« March 2005 | Main | May 2005 »
April 29, 2005
Seed and plant sources
Here’s an amazing story, published yesterday and drawn to my attention by an email from one of my favorite nurseries. I discovered the Catskill Native Nursery only because it’s down the road from my father-in-law’s cottage and it’s the unpredictability of their emails I enjoy: sometimes it’s a nursery event, but at other times, like this, it’s the local sighting of a rare butterfly, or an eagle, or yesterday’s news story that a bird thought extinct for 60 years, the ivory-billed woodpecker, has been seen and filmed in a remote part of Arkansas: "Long Thought Extinct, Ivory-billed Woodpecker Rediscovered In Big Woods Of Arkansas."
Here are some of my favorite seed companies:
Renee’s Seeds Started by the woman who founded Shepherd’s Seeds in nearby Connecticut, I’ve just started buying here because Renee’s has the best of the old Shepherd’s catalogue—a cook’s sensibility and enthusiasm and beautiful design, too.
Select Seeds This is a briliant source of heirloom flowers, both seeds and plants. I especially like the fact that so many of these flowers reseed themselves each year; a good thing, too, as I seem to have almost everything in the catalogue on my Try This list.
Nichol’s Garden Nursery Organic seeds, plants, and supplies of all kinds. They’ve been organic for 30 years, and have a great selection of mesclun blends and Asian greens.
For gardening information and recommendations, I’ve just come across Dave's Garden and think it’s fantastic, though so far I haven’t had anywhere near enough time to explore its pathways.
Thinking locally, a couple of sources here in the Berkshires:
Eastern Native Seed Conservancy
Project Native Plants
Posted by Karen Christensen at 5:54 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2005
Windowbox gardening
I live in the country but my heart’s in the city, and my one and only children’s book is about a little girl who lives in the city and can’t understand why the flowers she’s given die. I do understand how important every soft turn of green is when you live in the city, and love to hear about my friends’ balcony gardens. I’m no expert, but I also grow plants in pots and thought I’d share a few tips:
--Use the largest containers you can. Small pots dry out at a speed you won’t believe, and either you’ll go mad watering or break your heart over dead plants.
--If you’re in an area with cold winters (yes, like the Berkshires!!), consider putting pots on wheels so they can be brought indoors in the winter. Keep your tender herbs (rosemary, scented geraniums) in pots so you don’t have to buy new plants every year. I’ve tried the plant-‘em-in-the-garden, dig-‘em-up-in-the-fall approach: no good if you’re anything like me, with a few other things going on in your life.
--See this as a way to grow plants that are perennial in warmer climates. They’ll do well outside in the summer, and give you a ready-made indoor garden in the winter. I’m going to indulge my love for plants like bouganvillea and four-o’clock, which grow outside year round in Santa Barbara (where I went to college), but are wildly exotic here.
--Buy nonpeat potting soil—peat is an ecological no-no!—but definitely do buy potting soil for your pots. Plain garden soil does not work well in pots—it’s just too heavy. I know this from sad experience!
--Plant seeds as well as already grown plants—this saves money and is lots of fun. (Let’s face it: growing a plant from a seed is magic, nothing less.) Looking for trailing and dwarf varieties of easy-to-grow flowers like zinnias, marigolds, and nasturtiums. And plain old parsley is both beautiful and useful, a hymn to William Blake. (Soak the seeds overnight and be patient. It’s said they have to go to the devil and back before germinating—and trust me, that’s probably the only gardener’s old wife’s tale you will ever hear from me. Somehow that one stuck in my head.)
Posted by Karen Christensen at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2005
First plantings
Last week the temperature got up to 80 Fahrenheit, but yesterday we were back to normal Berkshire spring weather, with a rumor of snow in Alford, a nearby town. This means the daffodils will glow for at least another week, and it still doesn't stop me from planting. One of the great revelations about gardening is that there are plants for every clime and season. Just go to the nearer place that sells seeds and read the packets. Many say, "Plant as early in spring as soil can be worked." Even when it's cold, you can put in mustard and other greens, radishes, carrots, and peas. Sweet peas--do choose the highly scented heritage varieties--should be in the ground already. They love cool weather.
It's taken me 10 years to feel like I'm getting the hang of New England gardening. I started gardening as a teenager in California, where you can grow all year round, and then learned a whole new range of plants in England. The Berkshires is completely different, too, though I'm doing my best to recreate some of the things I love best about English gardens, as well as using the raised beds and organic techniques I learned in Palo Alto in the '70s. Tomorrow, I'll list some favorite books and seed sources.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:34 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2005
Green words
I’ve been trying to figure out how best to communicate the benefits of environmentalism, and what it is that turns people off about what we greenies say and do. The weekend gave me several opportunities to talk this over. On Friday evening I went to a wine and cheese party at Jack’s Grill in Housatonic, a preview for my pal Crispina’s annual Earth Day Studio Sale.
Crispina is renowned, both locally and nationally, for distinctive clothing and housewares made of recycled materials. Even the product tags are recycled cereal boxes! And everything is beautifully designed, with Crispina’s high energy and sense of color. Predictably, I happened to get to talking with someone who is doing renewable energy projects in various parts of the world, Paul LeBlanc of Delenova Energy. He too felt that we need to focus on solutions, not preaching doom and gloom, and said that his work is all about giving people practical housing options that are truly sustainable.
