Plants that Taste as Good as they Look

Read at : Fine Gardening

http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/edible-ornamental-plants.aspx

From ground covers to trees, these fruit-bearing plants merit a place in your ornamental garden

by Lee Reich

The proverb “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” does not apply to gardening. Gardens are often segregated into sections for plants that look nice and plants that offer something to eat. Rarely does a plant cross the divide. But this practice often arises out of habit rather than necessity. A number of handsome trees, shrubs, and ground covers also bear luscious fruit. So contrary to that saying, you can have your cake (an ornamental plant) and eat it, too.

Not every pretty plant bearing good-tasting fruit is necessarily suitable for the home landscape. Many fruiting plants are prone to insect and disease problems, and no one wants to douse pesticides on bushes bordering a patio or on trees beneath which children play. So the ideal dual-purpose plant is resistant to pests. And any plant that wants to make the leap into the ornamental category needs to remain attractive even after its few weeks of flamboyance. Fortunately, a number of trees, shrubs, and ground-cover plants meet these criteria.

Shrubs with summer fruit

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Sonoma County seeks garden in every neighborhood

Read at : Google Alerts – gardening

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100130/ARTICLES/100139974/1349?p=2&tc=pg

By MEG McCONAHEY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

It may be only the end of January, but already a countywide effort is afoot to till as many yards, public spaces and empty lots as possible into mini-food farms by spring. In a play on the old political axiom of a “chicken in every pot,” a consortium of agencies, local governments, business leaders, nonprofits and special interest groups that were organized in 2007 by Sonoma County supervisors is hoping to eventually see “a garden on every block” or at least in every neighborhood.

The “Grow Healthy Food” initiative or “iGROW Sonoma,” is similar to the “iWALK Sonoma” effort launched by Health Action last year to get people exercising. But this one is aimed at improving what people eat by galvanizing them to start gardening wherever possible.

“We’re hoping as more and more people touch and taste the experience of healthy fresh food, their appreciation for it will grow,” said Ellen Bauer. She oversees the Health Action program through the department of health services’ prevention and planning division.

The organization by mid-February plans to launch a Web site (igrowsonoma.org) that will serve as a networking site and central resource for all things gardening, helping gardeners and would-be gardeners connect.

In uncertain times, growing your food is fashionable again

Read at : Google Alert – gardening

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2010845906_pacificpfootvictory31.html?cmpid=2628

By Valerie Easton

The era of competitive gardening, with its focus on fabulous flowers and foliage, is being supplanted by a movement to get back to edibles. We’re focusing on rhubarb instead of roses now, and along the way making connections with our communities.

THE HEADY DAYS of high horticulture, when gardeners would kill for the newest and coolest perennial, are well and truly over. The resurgence of food gardening has ushered in a post-competitive era, where people share seeds and meals, and even welcome landless gardeners into their backyards for a little communal cultivation.

It doesn’t really matter whether the food-gardening renaissance is driven by do-it-yourself frugality in a time of economic uncertainties or by concern over food safety and the environment. Its joys are as tangible as the taste of a fresh-picked tomato, as sublime as popping a sun-warmed raspberry into your mouth, as viscerally satisfying as stepping out your back door to pick a dinner you grew from a couple of seed packets. Seemingly overnight, raised beds are the new water features; we’re hedging with blueberries and replacing roses with rhubarb.

GARDENING: You don’t need tons of room to grow a garden

Read at : The Starpress

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20100131/LIFESTYLE/1310302

By Rachel Drucks

I seem to find myself writing more and more about how I try to keep myself happy and occupied during the dark, dreary months of winter, and today is no different. Now that my indoor bulbs are in full swing, I’ve immersed myself into researching and planning for a vegetable garden to be planted this spring. I can barely go a couple of days without a seed catalog showing up in my mailbox or early order seed specials appearing in my e-mail inbox, which makes me itch with anticipation for warm weather.

