Support diversity by growing and buying
a wide variety of fruits and vegetables !
In the last century 30,000 vegetable varieties have become extinct, and one more is lost every six hours.
In the U.S., 93% of our food product diversity has
been lost since 1900.
The ability to grow one’s own food is becoming more
important today with worldwide food safety issues.
Growing your own fruit and vegetables and buying locally grown organic food can provide healthy, nutritious food for you and your family, while
supporting the local ecosystem.
Are you a "Locavore"? To eat locally grown and seasonally available food. Most local products are more nutritious, taste better and are more environmentally friendly, since shipping food over long distances requires more fuel for transportation.
* * Do you know where your food comes from? * *
* Do you know how your food is grown?
What can you do? |
Cold weather gardening |
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Read about our history
Read the story about ...
Sacramento's new 2007 front yard landscape ordinance!
New: Updated kids books, links, and teaching resources
Plant Notes - for vegetable planting and growing
information specific to the Sacramento region.
JOIN THE BILLION TREE CAMPAIGN:
PLANT FOR THE PLANET
The United Nations
Environment Programme
(UNEP) worldwide tree planting campaign. Make a pledge to plant one tree or many.
For more information
MULCH helps to maintain balanced soil temperatures, increase water infiltration and retention, prevent soil compaction, control erosion, reduce weeds, improve soil texture and provide a source
of organic matter for the "soil food web" which includes the "Microherd."
*
Remember: plants in stress send out signals that attract insects & disease.
* It is also important to leave areas of bare dirt (without inches of mulch) in your yard for ground-nesting native bees.
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Site update: Jan. 1, 2009 |
Fall and winter can be a good time to plant garlic, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, onion, lettuce and other greens. It is also fun to grow a new veggie every year. Garden catalogs are showing up in our mailboxes with new plant varieties. These catalogs do a pretty good job describing many exciting choices. Have you tried growing brocolli raab yet? Anytime new plants are added to the garden, it is a time to check for slug and snail trails, as they love new tender growth. Stale beer in saucers can keep them in check during this vulnerable time. Copper tape creates a barrier that they don't like to cross. Protect tender plants with a garden cloche, or row cover, or even a sheet
from freezing nights. With protection, most fall and winter planted veggies will produce throughout the winter and into the spring in Sacramento. Peas are especially cold hardy, as well as some greens.
If there is black rot in the vineyard, go through after the leaves are off the vines and remove any mummified berries left on the vines. Collect and compost the mummies to eliminate spores that might otherwise hang on through the winter to be a source of innoculum to reinfect the grapes next year.
- Lon J Rombough, Award winning author of The Grape Grower
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 - more articles 
City Chicken
Green From the Ground Up
Farmer in Chief
Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'
No way to bee
Swap seeds this season
Slow food savors big moment
A locally grown diet with fuss but no muss
Nonprofit group wants farms near urban homes
No-dig crops help reduce water
Rain gardens capture storm water, clean it up
Banking on Gardening
Bike tour finds gardens blossoming in city lots
We're in love with our lawns
Exhibit gives the dirt on lawns
Consumer tips for choosing healthy food
Permaculture: beyond the garden
A Rose Is [Not] a Rose
In a forest's breath, deciphering climate clues
Why we will all be gardeners
Prairie Revival
Sterile soil, dirty hands
At park, a new garden sets example
Prof's new book focuses on critical role of native plants
Organic food is healthier: study
Don't Think 'Yard,' Think 'Habitat'
Disappearing Honeybee and Native Bee articles
- more books - garden books
   
The Art of Simple Food - by Alice Waters
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - by Barbara Kingsolver |
The rewards of planting and caring for a home garden are many. Join us in growing healthy food and creating a sustainable ecosystem.
Is Dirt the New Prozac?
Why Grow Your Own Food?
Victory Gardens Symbolize a New Age
Victory gardens are popping up all over. Last seen during World War II, these gardens now represent our fight to regain control of our lives and our health. They are the first battlefields against the increasing corporate tyranny, a battle that may end with us throwing off the philosophy of every man for himself and a realization that we are all together in this thing called life.
A garden teaches us the secrets of creation in various ways. Once we make the decision to pull back from the getting and spending lifestyle, we learn the power within us to create our world by the choices we make. We realize that we no longer have to be controlled by the power of events, but that by our power of thought, we control events. We can bring about what is in our thoughts.
When this is our direction we will have the confidence to succeed in the garden. Gardening is about the relationship we have with the plants. When we love and cherish them, they will return the favor. Plants are like our children. A child who is loved thrives no matter what the conditions are, but a child who has no love dies. Gardening is never about technique or the color of your thumb.
It is about what is in your heart and spirit.
Read Barbara L. Minton's full essay ...
Managing the Health and Vitality of Your Landscape Through Soil Ecology - Workshop with Dr. Ingham - Feb. 5-6
EcoLandscape 2009 Conference - Feb. 7
Effie Yeaw Nature Center Calendar of Events for January
UC Davis Arboretum Calendar of Events - Jan. & Feb.
Sacramento Garden Notes - for January
Elderberry Farms Nursery - call for volunteers, work days
“The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it.” ~ Wendell Berry
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