Are You On Facebook??? Come see the Giving Tree Gardens Facebook Page! While you're visiting be sure to check out our new Facebook page for Healthy Yards, Healthy Lives. If you're not already on Facebook, sign up here!
Gardening For Generations
My mom taught me to garden when I was a kid. I’m grateful to her every day for sharing with me that gift of knowledge and experience that her folks handed down to her. Just like the planting of seeds, it’s amazing what can grow from seemingly tiny experiences. Momma raised me right, and now I get to garden with my son and pass on this gift once again.
This spring Giving Tree Gardens and Little Earth of United Tribes collaborated together to give the gift of gardening to a group of neighborhood kids. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, we met together to learn about seed balling and three sisters plantings. The kids made seed balls out of clay and compost then worked seeds of corn, beans, and squash into the middle of the balls before planting them in the ground. The little gardeners all took home three sisters seed balls that they made that day so that this traditional native planting combination will grow up all season in front of their homes while they can come harvest later in the season from the educational garden that they’ve helped to install just south of the Seward Co-op’s parking lot.
It's Raining Volunteers!
For the last three years, Russ Henry, owner of Giving Tree Gardens has had the pleasure of working with the Seward Co-op Grocery and Deli in designing gardens for their new site. Through a community involved design process, the folks at the co-op decided to install a massive rain-garden as a part of the landscape. When the co-op asked Giving Tree to come up with a plan for filling this space, we were ready to start creating habitat! The co-op’s plans for the space were propelled by the efforts of the good folks at Seward Redesign through their seeking of a grant from the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. With this grant in place, the co-op was ready to move forward with their rain-garden plans, and Giving Tree Gardens was ready to start creating habitat for birds and butterflies.
About a month before the installation of the rain-garden was slated to begin, some Seward neighborhood residents, local gardening activists, and co-op members contacted Giving Tree Gardens to see if they could help install the rain-gardens they were hearing so much about through the neighborhood. These folks all independently expressed the same sentiments, they all wanted to learn about rain-gardening, and they all wanted to be a part of something beautiful. Giving Tree Gardens was honored by this request, and we busily set to work organizing to have neighborhood volunteers come help install a garden at their co-op and learn about earth friendly landscaping habits at the same time. We at Giving Tree Gardens are proud to have been a part of this amazing community effort. Our hearts are out, and hats are off to all the folks it took to get this garden in the ground!
From Sod To Salad
Now I don’t know about you, but when my friends and I get together we like to eat! What better way for us to plan for a season of parties and abundance then to plant a food garden together in the spring? Early this season, I invited friends over to help get rid of some useless sod grass, and replace it with what I like to call our salad bowl garden. We dug a rain garden basin in a low spot in the lawn, used the excavated soil to build small berms on the sides of the basin, and planted the whole thing with salad greens, herbs, potatoes, decorative shrubs, and native rain-garden suitable plants thus making a vegetable garden for humans and wildlife to enjoy. In the three weeks since planting already I feel behind in the salad green harvest. I guess it’s time to throw a party!
When we work together we accomplish so much. Gardening is among the most readily available tools we have to start healing our communities and growing ourselves stronger. Life in the garden is peaceful. This community involved work is the most important work that Giving Tree Gardens is a part of, and we are honored by the good will and collaboration of The Seward Co-op, Friends of the Mississippi River, Seward Redesign, Little Earth Of United Tribes, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, and so many green thinking friends and neighbors.
“Gardens, scholars say, are the first sign of commitment to a community. When people plant corn they are saying, let's stay here. And by their connection to the land, they are connected to one another.”
“The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives.”
“In the end, there is really nothing more important than taking care of the earth and letting it take care of you.”
~ Charles Scott
 | ||||
The Seed Vol. 26 May 20, 2009 A Giving Tree Gardens Newsletter
Photos by Russ Henry , and Ryan Broden ©2009 ,Text by Russ Henry ©2009 by Giving Tree Gardens, all rights reserved.
A Community Of Gardens!
With every new flush of spring garden growth comes the promise of a stronger community. Gardening is once again gaining popularity, not just as a relaxing pastime, but as a tool that communities have at their disposal to help them grow strong, independent, food secure, and beautiful.
No gardener is an island. When groups of folks get together to build gardens we learn from each other, we get to know each other, and we make our lives more sustainable with every seed planted. Neighbors working together routinely turn blank sod grass lawns, and empty city lots into organic food producing, eco-system enhancing gardens.
