A Seed of a Thought

I have come across some disturbing information over the past couple of years, and it has finally bothered me enough to write about it.  I have enjoyed gardening for many, many years.  In fact, it's probably a surprise to even my mother, that I enjoyed it as a kid - but would have enjoyed it much more if she had me do more than weed the flower beds.  I was always curious about the flowers, the vegetables, (we had a HUGE veggie garden out back) and could watch the bees and butterflies pollinate for what seemed like hours.  Many years ago, my step-father gave me a subscription to the Seed Savers Catalog.  At first I thought, "Hmm.  How odd."  But then I read it, and was hooked.  For those out there not familiar with their services, Seed Savers has collected tens of thousands of varieties of seeds, primarily from organic, and many heirloom plants, making them available to people who want them.  The catalog is a clearing house, so to speak, of quality plant possibilities, linking gardeners up with long lost, or 'seldom found in the grocery store seed bin' seeds.   Their headquarters, in Iowa, is Heritage Farm - a wonderful place to check out not only seeds, but heirloom animal breeds as well. 

Although I have not ordered from Seed Savers for quite some time, the whole idea inspired me to save my own seeds.  As mentioned previously, I attend the Gore Estate plant sale annually, to obtain heirloom plants from days gone by.  Had they not saved those seeds way back when, we would not be able to benefit from the plants' existence now.  The flowers and veggies of the victorian era are living well and prospering in my yard today thanks to some kind and thoughtful soul's act of reaching in and saving the seeds at just the right time.  I started saving my seeds from the garden, replanting them the next year to expand the flower beds.  I sent packs of seeds to family so they could enjoy a part of my garden at their homes.  When we ate a new species of organic melon we loved, we saved the seeds and planted them the next year so we could enjoy the melons again and again from our own yard.  We still come across old packs of seeds from the past years, shoved in a drawer, or lost in a pile of magazines, and find they are still viable, able to produce beautiful flowers and tasty vegetables.

It pains me to read about big agri-businesses buying up the seed businesses.  The intention here is to control the seed market, moving away from heirloom and organics and toward genetically modified, pest resistant varieties.  Companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont focus on developing seeds that can be protected by patents, making it very expensive for growers to save the seeds (not that you'd want to).  Heavy fines are placed on those who get caught saving seeds, making it much more challenging for the small farmer to be successful.  

According to Organic Gardening Magazine, a report issued by the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture has warned that our seed supply is in grave danger.  Over 2000 varieties of seeds have been eliminated in one year alone.  Those are seeds that will never be replaced, at least not by agri-business.  However, if folks have saved seeds, those plants are not gone forever.  It has been estimated, the magazine article goes on to report, that at least 75 percent of genetic diversity among our agricultural crops has been destroyed.

So what does that mean for us?  Buy organic.  Always.  When you can, buy heirloom veggies at the store or farmer's market.  If you have the time and space, plant a few heirloom varieties and save the seeds.  It's really quite zen-like to harvest seeds, and can give you the sense that you are helping to save the world.  Well, it gives ME that feeling - saving it one seed at a time.  Check out what Seed Savers has in store - if not for this year, then perhaps for next or another in the future.  The more seeds we save now, the better off future generations will be.  Think about the victorian plants in my yard - someone had the foresight to save those seeds a very, very long time ago.  And - the seeds and plants are free that way!

I Think I Figured It Out!

I have to celebrate.  I have made a revelation about my time and my expectations.  Typically, at this time of year, I make a list, either mental or physical, of all the things I 'need' to get accomplished, it being Spring and all.  Most of the time, it included clean up the yard, plant the garden, clean out the basement, etc, etc.  I would then get overwhelmed and exhausted, just considering my list, and quit.  This year, tired of never getting past the first thing on my handy list, I decided to take things much slower.  It wasn't really a conscious decision, more of an accident, then the revelation.  I went to the garden store last weekend and vowed not to purchase more than a couple of flowers and maybe a tomato plant.  You may recall from this post, that I love to go to the Gore Estate sale, but I have not yet been able to make it (coming up this weekend - hurray!!).  Knowing that I would have time to plant this past weekend and not having been to Gore yet, I snuck off to the local garden store to grab a few lovelies to tie me over until the plant sale this weekend.  And instead of coming home with armloads (and trunkloads) of plants as usual, I came home with what I said I would: a patio tomato, some foliage plants and a petunia.  I was able to get them all into soil that afternoon without feeling overwhelmed.  

