Eco Gardeners

Choosing to support and eat local food ensures that the family farms within our communities will continue to thrive, and that healthy, flavorful, plentiful food will be available for future generations.

Though “buying local’ has been gaining exposure and trust with ‘conscious consumers’, we must not neglect the importance of consumer education. As farmer’s markets and CSA’s become more widespread, remember that just because its “local” doesn’t mean its necessarily healthier.  It is our responsibility to ask questions of our local suppliers:

Is the farm certified organic and/or working towards an organic certification?

If the farm is not certified organic, what pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers are used to maintain crop production? How often are they applied? Do they use animal by-products/manure to fertilize?

Asking questions will inform you, the consumer, of the quality of produce you are buying and will provide you with the trust to continue working with your local farmers.

FoodRoutes.org provides a list of benefits to supporting local farmers:

• Exceptional taste & freshness:  Local food is fresher and tastes better than food shipped long distances from other states or countries. Local farmers can offer produce varieties bred for taste rather than from shipping and long shelf life;
• Strengthen your local economy:  Buying local food keeps your dollars circulating in your community. Getting to know the farmers who grow your food builds relationships based on understanding and trust;
• Support endangered farms:  There’s never been a more critical time to support your farming neighbors. With each local food purchase, you ensure that more of your $$ spent on food goes tot he farmer;
• Safeguard your family’s health:  Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown or raised enables you to choose safe food from farmers who avoid or reduce their use of chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified seed in their operations.
• Protect the environment:  Local food doesn’t have to travel far. This reduces carbon dioxide emissions and packing materials. Buying local food also helps to make farming profitable and selling farmland for development less attractive.

Roses are my most favorite flower to grow. They provide the most colorful, perfect blooms that enhance any outdoor or indoor living space. Whether they are growing among your perennials or are the focal point of a formal accent garden or are enjoyed in vases in your home, roses bring a fragrance and beauty like no other horticultural specimen.

Many people are disheartened by the common threat that roses are difficult to maintain. Disease and pests can turn many away from even attempting to grow them.  The thought of using so many harmful chemicals can also discourage the inclusion of rose bushes in the garden.

I have been growing roses for as long as I have been gardening. And I have not used anything other than organic, non-toxic products on them for summertime maintenance and care. Following are some of my tried and true tips for continued beautiful, low-maintenance and ORGANIC roses:

• Condition the Soil: Healthy, organic soil will provide roses with a safe garden home and will encourage healthy, strong stem and leaf growth. Provide a summertime feeding by adding some compost or an organic soil conditioner (I recommend Happy Naturals Soil Conditioner for Roses) around the perimeter of the plant and cultivating it into the top 2-3 inches of soil will give roses a well-deserved boost.
• Water: Roses like to be watered at the roots. Limit water getting on the leaves and stems as humidity and water can lead to fungus and disease.
• Deadhead: Removing dead blooms will encourage reblooming. I recommend pinching spent blooms right off from the base of the bloom leaving as much foliage as possible. After deadheading, water your rose plants with an organic nutrient supplement such as SeaResults Micronutrient Solution.
• Pests and Disease: If you see signs of aphids or Japanese beetles you can either pick them off by hand or use an organic pest control. I recommend Outdoor Foliar Feed as it is made from 100% vegetable oils and takes care of pests and provides nutrients that will enhance leaf color. If you see signs of black spot remove the affected leaves, discard and treat your plant with a fungus preventative to eliminate risk of spreading.

These are some easy ways to keep your roses looking beautiful all summer long. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at annette@thehappygardener.info or post a comment/question below.

The Happy Gardener’s exclusive line of organic gardening products were featured on Philly’s NBC 10 Morning Show. Check it out!

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/shows/10-show/Green_This__Not_That_Philadelphia.html

Pest Control for Organic Gardens – Pest Management Rotation System

Have you ever found a great product that controls pests and then one day…poof! It’s like it never worked and the pests are right back again? This pest control immunity is common and is the reason why we recommend a Pest Management Rotation System (PMRS).

A PMRS is simply using an organic pest control product for a two week period, then changing to another product for two weeks and then changing to a third product for two weeks. Rotating over a two-week period through (3) products will keep the pests from getting used to a particular odor/taste and will give you much more effective results.
Here is an example of an effective Pest Management Rotation System for controlling rabbits or deer:

• Foliar Feed Plus Garlic:  For two weeks, apply The Happy Gardener’s Foliar Feed Plus Garlic to your veggies/herbs/shrubs. Apply every three days and immediately after rain.  This product is also excellent for repelling grasshoppers, leaf hoppers, and moles.

• Cayenne Pepper Mix:  For two weeks, apply a mix of water, egg whites and cayenne pepper to the same plants. This mix is especially effective for deterring squirrels and deer.

• Irish Spring Soap Flakes:  For two weeks, scatter Irish Spring Soap flakes/shavings around and amongst the same plants.

Repeat this rotation throughout the growing season.
- The Happy Gardener

You Know You’re Addicted to Gardening When

Your neighbors recognize you in your pajamas, rubber clogs and a cup of coffee
You grab other people’s banana peels, coffee grinds, apple cores, etc. for your compost pile.
You have to wash your hair to get your fingernails clean.
All your neighbors come and ask you questions.
You know the temperature of your compost every day.
You buy a bigger truck so that you can haul more mulch.
You enjoy crushing Japanese beetles because you like the sound that it makes.
Your boss makes “taking care of the office plants” an official part of your job description.
Everything you touch turns to “fertilizer”.
Your non-gardening spouse becomes conversant in botanical names
You find yourself feeling leaves, flowers and trunks of trees wherever you go, even at funerals
You dumpster-dive for discarded bulbs after commercial landscapers remove them to plant annuals
You plan vacation trips around the locations of botanical gardens, arboreta, historic gardens, etc.
You sneak home a 7 foot Japanese Maple and wonder if your spouse will notice
When considering your budget, plants are more important than groceries
You always carry a shovel, bottled water and a plastic bag in your trunk as emergency tools
You appreciate your Master Gardener badge more than your jewelry
You talk “dirt” at baseball practice.
You spend more time chopping your kitchen greens for the compost pile than for cooking
You like the smell of horse manure better than Estee Lauder
You rejoice in rain…even after 10 straight days of it.
You have pride in how bad your hands look.
You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter.
You can give away plants easily, but compost is another thing.
Soil test results actually mean something.
You understand what IPM means and are happy about it
You’d rather go to a nursery to shop than a clothes store.
You know that Sevin is not a number
You take every single person who enters your house on a “garden tour”
You look at your child’s sandbox and see a raised bed.
You ask for tools for Christmas, Mother/Father’s day, your Birthday and any other occasion you can think of.
You can’t bear to thin seedlings and throw them away.
You scold total strangers who don’t take care of their potted plants.
You know how many bags of fertilizer/potting soil,/mulch your car will hold.
You drive around the neighborhood hoping to score extra bags of leaves for your compost pile
Your preferred reading matter is seed catalogs
And last but not least:
You know that the four seasons are:
Planning the Garden
Preparing the Garden
Gardening
~and~
Preparing and Planning for the next Garden

-from Dig in the Dirt

Organically grown produce provides our families with more nutrition than conventionally grown!

If you’re buying your food from commercial sources, such as a grocery store, take a look at the difference in the quality of conventional versus organic food.

Rutgers University Study Comparing Organic versus Commercially Grown Foods