The time for this kind of transformation is ripe in American life. As food and health care costs grow, the need for inexpensive access to healthy organically grown food is more and more apparent. Suddenly folks throughout urban areas are realizing that their sod lawns aren’t doing anybody any favors, and that the time for change is upon us.
We’re not in this life alone. The planet acts as a whole living system. The health of each part of the planet is dependant on the health of the whole planet. Due to global climate change it’s become apparent that we’ve got to stop pretending that we’re the only important creature here. It’s not only time to grow our own communities, but those communities of wilderness that we’ve been a part of removing and keeping at bay for so many years.
When we honor the land that we live on by planting native species, when we honor the planet we live on by growing our own food as close to home as possible, and when we teach each other how to do these things, we share vibrant sustainable lives.
This month Giving Tree Gardens has been hard at work putting these noble green ideas into action. We’ve built food gardens with kids, installed native rain-gardens with community members, attended garden club meetings, taught seminars, and talked with every green thumb passing by. This volume of The Seed will highlight some of these community-building efforts as an example of the awesome power of neighbors in action.
Hey Facebook Fans!!! Let's Be Friends!
Plant Profile: Three Sisters (Corn, Beans, and Squash)
Get ready for Spring with a
home consultation from
Giving Tree Gardens.
We'll help you turn your lawn into an
oasis of health and beauty!
The three sisters are a traditional Native American food planting. Corn, beans, and squash are grown together to support and feed each others growth. Traditionally a one foot tall, by two feet wide mound of earth is built with a flat top leveled into it. The corn is planted first with several seeds placed in the middle of the mound. After the corn sprouts, the beans are planted in the middle of the mound with the corn, and the squash is planted around the mound. As the corn grows tall, the beans use the corn as climbing infrastructure. While the beans grow, they impart nitrogen into the soil thus feeding the corn and squash. Finally the squash acts as a living mulch, shading the ground to prevent weeds and retain soil moisture. The prickly stems of the squash are also a deterrent to many pests. I love to use the seed ball method of planting when growing the three sisters in an urban setting. To seed ball, all you have to do is mix clay, compost, and water together into a sticky consistency. Once mixed, just push your favorite seeds into the middle. I'll mix the corn and beans in one seed ball, and place the squash in separate seed balls. Then when I put the seed balls in the earth, I'll place the squash a couple of feet from the corn so that the squash doesn't over grow the corn. Pick out your favorite varieties of each sister, and try this garden at home to experience the harmony of companion planting!
ATTENTION GARDENERS:
THE SEED JUST GOT INTERACTIVE !!!
Check Out the new
Let us know what you think!
Kids learning to garden! Giving Tree Gardens has been busy teaching kids and neighbors organic gardening habbits this spring! The gifts of organic gardens just keeps on giving!
Giving Tree Gardens is proud to have been a part of some magical community building experiences this spring. These kids from the Little Earth Community in Phillips neighborhood are now all officially garden stars! Together we learned about seed balling, and then we got practice planting a 3 sisters garden. Gardening with kids is like planting a seed that can grow for decades, and these folks were some of the most fun gardeners that we at Giving Tree have ever had the pleasure to work with!
The best way to ensure a large fall harvest is to make sure your hands are dirty all spring.
Giving Tree Gardens honors the spirit of volunteerism and community involvment! When a few neighbors, and co-op members asked this spring if they could learn by being a part of installing the new rain gardens at the Seward Co-op, we jumped at the opportunity to teach, learn from, and involve these fun engaging folks! As this garden grows, the fine folks involved will get to bring their friends and family by to tour the bird and butterfly habitat that they helped to build in the neighborhood.
Go Team Rain Garden! Fun and hard working, these volunteers know how to build gardens, habitat, and community!
Special thanks go out to Trevor, Meghan, and Karen from Friends of the Mississippi River, as well as Amanda, Connie, Mary, and everybody else who walked by to chat or put a plant in the ground during the installation of the Seward Co-op's new rain gardens. Giving Tree Gardens would also like to thank Katia and Emily from Seward Redesign for their efforts to secure funding for this new neighborhood showpiece!
Let's see those dirty hands!
Special Thanks To:
Rose, Armani, Haley, Logan, Ellyot,Kahlil, Joseph, Ricky, Shaunna, Mark, and Brody for coming to get your hands dirty and plant some seeds that will grow in our gardens, minds, and hearts!
Thanks to Evan, Shaunna, Brody, Mark, Chris, Paola, and Danni !!!
Now we'll have no excuse to order pizza when we hang out!
