Preliminary Match: The FFF Garden Bout
The FFF Garden Bout is a long slow fight, one that wil start in spring and end, oh, several years from now. Butthe rewards will be delicious.
In this match, Fair Food Fighters are composting, raising garden beds, planting, rototilling, harvesting, offering each other advice -- and blogging all about it.
Why? Many folks started gardens because grocery prices spiked in 2008 without retreating (at the time this bout began in 2009). Plus, gardens are a great way to make ends meet, get some exercise, and eat great, fresh veggies and fruit.
So we're looking for Fair Food Fighters who will join this fight, post pics of your gardens, tell us about your victories, your volunteers, your woe, and your incredibile ingenuity.
We'd love it if some enterprising garden bloggers:
* Figured out how much money they saved growing their own food instead of buying it in a grocery.
* What meals they made from their garden produce.
* Told us how caring for a garden changed their family's eating habits.
After dark tonight, I'm going to dress in black, get some mature compost, a full watering can, and go do some planting in an abandoned lot in my neighborhood.
Guerrilla gardening will include the surreptitious planting of:
* morning glories
* lacinato kale
* fuscia
I'll keep you apprised. El Dragón out. *cue lighting of the fuse!*
From the Star Tribune
Would-be beekeepers on typical city lots will be required to gain consenting signatures from all abutting property owners, plus 80 percent of owners within 100 feet of their property.
This a great move for the ongoing colony collapse disorder crisis, and also, local gardening in the Twin Cities area, by diversifying the number and potentially the type of pollinators
Sorry for the delay in posting. I had my head under the website's hood for a couple days, but we're back on the road now. Read more...
As a parent, I have long suspected this. From the NYT:
In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with "dirt" spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.
In other words, the more garden time, the healthier your kid might be. Read more...