Like most people, the main issue I’ve had while planning for a garden is there is just so much cool stuff to choose from! I struggle with narrowing down my list of wants to what is actually going to fit in my space. So, to fit as many different plants in the design as possible, here are some ideas I’ve incorporated so far:

BOTTLE REFORESTATION – a new method to combat desertification

PART 1 : From cutting to young tree

All over the world tree nurseries use plastic bags (mostly black ones) to grow tree seedlings.  Generally speaking, these seedlings are taken to the plantation site in their plastic bags, where the bags are cut open and the root ball is positioned in the planting pit. During that rough handling, the root ball is usually broken and the roots damaged, causing a lot of difficulties to get the seedlings growing due to transplant shock.

It is well known that many people, after tree planting in the field, do not take care of those useless pieces of plastic bags, which are then left (littered) at the planting site.  That is one of the reasons why one can find plastic nursery bags almost everywhere at plantation sites, polluting the environment (trees are blooming with colored bags).

Considering the heavy pollution load of plastic bags on the environment, and considering that billions of plastic bags are used every year at the global level, we have been looking for a more efficient and cheap alternative.

Experiments with plastic bottles showed that this can be an interesting solution to:

(a)   Reduce the damage to the root system at planting time.

(b)  Reduce the volume of irrigation water needed to keep the seedlings alive (higher water use efficiency WUE) before and after transplantation.

(c)   Enhance biomass production in a shorter period (stronger seedlings).

(d)  Enhance survival rate of the tree seedlings.

(e)   Enable reforestation at the most hostile locations.

(f)    Avoid pollution of the earth’s surface with plastic nursery bags.

Tree seedlings grown in bottles can very easily be transported to the plantation site without significant damage to the plants and their root system.  This makes this method very interesting for large-scale afforestation or reforestation programmes.  Therefore the method is called “bottle reforestation” or “bottle afforestation”.

Different variants of growing tree seedlings in bottles can be used.  The first will be described below, others will follow.

Growing seedlings in plastic bottles – Variant 1

The simplest method is illustrated in a few steps:

2010 – Fruit juice bottle 15 cm (6 inchs) high

2010 – Two perforations 2,5 cm (1 inch) above the bottom let a possible surplus of irrigation water run out of the bottle (to avoid acidification of the potting soil inside and to avoid asphyxiation of the roots)

2010 – Willow tree (Salix matsudana) cuttings, rooting in water for 1-2 weeks

2010 – Rooted willow cutting planted in plastic bottle filled with potting soil. Only a minimal quantity of water is needed to keep the potting soil moistened for a very long period (almost no evaporation).

2010 – Soon after planting the cutting in the bottle new shoots are formed and many new roots are growing towards the bottom of the bottle.

2010 – In less than 1 month a young willow is developed, ready to be planted.

When reading a former posting on my desertification blog, I could not resist thinking how easy it could be to help the gardeners in Bulawayo by sending them lots of free seeds of vegetables collected by our action “Seeds for Food”.

Please read the second paragraph :

“Using waste water has helped me to grow vegetables for sale,” Maziya told IPS. “I have used money from the sale of these vegetables to put my children through school. The project has made a difference for my family and I. “My wish now is to improve the variety of vegetables I grow here to include carrots, spinach, tomatoes cabbage and onions which will increase my income.” Maziya is one of about a thousand farmers who are part of a project to grow leaf vegetables such as rape, sugar beans and maize using treated waste water. “

Now suppose that some development aid organization or a NGO wants to help these urban farmers in Bulawayo to seeds.  Probably they would buy them in Zimbabwe (thus helping the local seed producing companies).  Wouldn’t it be wise to save that money for other aid actions and use our free seeds for urban gardening ?

We can only offer to help gardeners, wherever they need seeds.  Just ask !

2008 - Allotment gardens Slotenkouter (Ghent City, Belgium) - Successful application of an Indian organic fertilizer (left untreated, right treated).

For years we have been promoting family gardens (kitchen gardens) and school gardens, not to mention hospital gardens, in the debate on alleviation of hunger and poverty.  We have always insisted on the fact that development aid should concentrate on initiatives to boost food security through family gardens instead of food aid on which the recipients remain dependent. Since the nineties we have shown that community gardens in rural villages, family gardens in refugee camps and school gardens, where people and children grow their own produce, are better off than those who received food from aid organizations at regular intervals.

