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Sometimes, to make change, you have to infiltrate the enemy’s domain, or at least that’s what the Greeks thought during the Trojan War. One homeowner used a similar technique to bring change to their neighborhood by joining the board of their homeowners association. The gardener posted on Reddit about how they became president of their HOA to convince people that natural gardens aren’t so bad after all. In their post are photos of their lawn filled to the brim with flowers, vegetables, trees, and clovers. The poster said: “I’ve convinced people that this kind of lawn is better than theirs!...

English Country Garden(Public Doman folksong adapted by Jimmie Rodgers)How many kinds of sweet flowers grow In an English country garden? I'll tell you now of some that I know And those I miss you'll surely pardon

Soil can be considered black gold, and we’re running out it. The United Nations declared soil finite and predicted catastrophic loss within 60 years. “There are places that have already lost all of their topsoil,” Jo Handelsman, author of “A World Without Soil,” and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told CNBC. The impact of soil degradation could total $23 trillion in losses of food, ecosystem services and income worldwide by 2050, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. “We have identified 10 soil threats in our global report … Soil erosion is number one because it’s...

Spring in the northern hemisphere is two weeks away, and interest in planting gardens could rise as the breadbasket of Europe was choked off by the Russian invasions of Ukraine, jeopardizing global food exports resulting in skyrocketing prices. Even before the turmoil in Ukraine, American households were under pressure due to soaring food and gas prices. The invasion just made things a lot worse as commodity prices jumped the most last week since the stagflationary period of the mid-1970s. New UN global food price, released on Friday, showed global food prices in February surpassed a previous record set in 2011....

Straw hat in hand, Tyrean “Heru” Lewis jumped out of his pickup truck along busy Shackelford Road in North St. Louis County and walked into the treeline, where he had something special to show. On the other side, uniform rows of vegetables — lettuce, radishes and bok choy — sprouted on half an acre. The land is not on a remote country farm, but just 17 miles from the Delmar Loop in the heart of the metro. As Lewis, founder of Heru Urban Farming, checks the crop he gets excited about its progress, raising his voice over the sound of...

People still struggle to find food at grocery stores during this pandemic, but Jameson Altott is not as worried. He grows more than half the food for his family from his large garden at home, outside Pittsburgh. "We are lucky to have preserved a lot of food and we still have canned fruits and vegetables and jams and berries in the freezer and meat in the freezer," Altott says. There has been a surge of people interested in growing their own food. Oregon State University's Master Gardener program noticed this, and made their online vegetable gardening course free through the...

Alexandria says growing cauliflower in community gardens is ‘colonial’ Here she is, talking total hogwash => https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=87&v=PUJ6o4tqwyM Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said yesterday that growing cauliflower in community gardens is part of the “colonial” attitudes that her Green New Deal will stamp out. The New York Democrat, who introduced the proposal to tackle climate change by radically transforming the economy, posted a series of Instagram videos filmed in her home state talking about community gardens as a “core component” of her proposal. “What I love too is growing plants that are culturally familiar to the community. It’s so important,” she said as...

This weekend, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association is holding its popular Piedmont Farm Tour, which opens forty-five Triangle-area farms to the public. General interest in traditional farming is well-established here; this is the twenty-third year of the tour. But meanwhile, there's a rising fascination, in the region and around the nation, with another kind of farming: urban agriculture. There seems to be momentum behind the conviction that the collective cultivation of underutilized public spaces such as empty lots and rooftops just might save the world. Growing food in a city is hands-on and hyper-local, it requires few chemicals and gives...

Presenting YAUGU (yet another urban grow unit). We've highlighted many variations of indoor gardening systems over the years, some of them simple and low tech and some of them with decidedly 'smart' features, and all of them with the same goal: to help people grow some of their own food inside their homes. You don't necessarily need one of these purpose-built growing units to start an indoor garden, as DIY versions can be much cheaper to build (although perhaps lacking some of the automated features), but for those who aren't into making their own indoor planters, there are certainly many...

Donald Wolfe said he would walk there from his apartment on West 50th Street in Manhattan — 38 steps to the elevator, 54 steps through the lobby, 75 steps down the block to the corner and 37 steps across Eighth Avenue. First he put the jug with the water on his wheelchair. His oxygen tank was already in place, on the back. Off he went, pushing the wheelchair, a transport device for the garden supplies if not, at the moment, the gardener. He was not shuffling. Not shambling. But not speedwalking, either. “We’re so dry right now,” said Mr. Wolfe,...

A tease thread for those who can't wait for spring Color my world Morning Mist in a Daylily Garden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9te4c-8zBc Cooley's Iris Garden youtube.com/watch?v=gPxk5R2FJ_8 Edge Hill Gardens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUbv1nyUz_c PORTLAND, OR- JAPANESE GARDEN https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z2FXIqil1RU Luscher Farm's Clematis Collection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJuopjCP_Y0 IRIS, NOT JUST A NAME https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Yv-trVK1GeQ http://youtube.com/watch?v=w-tC8awgb_Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s-iYR38FaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp2ah5_Pquc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTwzI-ISZMU Morning Mist in a Daylily Garden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9te4c-8zBc

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Water use and other actions by the marijuana industry in the Emerald Triangle of Northern California and Southern Oregon are threatening salmon already in danger of extinction, federal biologists said Tuesday. Concerns about the impact of pot farming were raised by the NOAA Fisheries Service in its final recovery plan for coho salmon in the region. The full plan was to be posted on the agency's website. A copy obtained in advance calls for determining then decreasing the amount of water that pot growers illegally withdraw from creeks where young fish struggle to survive. Pot...

ost people think that Springtime is the time to start growing that vegetable or herb garden. But there are many types of plants that should mainly be grown during the cooler months. Fall is a great time to try your hand at growing leafy greens, and that makes this a great way to save some money on produce. If you end up with a good harvest, you'll have a bountiful source of vegetables while other people are paying higher prices for greens at the grocery store. Here are 6 cooler weather plants you may want to try your hand at...

First Lady Michelle Obama has expanded her anti-obesity campaign to museums, enlisting them to offer “healthy food options,” and change their menus. Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative is now calling for museums, zoos, gardens, science and technology centers to “join the call to action,” to decrease obesity among children. The first lady is recruiting these institutions to join the “Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens” project because of their power to “influence real and sustained behavior change” on the eating habits of kids. “With their impressive reach and great potential for impact, museums and gardens can launch community efforts to create...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and...

Well, here’s the totalitarian state, right before my eyes! Today in the mail came a largish envelop for me from The “National Agricultural Statistics Service”, postage and fees paid by USDA Permit No. G-38. A prominant blocked off area on the envelop front stated in large bold letters, “YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW.” Also on the envelop and several places inside I find Obama-style logos for the USDA, and one with “AGRICULTURE COUNTS” around the outside, and at the base of the rolling landscape “NASS,” which stands for National Agricultural Statistics Service. That’s right: now we have a National...

Al Ain Paradise, as it is known, has found its way in the Guinness Book of World Records — which has recognised it as the world's largest garden. Many visitors said it was a unique experience to see millions of flowers in different colours, types, and settings.

We tend to think of garden design as a relatively new vocation. The truth told by archaeological findings not only lays such thoughts to rest, it tells a tale of a rich and ancient heritage of garden design. One such finding shows a garden of Ninevah, in present-day Iraq, that dates back to 650 BC. There are date palms, trees and shrubs of many types. True, an enemy's severed head is seen hanging from one of the trees, but times were different, or are they? They did like their gardens, however. Our vision of ancient Egyptian temples is one of...

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the “lame duck” Congress, another law was passed that didn’t quite get the same media coverage as the Bush tax extension “package,” the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the new START treaty. The Food Safety Modernization Act was not steeped in the same level of popular controversy as these other pieces of legislation. Nevertheless, its passage may affect our daily lives even more than these, and in a rather stealth manner. Yes, the week before Christmas, the 111th Congress of the United States gave Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services...

We thought we would share my wife’s pictures of the first true summer day of the year in England when we decided to drive from Sussex into Kent to visit Scotney Castle, now owned by The National Trust.