Green Gardening and Pest Management Tips Available on EPA's Green Scene

EPA's latest Green Scene video podcast features "Green Gardening andPest Management." The video highlights ways consumers can control pestsin their lawns and gardens using Integrated Pest Management (IPM), aneffective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management thatrelies on a combination of common-sense practices. The video interviewwith the Biopesticides & Pollution Prevention Division of the Office ofPesticide Programs is also available in Spanish, and provides tips onhow to select a pest management company for the home and garden and howto use pesticides safely.
To view the video, visit www.epa.gov.

(Go to the "Multimedia" section onthe bottom right corner of the page and click on the "play" arrow underthe picture).

50 Cent's Community Garden

Click here to see the opening ceremony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfKeLDlEP5g

Here is an interview/explanation from Mtv.com:
http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/314707/its-the-right-thing-to-do.jhtml#id=1598507

Here is the article from Mtv.com:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1598481/20081103/50_cent.jhtml

50 Cent -- And Bette Midler! -- Dedicate Community Garden In MC's Home Neighborhood

By Shaheem Reid

QUEENS, New York — The gangsta gave a garden.

50 Cent gave a little more to his community on Monday morning (November 3): He and actress/singer Bette Midler were in the New York City borough of Queens for the grand opening of the Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson Community Garden on Foch Boulevard.

"I love 50!" exclaimed Midler, whose New York Restoration Project got 50's G-Unity Foundation involved in the project.

Midler, who described Curtis Jackson as a "giant" in entertainment, explained how she came to collaborate with 50. "We own 60 of these community gardens," she said. "We took ownership of this one. This one was a very successful one, but they wanted little renovations here and there. We looked all over town for a group that was interested in these sort of things. We found G-Unity, which is Curtis' foundation. They were interested. This garden is mainly for kids, and they do a lot of things with kids."

"It's exciting ... and it was an opportunity for me to do something for the actual kids in the community," 50 said. Fif reportedly ponied up more than $200,000.

The garden features plenty of flowers, a vegetable garden, a community area where people can have barbecues and movies will be shown — and also a rainwater-collection system. Instead of paying for water to be shipped in, the garden collects water and sends it into a tank underground, from which it can then be pumped. Fittingly, the garden was designed by a man named Professor Walter Hood, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of California at Berkeley.

For Fif, it was a chance to give back to the neighborhood he grew up in and to help his youngest fans. A couple dozen 3- and 4-year-old kids from local schools were present Monday morning not only to say thank you to the G-Unit general, but to sing a song ... about plants and vegetables. Hey, maybe Fif will start a G-Unit Jr. division one day.

"We're so glad that you're here with us/ How do you do?" the kids sang. "I'm a string bean/ Long and green/ Hanging from the vine ..."

50 addressed the locals who came out for the event from a podium.

"This a helluva opportunity, for me to collaborate with Bette," he said, after shouting to some friends from the neighborhood he hadn't seen in a while. "I didn't even know Lefty was out of jail," he said, looking into the crowd. "What's up, baby?"

On a more serious note, Fif also said that he expects children to utilize the garden more than adults, and that it was "exciting" to "directly affect their experience."

The MC-turned-philanthropist promised more events like this in the future, such as "50's First Annual 40 Day," geared toward the people who live in and around the borough's South Jamaica Houses (a.k.a. "40 Projects"). Also in the planning stages is "Baisley Day" for the neighborhood's Baisley Park, in which 50's community garden is located.

"We're gonna make it happen the way we been making it happen, right here," he told the crowd.

Harvesting Our Rows for the Hungry

Animal's Garden, in the University Area, brought a bounty of fresh food to Clintonville Resource Center this past week. (Note: the above picture is of people harvesting in the Weinland Park Community Garden, not Animal's Garden.)

Here's the report from our Community Plot, Laura Anglim:

"I was able to harvest a really nice donation this morning which was gratefully accepted at the Clintonville Community Resource Center! I brought in radishes, lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, and turnip greens.

Trish was awesome to remind me that the food in the community plots is also meant to help feed us the gardeners so please don't be shy and when you stop by harvest a helping for yourself, family & friends."

I hope many of you are also having success in feeding yourselves and others as the harvesting season is unfolding ;)

Peace,
Lauren

Did you hear our Open Line PowerHour?

I just listened to the Open Line about "community gardening in Central Ohio…and access to locally grown food, with Franklin Park Conservatory “Growing to Green” Coordinator Bill Dawson, Local Matters Senior Manager Trisha Dehnbostel, and New Harvest Café owner Kwodo Ababio."

Did you want to hear it to?
Check it out. http://www.wosu.org/radio/radio-local-programs/radio-open-line/

Another opportunity for help in your garden!

