Dear visitors of my blog,

Sorry for my long silence, due to some “well deserved” holidays.  Now the batteries are charged again and I intend to bring you a bunch of interesting gardening messages in the coming months.

Hope you still enjoy my blog.

Willem

Einstein’s Garden

My friend Willy GOETHALS, President of the Slotenkouter Allotment Gardens of ST; AMANDSBERG (Belgium), sent a message read at :

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2007/05/einsteins-garden.html

By Stefan and Bee on Friday, May 04, 2007

“Is this some kind of slum, or what are these little shacks at the outskirts of Frankfurt? Are people living there?”

That’s what an American postdoc asked Stefan last week when discussing the best way to ride from downtown Frankfurt to the physics institute by bicycle. Along this route one passes many of these colonies.

During summertime some people may actually live there, but these huts and gardens are definitely not slums. They are allotment gardens, also Kleingärten (small gardens), or Schrebergärten, as they are called in German, after physician and social reformer Daniel Schreber.

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Grow An Avocado Tree!

My friend Cathy DE MAIRE sends me a couple of URLs where one can find a description of ways to grow avocado trees from seed :

at iVillage Garden Web

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seed/2002114535011263.html

There’s nothing more fun than growing your own Avocado Tree!

“How do I do it?”

Open the avocado and remove the pit from the center. You can eat the fruit of the avocado, it’s yummy and is full of nutrients!*

Wash the avocado pit under cool running water, you don’t need soap to clean it. With your fingers gently wipe away and remove any of the green fruit that might be on the pit. Rinse it well and then blot it dry with a paper towel.

Carefully push three toothpicks into the thickest width of avocado, you want to push the toothpicks into the pit about a 1/2″ deep. (It’s okay if you push them in deeper or even a little less) The toothpicks will help suspend the avocado pit in water and keep the top part of the pit in fresh air and the fat base of the pit under the surface of the water. Be careful pushing in the toothpicks, they have pointy edges and could hurt if they poke your hands, it’s all right to ask a grown-up to help with this.

Suspend the pit over a glass filled with water….the toothpicks will rest on the rim of the glass and hold the pit in place so it doesn’t sink to the bottom. Always check the water level in the glass and see that the water is covering the fat base of the pit by about an inch depth. If the water is below that level you’ll need to add some more. Slowly and carefully pour in more water from a small cup to avoid splashing.

Place the glass in a bright windowsill. In about three to six weeks the top of the avocado pit will begin to split and a stem sprout will emerge from the top and roots will begin to grow at the base.

When the stem grows to about five or six inches pinch out the top set of leaves. In another two or three weeks new leaves will sprout and their will be more roots.

It’s now time to plant the young avocado tree. Place enriched potting soil in a large flowerpot (maybe 8″ to 10″ across). Fill the soil to about an inch from the top of the pot. Make a small depression in the center of the soil and place the pit, root-side down into the depression. Don’t put it too deep…you want to have the upper half of the pit above the soil line. Add some more soil around the pit to fill in any air holes by the roots and then firm it into the soil by gently pushing the soil around the base of the pit. The tree’s stem and leaves should be straight and pointing up (like a flagpole).

Give the soil a drink to water the pit. Water it generously so that the soil is thoroughly moist. Water the soil slowly and gently so that when it’s poured in it doesn’t gouge out holes in the soil. Keep your tree watered but don’t let the soil be so moist that it ever looks like mud.

Food garden blooms on skid row wall

Message from Jazmine Hogan-Donaldson :

Many thanks for your Desertification blog. Last year I volunteered in Burkina Faso for Helen Keller International. I’m always looking for news about Burkina and came across your blog from a google search. I saw the following article in today’s Los Angeles Times and thought you might find it of some interest:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-garden14-2008aug14,0,872568.story

Best regards,
Jazmine

Fruits, vegetables and herbs tended by formerly homeless residents cover urban gray.

By Cara Mia DiMassa, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 14, 2008

It’s the smell you notice first: not the usual scent for this part of downtown, more accustomed to overflowing trash cans, sour urine and the stench of people who have spent too long sleeping on L.A.’s streets.

Instead, it’s sweet and green, with a tinge of lavender — and it comes from the vegetable garden that residents of the Rainbow Apartments planted last week in a most unlikely place: attached to a cinder-block wall of a parking lot off San Julian Street in the heart of skid row.

The 34-foot-long vertical plot, which looks like a swath of green carpet against the cinder blocks, is filled with strawberries, tomatoes, basil and other herbs and vegetables. It’s a step up for the dozen or so members of the gardening group at the Rainbow Apartments, all formerly homeless, who have spent the two years since their building opened learning about the caprice of nature and the promise of its bounty.

