Earthbag Building The Tools Tricks ands Techniques by Kaki Hunter & Donald Kiffmeyer

This excellent book is the one and only thing you need to start using earth bags to build environmental friendly housing for you and your family.  It will take you through the brief but successful history of using earth bags and explain and diagram all the techniques that you will need to build you own small house from start to finish. 

The book and the building method it touts  are considered by many earth building experts as being one of the easiest for owner builders to master quickly and effectively.  This makes it ideal for first time attempts at using earth to build.

If you are serious about building your own earth friendly,  well built and cost effective house this book deserves your attention.     

Why you should read The Hand Sculpted House.

I came across this book at my local library and it immediately captured my attention with its intriguing title The Hand-Sculpted House

Hand Sculpted House...?

How do you sculpt a house?  Isn't a house something made of hard, angular material that needs to be cut, beaten, screwed and otherwise forced into a position that will work to protect us and our possessions.  This book contends that no a house does not have to be made of wood, sheetrock and concrete and must conform to perfect squares and rectangles.  Instead it provides an inside look into the lives of successful earthen home builders that have constructed beautiful, resilient and comfortable homes using the humble materials of rock, sand, clay and straw.

This book was my first serious introduction into cob building or cobbing.  Cobbing is a style of building that goes back centuries but has largely been relegated to being primitive and not as effective as other more modern methods.  But in the past two decades there has been a resurgence in interest in cob buildings and what they can do to improve the quality of life and the environment.

For practical advice on building using cob look no farther that this book.  It provides diagrams, pictures mixture ratios for different types of cob and words of wisdom on how to avoid the common pitfalls of cob building.  It also provides a more "spiritual" or earthy perspective of how building in this matter is good for you in physical, emotional and spiritual sense.

All I can say is that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to add it to my library at the first opportunity.

It can be found online at Amazon or in my Young Environmentalist store.

Until next time my fellow environmentalist.

Josh

Cubed Foot Gardening

Cubed Foot Gardening - Growing Vegetables in Raised, Intensive Beds by Christopher Bird.

I will be honest this book did not have lots of amazing new information on the concept of raised beds gardening and overall was not to much use to me.  It did provide a little insight into building of the beds using 2 x 6 or preferable 2 x 12 lumber and even the use of the green treat lumber to help the beds last longer.  While I personally am not a fan of using the green treat lumber due the assortment of chemicals that goes into making it I do not believe at this time that there is any scientific evidence that would prevent you from safely using it.  

Overall its a solid book that would be a great primer for anyone that is interested in learning more about intensive garden beds.

Home Grown Food Production

Well my fellow environmentalists I wish I could say this has been a good year for home grown food for me I really wish I could. 

But that is simply not the truth...

The garden has been plagued by hail, hot sun, not enough water and I will admit some negligence on behalf of those involved.  The lettuce bolted and has gone to seed, the last row of pumpkins, melons and cantaloupe never got enough water.  The sunflowers dried up and died and only about half the corn that I planted actually came up. 

I wished I could say it is all my fault that the garden failed because at least then the failure would be a teaching moment and I would improve on it next year.  But the truth is, it isn't all my fault the weather played a big role.  But it was how the garden was managed that had the most impact on its performance.  Unfortunately for the garden I accepted a position that took me away from home four days out of every week and for anyone that has a garden they know how impossible it is to manage it from a distance

To make a long story short the garden ended up producing ok.   

I had such high hopes for this summer and the garden I wanted it to be the beginning of a new stage in my life.  Where I lived according to the sun and seasons, where I could grown enough food to feed me and my family well through the winter. 

But that never happened my hopes were dashed and dreams are set back another season waiting yet again for a chance to grow food, live lightly on the land and move further down the path towards true sustainability. 

Well maybe next year my fellow environmentalists maybe next year

3 Must Watch Food Documentaries

Since food has been my focus these past few months as I geared up for planting season I thought it was about time that I presented what I thought are three excellent food and agriculture documentaries that really bring to light what food is really about in the modern age. While these three only cover a smattering of what is out there they do provide a cross section that I feel is relevant and important.

If you want to learn more about food and agriculture as it is today what I have here in this post would be a excellent start to your journey. But what can be found here is but the tip of the iceberg and I will caution that some of the assertions made in the documentaries must be approached with a open mind and a grain of salt.

Enjoy

Food Inc.

A 2008 documentary that delves deep into the sometimes shady world of industrial agriculture and food production. It brings some alarming facts and truths to light about food production in our modern world. Divided up into 3 segments the first dealing with meat production, the second with grain production and finally with the economic and policy influence that large agribusinesses can exert on government regulatory bodies like the USDA and FDA. I found this documentary to be very eye opening and shocking with some of the imagery it found showing how large agribusiness farms treat animal like disposable bits of trash. However the part that is most interesting in my opinion is when it looks into just how much influence these agriculture companies have in our government. It really is a must see documentary for anyone interested in how food is grown and produced in America.

Forks over Knives

This documentary delves into the claim that food can be used to treat most if not all of the ailments that plague mankind. From heart disease to cancer it asserts that with the proper diet of fresh, nutrient, dense foods and exercise we could potential stave of old age and be illness free for our suddenly longer lives. While the claims of the film haven't been scientifically proven and only a few studies like the China Study show any glimmer of hope for the idea. But unproven claims aside the documentary does offer a new and obviously healthier way to live if we wanted to embrace it.

Dive-Living off Americas Waste

Following the exploits of a dumpster diving man named Jeremy Seifert he shows just how much food is tossed out by grocery, department, and bulk purchase stores in America. A lot of food in the dumpsters is still perfectly edible and with the little know how easy to eat. He and his family eat well from what other people throw away on a nightly basis. One of my favorite parts of the film is were a chef friend of his prepares a gourmet meal that would have cost them a good bit of money at his restaurant from what they gathered from dumpsters. It is eye opening film that really shows how wasteful we are as a society when it comes to our food.


If you are interested in purchasing these documentries they can be found under the Green Reading catagory in the Young Environmentalist store.

Unitl next time

Josh

Recommended Reading

The second edition re-released in 2008 with updated information and more stories from the great grain raiser himself. Considered one of the founding fathers of the modern garden farming and sustainable agriculture Gene Logsdon delivers a educational yet easy to read book on raising your own grains. He gives his weighty opinion on techniques for grain selection, planting, raising, disease concerns, harvesting and storage. For anyone that is even mildly interested in growing grains for themselves or livestock in a small garden setting this is the book for you. I will be adding it my collection just as soon as I can and it will be a well read resource. It can be found at Amazon. Com and in the the Young Environmentalist Store for easy purchase and shipping.