2007 – Family garden in Smara refugee camp (S.W. Algeria, Sahara desert), where people never before got local fresh food to eat

Locally produced fresh vegetables and fruits play a tremendously important role in the daily diet of all those hungry people in the drylands.  Take for instance the possibility of having a daily portion of vitamins within hand reach.  Imagine the effect of fresh food on malnutrition of the children.  Imagine the feelings of all those women having their own kitchen garden close to the house, with some classical vegetables and a couple of fruit trees.

No wonder that hundreds of publications indicate the success of allotment gardens in periods of food crisis.  See what happened during World War I and II, when so many  families were obliged to produce some food on a piece of land somewhere to stay alive.  In those difficult days allotment gardens were THE solution.  They still exist and become more and more appealing in times of food crisis.

2008-10-25 – Allotment gardens Slotenkouter (Ghent City, Belgium) at the end of the growing season

There was no surprise at all to read, since a few years that is, about a new movement in the cities : guerilla gardening.  Sure, different factors intervene in these urban initiatives, be it environmental factors (embellishing open spaces full of weeds in town) or social ones (poor people growing vegetables on small pieces of barren land in the cities).

Today, some delightful news was published by IRIN :”Liberia: Urban gardens to boost food security” :

“MONROVIA, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) – Farmers are turning to urban gardens as a way to boost food security in Liberia’s Montserrado County, where just one percent of residents grow their own produce today compared to 70 percent before the war.

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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is targeting 5,000 urban residents of Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Bassa, Bong and Margibi counties, to encourage them to start market gardens or increase the amount of fruit and vegetables they grow on their farms. Participants had to have access to tools and some land.  The aim is to improve food security and nutritional status while boosting incomes, said project coordinator Albert Kpassawah. Participants told IRIN they plant hot peppers, cabbage, calla, tomatoes, onions, beans and ground nuts. Health and nutrition experts in Liberia say increasing fruit, vegetables and protein in people’s diets is vital to reducing chronic malnutrition, which currently affects 45 percent of under-fives nationwide.

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FAO assists primarily by providing seeds and training in techniques such as conserving rainwater and composting. The organization does not provide fertilizer, insecticides or tools – a concern to some participants. “You cannot grow cabbage without insecticide. It doesn’t work,” Anthony Nackers told IRIN.  Vermin, insects and poor storage destroy 60 percent of Liberia’s annual harvest, according to FAO.  And many of the most vulnerable city-dwellers – those with no access to land – cannot participate at all, FAO’s Kpassawah pointed out. But he said he hopes the project’s benefits will spread beyond immediate participants, since all who take part are encouraged to pass on their training to relatives, neighbours and friends.  And there is ample scope to expand techniques learned from cities to rural areas, he pointed out. Just one-third of Liberia’s 660,000 fertile hectares are being cultivated, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

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Let us express our sincere hopes that FAO will soon be able to show to all aid organizations that sufficient food production can be secured by the population of any developing country.  What is possible in urban areas of Liberia can be duplicated in any other country.  What can be achieved in urban gardens, can also be done in rural family gardens.  Why should we continue to discuss the alarming problem of those vulnerable children suffering or even starving from chronic malnutrition, if  school gardens can be a good copy of the successful urban gardens in Liberia?

Don’t we underestimate the role container gardening can play in food production (see <http://containergardening.wordpress.com>) and the pleasure children can find in growing fruit trees and vegetables in plastic bottles.  Pure educational reality !

We count on FAO to take the lead : instead of spending billions on “permanent” food aid, year after year, it would be an unlimited return on investment if only a smaller part would be reserved to immediate needs in times of hunger catastrophes, but the major part spent at the world-wide creation of urban and rural family gardens.

We remain in FAO’s save hands. We wonder what keeps United Nations to envisage a “Global Programme for Food Security” based on the creation of kitchen gardens for the one billion daily hungry people who know that we have this solution in hand.  Let us spend more available resources on “Defense”, the one against hunger and poverty!

