Help Kickstart the Meadow Project

I am so inspired by visionary garden writers who work so hard to influence others about eco-friendly gardening practices. I know, first hand, how difficult it can be to both garden AND write with the goal of encouraging others to take a little bit better care of the planet.

That’s why I love to pass along the projects and success stories of other people who work in the same field. And in the case of Catherine Zimmerman, the “field” is a low maintenance meadow.

Zimmerman is a DC based certified horticulturist and landscape designer who is accredited in organic land care. She has designed and taught a course in organic landscaping for the USDA Graduate School Horticulture program, is an award-winning director of photography, contributes to one of my favorite blogs (Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens), and has written a very cool book entitled Urban & Suburban Meadows, Bringing Meadowscaping to Big and Small Spaces.

Penny Lewis, Executive Director of the Ecological Landscaping Association describes Zimmerman’s book in this way: “Before manicured lawns, with their chemicals, mowers, and blowers, there were ecological meadows, with their butterflies, birds, and bees. Catherine Zimmerman’s Urban & Suburban Meadows reintroduces readers to the beauty and biodiversity of the meadow and reminds them of the intricate connections between wildlife and native plant communities that serve as both food source and habitat.”

I was poking around on kickstarter, an on-line fundraising forum, and noticed that Zimmerman is now working on creating an educational, documentary film to go along with the book and is looking for donations to help her get this exciting project launched! I’m excited to donate to a project that will encourage more people to cut down on their water hogging, chemical craving lawns and opt for something that attracts birds, bees and butterflies.

If you have a few dollars to spare, I encourage you to make a donation to this great project. And if you can’t make a financial donation, help a fellow meadow maven out by reposting this message for her on your own blog, on Facebook and twitter. She only has until February 20, 2012 to reach her financial goal on kickstarter.

"Kickstarter.com is an interesting fundraising website. You create an account, describe your project and set a money goal to be obtained within a specific time period. Pledges are tiered, with each tier offering different incentives. If your project doesn’t reach your pre-set (unchangeable) monetary goal in the (unchangeable) time limit, nobody pays. Backers simply can't lose — if you can’t complete the project, they don’t pay. And if you can, they get both their tier award and the satisfaction of knowing they were instrumental in seeing your project through to completion."

Cool things I've learned from twitter

If you are like me, you are a little amazed and sometimes overwhelmed by all of the great info there is floating out there on the internet. For me, one of the greatest ways to sort through everything and find what  is pertinent to me is by using twitter. By selectively choosing who I follow, I have a constant stream of thoughts, ideas and articles that add information, motivation and inspiration to my life.

The really cool thing is the way that information is passed along from one user to the next. One great bit of info or insight can be passed along to hundreds and thousands of other followers by the simple use of the Retweet! Ya gotta love that technology!

Just today, I found this great article about pervious paving in a tweet from @hcconservancy . Pervious paving is a great way to allow water to seep into the earth, cutting down on stormwater runoff and pollution.

I also found this tweet from @CanarsieBK about Roasted Balsalmic Brussell Sprouts. How yummy does THAT sound? I think @CanarsieBK is also the one that had a great tweet about growing green onions from green onions, something I have been doing ever since I read it: Growing Green Onions from Green Onions in Your Kitchen

Every day, I get great motivational quotes from @AnnTran_ such as this one that she tweeted a few minutes ago. "Just be nice, take genuine interest in the people you meet, and keep in touch with people you like." — Guy Kawasaki"

I also get my daily dose of beautiful photos from twitterers such as @screek and these that were just tweeted about by @paul_steele http://tinyurl.com/79wnsyx

And since I'm mentioning people I follow, I have to mention @DerekMarkham just because he was one of the first people I followed, years ago, and he never fails to disappoint! His twitter profile pretty much sums him up: Generally green, sprinkled with randomness & slathered with peanut butter. Father, blogger, new media fool. Good man. Skilled shoveler. Full of snark.

I could go on and on about the great info that you can find on twitter. There was a time when I thought that twitter was ONLY for people who had smartphones. Until I became a twitterer myself, I didn't realize how fun and easy and important it would be!

Anyway, if you haven't yet discovered twitter, I ecourage you to check it out. And if you are on twitter, take a look for me out there. My twitter name is @dclawngarden

20 More Benefits of Trees

I guess it has become obvious that I have plenty of things to say about trees! (Almost as much as I have to say about wildlife). But I promise, this will be my last post about trees for awhile. (Sources for stats and other info are at the end of the post) 20 More Benefits of Trees Financial and Environmental Benefits of Trees

1. Trees increase property values: Trees add as much as 20 percent to the value of your property. Studies also show that home values are higher on tree-lined streets. MC
   
2. Trees increased salability of homes: The majority of realtors surveyed believe that mature trees have a "strong or moderate impact" on the salability of homes. FCV
   
3. Trees increase Tourism - 700,000 tourists visit DC each year for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. CT
   