Dealing With Slugs in your Compost Bin

Anyone that lives in moist climates and or does a lot of composting will occasional run into slug or other insect problems.  In a effectively run composting they will not be much of issue because of the higher temperatures that are inherent in composting will kill any slugs that try to make there home in the compost.

But sometimes through no fault of the composter you will end up with slug and insect problems in your bin.  If they are just in your compost and it is away from your garden then the slugs will not be much to worry about as long as they are well fed by your veggie and fruit scraps you add to the compost.  However if the compost is close to your actives gardens then some control or eradication of the slugs might be in order.

There are many options our their for slugs in the garden from traps to poison pellets but when dealing with then in the compost pile the options are more limited.  You want to steer clear of poisons or chemicals since that would end up in the compost and would later be spread on the garden.  There are two common and easy ways to deal with slugs in your compost if you feel it is necessary. 

You can either pluck them out by hand and toss them in a bucket of soapy water which will drown them.  Make sure to use soapy water as they will most likely find some way to get out of a bucket of plain old water. 
   
The second effective way to deal with them is to empty the composter on a patio or tarp layed out in the sun.  This will have two effects on the slugs in the compost, they will be dried out by being exposed to the sun and they will be vulnerable to hungry birds that inhabit the neighborhood.  The sun and the birds will also kill and eat the eggs(hopefully) that the slugs will most likely have layed in the compost.   I say hopefully because when you are dealing with nature nothing is ever certain. 

Slugs will always be a ongoing battle in the garden but they can be managed quite easily with just a few simple methods like the ones outlined above.  If you wish to try and exclude slugs from your garden or keep them contained in your compost you can try using a copper mesh fence.  Research has shown that the copper produces a reaction in the slugs and snails akin to a electrical shock and they will not want to cross it.  The copper mesh can be found easily at places like Amazon and if deployed effectively it can be useful at keeping them out or in what ever you want.

Using Windbreaks to Protect Gardens

If you live in the Midwest like I do you you are familiar with a little thing called wind. Wind is what defines many aspects about our lives. It effects where we build homes, if we plant trees, gardens, snow management, what we drive and the list goes on and on. Someone who is not from the plains states may have a hard time understanding just how much wind impacts our lives. Sometime in the dead of winter with the wind howling along at 40 miles and hour with snow and ice flying through the air it sometime seems like the wind has it out for you.

In the war against the wind we fight here on the plains we have only one defense against it. We use windbreaks. It you are not familiar with the term windbreak it pretty much means what it sounds like. Windbreaks are something that that puts the brakes on the wind and stops it from exerting its full force on a people or objects.

Windbreaks can either be living using trees, shrubs, tall grasses or constructed like wood slate fences.

Tree and Shrub Winbreak

Both types can be very effective but they have draw backs as well. When using a living windbreak they will need to be planted, water, fertilized and mulched in order for them to become effective. It can also take up to ten years depending on the species of plants for a living windbreak to become effective. A constructed windbreak on the other hand can be effective as soon as you are done building it but it will not last has long as well designed living windbreak.

There are many purposes that windbreaks can be designed for but for this post I want to discuss why it can be used in a garden. For any of you out there that garden you know that many of the species that are commonly grown in gardens are very fickle and sensitive. If things are not exactly what they need to grow they will give you no end of grief. Along with watering, nutrition and sunshine protecting your garden from wind can be crucial to good production.

Studies around the world have demonstrated that windbreaks can improve crop yields anywhere from 5-45 percent depending on the type of crop. Now most of these studies were conducted on traditional field crops like wheat, corn and soybeans but what holds true for those crops is also applicable to garden vegetables as well. As a gardener that deals with wind on a daily basis I cannot stress enough how important it is to have protection from it.

A perfect example of why windbreaks are important is a potted zucchini plant that I grew about a year ago. When I was growing the zucchini on my deck it was doing just fine. It had plenty of water and sun and was well on its ways to producing excellent zucchini. But by this point in the summer I had already been eating zucchini like crazy from my garden and I didn't want anymore. When my girlfriend found out she said she would take it since she loved zucchini and hadn't had any yet. To sum it up when it left the safety of my deck the wind got a a hold of it and it was never the same zucchini plant again.

For the purposes of garden a constructed windbreak would probably be best. This type will go up

Cattle Windbreak made with tin sheeting

quickly and can be moved and raised with relative ease when compared to planted windbreaks. They can be constructed in many ways including a slatted fence, greenhouse plastic over a wood frame or even metal sheeting like you see with cattle windbreaks.

Until next time

Josh

10 Types of Food for Healthy Teeth

Recent dental troubles have gotten me thinking about what I could have been doing more to help out my teeth and gums over the past few years. The obvious things come to mind first, brushing flossing mouthwash, regular dentist cleanings, etc. But I wanted to find out beyond that what I could have done and be doing from this point on. Since food is my primary focus right now with the spring planting season coming I wanted to know more about what types of food would be good for my teeth.

It turns out that there are around 10 foods and food types that are agreed on by the scientific community as to being healthy for teeth.

Green Tea


A common type of tea which contains polyphenols a antioxidant that helps reduce the amount of plaque that will adhere to teeth. The lower amounts of plaque reduces chances of cavities and gum disease which helps us get a thumbs up from the dentist on our next visit.


Milk and Yogurt


These types of foods have low acidity which reduces the gradual wear on teeth called dental erosion. Also rather obviously these products contain much of our daily calcium intake which is a major part of our bones and our teeth.


Cheese


With cheeses high amounts of calcium and phosphates they are able to replenish calcium in our system and  they help balance the mouths pH which reduces dental erosion. Other beneficial aspect of cheese is that it kills the bacteria that are responsible for cavities.
 
Fruits


Many different types of fruits contain large amounts of Vitamin C which is considers the glue that keeps cells together. Research has shown that people that don’t get enough Vitamin C will cause the collagen network in your gums to break down which makes them more susceptible to bacteria and infection.


Vegetables


Vegetables are a all around good thing for us and most of us me included don't get enough of them. But for the purposes of dental health you want veggies full of Vitamin A like carrots, pumpkins and broccoli. Not only do the nutrients do the teeth some good but the crunchy nature of these veggies help your mouth up.

