Spring is here and I am giddy about the prospects of growing my garden again. Each year is different from the last one with new plants to grow. Some have even come back since I forgot about them from last year. See my turnip left in the dirt since last Fall?
And if you are a grass blade in my garden, well, you better fear for your life. You might get dug up in favor of a new garden bed. I can’t pass a garden center without taking home an orphan plant.
Well, I am the luckily hostess for the Green Moms’ Spring Carnival. Many of my readers know that I am obsessed about adore gardening. Last Spring, I gave you may own sage advice about what not to do in your garden. But this year, I thought it would be great to get a different perspective from my fellow Green Moms about what Spring means to them. Let me tell you. You all are in for a treat since these women dig the Earth.
Drum roll, please….
Gardening Joys
Jeanne of the Green Samaritan muses about how she will be gardening on her own turf this year Although last year community gardening adventure was fun, there is comfort in gardening at home. So, readers, how do you garden? Community or at home? Do you share Jeanne’s sentiments about gardening at home?
Deborah at Pure Mothers, a transplanted Californian, on the other hand talks about her adventures in gardening in her new home in England She explains in England local produce is limited and how so many of the fruits and vegetables are flown in from all over the world. With her new raised beds, she is ready to create that just picked off the vine taste she was use to in California. Good luck, Deborah with your new gardening adventure.
Katherine at the Hysterical Mommy Network talks about how she is lovingly bring back her garden which was miserably left unattended for years. Despite, a previous owners disregard for the garden, old plants have revitalized themselves as if they knew it was safe to come out and thrive under Katherine’s hand. Her post resonated with me because I feel it is our responsibility to care for the land since it gives us so much in return.
In fact, a little help with the picture above. I have no idea what I planted here which has come back from the dead. Katherine?
Karen of the Best of Mother Earth, on the other hand is grateful to those who lovely tended her new home garden. Although she claims that she has a brown thumb, her new home has inspired her to think again about gardening. With each new daffodil, tulip, and bud she photographs, it reminds her of the potential. Karen’s pictures are wonderful. Go take a look. I especially like the one at the end of the post of Karen’s shadow. She says, “me and my shadow photographing the potential.” Karen, I know you will find that potential in your new home.
Melodie of Breastfeeding Moms Unite gardens to teach her children about where their food comes from. And how do her kids feel about gardening?
“However, other than a mild interest in digging up potatoes last year my girls have never been interested in the garden, except for that fact that it’s a great place to find worms.”
I am right there with your kids, Melodie. I love worms too!
Micaela of Mindful Momma and Melodie are surely on the same page as to why they garden. Both want their kids to know where food comes from. Unfortunately, as Micaela points out, most kids do not have a clue. She explains,
“The problem of food illiteracy has so many dimensions (income and education being the largest) and it’s a huge challenge to fix. As the MPR [Minneapolis Public Radio]show pointed out, part of the problem is when parents don’t know how to cook for themselves. If they don’t bring fresh produce into the home, kids aren’t likely to learn what fresh produce is.”
So, she suggests gardening with your kids as well take them to a farmer’s market to for “a little food growing education.”
I bet all this gardening talk has you wondering. Can I do this ? Watch Susan of Practically Green‘s video interview of a local gardener she hired to help her select the site, size the beds, and choose the right plants to start turning her brown thumb a little greener. So, if you are thinking about a garden, Susan’s video will help you make that transition with ease.
Gardening is not always who has the best toys.
So after watching Susan’s video, don’t grab your purse and run out the door just yet. You don’t need to spend a lot of green to be green, especially when you are a gardener. Tiffany of Natural Moms provides a list how to be a frugal gardener. I especially love this tip of Tiffany.
“Instead of buying containers for container gardening why not recycle household stuff
like old boots, buckets, baskets, metal tins, old toys, apple barrels, wheel barrels, broken plastic tubs, etc. A few years back (in Arizona) I took two old wheel barrels and stacked them on top of each other in my front yard and planted in them.” (See picture to the right.)
