By Vanessa Richins

When I was growing up in Southern California, November wasn’t really so different from the other months.

You could still plant some vegetables, and flowers were still popping up everywhere.

Utah certainly was a shock in that respect.

After watching all of the leaves fall off the trees, I was left with a snowy white canvas for a yard.

In November, many gardeners are tying up the loose ends of the gardening season and getting it prepared for next year.

One of the main tasks waiting in the November garden is raking leaves. One way that we make it easier is to use a large tarp. We raked the leaves onto the tarp, which was easy enough to drag around the yard. When we finished, we could just drag it back to the backyard. You could use these leaves in your compost or mulch.

As an urban gardener, you Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

As a kid, we had both freshwater and saltwater aquariums.

We would put in plastic plants to provide places for the fish to hide and make the tank look less bare.

As I grew older and started caring for my own aquarium, I ventured into the world of live aquarium plants.

They offer more to the aquarium and the fish themselves, since they provide some food for the fish to nibble on, as well as adding oxygen to the water and making the environment more suitable. When my pineapple swordtails had live babies, they hid among the leaves until they were big enough to escape being eaten.

I also had fun exploring some plants that seemed very exotic. We secured mangroves (purchased from eBay) into pieces of styrofoam and let them float on top of the water. They would have done a bit better if the water had been more brackish (mangroves like salty water), but it was fun to explore. We also placed papyrus stems in the water.

An aquarium garden is a fun way to Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

When you think of urban cities, you may think of skyscrapers, traffic jams, and pavement everywhere.

However, the urban garden revolution continues to spread.

The Daily Green has created a wonderful article about the top 10 US urban cities when it comes to the number of community gardens.

Top of the list is Seattle, Washington. Our friends the Shibaguyz are right there in the trenches, growing their own food thanks, in part, to the city’s fabulous P-Patch program. I hope I can visit this lovely city soon and see all the good work for myself.

My internship landed me in the city of McMinnville, Oregon for a summer. I enjoyed being so close to Portland (number 2 on the list) – just 35 miles northeast. Known as the “City of Roses”, there are gardens everywhere. It’s natural, then, that they would also have a significant number of community gardens.

I was glad to see Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Detroit is famous for Motown and producing cars.

There’s also a growing new trend there – urban farming.

It’s a positive sign in a city that has taken some of the hardest knocks in this economy.

The silver lining in the plethora of vacant lots is that they offer the potential to help feed the city.

Six years ago the Detroit Garden Resource Program Collaborative was formed. Community gardeners can join for $20 and get anything they need for their gardens, from tools to seeds and seedlings.

There’s also the Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Earlier this year I wrote about how Joe Lamp’l, author and star of Tv gardening shows, started up a project where he vowed to create an organic victory garden for $25 or less.

As the main gardening season draws to a close, I thought I would give an update on how the project has gone.

He made greenhouses using empty plastic bakery cake boxes. Inspired by his example, I noticed that the 2 pound strawberry boxes I was buying at the grocery store would be perfect to use as urban garden-sized greenhouses.

Four or five wait patiently in my pantry now. I’ll be planting some pea seeds in there soon as I prepare to plant up my Earthbox.

Many people Read the rest of this entry »