Dragonfruits and tree tomatoes can be bought in supermarkets or fruit shops.

Dragonfruit is grown on the cactus Hylocereus :

• Hylocereus undatus (Red Pitaya) has red-skinned fruit with white flesh, the most common “dragon fruit”.
• Hylocereus costaricensis (Costa Rica Pitaya, often called H. polyrhizus) has red-skinned fruit with red flesh
• Hylocereus megalanthus (Yellow Pitaya, formerly in Selenicereus) has yellow-skinned fruit with white flesh.

The fruit contains hundreds of black, shiny little seeds sitting in the pulp.  One can wash out the tender pulp in a fine sieve and dry the seeds on a plate (not on paper).  They usually germinate around two weeks after shallow planting.  Dry seeds can be sent to us (Beeweg 36 – BE9080 ZAFFELARE (Belgium).  We offer free seeds to different development projects in the drylands, thus enabling hungry people to grow fresh fruits in a sustainable way.

Dragonfruit (Hylocereus undatus) growing on a climbing cactus

Cross-section of dragonfruit with black seeds in white pulp

Shiny seeds in rests of white pulp after sieving

Seeds germinating on houshold paper

The tree tomato grows on a Cyphomandra betacea tree.

Oval fruits only look like tomatoes.  The juicy orange pulp with purply red seeds can be washed out in a fine sieve by squeezing the pulp under running tap water.  The dark colour of the seeds (anthocyanins) disappears gradually until they are brownish.  Seeds can be dried on a plate (not on a paper).  Seedlings develop quite easily in humid potting soil.

Dry seeds sent to us (see address above) are offered for free to development projects in the drylands, where these tree tomatoes bring fresh food full of vitamins to the local people.  Thus, anyone can contribute to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in this world.

Tree tomato (Cyphomandra betacea), an interesting fruit to be grown at the largest scale in the drylands. The tree should be incorporated in reforestation programs.

Cross-section of tree tomato with orange flesh (juicy pulp) and dark red seeds

Seeds of tree tomato sit on their small stalk

When purplish red anthocyanins are washed out the seeds turn brownish

All contributions of dragonfruit seeds and tree tomato seeds are most welcome.  In the name of all the people affected by drought and desertification, suffering from malnutrition, hunger and poverty : Sincere thanks !

Newsletter: Plan the Best Container Garden Ever!

Read at : Fine Gardening

Looking for container garden inspiration? We’ve got the information you need, all in one place: articles and videos that can help you turn that boring pot by the front door into a true garden focal point. Also read about paperwhite narcissus, a surefire choice to brighten up your home in winter.

A Guide to Container Gardening

Get design ideas and proven techniques for all aspects of container gardening, including plant and container selection, planting advice, and maintenance tips. Browse container photos from our gardening community, and share photos of your own container creations.

Read more…

Container Gardening Articles

Read at : Sheffield Univ. – Environment Division

www.shef.ac.uk/environmentdivision/gyo

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Producers of ‘home grown’ food can gain psychological and physiological benefits through physical activity and improved nutrition, as well as through self empowerment, engaging with nature, and participating in communal activities. Lack of physical activity and low intake of fruit and vegetables is linked to poor health, but little is known about how the health benefits of physical exercise and fruit and vegetable consumption relate to their environmental setting. Studies of these benefits have often focused on particular social groups such as the elderly or those with mental illness.

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The paragraph above describes the major benefits of growing your own food in allotment gardens.  Key words are :

1. Physiological benefits: physical activity, improved nutrition, improved health
2. Psychological benefits: self empowerment, engagement with nature, participation in community.

In fact, these benefits also go for family gardens (kitchen gardens), school gardens and hospital gardens.  One can imagine that extraordinary improvement in nutrition and health can be achieved if people in the drylands and in refugee camps would be enabled to grow their own food, be it in allotment gardens or in community gardens.

I remain confident that international aid organizations and NGOs, sooner or later, will set up programmes and projects to install these types of gardens to combat hunger and malnutrition and to assure food security in hostile environments.