I am so jealous of those “Martha” gardeners! They see an empty boot, pot, or bucket and Voila! Instant gorgeous planter. Do you have the knack?
Then I read Kimberley of Get Green Be Well post and thought I found my long lost gardening sister. We both love to re-use trash in the garden such as newspaper, cardboard boxes, and Styrofoam peanuts. She provides wonderful sage advice of how you can use ordinary trash items to benefit your garden. Readers, which trash item do you like the best in Kimberley’s post?
So, now you have a garden and you have weeds. Diane of Green Big Purse explains how to keep weeds at bay with some environmentally friendly tricks. Plus, Diane reminds us to not sweat the little stuff. Er, weeds. Remember, weeds are only unloved flowers. Diane and I both love laying newspaper over the soil to keep the weeds from rearing their heads. I won’t spoil her post but I will say her ideas run in the category of frugal, easy, and good for the Earth.
Um, be sure to not cover plants that come back and then seed themselves all over the place. Above is one of my many Kale plants which go to seed every other year and produce lots of Kale kid plants. I love Kale so the more the merrier.
Getting Rid of Old Man Winter
Spring is not just about gardening, it also about the old spring cleaning routine. Erin of the Green Booth provides us with tips on how to clean green with some wonderful essential oil recipes. A little vinegar and some essential oils as well as a dash of Dr. Bonner chases the winter cobwebs away.
Linda of Citizen Green like many of us think of Spring as a rite of cleaning your house from top to bottom. And this routine includes the dreaded dusting chore. However, she learned that it is important to dust. In fact 90%of dust is dead skin cells. And the rest? Well, I will let Linda explain:
“The rest of it is dust mites that eat the skin cells, dust mite fecal material, pet dander, soil particles, rodent waste, pollen, mold spores, cigarette smoke. Mixed into this unsavory blend are toxics like pesticides, flame retardants, heavy metals, PCBs, paint particles, etc. A lot of these ingredients are allergens, as you probably realize because you sneeze when dusting. Other ingredients are toxic to us, especially toddlers who are crawling around on a dusty rugs or floor. Their small undeveloped bodies may be more strongly affected than our adult bodies.”
Yeck. Although Linda muses that dusting is not her favorite pastime, she provide us with advice on what to use to make dusting more effective making our environment healthier.
And I know you can’t get enough. There is more!
Wait, don’t go running off to Erin and Linda’s posts to start cleaning, there are more sage Green Mom advice…
Amber at Strocel.com tells us why she saves seeds. She writes,
“There are a lot of advantages to saving seeds. The most obvious, to me, is self-sufficiency. Seeds aren’t expensive, but the ones from my garden are free. Using them not only saves me money, but it means that I’m not depending on someone else. But that’s on the small scale. On the large scale, the real reason to save seeds is to preserve genetic diversity in food plants.”
And guess what? Monsanto’s Round-up product does not kill Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds. (Gee, I wonder why? ) Readers, you know I have my issues with Monsanto from their proposed alfalfa genetically modified seeds to their Round-up product. Amber’s post just stirs my angry- fist- shaking- sentiments about Monsanto. (I lovely refer to them as the evil umpire…)
Lynn of Organic Mania must have been reading Amber’s mind when she wrote her post. She laments about her lack of a brown thumb, but offers advice on how to buy green gardening supplies. Lynn explains it is important to buy organic seed since they are not genetically modified. Why?
“Concerns have been raised about what the ramifications may be of ingesting GMOs – a practice that has been banned in Japan and the EU. There may be some genetic modification of other crops, but it’s not as common as with corn, soy and tomato – so those are the plants and seedlings you should definitely buy organic.”
And while you are shopping , Lynn recommends you buy plants in pot that are not made out of plastic since plastic does not degrade in a landfill or compost.