Now that were done with the general foodstuffs it is time to look at some of the specifics of good food for your teeth food.

Onions


Though this one won't make you any friends if it lingers on your breath the humble onion does quite a bit for our teeth. The onion is rich in anti bacterial sulfur compounds that will clean out that lovely tooth rotting bacteria right on out of your mouth. Advocates of the onion say that if you can stand the stink to eat them raw for the best effects.


Celery


Eating raw celery produces a gum massaging action that anyone familiar with celery will know what I'm talking about. If raw celery is a little much for you add a little peanut butter for dipping will go along way.


Sesame seeds


Are great in rolls and breads have been shown to dissolve plaque and build tooth enamel and also contain a good bit of calcium to help strengthen the jaw bone and teeth.


Proteins


Proteins like the ones contained in beef, chicken, eggs and turkey are rich in phosphorus. When phosphorus combines with calcium and Vitamin D it helps to produce our teeth and bones. Getting enough protein will keep your teeth healthy.


Water

Humble H2O is essential to teeth health in that is rinses away food particles so that saliva can do its jobs and nourish our teeth and repair and hydrate our gums.
 
Well there you have it the 10 foods for healthy teeth.  I bet this just makes you want to go right out and buy some carrots and celery doesn't it.  If not a visit around the Internet seeing what happens when you don't take care of your choppers might be in order for you. :)
 
 
Unitl next time
 
Josh

Oh Crap I missed Earth Day

With the recent snow that has been blasting across the Midwest it probably derailed some plans for Earth Day that some people might have had.  I in fact was snowed and iced in at my house so I got to celebrate Earth Day by sitting on my butt in front of the TV and computer all day. 

Not the best way to spend Earth Day in my opinion.  The best way to celebrate Earth Day is of course be outside and enjoying all the wonders that the planet has to offer and I hope that all of you did that.  I unfortunately could not except maybe to enjoy the fun and heart pounding excitement that snow shoveling has to offer.

If you feel the need to give back on Earth Day there are many organization and groups that put things together for groups to do or if you would rather lone wolf it you can plant a tree providing your not buried in snow like I was. 

If you want to see what people are doing for Earth Day check out the Earth Day Network.  It is a site that brings people together on Earth Day and the rest of the year to do projects that are good for the environment and could have a real impact on the future of our planet. 

So I hope were able to do something for Earth Day and give back a little to the planet which has given all of us so much.



Josh

What Does It Take to Eat Sustainably

I find that there is a lot of confusion out there to what does it mean to eat sustainably. For some people it means going organic. Going organic is a good step towards eating sustainably since it does support a environmental sensitive approach to farming that seeks to protect and improve the soil and the land. But eating sustainably is not just eating food that was grown or raised in a responsible manner there is also the concepts of embodied energy and food miles to consider.

Embodied energy in the case of food is the energy that was put into preparing the seed bed, planting the seed, any artificial fertilizer or pesticides that were used, harvest and finally transportation and packing of the food items to be purchased in the store. All of those processes use energy in some way or another. Here in the western world that energy usually comes from fossil fuel such as oil and it derivatives like diesel and gasoline. In the intensive agriculture system found here in American there can be upwards of 10 calories of fossil fuel energy contained in 1 calorie of food energy. With fossil fuels being a non renewable and therefor unsustainable into the future and food that takes large amounts of fossil fuels to create and ship is not sustainable.

The concept of food miles ties directly into embodied energy but focuses exclusively on the distance that food will travel from farm to table. On average food in America will travel up to thousand miles from farm to table on a variety of of trucks, trains and planes. The large distance that most food travels gives even food raised organically poor marks in sustainability. One way that some people have gotten around this is becoming a locavore. A locavore is someone that eats only locally grown food from some sort of fixed radius whenever possible. Typical distances for most locavores can be anywhere from 50-200 miles depending on your location. Areas that produce more variety of crops in small areas can have smaller food radius while people that live in the Great Plains or other rural areas might have harder time with it. Being a locavore can limit you on variety unless you live in a ideal climate for growing many types of crops.

Being a locavore isn't for everyone since it would take out some of peoples favorite foods like green salads in winter, and every banana from here to Florida would be off limits. I know for me being a locavore would be incredible tough since I do love fruits like pineapple, oranges, and those would defiantly not fall into this potential locavores radius.

It essentially boils down to the fact that the current mass production of food pioneered by industrial nations like the US will not work for the future. It takes to much energy in the form of fossil fuels to make this type of food sustainable and it will eventually fail. The only hope for sustainable food production into the future is food that is organically grown and a local as possible. That is not to say you can't enjoy those oranges and pineapples I know I will. But we must keep in mind the potential damage that growing and shipping that food has caused. If you can try to source out organic sources of your food and always support the local growers by going to local farmers market and co-ops. If you live in a rural area without access to farmers markets and you still want to eat sustainably then the time has come for you to plant a garden and learn about growing your own food.

If you wish to grow you own food there are many excellent resources out there but one of my favorites is a book called Mini Farming by Brett Markham. It is a excellent resource for someone just getting started in the art of gardening and is a very useful book to have in any library.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists 

Josh

Seed Starting

Its sounds so easy doesn’t it. That’s what I thought and boy was I wrong. It really becomes painfully clear as you try and start seeds inside why plants produce so many seeds. It take a specific set of conditions that are unique to each variety of plants and most of the seeds don't make it. They will fall prey to moisture and rot or get eaten by animals or will simply never have the conditions they need to be viable.

There a few key things that are important for all seeds to germinate they need some moisture but not to much and good seed to soil contact. To much water will cause the seed to rot instead of germinating and if it is placed incorrectly in the soil it will not receive the needed indicators to germinate. This is done in nature simple through fortuitous circumstances and by plants producing

many seeds in the attempt to get a few seedlings.