My name is Khadijah Qadeer, and I work with The Ohio State University Upward Bound Program. We assist in preparing high school students from Briggs, East, South, and Walnut Ridge for post-secondary education. It is our goal to get students involved in community service activities. This summer we will have a green theme. Previously, when working with Directions for Youth and Families Ohio Avenue Center, I had the privilege of taking students to work at several community gardens in the Near East and Near South side of Columbus. I would like to bring approximately 15 to 20 students to work at one of the gardens on both July 10th and July 17th from 2:30pm to 4:30pm. I look forward to hearing from you. I can be reached on my direct line at 614-292-3724.

Kind Regards,

Khadijah Qadeer



Who: The Ohio State University Upward Bound Program (15 to 20 high school students)
What: Work at a community garden
Where: Near East/Near South side Community Garden
Why: Community Service
When: July 10th and July 17th from 2:30pm to 4:30pm

Thank you,

Khadijah Qadeer

Khadijah A. Qadeer
Academic Counselor
Office of Minority Affairs
The Ohio State University Upward Bound Program
025 Mount Hall
1050 Carmack Road
Columbus, Ohio 43210
614-292-2344 (office)
614-292-4603 (fax)

Trish is Cool!

ANNOUNCEMENT:
TUNE IN FOR OUR INTERVIEW TOMORROW AND CALL IN WITH QUESTIONS THAT YOU THINK ARE RELEVANT.
TRISH

Dear Trish,
This is our usual reminder of your interview tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2, 10AM-11AM EDT, with host Charlene Brown on Open Line. The topic to be discussed: Community gardening in Central Ohio…and access to locally grown food, with Franklin Park Conservatory “Growing to Green” Coordinator Bill Dawson, Local Matters Senior Manager Trisha Dehnbostel, and New Harvest Café owner Kwodo Ababio. Open Line is a live, public affairs talk show, with listener phone calls, on WOSU public radio. Open Line is streamed live, podcast and archived at www.wosu.org/radio/radio-open-line.The format of Open Line is a conversation between Charlene and her guests for the first 20 minutes to lay groundwork for the discussion. Then Charlene opens the lines to callers.

MG on TV

Franklin County Master Gardeners are in the news!
Check out Peggy Murphy, Michael Leach, Rita Burns, and Linda Readey, in gardening action at Holton Recreation Center on the Hilltop!
http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/hilltop_rec_center_back_in_business/16069/

More people getting their hands dirty...

There is a nice article in the Home and Garden section of the Dispatch today:

The area, already home to more than 150, is seeing at least 20 new such gardens this summer, said Bill Dawson, coordinator of the Franklin Park Conservatory's Growing to Green program.

"It's just taken off this year, with the White House garden, with the economy, the 'green' movement," said Dawson, who is active in the American Community Gardening Association, which is based at the conservatory.

Trisha Dehnbostel, who oversees 12 gardens in the University District, thinks greater Columbus might have as many as 50 new gardens this summer. Her organization, Local Matters, encourages Ohio-grown produce and is trying to build a comprehensive list of area gardens for next spring.

"The movement is changing," Dehnbostel said. "Now, so many people are doing it to produce food or to give back to food pantries because of our economy. And so many churches and social-service agencies are getting involved; it's not just communities." READ MORE..

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/home_garden/stories/2009/05/24/COM_GARDENS.ART_ART_05-24-09_H1_2UDTEET.html

