AMERICA'S NEWEST VICTORY GARDENS
are ushering in a new era of self-reliance
and sustainability!
Growing one’s own food is becoming more important today with worldwide food safety and food security issues, as well as making good economic and environmental sense.
Growing your own fruit and vegetables and buying locally grown organic food can provide fresh, nutritious food for you and your family, while supporting the local ecosystem. Most locally grown and seasonally available food is more nutritious, tastes better and is more environmentally friendly, since shipping food over long distances requires fuel for transportation.
* * Do you know where your food comes from? * *
* Do you know how your food is grown?
What can you do?
Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?
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Summer gardening is here! |
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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."
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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: June 8, 2009
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You can still plant starters for summer veggies and seeds for repeat veggies and fast germinators, such as beans & pumpkin. It is not too late to plant starters for tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, and zucchini. Garden catalogs are showing many new and old heritage plant varieties. It is fun to grow a new veggie every year. These catalogs do a pretty good job describing many exciting choices. The hardest part is making a decision about what plants to start, as there are so many wonderful choices.
This is a good time to start herbs in your garden. Many starters for herbs can now be planted, such as basil, thyme, oregano, tarragon, marjoram, parsley and rosemary. They are great companions for growing vegetables, as well as perennials in your gardens. See our Sustainable gardening with intercropping and companion planting page.
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 around raised beds creates a barrier that they don't like to cross. Many gardeners go out after dark with a flashlight and stomp on them. Some people spray a mixture of 50/50 household ammonia to water directly on the slug or snail.
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 - more articles 
Urban farm tells how to grow vegetables-and cook them
Compost powers USDA's organic People's Garden
Edible Garden Planned for Capitol Park - Sac. CA
Obamas to plant vegetable garden at White House
Rain: Saving it for a sunny day includes easy ...
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 ...
Photos from 'Compost powers USDA's organic People's Garden'
*** Obamas to plant vegetable garden at White House
* Watch the groundbreaking for the White House garden-video
An Evening with Michael Pollan - June 10 - 7:30pm
Effie Yeaw Nature Center Calendar of Events - June
UC Davis Arboretum Calendar of Events - June
Sacramento Garden Notes - June sales - 13 & 14, at 18th & J St
Elderberry Farms Nursery - call for volunteers, work days
I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.” ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
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