Compost Confidential

My Very Cool Weekend Taping Pilot for PBS Series

Last Friday and Saturday, I assembled a very impressive pool of talent from Boston, Atlanta and Philadelphia to converge on Greensgrow Farm, nationally recognized as the leader in urban sustainable farming. Its location is just three miles north of downtown Philly, barely noticeable amongst tightly packed row houses that surround it.

Until recently, I didn’t know about Greensgrow Farm, but I did know about its co-founder and chief farmhand, Mary Seton Corboy. We had worked together when she guest-hosted with me on a GardenSmart episode a couple years ago. I was impressed with her then, but now I know why I felt such a deep admiration for this woman.

Just over 10 years ago, Mary was in search of a place to cultivate locally grown lettuce to supply area chefs and restaurants. With such a high demand and limited supply, the idea was a sure winner…if she could just find something close and affordable. The site she found was hardly the type of location you’d expect for growing organic fruits and vegetables. You see, the one-acre plot of land was a former galvanized steel plant, now abadonded as an industrial brownfield. What would stop most people dead in their tracks didn’t faze Mary. She saw the potential, rolled up her sleeves and went to work.

Since this plot of land Mary chose to call home was unfit to plant her lettuce directly into the ground, she developed a system for growing her lettuce hydroponically, above ground and without soil. Her makeshift troughs were rain gutters. In short order she perfected her system and soon her customers were clamoring for other varieties of Mary’s delicious produce. Since not every crop is best suited for hydroponic growing, she had to find a way to utilize this finite space in a more traditional way. So she trucked in many tons of organic soil and loaded it into very deep raised beds. Soon she was not only supplying her clients with a wide variety of fruits and veggies, her bumper crops allowed her to open her business to her neighbors and community. Area residents quickly ventured into Mary’s tiny farm. On Saturdays, they would snatch up the fresh in-season produce and fruit; for many a novelty as such a treat is uncommon and unavailable in urban neighborhoods such as these.

It didn’t stop there. Rural farms and orchards just outside of town began supplying many of the edibles Mary was unable or simply didn’t have the room to grow. And from that, her “City” Supported Agricultural co-op was born. Similar to a traditional “Community” CSA, Mary likes using her version to emphasize the symbiotic link between urban dwellers with the local growers in neighboring rural communities.

And while all of this is going on, Greensgrow successfully manages to make their bio-diesel that fuels the big yellow delivery truck. The raw material is spent cooking oil from area eateries; a resource that is in no short supply! Adjacent to the fuel making operation lies a dozen or more honeybee boxes, filled with combs and oozing with honey. The bees are an important component to the success of Greensgrow’s bounty. In such an intown setting, attracting sufficient quantities of pollinators can be a daunting task. But with these happy hives, there is a plethora of pollinators and an abundance of honey. So much so in fact it too is sold at the weekly farm stand under the label Honey from the Hood.

 As excited as I was to see all that was being accomplished with limited funds, space and human resources, there was still more. Between the beehives and bio-diesel, a lush and lovely living roof covered the large storage shed. Its purpose, in addition to being beautiful to look at, was to capture and retain rainwater, reducing runoff, sequester carbon and return oxygen, reduce the heat island effect and promote biodiversity. Not a bad use of space and something we could all do at our homes and businesses.

Finally, there was the community kitchen. Located at a church just down the street, Mary has arranged for Chef Corbin Evans to teach local residents everything they need to know to cook and prepare delicious meals and extend the menu with fresh in-season produce. It’s the culmination of the complete cycle and a wonderful example of sustainability in action.

You can likely understand my infatuation with this urban agricultural wonderland and why I was so excited to be there for the location of my first episode and pilot of my new series. I’ve always wanted a forum to tell stories of people, places, and companies that are doing their part to grow a greener world. I’d say Mary and her small but talented staff are prime examples of that! It just goes to show you, abandoned land only is only unproductive if you choose to leave it that way!
JL

Good People Doing Good Things with Locally Grown, Organic Vegetables

 
Last week I was in Baltimore to install another Community Garden for Fiskars, under their Project Orange Thumb initiative. Believing that community gardens can provide the catalyst and inspiration for great change, it’s common for the company to select sites for these major gardens in neighborhoods where poverty rates are high and urban blight is all too apparent. The neighborhood chosen for this particular installation was just such a place. Known as the Oliver community, it is located in the east-central part of the city.

