Posts tagged with "growing green"
Growing Green: Grow Your Own
Posted by lmulford on 05/06/11
Have any of you ever read author Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? It’s about a family’s decision to eat only foods they could grow on their own land or obtain from local sources. It’s inspirational, educational, motivational and more. Taking the “grow your own” one step greener is Maria Rodale’s book, Organic Manifesto. According to Rodale, organic gardening is the single most effective tool we have to protect our environment and our health. If you needed another reason to embrace the “go local, grow local” mantra, these books will certainly tip the scales for you.
Vegetable gardening has become a national craze and is one of the greenest things you can do for yourself and your family. Not only is it good for your wallet, but also for your health, your community and your appetite. (There is nothing like the taste of a home grown tomato!) It’s also an especially fun and educational activity to experience with children.
Here are a few things to help you dig in and get excited about starting your very own “garden of eating”:
- Check out the Library’s collection of gardening books – we have over a 100 just on vegetable gardening alone. Most of them can be found on the shelves under the call number 635.
- Attend our Growing Green programs – See the list of programs on the right. Register for our May 12, the “Talking Dirt” program will have a team of master gardeners sharing information on preparing the soil for planting, how to choose the best plants, how to plant to maximize your harvest and more.
- Chat up a Master Gardener – At the Growing Green programs you’ll have the opportunity to ask an experienced gardener questions, or you can check out information on the U of I Extension Service’s website.
- Join the Arlington Heights Garden Club – They meet every third Monday evening at the library (excluding Jun-Aug and Dec.) and are co-sponsors of the Growing Green programs. They are a passionate and knowledgeable group that can help you go green.
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Check out some of these websites for more information on vegetable gardening, local seminars and plant sales:
U of I Extension Service's Hort Corner
Ten Steps to Make Gardening Easier
Chicagoland Gardening
Knupper's Nursery
I hope you’re now feeling inspired to get growing. We’d love for you to share your gardening experiences either here or on our Facebook page. We can learn a lot from each other.
The first gatherings of the garden in May of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel like a mother about her baby - how could anything so beautiful be mine. And this emotion of wonder filled me for each vegetable as it was gathered every year. There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown.
- Alice B. Toklas
- Alice B. Toklas
