Kinder Garden News (Newsletter)

**g*@svn.net (Gardens For Growing People) (by way of Lucy Bradley BradleyL@ag.arizona.edu>)**

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////KINDER GARDEN NEWS////////

A FREE ON-LINE NEWSLETTER FROM GARDENS FOR GROWING PEOPLE

Summer 1999

Welcome to the Summer issue of Kinder Garden News, a free e-mail newsletter
from Gardens for Growing People. Kinder Garden News is delivered four times
a year to your e-mail box. If you are receiving this newsletter you have
either requested it or previously contacted us via e-mail. If you know
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Back issues of this newsletter are available at our web site:
www.svn.net/growpepl

IN THIS ISSUE:
The Truth About Weeds
Weedy Summer Salad
A Harvest That Feeds The Soul
Upcoming Events
Summer Garden Agenda

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THE TRUTH ABOUT WEEDS

Summer in the garden often boils down to weeding and watering.  Watering
can be meditative and even fun on a hot summer day, but rarely do we go
gleefully to weed the garden.  How can we make weeding more interesting for
ourselves and our children?

The next time you're out weeding with the kids, have on hand a weed
reference book and ask some probing questions such as "What is a weed?",
"Where did they come from?", or even "What does our relationship with weeds
say about our relationship to nature"? You just may find yourselves
engrossed in a fascinating discussion and you'll have weeded half the yard
before you realize it!

Weeds have a bad reputation. They rob other garden plants of vital water
and soil nutrients. They strangle gardens, destroy roadways, poison
livestock and even kill humans. What can weeds tell us about our
relationship to nature? To many people weeds represent wildness and chaos.
While some people try to romanticize the wildness of weeds as something
natural and desirable, most of us loathe the untidiness and intrusion of
weeds.

In the gardening world hierarchy, highly cultivated plants, such as the
rose, are at the top. Weeds take their place at the bottom. Occasionally,
people find value in a few weeds such as dandelions and purslane, which
make a tasty salad.  Some weeds are beneficial as indicator plants; they
can tell you things about the condition of your soil, such as sorrel which
indicates acid soil. When we find weeds with edible or medicinal value,
they then move up the hierarchy to the respectable title of herb.

What is a weed?  If you consult the dictionary you will likely find that a
weed is a "plant of no value that tends to choke out more desirable
plants." Their aggressive nature is what sets weeds apart from other garden
plants. No kidding! I've seen weeds push up through four inches of asphalt,
regenerate from tiny root fragments, and produce thousands of seeds which
propel themselves to new plots of earth by floating through the air or
sticking to animal fur or socks!

In spite of their aggressive nature, weeds do not actually grow everywhere.
Check the definitions again and notice that the preferred habitats of
weeds are "waste places and roadsides", "disturbed sites", and "old fields,
lawns and gardens". Weeds thrive only in places where people live or have
tampered with the earth, even in the cracks of sidewalks. So, although
weeds are often associated with wildness, they are not wild. On the
contrary; they are products of cultivation. Without people to create crop
land, gardens, vacant lots and roadsides, weeds would soon vanish.

Where did weeds come from?  A closer look among the descriptions of weeds
reveals that many are of European origin. Some weeds were brought to
America deliberately. Colonists brought dandelions here as a valued salad
green. Other weeds came by accident. Burdock seeds probably hitch-hiked
their way across the Atlantic by attaching themselves to a pant cuff just
as they do today. Many weed grasses traveled here as mattress stuffing or
packing material. Once here, the European weeds spread quickly, springing
up wherever the Englishman disturbed the soil and driving out many native
species.

There's no going back. By now we have made so many changes in the landscape
that some form of weeding is unavoidable. In fact, weeding is obligatory.
We are at once the problem and the solution. If weeds are the consequence
that follows from gardening, then weeding is at the heart of gardening.