Now, several organizations are attempting to revitalize the area. Installing a major community garden in such a place will hopefully be a serious shot in the arm. But this post in not about that community garden project. It’s about another grass-roots effort taking place on that same block, as well as in other neighborhoods across the city.  I wouldn’t have known anything about it, except for the four or five fresh vegetable-laden tables and handmade signs lined up on a nearby street corner that quickly caught my eye and drew me in.

It was a bit of a strange site. So many fresh vegetables, obviously picked only hours earlier, stacked tall and wide, just waiting for people to buy them at bargain basement prices. But where were all the people? Recreate this scene in a heavily trafficked part of any city, or place them for sale at a farmers market on Saturday morning, and they wouldn’t last the hour. But that was the beauty of this program as I soon learned.

As it turns out, he project is a joint partnership between Knox Presbyterian Church and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) (specifically, the Baltimore Food and Faith Project. I introduced myself and met several of the volunteers, including Angela Smith, Project Coordinator for CLF. She fills in the rest of the details for this amazing program.

“CFL recently undertook a food assessment of Baltimore and found there were certain areas where people didn't have much access to healthy, fresh foods. Often, these neighborhoods were located where poverty rates were high and which had suffered from urban blight for decades. Because the poor are at greater risk for developing diet-related diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, etc., and are the very people who have the most trouble finding and affording good food, we were particularly interested in finding a way to bring healthy food to them.

Knox Presbyterian is located in East Baltimore, an area that suffers from poverty and blight.  The majority of its food outlets are corner stores, which typically don't sell fresh produce. Knox has hosted a weekly soup kitchen, serving around 120 people each week for years now, and the church was interested in further reaching out to the community. They saw the opportunity to bring fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to neighbors as a natural extension of the work they were already doing.

Joan and Drew Norman operate Maryland's largest organic farm, One Straw Farm , and they operate a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In a CSA, an individual pays to become a shareholder at the beginning of the season and receives several items of fresh produce each week until the end of the season. It's great for the farmer because it diminishes their financial risk; and it's great for the consumer because they develop a relationship with their farmer and know exactly where and how their food was grown. (Many people do this because they want to support locally-grown and sustainably-produced foods as well).

Since many people can't afford the large upfront cost of becoming a shareholder (sometimes hundreds of dollars), especially in East Baltimore, we purchased 10 CSA shares with money donated from a private foundation. For every 10 shares a congregation purchases, One Straw Farm throws one in for free, so, Knox receives the equivalent of 11 shares (plus a few donated by CLF), and we price the food as individual items based on what individuals would pay in a nearby grocery store for non-organic produce. All proceeds are put into a fund that will be used to purchase shares in upcoming years, the hope being that within three to four years, it will be economically self-sufficient and no longer need grant money to help maintain.

Unpurchased produce is either donated to Knox's soup kitchen or to local residents in need. Since many individuals are not used to eating seasonally, or cooking certain types of fruits and veggies, we give samples and recipes to take home and try out.

We've been doing the co-op every Tuesday since the beginning of July and it's really starting to pick up now. Members of the congregation, their kids and grandkids, and folks from CLF come every week to help man the table” (Angela Smith).

I applaud you and every person and organization mentioned here for your genuine desire to make fresh, healthy produce available to all in such a creative and sustainable way. Good things really to come out of a garden, especially when you add the efforts of so many good people!
JL

Behind the Scenes at GMA - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

Recently I had the great opportunity to talk about starting a vegetable garden for another GMA related segment in New York. And specifically, they gave me plenty of opportunity to talk about doing it for under twenty-five dollars. They even devoted six whole minutes to tell the story. Believe me, that's a lot of time for a national television segment so I was thrilled about that.

So now that I have my handy little video camera, I thought it would be fun to take you along for a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on to get ready for one of these segments. In hindsight, I should have started documenting all the prep work well before leaving for New York. Many of the items on the table that you see in the pictures and video were carefully packed in my suitcase and taken right onto the set. I wanted to be sure we had everything I needed to talk about. The cake topper and pizza box, even the seed starting mix traveled with me from North Carolina. And just to be safe, I even had a pizza in NYC the night before the segment so I could be sure to have the right box on set.

If you want to see the entire segment as it appeared on ABC,  click here.

I've already documented the outside garden reveal and I'll edit that piece next. Expect to see that video as the next post in a few more days. I hope you're enjoying these entries and if you have any questions or comments, please let me know by posting your comment below.

More Help from our Friends at GMA-Health - Promoting The Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

 
It's been a very hectic travel schedule lately and some of that includes coveage of my Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden Challenge. This included another trip to NYC for my next chance to tout the virtues of starting and growing a vegetable garden on the cheap. Much to my happy surprise, this segment was given a whopping six minutes on national television! That's amazing since four minutes is just about the maximum any segment gets, no matter what the topic. The picture above was moments before doing the live segment, from my perspective as we faced the cameras. The interesting thing about this segment was that we did it outside of the studio, right on the corner of Time Square.

