Introducing May's Challenge: Greener Gardening!

Do you have a garden or grow plants?  Do you use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides in your garden?  Do you buy lots of plants every season that are sold in plastic pots?  Do you grow food?

These are the kinds of questions we’ll be looking at this month here at BlogHers ACT Canada.  I have to admit, I’m kind of pumped!  This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. There are entire weblogs that focus on these topics entirely, and there are some I visit quite frequently, and will recommend to you.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Each week during the month of May we’ll be presenting a different challenge to encourage you, our dear readers, to practice greener gardening.  If you’re growing plants at all, you’re ahead of the game!

 

• Week One, May 5:  Gather information about greener gardening.
• Week Two, May 12:  Compost!  I'll show you how to turn your kitchen scraps and garden waste into compost, which will immeasurably help improve the quality of your soil.
• Week Three, May 19:  Consumer awareness.  In preparation for Canada’s busiest gardening weekend, we’ll talk about gardening products and plants that are green-friendly, and those that should be avoided.
• Week Four, May 26:  Go organic.  What exactly does “organic” mean?  In short, it means different things to different groups and different people.  We’ll try to clear up some of the cloudiness around this definition, allowing you to garden in a more environmentally friendly way.

Gathering Information about Greener Gardening

In general, I’ve always felt that individuals who are online, whether they are bloggers or not, have a better understanding of the world, current events, and social issues that are important to tackle.  Gardeners are certainly no exception.

There are a wide range of very good websites devoted not just to gardening in general, but to ecologically-friendly or organic gardening.  There are also some very good informational websites that feature interactive forums that members can join and discuss all things related to gardens and growing perennial and annual flowers, herbs and vegetables.  I’d like to suggest the following websites as great resources to start with.

You Grow Girl—You Grow Girl was created by Gayla Trail in 2000.  In addition to housing a virtual library of informative articles about green gardening, one of the site’s most popular features is the large, friendly forum, complete with an entire section devoted to beginner gardening, as well as organic gardening.  Gayla’s photographs of her rooftop, street-side and community garden plot are stunningly beautiful and continuously inspirational to gardeners of all levels of ability.  Gayla is also the writer of a book by the same name, for those of you who prefer books to blogs.

Playing in the Dirt—Playing in the Dirt is my own gardening blog, and my focus is on organic gardening in Durham region, the area I live just east of the City of Toronto.  I know what you're thinking...I'm totally cheating by posting a link to my own site here at BHAC, right?  While that may be slightly true, I really do think that it's a good example of a blog that focuses on greener gardening.  It also features projects that encourage green gardening, as well as an interactive reciprocal blogroll that features like-minded gardeners, called Green Thumb Bloggers.  I like to post pictures of my vegetable and flower gardens, which I grow without the use of synthetic fertilizers or herbicides or pesticides.

In My Kitchen Garden—In My Kitchen Garden is another garden blog that I’ve loved to read for a few years, now, and I think you will, too.  Susan packed up her life in 1994 and moved from California to her 240-acre property in Missouri, where she became a Farm Girl, growing edibles and raising lambs.  There are a lot of great recipes for cooking with home-grown edibles, as well as articles featuring “how-to” instructions for growing all kinds of food, especially salad greens!

Canadian Organic Growers—COG “is Canada's national membership-based education and networking organization representing farmers, gardeners, consumers and supporters in all provinces and territories.”  The COG website has many excellent articles about growing food and flowers organically.  There are 15 different chapters that anyone can join, and the site is a great place to come if you are interested in following any legislative changes relevant to organic gardening or farming.

These are just a few places for you to start in your effort to learn more about greener gardening.  As the 2008 gardening season really starts to get under way, take some time this week to dig around the internet for some more places to learn about environmentally-friendly gardening practices.  Please feel free to suggest a book, magazine, blog or list your own if it has a similar focus, here in the comments section.

Comments

[Janet]

I'm glad you wrote this. I am completely opposed to pesiticdes and don't use them in my garden or on my lawn. We have been composting for a few years now and I am a huge proponent.

Thanks for the gardening links!

[Amy]

You've provided a great set of links here that are mostly new to me. Can't wait to check them out!