Seed Starting in yogurt cups and terra cotta pots

But luckily we are no longer forced to rely entirely on nature for the germination of our seeds. Through wonderful things like artificial lighting and custom made seed mixtures getting seeds to germinate is easier than ever. The right mixture will be light textured, pathogen and parasite free and will allow water to be easily taken up by the plants after they have germinated. After seeds have germinated they will quickly exhaust there internal energy stores and will need to begin photosynthesis. Most sunlight especially inside a house is too weak and directional when seed starting usually begins to be used by itself. Some artificial light must be used to prevent the plant seedlings from getting leggy and reaching for the sun. The most commonly used lights for this are fluorescent lights since they are cheap, easily available and work well in many situations. They can be strung up on chains or ropes and raised and lowered as needed above the seeds to keep them at the optimum height. It is critical during early development that they get as much light as they can get which ends up being about 12-15 hours a day with the lights so close they are almost touching the plant

Regular watering is critical for seedling due to there fragile nature and the small amount of soil available to them. Watering can be easily accomplished by punching holes into the bottom of soil containers and placing all the containers into a water proof tray. Then by placing water in the tray it is easily taken up by the soil in the containers which provides even watering. Just make sure drain the extra water from the trays to prevent over-watering of the seedlings or seed rotting. This method also makes it easier to do any fertilizing that needs to be done.

With the proper soil mixture, good watering, good lighting and a little luck you will have home grown seedlings at a fraction of what they would cost you at a greenhouse. For more information check out this article at Mother Earth News and other resources likeMini Farming by Brett Markham.

 

 

If you are looking for ways to start seeds without buying all the special seed trays and greenhouse lids check out an article I have on Infobarrel call 3 DIY Seed Starters for Garden Seeds

Until next time

 

Josh

               

Walipani (The Underground Greenhouse)

These wondrously easy to build greenhouses could be the cost effective key to those looking to grow food all year long. The idea came from Bolivia South America made my locals in a attempt to improve their local food supply. It relies on the principles of passive heat from the sun being captured in the mass of the earth. To do this a pit is dug 6-8 feet into the ground and a layer of plastic or other clear material is laid over the top at a angle specific to your latitude on the Earth. Many walipani are being built using recycled and cheap materials and one can be built for as little as 300 dollar depending on the size you want.

If built correctly so that heat is trapped, excess moisture is ventilated, there is proper drainage and of course strongly so the walls don’t collapse. You will essential be able to grow food all winter long even in some of the harshest climates. Depending on your climate you may have to include a additional heat source such as a wood stove to provide for the intermittent heat needs that colds nights will demand. The ability of people to grow quality food in the middle of winter is something that will become more important as people being to become more self reliant and pull away from other support systems.

I have not yet been able to build one of these yet though it is on my to do list now that I have found out more about it and the ease at which is can be built.

For more reading on this topic check out the following articles and PDF files that I have linked below.

http://www.bensoninstitute.org/Publication/Manuals/Walipini.pdf

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/build-underground-greenhouse-garden-year-round.html

http://www.undergroundhousing.com/greenhouse_book.html

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

Josh

Ode to the Chicken

When you sit down for dinner tonight and you look at what is on your plate what it is?

Depending on the day and how much you enjoy your beef you probably have chicken on your plate. Chicken is one of the most successful domesticated animals in the world with over 20 billion chickens living on farms across the world. They became so successful because of there incredible usefulness in many aspects from the eggs and meat they provide to the entertainment and pest control they provide on the property.

It is widely believed that modern domesticated chickens Gallus domesticus are descended the Red Jungle Fowl Gallus gallus. Some of the first documented evidence of domesticated chickens occurs in China around 5400 BC at multiple sites. They also appear in the Indus Valley of India around 2000 BC and it is from there that the chicken spreads to Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.  Chickens historically we not the a ultimate suppliers of protein that they are today.  Some cultures used them quite extensively in cock fighting and others venerated the chicken in a religious context using them to adorn church's like the early Christians in Europe

Today the modern chicken supplies much of our protein in the form of eggs and meat and around 74% of all chicken meat and 68% of eggs are raised on industrial farm. There are many breeds of chickens around the world so many in fact that we are not really sure how many there actually are. They come in many sizes but are generally divided into the categories of large and bantam breeds. Bantam breeds are usually 1/4 to 1/5 the size of the large breeds and can be either miniature versions of large breeds or separate breeds in there own right.

For the purposes of production a chicken farmer will typically look at two things when deciding what breed to purchase. If they desire meat then they will look at breeds that are good for meat production like the Cornish, Orpington and Shamo breeds. Perhaps they are more interested in exceptional egg layers like Leghorns chickens. It all really depends on what type of production you want to have and what scale you want to do it on. A lot of the commercial chickens found in industrial chicken operations are hybrids specially bred to put on meat or be egg layers. Like many hybrids though these chickens are incapable of breeding true and the overemphasis of certain traits causes health problems in the chickens.While hybridization and the industrial scale production are good for the bottom line of the chicken producer it does have certain effects of the health of the chickens and there surrounding environment that has many environmentalist worried.

There has been a upswing in recent years of people starting there own micro flocks of 10-12 birds that they keep for eggs, fertilizer and entertainment. Along with a sustainable managed garden and food preservation a flock of chickens could be the beginning of a self sufficient lifestyle that many people a striving to reach today.

A good reference to have for any would be chicken farmer is Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. This all inclusive book gives details on breeds, care, feeding and facilities needed to properly raise chickens.

I have consulted it quite extensively in deciding what breed would work for our little operation and I'm sure it will be very useful in the months to come as I and a few friends raise our first flock of chickens.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

Josh

Urban Agriculture

Urban Agriculture is the practice and the fast growing phenomenon of growing food in city settings. This is done through community gardens, utilizing vacant lots, balcony gardens, back yards and for those willing to deal with the scrutiny of there neighbors their front yards.  Urban agriculture despite all the hype that it is receiving today is actually not a new phenomenon. Here in the US it has cropped up several times in the past couple centuries. One of the most notable occasions was during WW2 when people were urged to plant Victory Gardens. These gardens supplied more than half of all vegetables eaten during war years. This production right at people homes in cities led to supplies being freed up for the war effort.  Growing good food in the city is not as difficult as some people might think.  There are many things about cities that make growing food in them easier and more enjoyable than growing it in the country.    

Heat Island Effect:

Cities create there own micro climate protecting the delicate vegetables from the vagaries of the weather. Wind speed is reduced and temperatures are slightly higher in cities which improves plant growth and extends the growing season.

Easy Access:

When your garden is on your balcony it is not hard to take excellent care of it. While the difficulty will increase with the size and location of whatever you are growing the city offers many things that make it easy to care of a garden. Access to a ready to use clean water source is a great asset for growing quality food. Plus you will also be able to utilize the knowledge of the people and institutions like university extension offices to help you along the way.