Huge greenhouse may be farming's future

CAMARILLO, Calif. -- On a coastal plain not far from a Navy base and an outlet mall, the future of California farming is taking shape.
Rising out of verdant acres of strawberries and artichokes are two mammoth, high-tech greenhouses.
Climate change is a serious threat to California's $36 billion agricultural economy. The farming company behind this $50 million complex sees it as insurance against perpetual drought, volatile fuel prices and resilient pests.
The facility generates its own renewable power. It hoards rainwater. It hosts its own bumblebees for pollination. And it requires a fraction of the chemicals used in neighboring fields to coax plants to produce like champions.
This fledgling movement to grow food in closed, sustainable environments could become as revolutionary to farming in the 21st century as California's development of massive farms was in the 20th, agriculture experts say.
"We are doing all of this not only because it will be good for our business but because it will be good for everyone else," said Casey Houweling, president of Houweling Nurseries, the Canadian farming company that is cultivating tomatoes at the facility, which will be fully operational in June.
The son of a Dutch immigrant farmer, the 51-year-old Houweling has helped build his family's agricultural business into one of the largest greenhouse-based growers in North America. But the California facility is no ordinary hothouse.
On a recent afternoon, he was eager to show visitors clusters of plump, sweet tomatoes hanging overhead from vines that reach high into the rafters. This arrangement allows the farm's 450 permanent employees to climb ladders to pick the fruit instead of stooping. The plants, which are fed individually through tubing, produce 20 times more fruit per acre than conventional field production.
Virtually nothing is wasted here. Workers have dug a 4-acre pond to store rainwater and runoff. This water, along with condensation, is collected, filtered and recirculated back to each of the 20-acre greenhouses. That has cut water use to less than one-fifth of that in conventional field cultivation. Fertilizer use has been halved. There are no herbicides and almost no pesticides, and there is no dust.
Five acres of photovoltaic solar cells supply much of the electricity to run pumps and climate controls. Thermal systems collect solar heat and warehouse refrigeration exhaust to warm the greenhouses on cool evenings. The two systems generate 2.1 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,500 homes.
"We believe this is the first greenhouse in the world that is energy neutral," Houweling said.
Houweling envisions a day when greenhouses dot California's lush coastal plains, taking advantage of the abundant sunlight to grow thirsty crops such as lettuce and strawberries, using renewable energy to reduce their burden on the environment.
Until recently, that was a pipe dream. The cost of heating and cooling these structures was prohibitive for all but the most high-value specialty produce. The U.S. grows less than $1 billion worth of greenhouse fruits and vegetables annually.
But the rising expense of traditional farming is narrowing the cost gap. California farmers are coping with years of drought and fighting water wars with cities. They're also grappling with land degradation, an unstable migrant workforce and rising shipping costs.
"We are closer to parity than we have ever been," said Gene Giacomelli, a professor of agriculture and biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Still, a shift to more greenhouse farming will be slow.
"Houweling is doing the demonstration," Giacomelli said. "He is going to have to prove to himself and his banker that this is the way to go."

Bexley market co-op survives on bumper crop of creativity

FRED SQUILLANTE Dispatch photos
Store manager Annerose Schaffrin shows off some of the fresh greens at the Bexley Natural Market. The co-op is trying various activities to raise money to replace its produce cooler, including selling sponsorships of vegetables and fruit.

The Bexley market is similar to many independent natural-foods stores: the complex scent of spices, bottles of natural remedies, organic food and oddities such as ostrich meat.

By Elizabeth Gibson in the COLUMBUS DISPATCH egibson@dispatch.com

The Bexley Natural Market is one of central Ohio's last co-op grocery stores. Launched in 1976 by a group of women who wanted pesticide-free vegetables, today it is owned by 200 dues-paying members.

Acart approached the produce cooler.

Sally Lorrimer swept toward it and threw an arm around the shoulders of her customer and friend Jan Tague.

"Jan, could you tell us what your favorite vegetable is?" she asked, waiting until Tague chose spinach. "You're in luck. Spinach hasn't been taken yet."

If Tague donated $50 to help buy a new produce refrigerator, the store not only would put her name on a plaque above the spinach, Tague also would receive a glossy photo of her favorite greens in their new home.

It's kind of like those groups that ask people to sponsor a child in Africa and send a photo of the smiling child in return, Lorrimer said. Only instead, she's sending postcards on behalf of berries and carrots so that the Bexley Natural Market can retire a 15-year-old fridge making "strange, moody noises."

Members said the market's co-op business model uses creativity to try to hold its own against national organic specialty chains such as Whole Foods Market.

But the 33-year-old shop at 508 N. Cassady Ave. in northern Bexley is one of central Ohio's last co-op grocery stores, members said. It is owned by 200 dues-paying members who throw a potluck once a year to elect a board.

At the potluck this month, members discussed how to raise $1,500 for the new cooler, store manager Annerose Schaffrin said.

It's the sort of teamwork that launched the business in a living room in 1976, said Martha Markstein, a founding member. A group of women decided they wanted pesticide-free food, and eventually they opened a storefront.

One woman hunted down distributors; another kept the books. Some volunteered their husbands for repairs or tried their hand at the cash register.

"We were exhilarated because we had this new thing, and we couldn't stop talking about it," Markstein said. "We were accused of being hippies, but the only way we were hippie was we were involved in natural foods."

At age 81, she still volunteers in the store every day. It is open to anyone, but members get a discount based on how much they volunteer.

Schaffrin also started out as a volunteer after she moved to the U.S. from Germany 19 years ago.

"I saw this little store on the corner on the way from the airport. I was so relieved," she said. "I knew those big stores in the U.S., and I had hoped I wouldn't have to buy in such an anonymous place."

Her first time at the store, the staff took lids off all the spices because she didn't know their English names. Now, roles have reversed, and customers with names of exotic foods scribbled on scraps of paper come to Schaffrin to track down products.

If only, customers said, the grumbling refrigerator matched her efficiency.