Another Long Day

Finished digging a long thin strip bed for corn, beans and squash
More heavy landscaping; creating 2 terraces with cut logs 14" to 22" long by 15" in diameter
Ripped out the nasty old lino in the bathroom, more cleaning
Got started organizing the workshop under the house
Lots of hand watering in the garden
Planted and replanted
In the middle of it all we played a game of scrabble over a lovely lunch before some restful internet research during the heat of the day. Checked out this new type of treated wood.

http://www.timbersilwood.com/

and some rainwater storage tanks.
And now to go read my book (see below) and go to bed. This one is our current bible.

Video - Transition TV - Eat the Suburbs: Gardening for the End of the Oil age

Bermuda garden #1

This is the first garden, organic of course, I helped establish in Bermuda. On the right, behind the bench is the first bed, it was already full of soil and ornamentals. We planted lemon balm, parsley, bell peppers, marigolds, mesclun mix, jalapenos, kale, and red lettuce and are still harvesting from it.

The bed farthest from the camera was next. Built from recycled Bermuda limestone, we lined it with cardboard and imported lots of compost from the local horticultural waste dump site. We planted romaine lettuce, swiss chard, arugula, marigolds, mesclun mix and onions. We are still harvesting the lettuce, mesclun and swiss chard but the onions didn't do so good. I think we should have sourced some soil to mix with the compost.

The third bed, built in the same manner got some composted horse manure added to some sections. The onions appear to be doing better here. We've also planted eggplant, cayenne pepper, bell pepper, musk melon and tomatoe. It's a bit early to tell but it seems to be doing OK.

In the distance on the left is the solar hot water heater. We've also planted up some wooden wine boxes with basil and parsley, partially shaded, which have continued to produce. A large pot has yielded kale and chives. 4 garlic bulbs mysteriously disappeared thought they were doing well. Elswhere in the yard are 5 banana plants, some lemon grass, a few more tomatoes and the composting and leaf mould bins built earlier on and covered in an previous post.

I reckon this garden has produced 3 to 5 large salads per week since we started harvesting in May. I've especially enjoyed adding the jalapenos to anything and everything.

Here are some basic gardening tips I found posted over on Climate Progress. You can read more details about them there.

"Plant only what you can maintain. Overplanting will give you a headache and squander water, money, and other resources.

Compost your waste. Composting prevents yard trimmings, food scraps, and other household waste from entering landfills and reduces the need for watering by improving your soil’s water retention.

Ditch the pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Pesticides and fertilizers can pollute ground water and turn your fruits and vegetables toxic.

Water smarter. Water in the mornings or at night and not during the day because the afternoon’s intense sunlight will cause water to evaporate.

Avoid annuals. Most annual flowers, such as petunias or impatiens, have shallower root systems than perennials. Deep root systems allow plants to tap into water deep within the soil and survive with infrequent watering after they are established.

Stick with native and indigenous plants. Exotic plants typically need more water than native varieties.

Start an herb garden. Planting herbs can be the most economical decision you make with your garden, and they can save you trips to the grocery store. "

First Harvest with the First Lady

Edited Excerpts from the transcript of the First Lady's speech;

"...I just wanted to say a few words to make sure that we all really understand why we're here and what we've accomplished, because today is really the culmination of a lot of hard
work.... This is our reward for all that hard work, ... and I want the media here to give these kids a round of applause. Put your pens down! We're really proud of
you guys for sticking with us.

The planting of this garden was one of the first things I wanted to do as First Lady here at the White House. It was something I had talked about a long time ago. And with the help of you guys, you helped to make this dream a reality. And as you could see when we went down to
the garden, can you imagine how thriving that garden is, just how much food grew from a few little seeds and some plantings. So this was a big dream of mine for a while, and it's been so much fun working with you all.

But I also thought that this would be a fun and interesting way to talk to kids about healthy eating and nutrition. The President and Congress are going to begin to address health care reform, and these issues of nutrition and wellness and preventative care is going to be the focus of a lot of conversation coming up in the weeks and months to come. And these are issues that I care deeply about, especially when they affect America's children.

Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure are all diet-related health issues that cost this country more than $120 billion each year. That's a lot of money. While the dollar figure is shocking in and of itself, the effect on our children's health is even more profound. Nearly a third of the children in this country are either overweight or obese, and a third will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lifetime. In Hispanic and African American communities, those numbers climb even higher so that nearly half of the children in those communities will suffer the same fate. Those numbers are unacceptable.

And for the first time in the history of our nation, a nation that is one of the wealthiest on the planet, medical experts have warned that our younger generation may be on track to have a shorter life span than their parents as a direct result of the obesity epidemic. Again, that is just unacceptable.

So how did we get here? How did we get in this position where we have become such an unhealthy nation, and our children are at risk? And the fact is there are a lot of factors, but some of the more simple ones are that too many kids are consuming high-calorie food with low
nutritional value, and they're not getting enough exercise. It's plain and simple: They're not eating right and they're not moving their bodies at all.

The way we eat has changed substantially since I was a little girl, and as I joke, I don't think that was that long ago. Yeah. They still think I'm old. But I'm not.

