Install the fencing 2-3 inches above ground level. With this clearance, you can use an edger or scissors to cut grass missed by the lawn mower.

3) Staple every 12-15 inches. If you pull the fencing taught between staples, this is sufficient to hold. Every staple you put in during the spring must be removed in the fall. Don't be like my husband, who put a staple every inch last spring and then had his wife remove the fencing in the fall. She will not enjoy removing hundreds of staples when a dozen would have done the job.

4) Fold corners into right angles. This defines the space visually and also adds stability.

5) Remove and re-roll the fencing in the fall. This will allow the chickens to do their dirt turning business and saves the fence from excess wear and tear. I use pliers to remove the staples and store the fencing in the loft of our garage.

How do you fence?

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 45.