Potential Profit

For a lot of people after they grow there first garden it will have had one of two effects on them.  One they end up hating it with a passion and they never want to pull a weed or pick up a shovel again.  But sometimes the passion gets turned the other way and they loved it.  They love it so much that they begin to look for ways to grow more and expand on what they are already doing.  This can and usually does lead to overproduction.  The excess needs to be done away with and the opportunities provided by urban agriculture make this a cinch.  Food shelters are always looking for fresh produce or you could sell to your friends and neighbors who most likely would love some fresh right from the garden food.  Being in a urban setting offers lots of potential customers right outside the garden and such a potentially profitable venture.  

 

Fringe Benefits

 

Urban gardens can produce not only high quality food but also provide a host of other benefits as well. They provide positive interactions between people and the environment. Provide fresh purified air in the center of cities. Restore more greenery to the center of concrete jungles and provide a ecological balance that is missing in most cities. There is also the numerous health benefits that come with gardening including exercise, fresh air, and a little shot of sunshine to give some color to office bound urban dwellers.

To learn more about urban agriculture I would suggest tracking down and reading a book called Urban Agriculture- Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution by David Tracey. This witty and highly entertaining book is a fun yet educational read. Packed full of fun facts and useful advice this book is great for growers of all levels and types. Whether you want a balcony full of plants or a half acre to call you own this is a good reference to read and have.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

Josh

The downside to soil tilling

Tillage the practice of turning over and mixing the soil to incorporate nutrients, crop residues and to kill weeds in the fields. For many years tillage has been the go to soil preparation technique for its soil enhancement properties like,

• lightens the soil
• breaks up clay pans and compacted soils
• oxygenates the soil
• breaks up soil clods
• smooths out planting surface for seeds

But what we have discovered in recent years is that tillage can lead to more problems then it help alleviate. Studies have shown plow pan or compacted layers forming just beneath the extent of the cultivator blades which can restrict planting rooting depth. If your crops in the field or the garden cannot get their roots deep into the soil they will not do as well. One way to improve rooting into soil is to preserve soil structure as much as you can. Soil structure is essential to plant growth as it provides a perfect environment for roots to grow into. Good soil structure will hold water better but still have good drainage and will be full of organic matter which contains nutrients that the plant can use.

Tillage also can lead to excessive erosion in the soil because is breaks the soil into smaller and smaller particles which can easily be taken away by the wind or water. Erosion had lead to the loss of over 400 billion* dollars of productivity every year under current agriculture practices. With soil formation being a very slow process around .5 tons/acre/year it cannot keep up with the current loss of soil due to soil tillage practices.

Finally tillage is very expensive to do. It requires a large output of money for tractors, tillage equipment, and finally fuel to power those vehicles. This being done across the world on a annual and semi annual basis is a very expensive and unnecessary step in food production.

So if you are landowner or gardener please look into other ways of preparing soil for planting like no-till or mulch till. Getting away from tillage will save you time, money, and wear and tear on equipment.

Until next time my fellow environmentalist

Josh

What Plants to Grow

That is a good question and one that will require a little bit of soul searching to figure out.  Some people just want to grow a little bit of there own food, others want to grown enough food to feed themselves year round and others want to be able to to sell excess produce to friends, family and neighbors.  The types of plants to grow in those three scenarios are not necessarily the same.  There will be crossover in plant types but the amounts and varieties are going to change depending on your end goals.


Small Row Gardens

Row Garden

For a lot of people they just want a simple garden that can be planted in one day growing summer favorites like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and beets. If you want this then a simple row garden that is based on modern agriculture practices is the one for you. Most gardening tools that can be found in home improvement warehouse are designed for this type of gardening. It is not the most effective layout for a garden as it can cause weed problems and soil erosion because of the openness of the design. It also is water, fertilizer and space inefficient. On the other hand it is very easy to layout and the initial planting is a breeze when compared to other garden systems.  Above you can see a garden I planted during my Great Cardboard Garden experiment.  It was not my most successful garden I have ever planted but it does clearly show how wasteful in space a row garden can be.  To learn more about my cardboard garden experiment check out my Garden tab as the top to read on my observations.



Food for a Year

If you plan on trying to grow enough food to feed yourself year round then you have entered into a a whole new realm of food growing. To grow enough food to feed yourself year round to you to look at the food you really eat on a daily basis. Vegetables only provide around 10% of our daily caloric intake so if you plan on eating off of your garden you have to take into account the other 90%. This is made up primarily with grains like wheat and corn and meats like beef, chicken, and pork. So if you really want to grow your own food for the year you have to plant grains and grow some meat. This requires a shift in your garden designs to accommodate animals like chickens and the growth of densely planted grains. It will also require looking into some intensive gardening techniques like Square Foot gardening in order to maximize space and productivity.

Selling Fresh Produce

Finally you have people that wish to garden for the purpose of selling produce. If that is your primary goal then you will tailor your garden to maximizing production and growing profitable popular items.  In most areas popular items include veggies that are very perishable like the salad greens, fresh fruits like watermelons and items that damage easily like tomatoes.  If your goal is to sell fresh produce then some investigating in the local area is a must.  Check out local farmers markets if there are any and maybe conduct a survey with friends and family to find out what they will like to eat that can be grown in a garden.  Doing some footwork like above should give you a snapshot on what would be easy to sell and hopefully grow. 


The goals are presented above are very broad by design.  You maybe have a more specific goal of making you own spaghetti sauce or making applesauce.  For me the best type is a combination of Food for a Year and Selling Fresh Produce. The plan for this summer is to try and grow enough foodstuff to feed a group of 4 and still have some to sell on the side. If you want to follow along with a trials and triumphs of the growing season check out the Learning Curve Garden tab at the top of the page to learn all about it.


If you have never gardened before I will tell you one thing for sure will happen, something will go wrong. It is a absolute certainty that something will go wrong but never fear their are a variety of great resources out there that can help you out for what ever type of gardening you wish to pursue. One of my favorites is a book called Mini Farming-Self Sufficiency on a 1/4 Acre by Brett Markham which covers a variety of gardening methods, seed saving, produce selling techniques that are easy to follow and use. So whatever type of gardening you choose I wish you good luck in your growing endeavors.

Josh

GMO Seeds

Genetically modified food is one of the most contentious subjects in agriculture today. With it being used on many of our staple crop species such a corn and soybeans it is and will be a simple fact of agriculture from this point on.

Roundup Ready varieties of corn and soybeans created by the agriculture giant Monsanto are very common in farm fields across America. Now what Roundup Ready means is that it can be sprayed with the herbicide Roundup. The crop is able to survive this because foreign genetic materiel has been placed into its genetic code making it resistant to the herbicide.

