Start A Fun New Garden

Over the weekend I was surfing the web looking for what plants grow well in my zone which is 9b. I am in Florida but a lot of my fellow Texans are also in zone 9b. So I thought I would share this with you. I stumbled on a fun new way to garden called Straw Bale Gardening. There were several websites on straw bale gardening but I preferred this approach because it does not involve getting the bale ready by using Ammonia Nitrate. The website I found is called doug green's beginner-gardening.com, he also has a facebook a fan page. This is a perfect way to have a garden if you do not have a lot of space or if you are looking at garden possibilities give this some consideration. It would also provide the ability to garden for those who may not be able to bend over as much, and a fresh fun way to get your children involved and introduce them to gardening. It is also an inexpensive way to getting started. I called my local feed store this morning and asked for straw not hay bales and they do have them for under $7.00 a bale! I told the owner about the website and she is going to post it in her store, so I am already passing the straw bale gardening idea locally as well.

The key is buying a bale of straw, not hay. I am going to purchase extra twine to run tightly around the bale to keep it together good and tight and I am going to put pavers under the bale to keep it off the ground. Besides the benefits you gain from growing your own fresh vegetables and herbs, the straw bale will eventually become compost. An added bonus for other areas of your yard to boot, it is a win win situation.

The inspiration for having my own garden came from several factors, one being that I have been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, tune in on ABC on Friday nights. If you have missed any of the episodes go his website posted below and you can watch them all from the beginning to date. I was dumb struck when he was talking to children in elementary school and the kids could not identify different vegetable that he held up for them. I have already blogged on this show in my blog from Saturday, March 27, 2010 entitled "Unbelievable, We Need This Wake Up Call". I posted again on facebook after watching this past Friday nights show, one of my facebook peeps said that she thought that it should be required viewing by every parent out there and I agree with her.

The second factor is wanting produce that is not covered in chemicals, I know exactly where it came from, that it has been grown organically, it has not been handled by a ton of people, picked before it was ripe which causes you to loose most of the vitamins and benefits and that it is truly fresh. So this has been my inspiration starting my own garden.

Below are the links to Doug Green and also to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. If you have not already signed his food revolution petition and recognise the importance of what he is doing sign up today and join in. Lets save our children from obesity and improve our overall health.

http://www.beginner-gardening.com/straw-bale-gardening.html

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

Unbelievable, We Need This Wake Up Call

If you have not been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, then you should take a look. His first stop is in Huntington, West Virginia at an Elementary School. Last night I thought I would lose it. These children could not even identify vegetables when he held them up. I am not talking about anything difficult, they could not even identify tomato's or potato's! They knew what a french fry was but not what vegetable they came from. He was also trying to show kids the best parts of a fresh chicken as he cut it up. When he had it down to the carcase he asked the kids if they wanted to eat the carcase and they wanted nothing to do with it. He then proceeded to put the carcase in a food processor and turned it into yucky glop. He ran it through a sieve and then mixed it with binders and other stuff and smashed it down and took a cutter and cut out chicken patties which he cooked in oil then the kids wanted to eat it! OMG are you kidding? Gag me! Another thing is these kids did not even have forks and knives to eat with and did not know how to even use them before he got there. They were only eating things that could be eaten with a spoon. This is a great show to watch, I really encourage you to follow Jamie on this journey. It is eye opening, you can go to this link and watch all the shows to date.

http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution