Eco Gardeners

On the 10th day til Earth Day my children said to me,

“Let’s grow and eat organic veggies!”

Buying organic produce can admittedly get pricey, so how about growing your own food instead of painstakingly manicuring that lawn for the umpteenth time? An estimated 40 million acres of  American states are covered in lawns, making turf grass the United States’ largest irrigated crop. All that for little more than ornamentation. It’s time to return to the use of gardens as food sources—you won’t find fresher, healthier, or cheaper eating anywhere else.

Growing your own organic produce allows families to get involved with a fun and purposeful activity while providing nutrient-rich meals. You can’t get more local than your own backyard!

Even if space and time is an issue, there are easy ways to ‘grow your own’ organic veggies, fruits & herbs in containers or with square foot gardening.

Some useful resource articles:

http://eco-gardeners.com/2009/05/suggested-fruits-veggies-herbs-for-containers/

http://eco-gardeners.com/2008/04/square-foot-gardening/

http://eco-gardeners.com/2008/02/small-space-veggie-gardening/

Think about how much money you’ve been spending lately on tomatoes, strawberries, onions, lettuce, herbs, watermelon and other fruits and veggies. Expensive, right? With gas around $4 per gallon, all those trips to the grocery store can result in huge gas bills. But growing produce in your backyard garden can dramatically reduce those costs. Gardening can also be therapeutic, and since the warm weather is here to stay for the next several months, why not carve out some space in your yard for a vegetable garden?

If a large part of your grocery bill is from buying strawberries, include them in your garden so you don’t have to waste money purchasing them at the store. Annette Pelliccio, founder and CEO of The Happy Gardener, suggests newbie gardeners try growing…..

To read the whole article go to http://www.mainstreet.com/slideshow/lifestyle/food-drink/summer-gardening-grow-save

Whether you live in an apartment with only a small deck or you want to add color to the patio of a larger home, growing and maintaining plants in pots offers a way to brighten your immediate outdoor surroundings. And growing flowers, vegetables, herbs or other plants in containers is so simple that even the most novice of gardeners may do it. For experts, the possibilities are endless when it comes to design and the types of plants you may grow in pots.

Edibles, which include fruits, vegetables and herbs, bring beginners satisfaction right from the start. As Annette Pelliccio, founder of the Happy Gardener, a national organic gardening company, pointed out, the rewards of growing edibles often encourage new gardeners to continue year after year.

The Happy Gardener continues to encourage gardeners, home owners and lawn growers to get educated on what you’re using around your home, family and pets. Weed control and weed killers can contain seriously harmful and toxic ingredients, and it is our responsibility to become aware of what we’re using and the safe alternatives available.

As more and more research is being done on the ingredients found in common weed killers on the market, we are learning specific ones to stay away from and the healthier choices becoming widely available. As a gardener, a mom and a pet owner, I know the annoying and time-consuming task of ridding my veggie and flower beds from weeds, especially crabgrass and dandelions! BUT I also know the harmful effects the toxins in conventional weed killers can have on my children, dogs and the wildlife playing in my backyard.

Most Harmful Weed Killer Chemicals to KEEP AWAY FROM!

Check your weed killer labels for the following toxic chemicals:

• Glyphosate: glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide on the market and has many harmful effects on both humans and animals. Found in Monsanto’s Round-Up, glyphosate studies have been directly linked to non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and the Women’s Cancer Research Center has reported that glyphosate results in reproductive damage as well as damage to the kidneys and liver. It is toxic to earthworms, amphibians, beneficial insects, birds and mammals. Glyphosate is also the third most commonly reported cause of pesticide related illness among agricultural workers.
• Atrazine: found in lawn weed control products such as Scotts, atrazine has been reported by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to impair the reproductive systems of amphibians and mammals, and has been linked to cancer in both humans and animals.

So what to do with those pesky weeds? Over the past five years, I have experimented with several safe, effective and cheap ways to control weeds in the garden and lawn. Here are my organic weed control recommendations:

• Hand Pick: NOT my most favorite method but very effective and the cheapest way to get rid of weeds. If you have kids, consider adding this chore to their weekly summer list
• Boiling Water: To spot treat weeds growing up through the cracks of a driveway, patio or walkway, pour boiling water over weeds and by the end of three days they will be burned down to the roots- VOILA!
• Vinegar: Spot spraying straight, undiluted white vinegar onto dandelions, crabgrass and other weeds will burn them down to the roots; very effective method and inexpensive to buy in the grocery store.
• Organic-Certified Weed Control: The Happy Gardener offers a highly effective, inexpensive and 100% safe pre-emergent weed control. Apply the granular weed control to flower beds, veggie beds and lawns to prevent weeds from germinating. Available in 5 lb bags at www.thehappygardener.info

Spring is here and more and more Americans are turning to our backyards to provide us and our families with healthy produce.  Growing our own vegetables, fruits and herbs allows us to monitor specifically what we put into our garden soil, which in turn will feed our edibles, which in turn will feed our bodies.

Whether the home gardener eats a vegetarian diet or not, it is a smart idea to start treating our gardens and lawns like one. By eliminating the use of animal by-products as plant fertilizers, we  significantly decrease the risk of bacteria contamination such as E. coli & salmonella (bad for us) and excess phosphorus buildup (bad for water supplies).

Animal by-products and manures have been used by home gardeners as routine fertilizer for garden plants and lawns and are found in most conventional and organic products sold in stores and garden centers. However, choosing vegetarian alternatives (plant and herb based) will provide us with health benefits for our families and the environment without sacrificing effectiveness and quality.

By checking the ingredient list on the product label you will be able to see if the particular plant or lawn fertilizer contains animal by-products. The vegetarian gardener wants to stay away from products containing ingredients such as urea, poultry litter, manure, bone meal, blood meal, feather meal. Vegetarian alternatives include plants, herbs, vegetables and grains as the nutrition source for garden and lawn performance.

The Happy Gardener has offered home gardeners a full line of high quality, organic, vegetarian plant foods, pest control, weed control and lawn care since 2006.We are committed to helping gardeners learn effective, easy and affordable ways to ‘grow your own’ healthy and safe plants.

For more information or to have your questions answered, please call us at 877-798-9280 or visit our main web site www.thehappygardener.info

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