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Organic Vegetable Gardening: Are You Certified?

Apr 27th, 2010 by

What is organic vegetable gardening you are probably asking?

To refer to this delightful occupation and answer the question, here is some helpful information:

Organic Gardening: a process in which plants are grown in an organic environment.  The USDA requirements are that there is no use of irradiation, sewage sludge or genetically modified organisms in the organic production. The food produced using these guidelines would be certified as organic farming or gardening.

The importance of growing organic food:

1. No synthetic or chemical fertilizer or pesticides may be used by the grower.

2. To grow organically, a system must be implemented.  The system will describe the methods of sowing, production and reaping the harvest.

3.  Records must be kept, tracking the products until they are sold.

4. Buffer zones have to be maintained so if contaminants should be spilled from other gardens or farms, vegetables stay uncontaminated.

5. Vegetables must be produced without the use of synthetic fungicides, herbicides, or pesticides.

Farmers that produce organic vegetables are people that understand the importance of crops, the soil, the pest and insects and how they all depend on each other.

Growing organic vegetables helps to care for and nurture the soil of the crops. Limiting the loss of topsoil. And, reaping the benefits of naturally grown flowers, trees and plants.

There are state and private organizations which certify organic farms that have been accredited by the USDA. To become accredited the farms have to submit their organic systems on a yearly basis. Inspectors are sent to the farm and all facilities on the farm are evaluated, this includes the pest control, livestock, feed for the livestock and soil management.

All foods must be produced using “earth-friendly” farming practices, without the use of synthetic fungicides, herbicides or pesticides.

Organically grown products are minimally processed to retain their natural freshness and nutritious value.

The food that is produced is safe for our bodies and the environment.

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Do You Use Organic Garden Fertilizer?

Mar 13th, 2010 by

Do you have spring fever yet?  Here in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, spring seems to be coming at a slower than usual pace this year. Maybe it’s because it has been really cold and rainy for most of the winter. Only a few pretty, warm days.

Mark Etinger must be looking for spring also, see what he writes in this article – “How To Start An Herb Garden Using Organic Garden Fertilizer. ” Just go to http://budurl.com/bruf

Enjoy spring and your organic garden.

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

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Gardening Humor

Dec 29th, 2009 by

I think gardening humor is in line for this post.

The holidays have come an gone for the most part and now we can get down to the catalogs that are arriving almost each day.

My holidays were merry and bright and I love all the good things that happen at this time of year. But, when it’s over, I’m ready to get down to serious business, gardening business that is.

Just to keep perspective in line, here’s a little humor.

http://greensparrowgardens.blogspot.com/2009/10/illustrated-guide-to-gardeners.html

Enjoy, enjoy!

Happy New Year 2010!!

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com (my art blog)

P S Are you a gardener that loves to paint? At my art blog, http://valleofyellowcreekartstudioblog.com you will find a free short report that gives excellent information about being an artist.  Just click on the “book” button on the upper right corner and enter your name and e-mail.  This will send the short report and the Valle of Yellow Creek Art Studio E-Zine, that is published each 1st and 3rd Saturday to you.

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Accomplish Your Organic Gardening Goals – 5 Easy Steps to Gardening with Confidence

Sep 27th, 2009 by

Accomplish your organic gardening goals with these 5 easy steps.

This is a post that is published in E-zine Articles.  I wrote it in the spring but the steps I outlined are revelant for the fall also.

Hope you enjoy this article and e-mail me.  You will have a reply within 24 hours or sooner.

“Thank you, good foods from Mother Earth, our life sustainers, for making us happy when we are hungry”. Chief Jake Swamp

Good food from the earth is organic foods. To keep your garden simple and healthy, you must insure that it has a healthy support system. Good soil and plant fertility go hand in hand.

Here are 5 tips to help accomplish your organic gardening goals.

1) Seeds, plants or shrubs must be planted at a particular time. Fruits and vegetables have a specific number of days from planting to maturity. Make a calendar, begin collection planting times, and include instructions for growing by each month of the year. In America there are many different growing zones. There are also frost zones. If you are familiar with these zones, growing and harvesting will be a snap.

2) A garden journal is of immense help. Take pictures of where each plant that produced well is located in the garden. Make note of planting times, where you received the plants or seeds from or any changes that may need to be made. There are many helpful computer programs available that will keep this type of information organized.

3) Using an organic method to grow and harvest foods definitely make a taste difference. Used directly from the garden, these foods can be served raw or with very little cooking, but always must be throughly washed and cleaned before serving. An added plus is no taste of being harvested and shipped green.