But when I was growing up, fast food was a rarity. It wasn't something you did every day. It was a special treat, and we would beg to get it, and it was exciting if we drove into a fast food place and got a hamburger. We were thrilled. It was like Christmas.

Desserts were for special occasions. We didn't get dessert every night. And we didn't have dessert several times a day. Eating out was a luxury because at least in my family we couldn't afford it. If we got pizza on a Friday night, that was a treat.

And sitting around the dinner table as a family was something that we did all the time. That was the norm, just not in my household but in the households of neighborhoods .... You stopped playing and you went home and you ate dinner with your family, and then you could come back out and play.

And I have to admit that I never really thought about health and nutrition, not as a kid, really. But what made me think about nutrition was when I became a mother, because I certainly didn't think about it for myself. But as a mother, with the help of our kids' doctor, I became much more aware of the need for my kids to eat healthy. Like adults, kids have a very simple approach to food. What do you guys like about food? If it tastes good, right?

CHILDREN: Yes.

MRS. OBAMA: If it tastes good, you'll eat it, right? You don't care what it is!? How many people pulled a snap pea off the vine and ate it today? And it was pretty good, right?

CHILDREN: Yes.

MRS. OBAMA: Pretty good. Well, I've learned that if it's fresh and grown locally, it's probably going to taste better. ... And that's how I've been able to get my children to try different things, and in particular fruits and vegetables. By making this small change in our family's diet and adding more fresh produce for my family, Barack, the girls, me, we all started to notice over a
very short period of time that we felt much better and we had more energy, right? And so I wanted to share this little piece of experience that I had with the rest of the nation, a wider audience, which is what brings us here today.

This gorgeous and bountiful garden that you saw over there has given us the chance to not just have some fun, which we've had a lot of it, but to shed some light ... on the important food and nutrition issues that we're going to need to address as a nation. We have to deal with these issues.

This garden project, what we've done together, guys, has given us the opportunity not just to educate children, but to hopefully even educate a few parents and adults as we go along the way. How many of you have talked to your parents about what you've been doing? How many of you have started talking about fruits and vegetables and eating a bit more?

So we've seen some progress even among this small group of kids. The students with us today have learned about the seasons, right? We learned about when you plant what and why, where food comes from, what it takes for food to grow, the process of how food gets from the
garden to the plate, and how much more delicious fresh fruits and vegetables are when they come straight from the garden.

And by making this whole process fun -- and we've got some advantage because we have the White House, right? It's fun being here, right?

CHILDREN: Yes.

MRS. OBAMA: These students have learned a little bit. They've told us that they're not only making better choices when they're on their own, but they're also educating their families about how to eat in a healthier way, as well. And this is all great news for us, for this group of kids.

But unfortunately, for too many families, limited access to healthy fruits and vegetables is often a barrier to a healthier diet. In so many of our communities, particularly in poorer and more isolated communities, fresh, healthy food is simply out of reach. With few grocery stores in their neighborhoods, residents are forced to rely on convenience stores, fast food restaurants, liquor stores, drug stores and even gas stations for their groceries.

These food deserts leave too many families stranded and without enough choices when it comes to nourishing their loved ones. And sadly, this is the case in many large cities and rural communities all across this nation. So we need to do more to address the fact that so many of our citizens live in areas where access to healthy food, and thus a healthy future, is simply out of reach.

But I'm happy to report, as well, that many communities are kind of emulating what we've been doing. They've been leading the way, many of them, in taking matters into their own hands and tackling this lack of access on their own by growing and caring for a whole lot of community gardens, just like the one we planted.

There are more than 1 million community gardens that are flourishing all around the country, and many of them are in under-served urban communities that are providing greater access to fresh produce for their neighbors.

The benefit is not just the availability of fresh produce but also it gives the community an opportunity to come together around gardening and growing their own food and working together towards a healthier community and a better future for their kids.

But government also has a role to play in this, as well. For so many kids, subsidized breakfasts and lunches are their primary meals of the day. It's what they count on. It's where they get most of their nutrition.

And the USDA's National School Lunch Program serves approximately 30 million meals each year to low-income children. And because these meals are the main source of consistent nourishment for these kids, we need to make sure we offer them the healthiest meals possible.

So to make sure that we give all our kids a good start to their day and to their future, we need to improve the quality and nutrition of the food served in schools. We're approaching the first big opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda with the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition programs. In doing so, we can go a long way towards creating a healthier generation for our kids.

My hope is that this garden ... through it, we can continue to make the connection between what we eat and how we feel, and how healthy we are. "

Recommended gardening website

If you are a gardener, interested in growing your own food, I highly recommend Emma Coopers website. Her podcast is excellent, her voice is pleasant and the production is simple and elegant not to mention to the point and useful. Check her out at;

http://coopette.com/

An Experiment in Back Yard Sustainability

Peak Moment 51: Tour Scott McGuire's "White Sage Gardens" in the back yard of his rental home -- a demonstration site for suburban sustainability. He ponders, "How might a household produce and preserve a significant portion of its own food supply?" Composting, a water-conserving greenhouse, and seed-saving are all facets of this beautiful work in progress. [www.whitesagegardens.com]