The first time they tried planting vegetables, in a couple of wooden bins on the rooftop of their building, their novice status meant that plants weren’t watered and cared for properly.

“Everything died,” said Chris Owens, the group’s de facto leader.

The second time, things went better. Members of the group paid special attention to the sprouts they planted, watering and pruning with care. And under their vigilant tending, corn stalks pushed upward. Watermelons appeared on vines.

Many residents were surprised by the way gardening united them, in an area where it sometimes seems best to mind your own business and keep to yourself.

“It brings us together as a group, kind of like therapy, to see something growing and flourishing,” Jannie Burrows said.

“We’re trying to feed our bodies with better nutrients,” Lance Shaw said. “But more than anything, we like getting together.”

The modest initial success led the Rainbow group to the nonprofit Urban Farming, which helped the group install the green wall last week as part of its Food Chain project. Urban Farming also erected “edible” walls at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, the Miguel Contreras Learning Center and the Weingart Center.

The Food Chain project, said Urban Farming founder Taja Sevelle, enables residents in some of the city’s poorest areas to grow food in underused spaces at a time when food prices are soaring. The walls, she said, “get people to think outside the box. You can plant food in so many different places.”

As Owens and two other men struggled under the weight of planting grids filled with cucumbers, tomatillos and lavender, George Irwin, the president of Green Living Technologies, whose company manufactured and donated the system of planting grids, watched with a careful eye.

“Lift and slide,” Irwin told them as they carefully placed the grids onto brackets mounted on the wall. The plantings began above their heads, and vines and tendrils snaked down the wall. “One, two, three: good. Let it down.”

Sweating a bit as he took a break from lifting 51 panels into place, each filled with soil and plants, Owens stepped back and was impressed. “We’ve opened up a space we never would have had,” he said.

Rainbow resident Cenith Youngblood wiped the units with a white cloth, clearing away extra soil and organic matter. When she was done, she looked at the wall.

“It’s gorgeous,” Youngblood said. “I was trying to visualize what they meant by a green wall. Now it’s beautiful. I see cucumbers and strawberries, and what are these? Basil?”

No, she was told: peppers.

“Jalapenos! Oh, I love jalapenos!”

Owens said the group planned to be responsible for the pruning and harvesting of the garden walls. In the next few months, he said, they would evaluate whether the mix of plants worked for the residents.

“Everybody will have a say about what they want,” said Owens, who is partial to tomatoes because they are “very versatile.”

Regardless of what the bounty is, he said, they would share their crops with the building’s other residents.

“We try to share food with everyone,” he said. “We don’t like people taking it just for themselves.”

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Guide To Basic Container Gardening (compost bin)

Read at : Google Alert - gardening

http://www.bestcompost.com/best-compost/13

By Benjamin Brook

Container gardening can be very convenient for individuals with minimal space in their homes or those who wish to have plants inside their homes. Container gardening enables the gardener to bring in a splash of color to their homes. Compared to single pots, most containers used in container gardening are relatively large and can contain several plants of the same species or of different species.

Read at : Google Alert - gardening

http://www.gardengrowth.com/gardening/container-vegetable-gardening-is-the-new-rage/

Container Vegetable Gardening Is The New Rage

The new rage these days seems to be container Vegetable Gardening and in fact, the present popularity of this form of Vegetable Gardening can be seen from the fact that more and more people are taking to it even in spite of the fact that they only have small spaces in which to grow their vegetables at home. Many people actually are constantly on the lookout for a good way to grow their own vegetables even when space is at a premium. Moreover, these people also wish to avoid purchasing vegetables that contain non-organic matter and they need to also find a way to avoid paying for highly costly organic foods.

An Ideal Solution

With problems such as E. coli to worry about as well, growing vegetables at home has now almost become a necessity and so, it is not surprising to find that container vegetable gardening offers an ideal solution to those who have limited space to grow their vegetables at home. Today, almost everything that we consume is a product of mass production which means that the vegetables that we are eating will have been touched by many hands which in turn can lead to these vegetables becoming unsafe to consume.

STATE ANNOUNCES FUNDING TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY GARDENS

Read at : Google Alert - gardening

http://readme.readmedia.com/news/show/STATE-ANNOUNCES-FUNDING-TO-SUPPORT-COMMUNITY-GARDENS/263575

News from New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets

For more information contact: Jessica Chittenden, 518-457-3136

Announcement Made at First Statewide Community Garden Summit at SUNY New Paltz

ALBANY, NY (07/25/2008; 1453)(readMedia)– Governor David A. Paterson and Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker today announced a new grant program that will strengthen community gardens. The Community Gardens Capacity Building Grants Program will improve access to fresh local produce, help New Yorkers reduce their food budgets, preserve open space, and provide a cleaner, healthier environment by supporting community gardens throughout New York State.