4. Trees aid Commerce - Consumers are willing to spend 12% more in stores with trees in front of them than without. CT
   
5. Trees provide Job Opportunities -Natural resource management job opportunities are growing in cities. CT
   
6. Trees decrease heating bills up to 15 percent and cooling bills up to 50 percent. (DDOE)
7. Trees Reduce Noise Pollution - Trees act as buffers against roadways and other noise producing sources by absorbing unpleasant sounds from the urban environment. PT
8. Tree roots protect groundwater - Tree roots help stabilize soil which, if loose and prone to erosion, might be carried away by stormwater runoff. MC
9. Tree Leaves Protect Groundwater - Researchers have found that evergreens, conifers, and deciduous trees in full leaf can intercept up to 36 percent of the rainfall that hits them. MC Trees can keep 35,625 tons of sediment per square mile from entering waterways every year! DC.gov
10. Trees recharge groundwater - Tree roots help to move water from the surface into deeper layers of the soil. This helps recharge the groundwater supply. MC
11. Trees create organic matter on the soil surface from their leaf litter. MDNR Natural organic matter helps eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers
12. Trees provide screening; increasing privacy and reducing the impacts of lights FCV
13. Trees provide a wind break during winter. MDNR
14. Trees provide Healthy Air - The trees of Washington filter 540 tons of harmful, health-threatening pollutants from the air each year. CT One acre of trees absorbs enough carbon dioxide every year to offset 26,000 miles of automobile exhaust! dc.gov
15. Trees give off oxygen that we need to breathe.
    
16. Trees provide Cooling Shade - Trees provide shade and give off water vapor to cool the city in the summer. Homes shaded by trees have 10-30% savings in air conditioning costs compared to homes without shade. CT
    
17. Trees strengthen neighborhoods: When neighborhoods are full of trees, residents spend more time outside mingling with neighbors—building personal ties, stronger communities, and a greater sense of well being. MC Strengthening neighborhoods means people stay closer to home, which reduces environmental strains of commuting.
    
18. Trees improve air quality by removing small pollutant particulates (i.e. sulfur dioxide, ozone, etc.) (DDOE)
    
19. Trees reduce greenhouse gas emissions by taking up carbon dioxide (DDOE)
    
20. Trees mitigate the urban heat-island effect by shading our homes and streets. Urban and suburban temperatures are 2 to 10F (1 to 6C) hotter than nearby rural areas. (DDOE) For more information : Sources: Casey Trees (CT) Montgomery County Department of the Environment (MC) District Department of Transportation (DDOT) District Department of the Environment (DDOE) Fairfax County Virginia (FCV) DC.gov District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) Plano Texas (PT) Bowling Green Kentucky (BG)

George Washington University wins grant for GroW Gardens

George Washington University’s GroW Gardens has been providing fresh food to underserved Washingtonians since 2009.

And thanks to a new $10,000 grant from Nature’s Path, an organic food company, the community garden will be enhanced and expanded in order to serve more people.

The GroW Garden projects, which has its main location in Foggy Bottom on H Street between 23rd and 24th streets and a second location on the Mount Vernon Campus, is one of three grant recipients of this year’s Nature’s Path Gardens for Good Program. The program is designed to provide funding to further organic community feeding programs.

Click here to Read more

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Class Schedule

Fellow blogger Judy Thomas, author of the Central Virginia Organic Gardener Blog, loves Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. She writes about the Botanical Garden often on her blog and has recently started taking some of their classes. Here is one of her posts, entitled Documenting Your Garden,  with some sketches she did while taking  botanical illustration courses at Ginter.

Judy thought that some of our readers might be interested in the schedule of classes at Ginter so she asked me to pass it along.

Here are some of their upcoming classes:

Spring Pruning for Shrubs / February 11

Beekeeping for Beginners / February 18, 25, March 3, 10 plus a field trip, date tbd

Planning and Designing a Kitchen Garden / February 23, March 1

Worms:  The Ultimate Disposal            February 23

The Dirt on Soil:  The Life under Your Feet / February 25

Vegetable Gardens the Organic Way /  March 8

Register on line or call.  LGBG is located at 1800 Lakeside Ave., Richmond VA 23226 (804) 262-9887

Here’s a link to Lewis Ginter’s full Classes and Course Schedule.

And don’t forget to check out Judy’s blog, as well as her great podcasts.

GardenWise 2012 - Worth the Trip

It's a bit of a drive, but the GardenWise 2012 Workshop in York, Pennsylvania on Saturday, March 10th 2012 , from 8:00am to 3:30 pm, looks like it might be worth the trip.

Susan Reed, author of the award winning Energy-Wise Landscaping Design, will share ideas and tips you can easily incorporate into your landscape.

Dr. Michael Raupp from the University of Maryland will take you on a fascinating journey to learn “why bugs and plants make the world go round”.

In between you can attend sessions on growing vegetables sustainably, using cover crops in the garden, heirloom and open pollinated plants, biorational pesticides and beneficial insects, or native plants and their role in garden design.

Early bird registration (on or before February 21) is $49.00 and includes a full day of gardening talks, handouts, continental breakfast, and lunch. To register, call Kelly at 717-840-7408 and request a GardenWise brochure. Or go online to http://extension.psu.edu/york. Register early, as space is limited.

Friday Fun - Create a #natureverse

I was standing outside, feeling my morning dose of awe and wonder that nature always seems to provide, and I decided I would come in and try to stir up some shared awe.