So here's my huge THANK YOU to ABC for the wonderful opportunity you're giving your audience to learn more about growing their own food, and especially for giving me the chance to share my story on how to do it on a very limited budget. If any of you reading this have a moment to drop ABC a note to let them know you too appreciate what they've done to promote growing your own food, I'd very much appreciate that and it lets them know we want more stories like that. Here's the link to send an email, and thanks!

This week I'm catching up on the family time and  it's been back to preparing the actual garden where I will grow all these plants. The seedlings are coming along nicely but they need a place to grow outside and I still have a lot of work to do there before the garden is ready. Yesterday, I had some people I met on freecycle.com come remove the gravel mulch (from previous owner) that has covered the area I need for my garden. I also had a taker for the plants that I'm removing from there also. The problem is, they had such deep roots, I was unable to remove them. Now it's on to plan "B" for extraction. The only problem is, I don't have a plan "B" yet. In the mean time, you can see video of the outside garden area and my unsuccessful attempts to remove these plants in my next post.

A Little Help from Good Morning America – My Quest of the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

What a great day for a little positive gardening PR. Thanks to so many of you writing, blogging, tweeting and basically shouting about all the important benefits of gardening, the world is starting to finally hear us. Sure, it doesn’t hurt to have Michelle Obama breaking ground for the new Victory Garden on the White House lawn. But I’d say it’s about dang time somebody at some level high enough, does something to actually make gardening a newsworthy event.

So for whatever reason, on Tuesday, Good Morning America wanted a segment on growing your own vegetable garden. Two days later, a six-minute segment about how to start and grow your own groceries on the cheap, is in the can. I’m writing this post from the airport, still trying to recover from the blinding pace at which this happened. On Tuesday, having just returned from a working weekend in San Francisco, I thought I was home for a few days, and thankful to catch up on some much needed office and family time. But this was not to be. Next thing I know, I’m packing my bags and props for my $25 Victory Garden segment. GMA loved the idea of the “gardening on a tight budget” idea, and were more than willing to make this a feature of the segment.

Two days later, I’m heading home from the Big Apple and feeling really good about the genuine interest the GMA producers and hosts had in creating this food garden segment. In addition, while at the studio, I was approached by numerous behind-the-scenes folks, politely barraging me with gardening questions. I was thrilled. What’s happened? I’ve done gardening segments before, but never have so many people approached me with such a genuine interest in wanting to know more!

I am greatly encouraged to feel like we are finally getting through. So, keep up the great work everybody. Gardening is important, especially now. We have a story to tell and finally an audience that will listen.
JL

Tomorrow, I’ll share pictures and stories of my bounty of free seeds and supplies sent to me from friends I’ve never met, all around the country. By the way, the official expense to date is hold at seven dollars. That was for two bags of seed starting mix.

Good Morning America Today – My Quest for a Twenty-five Dollar Organic Victory Garden

Well, it’s only been two weeks today, since making the announcement to start my twenty-five dollar victory garden. A lot has happened since then. As I write this quick post, I’m preparing to do a live segment about home vegetable gardening in a few hours on the set of Good Morning America. The Obama’s have broken ground on their plans to move forward on a White House Victory Garden and my little garden is coming along nicely too.

So far, my total cash outlay is seven dollars. That was for the necessary but all-important purchase of two bags of organic seed starting mix. And I’m really liking my containers to hold this mix; pizza boxes! No store-bought expensive trays for me.  Even better are the free mini-greenhouses that once topped birthday cakes from my daughter’s party recently.

What I’ve planted to date is germinating nicely but the fun really begins when I get home. I’ve received a number of seeds from friends all over the country who are sharing in the excitement of this project. I’m even getting some hand-painted signs to mark my veggies, once I plant them in the ground. Those are coming from my new friend from Texas that I met on Twitter.

So, I must run now to prepare for my GMA segment but all is well with our twenty-five dollar victory garden. Thanks for all the encouragement so far. It really does help to know I have a lot of people supporting this.

Project Orange Thumb Shines Brightly in This Florida Extreme Garden Makeover

 What do you get when you combine passionate company employees, with a neighborhood intensely interested in revitalizing their community, but with little money to do anything about it?  Well in this case, an extreme garden makeover, compliments of the Fiskars Company, Project Orange Thumb. Today was the third installation of a major garden this year by Team Orange, along with the help of Home Depot, Leu Gardens and neighbors from this Orlando Florida church and surrounding community. And once again, I had the privilege and opportunity to be a part of this project, from plan all the way through to completion.