Another aspect of genetic modification is inputting genetics that allow plants to create there own pesticide. One of the most famous examples of this is BT crops which contain the genetics of a variety of bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis. The genetic material placed in the corn gives it the ability to create a pesticide that kills insects that attempt to feed on it.

On the surface the ability of crops to resist herbicides and create there own pesticides is a revolutionary change to modern agriculture. But when you think about it further some interesting ideas begin to float around in your head.

For me the most prominent idea was the though of pesticide producing corn. So this corn produces a chemical that kills insects that are attacking it. If the corn can produce a chemical that kills insects could that same pesticide affect humans or other animals too. I have heard reports of sheep dying after grazing in fields that contained BT Cotton and cattle in Germany dying after eating BT Corn. We do know from previous pesticide use that some are very persistent in the environment and they have unexpected consequences. A classic example is the effect that DDT had of fish and birds of prey. DDT was a very popular and effective pesticide from the 1940's to 1973. But it had unexpected consequences in local watersheds in which it caused a buildup of DDT in local fish populations. The DDT was deposited in the fatty tissues in the fish which were consumed by birds of prey such the Bald Eagle As the birds fed on fish they accumulated DDT in their system which effected the reproductive success of the birds. The DDT caused their eggs to have very thin shells which broke easily during the incubation period. The effect was a rapidly declining eagle population that landed them on the Endangered Species list.

Many people are opposed to to GM food for the very reason above. They are worried that like DDT and heavy metals the pesticide producing food crops could cause a buildup of pesticides in humans that consume it.

Other concerns include

• introducing allergens into safe food
• contaminating wild genetics
• reducing diversity in crop production

If you think you have never eaten GMO food and you live in America then you are probably wrong. GMO ingredients are estimated to be present in over 70% of products found in the grocery store. Unless you have eaten organic your entire life or raise all your own food you will be stuck with GMO products.

For me personally GMO are a concern because we don't know the long term effects they will have on us and the planet. As a result of that me and few of friends are attempting to grow as much food as we can on some land that we have. You can follow along with us this season under the Learning Curve Garden tab at the top of the page.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

Josh

Food Waste in the Modern World

First some facts about food in America today

• 40% of all food grown does not get consumed
• Food represents the largest component of municipal solid waste
• Food in landfills creates 16% of US methane emissions (methane is a potent greenhouse gas.)
• We throw out 165 billion dollars annually on wasted food
• 1 in 6 Americans are hungry
• Average American wastes 10x the food a person from SE Asia does.
• Over half of all fruits and vegetables are not consumed.
• Whole fields are left unharvested due to “lack” of market or not enough labor
• 10% of our energy production and 80% of our freshwater is used to transport and produce food
  

I find numbers like that very disturbing to even think about. How can we as a society be so wasteful with a resource vital to our survival. If our ancestors could see what we are doing with our food they would probably smack us for it.  We also should not forget the 925 million people that suffer from hunger to this day.  How can this kind of of food waste be justified in the face of all the need in the world?

It can't...

We don't have a food production problem on this planet but we have a food distribution problem.  We produce enough food to give everyone at least 2,700 kilo calories a day while the average person only needs around 2,500.  The problems that all those hungry people face are not lack of food but the inability to acquire it.  They don't have the land to grow the food or lack the money to buy the food.  The way food is grown, shipped and sold in the modern world is wasteful and it only benefits those that can pay for it.  This has to change or the problem will only get worse as populations continue to rise in parts of the world that cannot provide for them. 

There is much that can be done on a industrial and a societal level to reduce food waste but I wont go into that here since that is far beyond the scope of this post. To find more information on this topic check out a paper written by the Natural Resources Defense Council called Wasted: How American is losing up to 40 percent of its food from farm to fork to landfill for more information.

What I want to talk about is what can be done on a family and personal level. Most of what can be done is common sense but unfortunately common sense can fly right out the window when confronted with the realities of food.

Plan Ahead and only buy what you Need

This one is fairly obvious and most of you are probably thinking I’m not going to read any more of this dribble but hear me out. How many times did you buy that salad mix or that 10 lb bag of potatoes thinking yeah I'll use all of this and how many times has that come back and bitten you in the butt. For me more than I can count unfortunately and I have found really only one way around it. You have to plan your entire food needs for some fixed period of time and not deviate from it at all. This means knowing what you will eat for every meal for the next whatever you decided. I have down this and it isn’t hard when you live alone but when other people get thrown into the mix it is difficult.

Prepare smaller portion to reduce leftovers/EAT THE LEFTOVERS

I have lived with a few people that do not know how to do these things. They always prepare way more than they need and then you pretty much have to put a gun to there head to get them to eat the leftovers. You may know people like this or you may even be one of them. Not being careful about how much food you prepare can lead to a end of the month ritual where you toss the various science experiments growing in your fridge in the trash.  This is not only wasteful of food but also of your time and money which many people have in short supply. 

Grow your own food

For those of you with garden out there you know exactly what I mean, you have sweated and slaved over the food on your plate so you will be damned if it going to be wasted. Nothing motivates you more to not waste food that to see your own effort get tossed in the trash. Plus growing your own food will cut down on losses from transportation and culling that you would normally find in industrial food production.

Composting

There will always be scraps and leftovers when dealing with food but again you can reduce how much is wasted by reusing event he scraps. Proper composting will create very little odor and a useful byproduct for adding nutrients to your garden or yard. Nearly anything raw and organic can be composted including all fruits, veggies, paper, coffee filters, egg shells, etc. Composting can be done in any spare part of your yard and really doesn't require much hands on work once started. For you apartment or townhouse folks I would suggest a commercially produced composting system designed for inside use. Many types can be found at Amazon and they will produce compost at varying rates depending on type and usage.

Just by following a few simple steps at home we can reduce our food wastage and reduce the amount of food that is being wasted in the country.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

Josh

Food Independence

This blog is dedicated to following me as I try and live a more sustainable life.  But lately I have been going through a bit of a identity crisis as to what kind of life am a trying to build.  I sat down last night and I tried to sort that out as best I could.  The first thing that came to mind was food. 

What do I want to do about my food? 

Food and eating for me is a topic near and dear to my heart.  Like most people I love to eat and I think we are hard wired love eating.  This love of food can have its negative consequences.  If you eat the wrong kind of food like most people in America today it has the effects we are seeing now.  A obesity and diabetes "epidemic" is sweeping across the country following the explosion of cheap heavily processed food we find in grocery stores and restaurants. 

