Earth Day ContestI absolutely love April; it is one of my favorite months of the year. It is almost like New Year's for the gardener, so much to do and so little time. I just get it done the best I can but there is always something else left to do. This month I will be traveling and doing a television appearance in Dayton, Ohio for Earth Day. If you haven't already, don't forget to sign up for the Farmers Almanac Earth Day contest!
Urban Sustainable Living Urban Sustainable Living
So far I have about a third of my garden planted, I have a super long hoop house over my raised beds in my new garden which I think looks very cool. Check out the article below.
In highlights from the web section, check out my friend Fred's website www.fredsfinefowl.com, Alice Cantrell.com and http://onestraw.wordpress.com/. Garden Girl TV broadband network: Check out my two new videos on Italian Kitchen Gardening.
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb
"The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world." -- Vita Sackville-West
Film Screening
NE Premiere
This Week at the IFFB!
For those of you in the Boston Area please come and support the Boston Premiere of my documentary film Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome. It will be part of the Independent Film Festival of Boston and will Screen April 26th, 2007 at the Somerville Theater at 11pm as part of the Independent Patti, Rob and Beecher on the Red CarpetFilm Festival of Boston. Please come and enjoy the celebration with me, we can Talk about Revolution Green and otherwise! Read the Variety Review
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Please continue to share my videos and website with everyone. Thank you all again, from the sustainable home front. And don't forget it all started in a garden...
Besos(kisses),
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl
Highlights from Around the Web First and foremost I want to bring your attention to Fred the chicken farmer. I first became aware of Fred sometime last year, I was looking through the Murray McMurray Hatchery catalogue and there was a DVD for sale on poultry. Then later when I started my YouTube channel in December 07, Fred found me and sent me a copy of his video. Fred is a Chicken Farmer not a pro videomaker, but his three hour video is packed full of great info. Fred is my go to guy for poultry questions that
I can't get answer be sure to send him an email.
Alice's blog is so cool. I love everything about it. She has a great old time seed packet design and she shares super cool stuff about her life on her mini farm/homestead. I have been checking in on it almost daily. Her motto of living a creative life is something that resonates so strongly with Generation X moms like me. This is one of those blogs that reminds us all that we are not alone in this world and our shared values are important.
This is Rob from Wisconsin's site. This is cool because he is not only gardening, but he is working on a sub acre Market Garden project like I am! I can't One Strawwait to see how it turns out. Another Generation X parent, who works in corporate America, who believes that the world changes one garden at a time. Check out his essay 21st Century Man. I have always said that the key to spreading the word about sustainability is to show your neighbors your garden and sell them produce. I know that from my farm stand, people are shocked when they see what I grow on less then six hundred square feet of growing space. Open your gardens on the weekends you will be surprised who stops by.
This year I am growing many varieties of lettuce. My family eats lettuce daily with almost every meal and from my experience last year, my neighbors do also. So I planted almost two hundred heads of lettuce this week in 6-4x8 raised beds.
I planted Four Season Lettuce, Red Romaine, Arugula, Romaine, Petite Rouge, and Parris Island. Some people ask me, "Why plant stuff that no one has ever heard off?" I say, " Why grow the same plants that are available at the supermarket?"
I think a garden, especially a kitchen garden, should be dedicated to foods you can't get at supermarkets, plants that Chefs die to get their hands on.
Right now I am planning my May-July gardens. Since I have twelve beds still fallow, I think I am going to plant a different type of cuisine in each raised bed. I am going to travel the culinary gardening world by planting, growing, and cooking the finest, rarest vegetables from around the world. I am planning a French Garden, an Asian Garden, Spanish and sooooooo much more!
New Video
Italian Kitchen Gardening and My City Vineyard
One of the greatest benefits of being a gardener is eating great gourmet food! I have been growing varieties of foods you can't buy at any market or restaurant.
So here is my Italian Kitchen garden video series. I grouped italian varieties together in the same garden bed that grow well together and make a delicious Italian meal. I've also included the link to my City Vineyard Video featuring my grape vines. I strongly recommend that as you pick plants and seeds for your garden you get heirloom varieties that retain those old world tastes and genetic diversity in our food supply. So please click and share these great videos.
April is a great month, the weather is already improving and we celebrate Earth Day. This year at www.farmersalmanac.com, we are holding a contest to win a free garden. I hope you all sign up and win something! Check it out and put your email in the hat to win.
Urban Sustainable Living My seedlings are doing great in the hydroponic/Aquaponic seed starter and will probably head out to the garden, under hoop houses, in the next week. I love baby plants they are just so cute. I checked my garden beds today and the worms are doing better then in any other year. They have had a very busy winter breeding because they are in numbers the like of which I have never seen this early in the season. I will be spreading them into the garden beds that need a population boost. I have so many; I might sell some at this years farm stand.