So I came up with a short free form poem about what I felt outside, came up with an unused twitter hashtag for it, (#natureverse) and decided to see if I can encourage others to write their own natureverse.

Go outside. Stand still and look around until you become inspired. Then come tweet what you felt. Make it short enough to include the hashtag #natureverse and save room for your twitter name and an @RT if you want others to be able to share it.

Here is mine:

As I stood, silently watching the morning unfold, I saw the sun glisten off a single strand of spider silk and I felt peace. #natureverse

Have fun!

Research Shows: Getting Down and Dirty Makes You Happy

As gardeners, we all KNOW that gardening makes us happy. But new research helps to explain why. Apparently, digging in the dirt actually releases “happy chemicals” in our brains.

Here are some excerpts from an article entitled Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression by Robyn Francis on the Permaculture College Australia website which provides scientific evidence that getting down and dirty is good for the soul….and the immune system.

Getting down and dirty is the best ‘upper’ – Serotonin : Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression. 

Harvest 'High' – Dopamine: Another interesting bit of research relates to the release of dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. The researchers hypothesize that this response evolved over nearly 200,000 years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted) a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of brain triggered a state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of actually plucking the fruit.

Francis goes on to say that using glyphosate herbicides can take away all of those happy feelings.

Glyphosate residues deplete your Serotonin and Dopamine levels

Of course, for all of the above to work effectively and maintain those happy levels of serotonin and dopamine, there’s another prerequisite according to another interesting bit of research I found.  It appears it will all work much better with organic soil and crops that haven’t been contaminated with Glyphosate-based herbicides. A recent study in 2008 discovered that glyphosate depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in mammals. 

I guess all of this explains why seeing my husband work in his organic garden was such a turn-on for me when we first met. And why I still think working side by side with someone in a garden can be such a fun, pleasurable experience.

So next time you are feeling a little bit down, I encourage you to go outside and get dirty with a friend. But to keep those brain chemicals pumping, keep things chemical free.

You can read the full article by Robin Francis here: Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression

You might also enjoy reading: The Psychology of Green Gardening

Think Outside the box and Plant This, Not That

Native plants are very popular in eco-friendly landscapes. Some people like them because of their drought tolerance and low-maintenance requirements. Others like them because of their wildlife value or their pure, unadulterated beauty.

I recently ran across a list entitled Plant This, Not That on the Garden Club of Virginia website that was created for their 2011 annual meeting. A paragraph at the top of the list explained how the list was compiled.

Garden club members from around the state were asked for suggestions for native plants that had wildlife value, but not in the traditional sense of providing seeds or berries for wildlife. Instead, they were asked to list plants that attract butterflies, which in turn, produce caterpillars which are used as food for many native bird species.

For our GCV Annual Meeting we are focusing on good garden practices that encourage the growth cycle of our native birds and butterflies. Many of you may know that our native birds are in decline because of loss of native habitat for the specific caterpillars that feed our young birds. Non-native plants do not offer breeding ground for any native butterflies, and 97% of our birds require insects-not seeds-to feed their young. Therefore we are asking each club to bring in a cutting or small plant that is native and attracts butterflies, and a picture of a non-native landscape plant that may be replaced by your specimen in a backyard landscape. The display will be titled "Plant this, not that!"

It’s a great list, because it helps us “think outside the box” when recognizing the wildlife value of native plants. I mentioned many of the plants on the list, including paw paw, sweet bay, milkweed and passion vine, in a post that I did on butterfly gardening. But from now on, I’ll remember to mention their value for attracting birds, as well.

Plant This, Not That – complete list (pdf format)

Here are some Favorite Native Plant Lists from our archives:

• Favorite Native Plants ~ Nature Friendly Gardener Marlene A. Condon
• Favorite Native Plants ~ Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine
• Favorite Native Plants ~ Thomas Rainer
• Favorite Native Plants ~  Alex Dencker
• Favorite Native Plants ~ Steve Bates
• Favorite Native Plants ~ Alison Gillespie

And don’t forget to take our native plant poll and check out the other lists of native plants listed under Our Most Popular Pages, both of which can be found in the blog’s sidebar.

Award-winning documentary Bag It comes to Wheaton

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.
WHEATON, MD—GreenWheaton is partnering with Brookside Gardens, Silver Spring Green and Safeway to present a free screening of the award-winning documentary, Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic?

Bag It follows ‘everyman’ Jeb Berrier as he tries to make sense of our dependency on,  and single-use mentality towards, plastic bags. Although his quest starts out small, Jeb soon finds our ‘plastic problem’ extends beyond landfills to oceans, rivers and ultimately human health.

Visit Brookside Gardens Visitor Center on January 9, 2012 at 7 PM to watch this engaging film and learn about the simple steps we can take to reverse this alarming trend. You will never look at plastics in the same way again.

The event is free, but seating is limited. Safeway will be providing free recyclable grocery bags on a first come first served basis.

Please register at Bag It Registration. For more information contact Al Carr of Green Wheaton at alfred.carr@gmail.com

Information provided by Kathy Jentz, Washington Gardener Magazine