Last weekend, as you may recall from this recent post, we were able to score some old chairs from a 'free' pile after a yard sale.  I promised a post on the project I had in my head, and here it is.  

I have seen this idea a few times in gardening magazines, and I always said if I found one of these antique chairs without a seat, I would do this project.  And of course, this past weekend gave me the exact tools to proceed.  I gathered my chair, weathered beautifully, some organic potting mix, a basket planter I had lying around, and assorted plants.  I chose to go with only foliage plants, with interesting color, but you could use anything that caught your eye.

It was SO simple - put the plants in the basket with extra soil, place the basket in the seat.  But although simple, it makes a dramatic impact - don't you think?

Here are a few other things I have planted this week:

These are the baby bush cucumbers in an old washtub-

These are more foliage plants in an old cooking pot (last year I put tomatoes in it as a little joke.  I may have been the only one who noticed...).

And here is my first attempt at basket and moss wall planting, with a planter picked up for .50 at a yard sale last year.  It will be interesting to see if the petunias live all summer as when I water, the water comes running out the sides.  They still look good, though, four days later, so they must be getting something!
Perhaps as the season progresses, I will update you all on how these projects and others are coming along.  I have plans to go to the Gore sale this weekend - do you think I can stick to my small is better approach at a once a year heirloom plant sale??  Time will tell.

Do you have garden projects that you want to share?  If you email me your pictures, I will post them here!  And check out the makeovers on Sanctuary Arts At Home

One Person's Trash...

This weekend was the town wide tag sale (garage/yard sale to you westerners).  I had soccer-mom responsibilities, so I was unable to go (boo hoo).  However, I was able to participate in one of my favorite activities - finding the REAL bargains around town by driving by later on at night and scoping out the 'free' piles outside where the sales took place.  

Talk about fun - we had the list from the paper of all the houses having sales earlier that day, not to mention that many of the flyers were still hanging on the telephone poles through town.  We got lucky pretty early on.  I had spotted a sign that stated 'antiques' and went there first.  We found a beautiful old rocker - we passed on that as the wood frame was broken.  Then we found an old, tall dining chair with no seat - I have plans for that (will post that soon).  My husband really liked a nice old desk chair with a split seat - he's convinced we can fix that.  And then we saw a beautiful, hand carved occasional table with no top and one leg off.  I have the beginning of an idea of what to do with it that might make 2 tables out of the one (will post that soon).  I have my summer ready for projects.  I can't wait to share them all with you!

A Day At The Dump!

We had a great time this weekend, unloading my mother-in-law's house of it's recyclable material.  I always feel so good when I recycle, and this semi-annual event in her town is quite inspiring.  It's the 'drop and swap' day at her town recycling center, where you can bring along any number of recyclable materials to drop off.  We tossed various metal pieces and parts, lots of styrofoam, papers to shred.  We saw parts to playhouses (the nasty (but apparently recyclable) plastic kind), old, rusty bed frames, spent computer drives and monitors - you name it, we saw it.  If it had a recyclable element to it, it was there.  And the organization with which everything (except the parking) was handled was amazing to watch.  I was thrilled to see so many people out in droves to recycle everything they could.  They clearly had been saving up their items, as I watched several cars and trucks full to the brim with stuff piled on stuff -all recyclable, of course.  

The best part of this even is the swap part.  If you are a town resident, you can peruse the useable items that still had life left in them, but were unwanted.  We saw all sorts of electronics: stereos, computers, tvs, appliances.  We saw all sorts of interesting looking furniture and doo-dads.  We saw luggage, pictures, fishing and sports equipment.  We even saw a man and young child making art from the 'found' objects just outside of the swap area. 