Knowledge is the gardener's best tool for effective organic weed control.
Without understanding the characteristics of the plant you are trying to
eradicate, you could make some serious mistakes. Tilling soil with
quackgrass rhizomes only spreads and multiplies this hardy weed. Annual
weeds are treated differently than perennials. A two to four inch layer of
mulch will smother most annuals. Be sure the mulch is weed free. Many
perennials are best dealt with by uprooting the entire plant. Mulch,
covercropping and close planting to shade out weeds will also weaken
perennials making them easier to uproot. Frequent mowing will prevent weed
grasses and certain perennials from setting seed.

**************************************************************************** 
****

WEEDY SUMMER SALAD
Many weeds are edible!  Make sure you are certain about the identification
of any weed or other plant before you eat it!  Ask someone who knows plants
well to help you indentify your weeds.

To make a weedy summer salad, gather 1 cup of young dandelion leaves (older
ones are bitter) and 1/4 cup each: plantain, purslane, oxalis, and lamb's
quarters.  Wash the greens and toss them together with 3 tablespoons of
salad oil.  Next, add 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of
salt.  Mix the salad well and garnish with hard boiled eggs if desired!

___________________________________________

A HARVEST THAT FEEDS THE SOUL
Sometimes a garden can put more than food on the table; it can nurture the
soul in ways you never anticipated.

At a recent homeschooling conference, a woman came forward to tell me how
my workshop she had attended last year has transformed her life.  She
became inspired to start gardening with her four children who had never
witnessed how vegetables grow.  They learned much more than just
discovering how broccoli grows.  In fact, they could never have anticipated
the layers of transformation that was about to change their lives forever.

For starters, the mother admitted that her family had never had too much of
anything.  Now they had too much zucchini, too much lettuce, too many
tomatoes, and so on.  They rejoiced in the abundance and never let anything
go to waste as they gave the extra produce to friends or the local soup
kitchen.

That's not all.  About the same time as this family was embarking on the
garden project, they also decided to help a friend in need.  The woman
agreed to homeschool a friend's "challenged" boy for seven weeks along with
her own children. She believed she could do it.  After only a couple of
days, however, she admitted she was ready to "strangle" the boy.  He was
full of anger, due to his problems, and difficult to manage.  Finally she
said to the boy, "look, we are in the middle of a big garden project and
you are just going to have to spend a lot of time in the garden with us."

That young boy had never been entrusted with the responsibility of
nurturing anything, and the transformation that occured in him was
stunning.  Working with the life giving soil, he found a sense of peace in
himself that he had never known before.  He cried at the  end of seven
weeks because he didn't want to leave his seedlings that he had cared for.

The power of creation to nurture not only our bodies, but our minds and
souls, becomes tangible in the garden as in no other way.

Needless to say, it felt good to have this woman share her story and to
know that the work I do promoting children's gardens ripples out to touch
many lives.  The woman gave me the credit, but all I did was open the door
(or garden gate as the case may be).  She walked through it and began her
own journey.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UPCOMING EVENTS

July 22-24, the American Horticulture Society will host its 7th annual
National Youth Gardening Symposium in Denver, Colorado. Anyone interested
in gardening with kids is encouraged to attend. For more information
contact the American Horticulture Society at (703) 768-8700

Throughout the summer we will exhibit at home schooling conferences around
California, and then we will be at the Agriculture in the Classroom
conference this October in Ventura, California.

SUMMER AGENDA
*  Stay on top of those weeds, don't let them rob your plants of water and
nutrients. Sheet mulching is an easy way to stay on top of weeds.  Simply
put layers of newspaper or cardboard directly on top of the weeds and then
put a layer of mulch (straw, compost, wood chips) on top of the newspaper
of cardboard.  The cardboard and paper will smother the weeds and
eventually decompose and improve the quality of the soil.

*  If summers are dry in your area, as they are in California, keep an eye
on the watering. Don't let plants stress for lack of water.

*  Harvest potatoes, squash, corn, beans, cucumbers, onions, garlic,
carrots, and fruits!

*  In late summer, you can plants seeds for fall crops.  These are
generally root, leaf and stem crops. (potatoes, carrots, lettuce, celery)

****************************************************************************
*******

Happy Weeding,

Ruth and John Lopez
Gardens for Growing People

(Resources for a Garden Based Education)

e-mail: growpepl@svn.net
web:	www.svn.net/growpepl

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