Garden Faerie: Plant a veggie garden as part of 350 Gardens project
350 Gardens is a county-wide project that brings together citizens, organizations, businesses, media and civic leaders to improve access to healthy, fresh, local food. It aims to:
- Create a healthy homegrown food supply.
- Cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the distance food travels.
- Support local businesses through purchasing of local materials and resources.
- Build community and beautify our neighborhoods.
- Check out photos of food gardens (or submit your own).
You can participate in the Washtenaw County 350 Garden Challenge in several ways:
- Create a new veggie bed this fall or next spring.
- Register your existing veggie garden.
- Join a work day to help install gardens in your neighborhood.
- Join a bike ride starting at 10 a.m. on Oct. 10 to view some of the gardens in the city.
- Celebrate gardens at a picnic at Hunt Park at 3 p.m. on Oct. 10.
You may be wondering "Who the heck starts a veggie garden in fall?!" The idea is to get the beds ready by filling them with compost and leaves for the winter, so they'll be rich with nutrients and ready for production next spring.
Growing Hope was selling raised-bed kits to help make installing a veggie bed easier, as well as delivering compost, but unfortunately that deadline has passed. But don't despair. If you can't create a veggie bed yet this fall, you can certainly create it next spring! And the Growing Hope raised-bed kits will be available again next spring, too.
The national 350 Garden Challenge was created by iGrowSonoma.org and inspired by the 350.org international campaign to find and implement solutions for climate change. Worldwide on Oct. 10, people in 183 different countries will take part in 6,000 different actions that address climate change solutions at a local level.
Locally, 350 Gardens is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Ecology Center, Growing Hope, Project Grow, and Transition Ann Arbor.
Monica Milla, the Garden Faerie, is a master gardener volunteer, garden speaker, garden coach and author of "Fun with Winter Seed Sowing."
Comments
ssgardengirl
Thu, Oct 28, 2010 : 8:30 p.m.
Thanks for this post Monica. I wasn't aware of 350 Gardens or 350.0rg. Both are inspiring and hopeful beacons for the future.
Monica Patel
Wed, Oct 6, 2010 : 1:35 p.m.
Thanks for this post, Monica! We look forward to your readers joining us on 10/10/10. Just FYI, "And the Project Grow raised-bed kits will be available again next spring, too." Should be "And the Growing Hope raised-bed kits will be available again next spring, too." Also, Vivienne is absolutely right. There's a video about gardening without a raised bed at http://www.aa350.org/?page_id=918 and it looks fun! If any of you folks are doing it, please register at http://www.aa350.org/?page_id=745 and send photos to annarbor350@ecocenter.org.
Monica Milla
Tue, Oct 5, 2010 : noon
Vivienne, as with anything else in gardening, there are many right answers! I don't personally use raised beds myself. I think the reason this project is using them is to make it easier for first-time growers to get a bed fast (esp. as compost was delivered as part of the program and it's easy to store leaves in the raised bed frame over winter.)
Vivienne Armentrout
Tue, Oct 5, 2010 : 10:19 a.m.
It is still possible to garden without a raised bed. This is a great time to lift turf in a small area (compost it upside down in a corner somewhere and you'll have extra topsoil in a year or two). Dig in compost or other organic material and you can plant lettuce and spinach as early as mid-March. I've gotten the early planting by St. Patrick's day something like 8 of the last 10 years (cover with row cover for a couple of weeks). Working in the soil is a great relaxer.