Patti, Rob and Beecher on the Red Carpet The Garden Girl TV broadband network continues to pick up speed. Already we have hit the 150,000 view mark which is incredible. I have also posted part one and two of the vertical gardening series with part three getting posted on Tuesday April 8. Monday check out my casasugar.com
And don't forget to check out this issues blogs and sites I have been reading. Lots of cool places and things, and my site www.gardengirltv.com is coming out with some great new additions this week as well.
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb
"The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world." -- Vita Sackville-West
Earth Day
Farmers Almanac is having a free contest. You can win your very own raised bed garden kit from Natural Yards,seeds from Johnny Select Seeds, and a garden consult from me. Check out the link, there are four new videos there, as well a little "essay" on Earth Day. Don't forget to register to win. Good Luck! Click the link for all the details.
Hydroponic Seed Starter
This is probably the last week for my first set of plants inside in the Hydroponic seed starting system. It has worked way beyond my expectations. I have had practically no maintenance. My seed germination rate on some of the crops was a bit up and I need to adjust the feet on the shelves to get better drainage, but the system is far superior to what I did last year. I added fish, but I am thinking it probably needs a lot more fish than what I have in my tanks. My neighbor Mark Knapp will be installing one of the systems in his elementary science classroom. I am going to start
A great site for women that is very green, and is featuring little old me!
Urban Sustainable Living The blogs at www.ft2garden.com. Sinfonian has done a great job getting his hoop houses set up. Judy has posted some stunning garden photos as well. Her garden pics are just stunning.
Lylah Ledner's Blog The Garden Guy has posted pics of his drip irrigation system. Very fancy and high tech, I like it. Another project I hope to do this summer in my garden.
back40feet.blogspot.com: Check this site out for some great west coast gardens, he even know the Latin names.
redwormcomposting.com: Bentley has finally posted his video animation of his red worms composting some paper products and some squash. Very cool and descriptive animation. Bentley has also started answering reader questions, which is very helpful. Thank you Bentley.
http://unusuallyunusualfarmchick.blogspot.com: She is so cool and I love her farm. It is almost twice the size of my humble farmette, wow she does do it right. I love checking out her pics and stories, and the chicken she has that looks like Elvis is just too funny. The small suburban farmette ideal.
The Garden Girl Network Continues to Grow
The feedback has been great and amazing; we crossed a hundred and fifty thousand views across the network! Very exciting stuff and all thanks to you. This is a big week for the website as well. Brianna and the team at Sonora are hard at work, some of the new stuff is up on the website already. My Pesto Sauce video and Rabbit Recipe is up on the site at www.gardengirltv.com/cooking and www.gardengirltv.com/gardening has almost twenty new videos that you should be able to see throughout the next two weeks. On the Gardening page, I have a new series of videos on Vertical Gardening, a must for the Urban Gardener.
Film Screening
First and foremost I want to bring your attention to Fred the chicken farmer. I first became aware of Fred sometime last year, I was looking through the Murray McMurray Hatchery catalogue and there was a DVD for sale on poultry. Then later when I started my YouTube channel in December 07, Fred found me and sent me a copy of his video. Fred is a Chicken Farmer not a pro videomaker, but his three hour video is packed full of great info. Fred is my go to guy for poultry questions that
I can't get answer be sure to send him an email.
This is Rob from Wisconsin's site. This is cool because he is not only gardening, but he is working on a sub acre Market Garden project like I am! I can't One Strawwait to see how it turns out. Another Generation X parent, who works in corporate America, who believes that the world changes one garden at a time. Check out his essay 21st Century Man. I have always said that the key to spreading the word about sustainability is to show your neighbors your garden and sell them produce. I know that from my farm stand, people are shocked when they see what I grow on less then six hundred square feet of growing space. Open your gardens on the weekends you will be surprised who stops by.
And don't forget to check out this issues blogs and sites I have been reading. Lots of cool places and things, and my site www.gardengirltv.com is coming out with some great new additions this week as well.
The feedback has been great and amazing; we crossed a hundred and fifty thousand views across the network! Very exciting stuff and all thanks to you. This is a big week for the website as well. Brianna and the team at Sonora are hard at work, some of the new stuff is up on the website already. My Pesto Sauce video and Rabbit Recipe is up on the site at www.gardengirltv.com/cooking and www.gardengirltv.com/gardening has almost twenty new videos that you should be able to see throughout the next two weeks. On the Gardening page, I have a new series of videos on Vertical Gardening, a must for the Urban Gardener.