The site for this project was the corner lot of the Miracle Tabernacle Full Gospel Church. For years, it has served as the anchor and safe haven in an area of town otherwise known for its share of challenges. However, in recent years, the need has become even greater for another type of miracle like this to revitalize the community as well as this rather barren and neglected site. And according to the many dignitaries in attendance at today’s garden dedication, that’s exactly what they got. Amidst tornado warnings, gusting winds and torrential rains, over 50 people worked unceasingly to see this garden transformation through to completion with time to spare before the 3:00 pm dedication.

What culminates with the beehive of activity on installation day is really the manifestation of a well-orchestrated and intensely coordinated event that begins months in advance. But for a garden makeover of this magnitude to be completed in just a matter of hours requires not only careful planning but also the herculean efforts of all the volunteers on the actual workday. Yet no matter how thorough the planning or great the pep talk, you still can’t control the weather. But it didn’t matter. There was no stopping the determined volunteers set on seeing this garden completed on schedule, no matter what Mother Nature had in store. Ironically, although much of the day was spent under a steady downpour, by mid afternoon, the skies cleared and the sun shined brightly on this garden and all who had come to celebrate it’s completion. What a fitting bit of symbolism for the fresh start and bright future that’s sure to come as the result of Project Orange Thumb’s impression left here today.

JL

for more great photos click here

Sustainability and Gardening; Talk is Cheap but Change is Coming

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to address the nursery industry and home gardeners on the subject of sustainability. Although a thousand miles or more separated these two events, and the story told a bit differently, the message was the same; we are consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate. And without the combined efforts of gardeners and the industry that supplies our habit (along with help from the rest of the world) we won’t be leaving behind these resources for future generations.

I don’t mean to sound as though we’re the ones responsible for this problem. But it is ironic, that as a group, we are the ones doing so much to beautify this planet, and we do so with such good intentions. Unfortunately, for many of us, that process includes the use of excessive chemicals, equipment that pollutes the air, consumptive practices that deplete water resources and excessive waste burdening our landfills.

The underlying message from my research on sustainability and gardening is that as a group, we really want to be more eco-friendly. Environmental stewardship, we say, is either very important or somewhat important according to studies conducted by the National Gardening Association. Other surveys support these claims. The truth is, we have a long way to go. Although we say it’s important, only a small percentage of those claiming its importance even know what to do to make a difference. I find that discouraging yet I see tremendous opportunity.

Some of the reasons we’re not there yet? Gardening consumers still question the effectiveness of more eco-friendly products. Others think they’re too expensive. Some are confused by all the claims (a.k.a. greenwashing) while others either don’t have enough information or they can’t find the products on the store shelves. The good news is, all of these claims can be resolved…in time. How quickly depends on many things. But one thing I know, it will take the collective efforts of people in the industry as well as home gardeners and weekend warriors to walk their talk and get the message out to others.

Events like the Sustainability conference in Frisco, TX and the Green Festival in Washington, D.C are encouraging. The DC conference was exciting and the buzz from the vendors and attendees was contagious. The festival is growing in size every year and the momentum is growing. Gardeners want to do the right thing and events like these are a reassuring reminder of that.

Joe Lamp’l
joegardener.com; growing a greener world

From Dallas to D.C, A Busy Weekend of Talking “Sustainability”

In a few minutes I leave for Dallas to address the nursery industry on Sustainability, specifically is this a consumer trend consumers that has staying power? Next, it’s a dash up to Washington, D.C for a presentation to home gardeners at The Green Festival. So, for the next 48 hours, I’ll be doing a lot of talk’n on eco-friendly gardening to industry insiders, home gardeners and weekend warriors.

Regarding my thoughts on the staying power on sustainability? Lucky for you I have a plane to catch. But don’t get me started! Absolutely, it’s here to stay and frankly, it has a long way to go before people put their money where their mouth is. There is a lot of talk about wanting to be more environmentally responsible but the stats don’t yet support this widespread acceptance. We (you and me and other gardeners, educators, retailers, etc) who really are doing something about it now, have a lot of work to do to debunk much confusion and a lack of consistent information out there for others to make an informed decision on a change to a greener way of gardening.

So, expect a much more embellished post when I return on Monday and I’ll add to this thought and share with you some of my take-aways from the weekend. In the mean time, feel free to chime in and let me know your thoughts too. Thanks.
JL