Many People Find Vegetable Gardening To Be an Exhilarating Activity

Read at : Google Alert - gardening

http://www.gardengrowth.com/gardening/vegetable-gardening/many-people-find-vegetable-gardening-to-be-an-exhilarating-activity/

There is no other activity quite as exhilarating as Vegetable Gardening and that is why many people take so much pleasure in it and are often found spending a lot of time in their backyard. Vegetable Gardening can make you forget your worries and it certainly also gives you a wonderful opportunity to make your garden look more elegant. It does require that you plan well ahead and so, the first thing that you will need to do is ensure that the vegetables that you are planning on planting need to be placed where they will get maximum sunshine.

Even Ground

The second factor that needs to be addressed is to remember to plant your vegetables on ground that is even because that will ensure that the plants get enough water as well as fertilizers and minerals.

Gardening advice: Top of the Pots

Read at : Google Alert - gardening

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2008/07/25/garden-pots125.xml

Basil Basics

Read at : Fine Gardening Newsletter

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/plants/articles/basil-basics.aspx

For the best harvest, give plants full sun, ample water, and regular pruning

by Susan Belsinger

The first time I tasted pesto was on a warm summer night while dining al fresco at a restaurant in Fiesole, Italy. I inquired about the trenette al pesto on the menu and one of my companions insisted that I try it. My plate of pasta arrived with a bright-green aromatic herb sauce that tasted rich, savory, sweet, and pungent all at the same time. I couldn’t figure out what the main ingredient of the sauce was, so, with some amusement, my Italian friends explained to me that basil was the key ingredient in this sauce called pesto. That dish changed my life.

Before I left Italy, my friends taught me how to make my own pesto, and the next year I started growing basil in my garden so I could have fresh basil available to make this dish whenever I wanted it.

More on basil

• The more you harvest, the more you get. Keep basil plants cut back so you have a continual supply of fresh leaves throughout the growing season. Watch a video on harvesting herbs.

• Mmmmm, pesto… Try the author’s pesto recipe. Or, check out more recipes from FineCooking.com.

• Save some for later. You can enjoy basil and other herbs from your garden in the cold winter months. Watch these videos with the author on freezing and drying herbs.

• Beyond basil. Don’t forget to check out our kitchen garden articles.

I discovered that basil is an easy plant to grow, its only major requirements being full sun and consistent water. Its delicious flavor has made it the most useful herb in my summer kitchen. Although most varieties are grown for their culinary uses, several varieties have compact habits or purple foliage and are useful as ornamental plants, too.

Most garden centers sell transplants of basil (typically the Italian varieties bred for culinary use) in the spring. But to get the most interesting varieties, I start mine from seed indoors, four to six weeks before I plan to transplant them into the garden. I sprinkle the seeds on the surface of a soilless medium in small flats or seed-starting pans and cover them with plastic wrap. I keep the flats warm but out of direct sun.

When the first seed sprouts, I remove the plastic and place the flat either in direct light or 2 to 3 inches below grow lights. Since basil seedlings cannot tolerate overwatering, I don’t water them the first day after removing the plastic, and I’m careful to allow the growing medium to almost dry out between waterings.

As the plants grow, I feed them with a liquid fertilizer once a week. When the seedlings have developed their first set of true leaves, usually two to three weeks after germination, I transplant them into 2- or 2-1/2-inch pots. Two to three weeks later, I begin hardening off the plants, which means putting them outside during the day when temperatures are warmest to get them used to outdoor temperatures and weather. Eventually I will leave them outside overnight, but only when I’m sure there won’t be any frost.

Some basils are grown for their beauty. The purple foliage of varieties like ‘Rubin’ (left) and the purple stems … Photo/Illustration: Jennifer Brown

… and flowers of ‘African Blue’ (right) can accent herb, vegetable, or flower beds. Photo/Illustration: Steve Aitken

Prune regularly for the best flavor. About every four weeks, prune basil back to just above the bottom two sets of leaves. If the plant is allowed to flower, it will lose flavor.

I transplant my basil plants into the ground in mid- to late May, well after the last frost in my Maryland garden. I plant them in full sun, fertilizing and watering each one well at planting time. I continue to fertilize the plants every two to three weeks, and I water them if we don’t get regular rain, because basils don’t like to dry out.

It is important to keep basils cut back so you have a continual harvest of fresh leaves throughout the season. I am diligent about pruning my plants, and as a result I get 15 to 25 cups of leaves from each plant per season. It is also important not to let the plants slated for culinary use flower, or the leaves will begin to taste bitter.

Immediately after planting, I prune my basils by cutting them back to just above the bottom two sets of leaves. This early pruning may seem drastic, but it actually stimulates growth.

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From Fine Gardening 91, pp. 52-54