Now don't misunderstand me I love a big greasy burger and fries as much as the next guy but I know that I can't eat like everyday.  I personally will get physically ill if I consume to much greasy sugary foods.  My tolerance for that type of food is nothing like it was when I was growing up.  Maybe that is true for some of you or maybe you can still live of off that type of food. 

All I want from my food is to be nutritious, healthy and safe for me to eat.  With the modern food system in America putting all sorts of chemicals that are made to kill things on the crops and pumping animals full of steroids and antibiotics just to keep them alive.  I am beginning to become afraid to eat anything from the grocery store.  When you can't find anything that hasn't been hosed with chemicals or as a ingredient list so long and confusing you need a PHD to understand it, its time to take a step back and go wait a minute. 

I have stepped back and gone wait a minute and for me there is only one option,

I have to get better food....

These days the many options you have to get food like this is growing with farmers markets springing up across the country and co-ops forming in many cities.  These places will carry many types of food from commercially grow produce complete with chemicals or it can carry Organic and all natural foodstuffs.  But you will most likely pay more that you would in the grocery store because of economies of scale.  The organic local producers cannot produce as much as industrial agriculture that is a simple unavoidable fact.  If you have the money to spend this can be a great option and will guarantee good wholesome food for you and your family. 

But if your like me your finances are tight and you have a itch to grow your own then gardening on a big scale is the way for you.  I choose to garden because I like to and it gives me a better connection to my food and helping me to respect it and myself more. 

For the summer season I will be dedicating this blog to all things food and gardening. 

I along with a few of my friends plan on growing as much food as we can this summer with the goal of being largely independent of the modern food system.  You can follow my daily and weekly activities in our big garden under the Learning Curve Garden tab at the top and I will be posting here about all sorts of food related topics till the end of the season.

So please join me as I learn about food and eating this summer

Until next time my fellow environmentalist.

Josh

            

Final Update of My Texas Winter Garden

Spinach and Radishes in Greenhouse

With my time in Texas coming to an end it is time to wrap up my cool season growing experiment.  Over all my results are definitive with the Lettuce, Spinach, Radish and Beets growing much better than the Lettuce and Spinach that was exposed to the elements.  The picture on the left shows how well the spinach and radishes grew in the greenhouse right before I harvested for a meal.  The salad I enjoyed was a simple spinach and lettuce mix with sliced radishes on top.


Texas Salad

With these results and the quality I enjoyed I am really looking foreword to the upcoming growing season where I will be growing more leafy greens and root vegetables like these and also many other plants yet to be decided on.  I will be starting over in a brand new garden space that has most likely never seen a shovel and will 'hopefully' provide a good base on which to grow enough food to feed me and my friends for a entire year. 

Cover Crops
My cover crops of Winter Rye and Hairy Vetch are doing better since my last update.  They have both put on about 1-3 inches of growth above ground.  This extra growth is exciting since it will have added even more biomass both above and below ground and will have fixed more nitrogen into the soil.  This addition of biomass increases the organic matter content in the soil and will help provide nutrients for future plants.  The final step to complete the use of cover crops is terminating the crop and incorporating it into the soil.


Cover Crop Bed- Pre-Cultivating

 To the left you will see a picture showing my Winter Rye and Hairy Vetch Cover Crop just before I dug it up.  Below is a picture depicting the bed after I dug the cover crop in.  Digging a cover crop in helps terminate the plants and its aids in the decomposition and release of the organic nutrients contained in the plants. 




Cover Crop Pest- Post-Cultivation

This winter was a learning experience for me as I delved into greenhouse gardening and tried to grow crops over the cool season time of year.  In retrospect I can find plenty of choices I would have made differently given the opportunity.  I would have used a thicker plastic and made better efforts to seal up the greenhouse right off the bat.  I also would have planted at greater densities so I would have more produce to enjoy before I head back to the wintry north. 



This year I begin a great experiment of trying to produce enough food to feed myself and three of my friends.  We shall be doing it at a place I like to call Learning Curve Gardens because what we are doing will require a steep learning curve for all of us.  The gardens will be a intensively managed all natural vegetable, fruit, meat and egg operation with the goal of growing enough food to feed us over the year and maybe even share with others in our local neighborhood.

I will hopefully be making regular posts (as time allows) about the garden and my activities on it as the summer progresses and will be sharing what I find about the this lifestyle experiment as I go along.  Updates will be posted on the Learning Curves Garden page found at the top of the blog.

Until next time my fellow environmentalists.

Josh 

             



Planting a Seed

In my quest to live a more sustainable, simpler life sometimes I envy the past generations who have lived on this Earth.  Their lives were sometimes harder, shorter and generally less pleasant.  But one could argue that the struggle of there lives a essential part of being human and alive.

We have many benefits and labor saving devices that they could only dream of and most of us take them for granted to be sure.  We have known nothing else in our lives and we just accept that's the way it should be.  But with all these benefits available to us they bring us choices, both good and bad.  In order to make these choices we need to expand our minds to encompass whole new levels of information just to make sense of them. 

With spring time coming we are faced with the need to prepare our gardens and fields for the spring planting of crops.  What used to the simplest act in the world of placing a seed in the soil and watching it grow is no longer so simple.  Not only have the technologies for seeding grown exponentially from the simple shovel to a the massive tractors that roam the Midwest.  But the simple seed has grown in complexity with Hybrids, GMO's, Heirlooms, Organics and the list goes on.

What used to be quick stop to the local seed and field store is now a mind boggling array or choices and options not all of which are very clear.  Now I am all for having choices but I believe in educated choices and unless you are a full time farmer, gardener, or seed salesman most people (myself included)can not even to begin to comprehend the vast array of choices. 

Each type of seed will come with its own problems and benefits and choosing what fits best with your goals and beliefs can be tricky. 


I have found that all of these choices and be placed into two broad categories which will enable a average person to narrow down what you are looking for.  If you want to grow what you can find in the grocery store with it uniform size and color and flavor.  Or plants that have resistance to pesticides, herbicides and are designed to be exceptionally disease resistant and bear large crops then you are looking for GMO and Hybrid plants.  These types have been designed by either combining two different varieties of plants through interbreeding to produce a plant that is superior in some way to it parents.  Then you have GMO's which came on to the scene reletivly recently.  These GMO plants are created by altering the DNA of a plant by inserting features from other species into the plant DNA.  A example of this is BT corn which combines the genes of Bacillus thuringiensis with the genome of a corn plant.  This corn can them produce its own insect killing chemicals which reduce insect presence in corn fields.  For more information you can check out this page of the Colorado University Extension Service that gives more info about this particular GMO line. 