4) Growing a pollinator garden includes furnishing flowers, vegetables or both, that humming birds, bees and other insects will frequent. Up to 90% of plants, even the self-pollinated, benefit from cross-pollination and many different insects. The wind also plays a vital role in plant pollination. Honey bees, wild bees and bumble bees are beneficial. Be sure to leave a wild area in a corner for bees needs. Some are ground living, some will nest almost anywhere. Bees are drawn to many different blossoms and herbs. When bees and birds are present, the garden will produce more seed and fruit because the pollen is more live.

5) If there is no time or space, to make an organic garden then seek out an organic farmer. Maybe he comes to the local farmer’s market bringing fresh food daily or twice a week. Many times farmers feature pick your own areas when harvest is plentiful.

Ask friends and neighbors, or your neighborhood health food store for suggestions to find organic produce.

Becoming more aware of our environment, and being good stewards of our world will bring life sustaining happiness when we are hungry. To learn more of Organic Gardening, go to http://organicgardeningforabetterlife.com

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Water and Disease

Sep 17th, 2009 by

I found this on the Twitter page of Tonnia N Smith.

Now that I’m older, I realize how important water quality is.  Enjoy the site.

http://www.improveyourhealthwithwater.com/theproblem.html

You can follow Tonnia on Twitter at Twitter.com/tonniansmith.

Ellene

twitter.com/ellenebdavis

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Alternative Medicine

Sep 16th, 2009 by

If you take alternative medicines, be sure to tell your medical doctor.

Here are some reasons why…

http://centralfloridagreenguide.com/2009/09/15/what-you-dont-tell-your-doctor-could-hurt-you/

To your health today and always!

Ellene

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My first E-Zine Article

Sep 14th, 2009 by

Today I’m at Loblolly Cove, our much loved place in South Georgia.  As I watch the dawn over the pond, I’m reminded of writing my first article:

As a landscape artist, I find inspiration everywhere, especially in the spring when nature is waking up from her long winter sleep. A lone kingfisher, a raucous flock of Canadian geese, and a pair of mallards in flight all inspire me with their wordless wisdom about movement, color, life and form. Dappled paths, sparkling water, the long shadows of mountains at dusk, and the first rays of sunlight in the trees at dawn often make me rush to pick up my paintbrush.

I sit in the pine grove overlooking our pond, watching an osprey wheeling in three slow circles. At last he settles down in his favorite tree at the shallow end of the pond to start the work of spotting and catching his breakfast.

Just like the osprey, I realize I too must slowly circle the artistic vision I wish to create until I find the center of interest, then settle down to the work of making value sketches and thumbnails before I put paint to canvas.

What color will I use to depict the bright spring sky? Cerulean (literally, “sky”) blue, which leans toward green, or a rich cobalt for a soft sky that is cool at the top and warmer near the horizon?

How will I make the water in my painting shimmer? How can I best convey the reflections of pine trees glistening in the golden sunlight, the way the pond mirrors the landscape at sunset, the cool mist of the sunrise?

I return again to watching the osprey, who is now enjoying a fresh-caught fish, and my heart fills with gratitude for the way nature creates the beautiful landscapes that inspire my paintings.

For visual evidence of how I use nature to inspire my art click on http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ellene_Breedlove_Davis

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Fruits and Vegetables: How Important are They?

Sep 3rd, 2009 by


5 Reasons Why Fruit and Vegetables Are So Important For Our Health

By Janet L. Matthews

Eat 5 a day!! or even eat 10 a day. Both of these slogans are used regularly to encourage people to eat a healthy diet, so that they may live long and healthy lives.

Encouraging people to eat more fruit and vegetables is seen a top priority by those who are promoting a healthier diet. Many serious illnesses are caused by nutritional deficiency due to a diet made up of poor quality food and far to many people are eating processed foods and fast foods that have little or no nutritional value.

Research indicates that nine or ten servings of fruits and vegetables a day is optimal, whereas dietary guidelines tend to recommend a minimum of five servings a day. However it would appear that most populations are consistently not reaching even half this goal. Attempts to increase the intake of fruit and vegetables is proving to be a major public health challenge.

So why are vegetables so beneficial to our health?

The fibre content in fruit and vegetables, ultimately aids the digestive process.

Vitamins – Vitamin C and  the B complex vitamins are found in all fruit and vegetables whereas vitamin A is found in read yellow and orange fruit and vegetables such as carrots and tomatoes.