I also spoke over the weekend to a young designer in California who also wants to see more that’s upbeat, practical, and future-focused. And I really got the message when I took a copy of The Armchair Environmentalist to my hairdresser, and friend, Jeff. He thanked me and then said, “It’s not going to get me depressed, is it?” We’d just been talking about the state of politics in the U.S. and that was depressing enough. I assured him that it wasn’t, so he said he’d read it over his coffee Sunday morning. His nervousness really summed up the problem for me: I (and my colleagues, and you too) need to find a way to show people who care, like Jeff, that they can think about the environment without feeling down. We need to change the way we look at the world and our work, and start to build a wider, more powerful community for change.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 3:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2005
Celebrate Earth Day
Tomorrow is Earth Day 2005, and 35 years since the first Earth Day celebration. The original instigator, now known by the more sedate term founder, was Denis Hayes, who has, I'm happy to say, written this about The Armchair Environmentalist.
"Environmentalism involves the application of ecological values to human life--including each of our individual lives. This opportunity for personal action is uncommon in social movements. There is little for most of us to do on a personal level to end war, combat nuclear proliferation, or prevent torture. But, The Armchair Environmentalist demonstrates how we can enrich our lives, have fun, and save money while dramatically reducing our ecological footprint."
Here are a few of the Earth Day events around the United States where The Armchair Environmentalist is being featured or raffled:
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta Botanical Garden Event
22 April: Earth Day Leadership Breakfast at the Carter Presidential Center
23 April: Earth Day Party in Midtown Atlanta.
Kansas City, Missouri
Bridging The Gap
www.bridgingthegap.org
23 April: Earth Day Walk 2005 and Earthfest located Shawnee Mission Park
Los Angeles, California
WorldFest Events
Produced in conjunction with Earth Day LA: Woodley Park, Van Nuys
Phone: 310-477-7887
info@worldfestevents.com
San Diego, California
15 signed copies for the Earth Day VIP Earth Awards/Auction
San Diego EarthWorks
PO Box 9827
San Diego, CA 92169
San Francisco, California
World Environment Day 2005
www.wed2005.com
San Francisco has been chosen as the city in which people and leaders from around the globe will congregate for World Environment Day 2005.
New York, NY
www.earthdayny.org/resources.html
www.earthdayny.org
Posted by Karen Christensen at 7:55 PM | Comments (1)
April 19, 2005
Small town innovation
I've lived in a small town in western Massachusetts for over a decade, and seen its abandoned downtown buildings restored, a central parking lot built, and new shops move in. It's got crowded streets and lots of restaurants, and even a substantial food coop in a renovated car dealership building. Tourists and newcomers, enjoying the clean air and views of the Berkshire hills, probably wouldn't guess that this small town has been a center of innovation.
Great Barrington was the first town in the world to have an electrified street, thanks to local inventor William Stanley. In 2005, thanks to the Center for Ecological Technology in Pittsfield, Great Barrington will become the first town on the east coast to have public recycling bins in its downtown.
The recycling program will be launched on Earth Day, 22 April, when recycling bins (created at a small cost by town employees) will be placed along Main Street, Railroad Street and in the Triplex parking area. I'll post a photo as soon as they're up, with some Earth Day news.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
Online shopping--good or bad?
Boy, this isn't a question I'll answer today: Is online shopping good or bad for the environment? I was thinking about it because I spent three days last week at a conference in Portland with ebay as my neighbor. I was there to promote an encyclopedia and they were there to recruit, and during slow times we had fun chatting about websites and customers.
ebay and other online exchange systems like Freecycle (which is only free stuff) enable us to transcend the local to find new homes for useful items, and to buy used items instead of brand-new things. In that sense, they are nothing but good. Nonetheless, as I've already discovered, ebay shopping can be quite engrossing, and expensive. I started by looking for a chintz pattern tea cup and have accumulated one or two things more than that (and that's all I'm saying about it; my lips are sealed).
Besides that, the transportation and packing have to be counted in. My packages came practially wrapped in plastic tape, even though there was a sturdy self-sealing box, perhaps because the sellers get obsessed with getting top ratings for service. I guess my next step is to write to my new friends at ebay suggesting they start a green initiative. But given that one seemed to think global warming was a hoax, I need to give a little more thought to how I approach this one!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 3:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 5, 2005
Greener Portland
I'm in Portland, Oregon, a city I've long heard about as a model green community. There's no doubt about that: free tram service downtown is the most obvious sign of this, but the hotel too is greener than usual. It's always bothered me to throw away all the paper that accumulates at conferences, but here I can recycle both paper and my plastic yoghurt tubs, easily in my hotel room. Here's a photo of the recycling bag.
I had to get some printing done and had a funny conversation about recycling with the guy there. He had made up a sign about what to put in the paper bin, copied below, and said, "They just don't get it, why they can't put in chipboard or plastic juice bottles!" Even here, waste separation isn't obvious to everyone.
The sign read:
You hate the environment if you put the following items in the recycle bins:
NCR [no carbon required] paper
Staples
Paper clips
Food
CDs
Window envelopes
Yogurt containers
Plastic
Anything that is sticky
Newspaper
Magazines
Chipboard
Cardboard
Materials that can be recycled!
All clean paper
Non-window envelopes
Post-it notes
Paper packaging (most)
Posted by Karen Christensen at 1:24 PM | Comments (0)