In this update:

* "Benefits of Compost and Compost Teas" - Saturday, Feb. 13
* More on Composting
* See "Dirt! The Movie"
* Rooting DC Urban Agriculture Conference - Saturday, Feb. 20
* Sacred Gardening Workshop - Sunday, Feb. 21
* Community Gardens Networking Day a Huge Success!

 

"Benefits of Compost and Compost Teas" - Saturday, Feb. 13

We' re happy to announce that snow removal is happening as we write, so the next FREE gardening presentation at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton (just a few miles north of Silver Spring on Georgia Ave.) will take place as scheduled.

This coming Saturday, February 13, Patrick Harwood, compost manager for Montgomery Parks, will be giving a free talk on the 'Benefits of Compost and Compost Teas". He will focus on the importance of compost in your vegetable garden and even more importantly how to build your own home compost tea brewer. The presentation is from 10-11:30am, and it's first come first served, so come early if you want to make sure to get a seat!

For more information and directions to Brookside Gardens, click here.

More on Composting

Few issues raise as many nervous questions for the average food gardener as compost. It's a sign of how separated we've become from nature, since few processes could be more natural than organic matter breaking down and returning to the soil from which it came.

But whether it's the restrictions of urban agriculture, fear of rodents and pests, or fear of waste and manure itself, too many of us get tied in knots trying to figure out what we can compost, and how.  I've even seem publications from county offices (to remain unnamed!), recommending against putting food scraps in compost! Hell, if you can't put your food scraps in, what's the point?

For those of you who can't make Saturday's talk, check out "Compost Guru Frank Gouin Answers All Your Questions." (With thanks to MVG Advisory Board member Susan Harris for the post!) Gouin (pictured at left) is a plant physiologist who taught and conducted research at the University of Maryland for 33 years, and authored more than 700 published papers. He continues to teach, however, and compost is one of his favorite topics.

Be aware, though, that even experts disagree on compost issues. Frank Gouin believes horse manure is "terrible," but DC Master Gardener Ed Bruske, in a comment posted underneath the article, says he loves it. Gouin is also lukewarm about compost tea, yet I've met other farmers and Master Gardeners who swear by it.

One basic tip everyone agrees on though, is that if you want to avoid both rodents and smells, remember to put your food scraps in the compost pile, as opposed to on the compost pile. Just bury it a little. There will be no smell, and no rodent will burrow into 120 degree plus piles of compost looking for food.

And  have faith in the power of soil to cover your mistakes. Compost happens (!) because soil is filled with millions upon millions of bacteria, fungi and microorganisms that will attack, break down and ultimately "bio-remediate" virtually any organic substance, even our own waste. Joseph Jenkins, a homesteader and "humanure" expert who spoke at this year's Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture conference, noted that the microorganisms in the soil are so voracious "they would eat Dick Cheney's turds."

Jenkin's Humanure Handbook (as the ad says, "255 pages of crap") may not be for everybody, but it's a powerful reminder that we are animals, and our waste, like other animals', is part of a nutrient cycle that should ultimately return to the earth to maintain soil fertility. In addition, a large portion of the 291 million pounds of nitrogen we flushed in to the Chesapeake Bay in 2008 comes from organic residential waste - and it's destroying the Bay.

You can do your part to stop the destruction by composting everything you can. The benefits are amazing - nothing makes a garden more productive than the "black gold" of good compost!



See "Dirt! The Movie"

While we are on the subject of dirt, did you know there is a hot new movie about it, the winner of prizes at numerous film festivals, including Sundance?

To quote Tom Alexander's review in The Growing Edge, "Dirt! The Movie takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth's most valuable and under appreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

Inspired by William Bryant Logan's acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Dirt! The Movie takes a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to."

While "Dirt! The Movie" hasn't made it to Netflix quite yet, you can reserve it on your queue. And ask for it by name at the local video store! Click here to watch a trailer for "Dirt! The Movie" and for more information on buying the DVD or scheduling a local screening.



Rooting DC Urban Agriculture Conference - Saturday, Feb. 20

While MVG stays focused on Montgomery County, we occasionally like to let you know about great programs in our neighborhood to the south, and the third annual Rooting DC Urban Agriculture conference is one of them.

Sponsored by DC's Field to Fork Network, the third annual Rooting DC conference will be held on Saturday, February 20 at the Historical Society of Washington, and is FREE to the public. The day long program will include interactive workshops (including some in Spanish), cooking and preserving demonstrations, an informational fair, a film about DC community gardens, and panel discussions featuring leaders of the local food justice and urban agriculture movement.

"Concerns about access to healthy food, limiting our environmental impact, and supporting local economies are coming together to create a powerful new interest in growing your own food here in the District," says event co-coordinator, Bea Trickett of the Neighborhood Farm Initiative. The aim of Rooting DC is to respond to this enthusiasm by educating the public, especially those in food insecure communities, on the production, distribution, preparation, and preservation of fresh produce that is grown locally and sustainably.

For more information and to register for this great event, click here.



Sacred Gardening Workshop - Sunday, Feb. 21

On Sunday, February, 21, Montgomery Master Gardener Marney Bruce will be hosting a workshop on "Sacred Gardening." Led by professional gardener, author and speaker Mare Cromwell, the workshop teaches Native American practices and worldviews that will encourage deeper gardening practices honoring natures energies, garden health and planetary healing. (To see a flyer from a similar workshop held last year , click here.)

Mare Cromwell has a Masters Degree in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan, and has worked in the environmental field for 28 years - including 13 as an apprentice of a Cherokee Medicine Woman. Her book,  The workshop will be held at 4541 Windsor Lane in Bethesda, and the fee is on a sliding scale.

For more information and to register for this powerful event, contact Marney at 301 652-0492



Community Gardens Networking Day a Huge Success!

For the first time in the Washington DC area, community garden coordinators gathered together to network. On February 4, over 60 leaders gathered together coming from as far away as Fairfax County VA, Washington DC and Baltimore MD to discuss the challenges and opportunities of community gardening.

Montgomery County Parks Department, which has been doing such a great job promoting (and starting) community gardens, organized the conference. According to Community Garden Coordinator Ursula Sabia Sukinik, "this event was the result of Montgomery Parks' desire to gather many years of experience and investment in one room, so that new leaders can create successful programs and more experienced programs can leave with new ideas."  By all accounts, the dynamic format made for a huge success. Those involved agreed on further exchange and to schedule another event next year. 

For more information on community gardens in Montgomery County, contact Ursula at the Montgomery County Parks Department, 301-495-9340.

 

That's it for this week! Don't forget to send us your feedback, as well as ideas for stories or local food events we can promote, by emailing us at info@montgomeryvictorygardens.org.

Yours in waiting for all this wonderful snow to melt and water our gardens,

Gordon Clark,
Project Director
Montgomery Victory Gardens