As for me, you know my usual drill. Up it from last year. I loved growing Amaranth so much last year that I ordered buckwheat and sorghrum. Both are gluten free alternatives to wheat. Even bought a growing light unit. I told you I am obssess, but in a good way…
The Spring blossoms and the Pollen
Finally, Lisa of Retro Housewife Goes Green shares with us the downside of Spring. Allergies. How many of you sneeze and blow the entire season? My oldest has terrible spring allergies. Lisa offers wonderful natural suggestions to help you ease your symptons. I especially like Lisa’s suggestion on using a neti-pot to break up congestion.
Whew! Readers, don’t these ladies know how to inspire! So, let me know how Spring has invaded your household and/or how these posts will inspired you to create a new Spring routine? Now, if you excuse me, you know where I am heading. My kids and husband plants are calling me.
Lynn from OrganicMania.com says
Wow! Thanks so much for putting this together, Anna. Maybe after reading all these great posts I will actually develop a green thumb! 🙂
mother earth aka karen hanrahan says
Anna – you are totally the perfect host for this conversation!!
.-= mother earth aka karen hanrahan´s last blog ..Never Clean Soap Scum Again! =-.
Katherine says
Hey, thanks for the nice intro and link.
You’d think I’d be an expert at mystery plant identification by now but usually I just call in my expert (aka: my mom). Let me see what she comes up with for the mystery plant. Hold please…
Micaela says
Wow – what an amazing round-up of posts!! Thanks for all your hard work Anna. I’m looking forward to ‘digging’ in! 🙂
.-= Micaela´s last blog ..Getting Kids in the Garden =-.
Mary says
I SOOO miss being able to garden… or have time to blog for that matter. Thank you for giving me a sprig of spring.
Amber says
Thanks so much for putting this together. I’m off to read the posts now, it looks we have a lot of great ones this time around!
.-= Amber´s last blog ..Who do I Think I am, Anyway? =-.
Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green says
Thanks for being such a great host, off to read all the posts!
.-= Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green´s last blog ..Happy Earth Day Celebration Week! =-.
Katherine says
RE: Mystery plant identification
Well, I reposted the photo http://hystericalmommynetwork......arge-here/ and got some interesting responses.
“I think it is in your yard, and a normal old fern from last year with a weed growing over/through it and giving the impression of new growth. The little fern fronds will be up in awhile. Pull the weed in the meantime. I can’t wait to find out if I’m right. I’m usually not.”
OR
“I tried to guess but the angle and the focus made it hard to do so. Can you get a side shot? I am a vegetable nerd, so while I may be of limited help in this situation, I would like to issue a public announcement – Ladies and Gentlemen, its 3 weeks until its time to start your overwintering brussels sprouts. Do you know where your seeds and warming trays are?” This one makes me laugh.
OR
“Well, I LOVE a good plant identification game . . . especially since Patricia and I just returned this evening from a lovely spring hike over in Umtanum Canyon during which she identified the birds and I identified the plants/flowers. This photo, however, just doesn’t give me enough clues. First of all, I have no idea where on the continent we are.
Give me a couple of clues, and I bet I can tell you what we’re looking at. But, then again, sometimes I have a pretty big head . . .
Love the idea–by the way–of Stuff that Grows on Docks!!”
I think the fern/weed comment may be on to something. Do keep us posted. Now I’m really curious.
.-= Katherine´s last blog ..Redesigned =-.
Green Talk says
Katherine, I will have to wait until it grows bigger and then shoot another pic. It may be candeula. Anna
Kim says
Thanks, Anna, for sharing my story. There’s so many wonderful ways to look at gardening, as evidenced by these varied posts. It’s nice to keep in mind that everyone’s different and as long as you’re doing something, that’s all that matters! Take care, Kim
.-= Kim´s last blog ..Stylish and Eco-Friendly Naya Shoes =-.
vernon haley says
thanks!