While GMO's and Hybrids can produce some very good crop returns in terms of yields and consistency many people find that they are lacking in flavor and in some tests in nutritional value as well.  On the other side of the spectrum are the Heirloom and Organic seeds.  A simple definition of Heirloom means that it is open pollinated and will breed true to the next generation.  Heirloom seeds allow a gardener to save seeds from plants that will grow the same plants next year with comparable traits.  Organic seeds are produced by plants that had no pesticide, herbicide, artificial fertilizers or fungicides.  Theses seeds offer many benefits when compared to hybrids or GMO's.  You can save seed from year to year and not worry about stepping on any legal toes.  They also reduce many of the fears associated with GMO and hybrid crops.  If handled correctly they can produce a sustainable nutritious crop from year to year.

For me personally I have found that Heirlooms seeds that give me what I am looking for in a seed.  They will enable me to produce my own food and save seed from the best of what i produce to give me even more food the next year.  They can also be raised organically and sustainably by individuals who wish so. 

Heirlooms can be found in many places both locally and on the Internet for those who wish.  A good source of seed that I like is the Burpee seed company.  They have a long tradition of producing high quality seed and there website provides many planning tool and information on how to raise the seeds they sell. 

Burpee seeds stands are fairly common throughout the country though the catalog or online selection is greater.  They carry many types of seeds including Hybrids, Heirlooms and Organics and as such they are my go to seed store. 

Below are links to the type of seeds that Burpee sells on there website. 

Burpee Heirloom Seeds

Burpee Hybrid Seeds

Burpee Organic Seeds


Until next time my fellow environmentalists.

Josh

Lets Get Digging

This post is one that I have been looking forward to writing for a long time.  I have touched on quite a few subjects on this blog ranging from the trash crisis we have in this country to my last post about invasive plants in our ecosystems.  What I want to talk to you today is about food.  Not the food you get at the local cafe or what you purchase in a store but something I call Real Food.  What is Real Food you might be asking.  Real Food is the most nutritious, healthy, sustainably produced food you will ever eat.  This food, is food that you have gone on a journey with, food that you have stories with, food you can be proudly and lovingly eat. 

As a species Real Food used to be the only food we ate and it meant the difference between whether we were here from one year to the next.  This food has seen us at our worst when we are tired, sore and frustrated beyond all belief and it will be there at our best when we triumphantly lift to our lips and enjoy it throughout the year.

Real Food is food that we planted, and raised from the smallest seedling or animal until it reaches the pinnacle of eating perfection.  So Real Food is food that you grow yourself, to feed you, your family and any one else who wishes to partake of this food.  The food that contains the very sweat and tears you have put into making it. 

Think back to another time maybe last week maybe thirty years ago.  All of us at one time have enjoyed the pleasure of Real Food.  To eat Real Food is part of my strategy to build myself a sustainable, balanced life.  When you grow food yourself you take out many of the factors that make modern food so distasteful that I'm surprised food companies haven't tried to outlaw it.  You can grow and raised enough food to support you, your family and your neighbors if you wanted to.  With today's knowledge and techniques learned over the past millennium through countless trial and error we have reached a point where no one needs to starve, to eat crap that kills us a little bit on the inside every time we take a bite. 

I firmly believe that to live sustainable is to take food production out of the hand of faceless remorseless companies and put it back in the hands of you and me.  To grow your own food is to be in touch with a planet that is screaming to be heard.  It will help everyone to understand where life really comes from.  Make no mistake food it life and you can bet that many citizens of this world think that food comes from the grocery story. 

Food comes from the earth; food grows from the soil, rain and sun and through food life is passed on to us.  Unless we can reacquaint ourselves with this essential fact we will be lost as a species.

So with spring already here for some of us now is the time to act.  Place a seed in the ground and grow some food.  Reconnect yourself with the seasons and the world and you will understand what it means to truly live on this planet.   

This spring I start on a grand experiment with my friends to see if we can provide for ourselves.  To see if we can grow Real Food.  It will be a journey full of sweat, sore muscles and probably some blood but it is one I must take for my sake if nothing else. 

Until next time my fellow environmentalists.

Josh

The Problem with Invasive Plants

Did you know that a lot of the common ornamental plants that many people used in their landscaping are actually non-native plant species.  Some of these species are quite benign and do exactly what they are meant to do.  They are planted, they bloom and die and that is the end of them.  But in many cases that is not what happens, in some cases the plant escapes its confines and spreads uncontrolled into the surrounding ecosystem. 

This usually does not go well for the local flora and fauna of that ecosystem.  When this new unknown plant spreads it will usually do so unchecked due to the lack of predators and diseases that kept it in check and balanced with it original ecosystem. 

One in particular that I want to talk about is a plant called Kudzu.  If you live in the South, East or Northwestern part of the U.S you are probably familiar with this menace already.  Imported from Asia in the late 1800- early 1900 this plant was brought over for a variety or purposes.  It was used in erosion control, livestock forage and some food and "medicinal uses".  However by 1953 it was shown to work all to well at the job it was brought over here for.  It spreads quickly about 1 ft/day and is resistant to many common herbicides.  This plant once brought over to be helpful to us is now the bane to the existence of many landowners and homeowners. 

But what is done is done and the many species we brought over are here to stay and there is not much we can do about it except continue to manage and control them as best we can.

What can we do to help?  

1. Learn the local invasive plants and control/eradicate them from your property.
2. Dont plant non-native ornamental on your land.
3. Research into local natives that will do what you want/need.
4. Tell others about the damage that invasives cause.

Prairie Lily by Josh Larson

This beautiful Prairie Lily on the right is a native to much of the Midwest and it a great addition to any native landscaping.  Seeds for this beautiful native flower can be found at many native seed stores.  One that I know of is the Prairie Moon Nursery near Winona, MN.  If we all do our little bit we can help this poor beleaguered country of ours and bring back the native wonder it once had.

For more information about invasive and native plants you can talk to your local extension agent or check out land management agency sites like the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and NRCS.

 

Until next time my fellow environmentalists

 

Josh