The event lasts most of the day , and is held both Spring and Fall every year.  I can't wait to go again!

Does your town have a recycle day?

No! Don't Throw That Out - It's A Treasure To Me!

There is a 7-family house next door to me. Recently, it completely emptied of all it's residents as the owner prepares for renovation this summer. He will be constructing 4 condos where the 7 apartments stood, either to rent or sell sometime next year. While I am not looking forward to the crazy noise we are going to endure this summer, I have already become giddy with trash-pickin' delight as my moving-out neighbors began depositing their unwanted goods on the sidewalk for trash pick up. Oh my. I have already benefited from this experience - my son grabbed a punching bag, I found a beautiful, antique oak dresser which I will refurbish, we grabbed 3 sturdy drawers from a broken dresser that will be our first outdoor vegetable planters for the deck (a project blog for another time), and we are now proud owners of a motorized scooter without a key (hmmmm - not sure if that will turn out positive in the long run). And all this without one wall coming down! I spoke with the contractor and owner yesterday and admitted to my trash-picking habit. Really, I was just warning them that I will be looking through their cast-offs the minute they let go of them... They just smiled and said - You'll make our job easier. Wow. Do you know what comes out of an old New England house? Old panel doors. Real wood molding. I can just visualize my 'new' greenhouse coming from 3 floors of old 4-lite windows. I'm thinking about old doorknobs. Beadboard paneling. Old light fixtures. Oh yes. This girl's gonna be dumpster diving pretty regularly this summer. Mmm Hmmm. Can't wait. As I look outside tonight, I see a headboard that might become something else. Oh...there's a small coffee table just screaming to stay out of the trash truck.

Last Monday, I was home with a sick child. As I often do when home in the morning (rare), I watched out the window as life woke up and began moving around in my neighborhood. The trash truck comes on Monday, and my sons had diligently put out the trash cans the night before. As I dazed out the window, I looked at the enormous pile of 'trash' next door - a definite sign of someone moving: an old rotten couch, tables, lamps, trash bags galore, old phone books, old clothes strewn about. I heard the trash truck coming, and decided to sit and watch. I had already gone over the pile with a fine-toothed comb the day before, so I knew that what was left was pretty much trash (so glad I grabbed that antique dresser!). The truck pulled up and CRUNCH went the couch. CRUNCH went the desk and broken dresser. The bags of clothes and trash disappeared. The phone books (which could have been recycled) were tossed in the truck. In a poof, everything that to me represented 10 years of people living next door was gone. Gone. There was no longer any residue of anyone moving out, or living there at all. I looked over at the house, now empty, and felt so sad. Sad that the bulldozers will come soon to rip it's siding off. It's not a pretty house to look at, and a renovation is long overdue. But I felt sad knowing that the work will be done without much thought to keeping and reusing anything. So my mission is to find homes for the useable materials, to the best of my ability (it's not MY house, after all...)
I look forward to posting upcoming projects from the materials I have already gathered. Stay tuned for fun!

A New Release and A Free Video!

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has just sent out the notification that the Media Education Foundation has published a video titled, "Consuming Kids: The Commercialism of Childhood".  This video looks at how our children have been the targets of marketing tactics from birth on for decades.  It runs through how advertising in the past included children, but in a much more docile way.  Today's children are basically pelted with ads throughout even educational television to such as extent that many young ones aren't quite sure where the show takes a break and the ads begin.  This film is an attempt to bring our attention to the repetitive opportunities marketers make to 'teach' our children which products to purchase, or have us purchase.  Much as the dairy council will have us think that we need milk to build strong bones, or the beef industry, who makes us think we need to know 'where's the beef?', the commercials geared toward children blur the lines between safe, conscious, nutritious choices and garbage.

From the website:

Consuming Kids
The Commercialization of Childhood

Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids. 

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood folks are working to have folks sponsor a public screening of this important film, with a gift of your very own video to keep as a thank you for your efforts.  Make sure you contact them right away, as this offer is limited.  If you miss the offer, don't worry.  You can still purchase the video for $24.99 from Media Education Foundation.