Minerals – The minerals copper, iron, zinc, iodine, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and potassium are found in certain fruit and vegetables

Phytonutrients- More recently research has been focusing on a different set of nutrients called phytonutrients. These bioactive substances are found in all plants – not just fruit and vegetables but also in flowers, herbs spices, seeds, nuts, oils, cereals, pulses, chocolate as well as beverages such as tea and coffee. Many but not all of these nutrients are highly coloured. There are 20 top phytonutrients each with their own special name and properties

It is well documented that people who eat a diet rich in plant foods have a reduced incidence of heart disease and cancer

Janet Matthews is an experienced teacher and health professional who believes in promoting good health through personal responsibility. This responsibility primarily entails being informed. Her articles aim to inform the general public and to lead them to a healthy fulfilling life.

Please click on the links below for more information on health and weight loss

http://healthy-choices.net

http://weightloss-leads.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Janet_L._Matthews

Encouraging you to Live Better

Ellene

http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

P S Ellene is an avid gardener and an artist.  She loves to grow flowers, then paint pictures of them.

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Farmer’s Markets

Jul 10th, 2009 by

Straight Talk for Gardeners , Veggies, Flowers and Cooking

In my area the Farmer’s Markets are flourishing.  New ones are added each month or so, it seems.

Do you know what to expect when you visit a Farmer’s Market?

Farmers bring their food (often gathered that morning) into market at a designated place and time. This may be in a parking lot, on the downtown square or a covered area built especially for this market. Each farmer has his stall to work from.  Some farmers may grow the traditional kinds of fruits and vegetables, others may be organic, or more of the exotic kind of food. There are also fresh cut flowers and flowering plants.

The farmer is there to speak with you about their food and how they grow it. You can actually stand across from the person that used their knowledge, labor and often their ingenuity to bring the fresh food to market.

At the Farmer’s Market you will see people that are from all walks of life.  It seems that fresh food knows no boundaries.

Food is not the only type products sold at the Farmer’s Market.  There are all kinds of crafts, honey, plants etc. included in this group.   To me, I always like to meet the bee keeper.  A few weeks ago, I listened as Bob Grant from Clayton, GA told customers how much he enjoyed being a bee keeper and of the different types of honey that his bees make.

Recently at an art club meeting, someone suggested we meet at the Farmer’s Market with our paintings.  It seems that paintings of fruits and veggies would be appropriate to display and sell there. There is easy access to the stall and the event is frequent, seemed like a good idea to me.

This is an outing for the whole family.  Ofter there is cooking classes and you can learn recipes for cooking good food.  Children are especially intrigued by the idea of food not bought at the grocery store, not already prepared ( as in instant food). Now is the time to learn to use herbs as seasoning in our food and many of their other uses.

Happy trip to the Farmer’s Market,

Ellene

http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

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Organic Garden: Featuring Mocking Bird and Crow Battles

Jul 2nd, 2009 by

Early this spring we noticed a mockingbird had taken the swing sets top bar in our yard as it’s territory. Other birds were free to come and go to feeders and water below but were not allowed to sit on the top bar.  As we watched we were amazed at how one bird could always be there.  When did it eat, build nest, raise it’s young? While watching one day the mystery was solved.   They were taking sentinel turns.

As spring passed and summer is here, these birds have a new adversary, the American Crow.  the swing set bar territory has been expanded to the whole yard, from their roof top look out point, they attack crows that come to eat corn kernals we throw out on the grass and discarded seeds from feeders.

Mounting an attack begins with two mockingbirds usually (but when a Hawk caught one of them, the other carried on the vigil) they swoop down and almost brush the Crow with their wings, tiring of this the crow will finally fly as chase begins, up into trees, across the pasture, and finally into the wild blue yonder, for a short time. This has continued many times a day all spring and summer.

Being intrigued by this behavior I did some research, wanting to learn more about benefits of having these birds in our yard and why the mockingbird was so aggressive.  Following is a small part of information that is available.

The American Crow is a scavenger and predators of song bird nests – robbing nests of eggs and young birds for food. Very intelligent and innovative, one example that I read told the story of a crow dropping hard objects of food on the highway for a car to run over and crack, then  coming back to retrieve good food inside.

Northern Mockingbirds forage on the ground and vegetation.  Their main diet consists of insects, berries and seeds. As I learned first hand they are very territorial.They seem to be fearless and  sing loudest in early morning and late evening using their large repertoire of songs.

Both species mate for life, call for help of others when there is an emergency. Each species posts sentinels as others build nest, etc.

These birds play an important role in our organic garden eating insects, providing song, movement and first hand information regarding their behavior.

Garden with a purpose!

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

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