You think we have problems with dust?

Before focusing on urban habitat-building, why not take a moment to consider what environment really means to everyday life. Every perspective is different depending on your environment. What you can eat and where you are able to sleep, is ultimately determined by your environment.
What happens in a desert with few trees to use for building?
To consider the other living beings that inhabit the world around us, and how we affect them, leads us to significant conclusions. We are responsible citizens of the world if we take time to consider other perspectives. But ultimately, our environment, the nature around us, has the final say. Without judgement, we can consider the power of nature, with one simple picture.

Find the original picture posted by a Peace Corps representative in Niger. http://jmkincaid.blogspot.com/

The busy season...

What happened to spring?
Summer is almost here, and offers a good time to watch some wonderful videos available online. The selections featured at GG's video broadcasting site (on YouTube) are some of the best available, produced by sources like PBS and permaculture specialists working with the founder, Bill Mollison. Use these to supplement your summer ed, or stay inspired while higher temps might cut gardening activities short.

Look for instructional videos for urban gardeners in ABQ, also coming this season.

Say your peace.

Please contribute constructive ideas, and lend your perspective to the discussion. Be creative! Be thoughtful! Be a part of the larger community by giving of your time and sharing your vision for greener city strees. Participate by putting forth new approaches in outer spaces.

SEASONAL SAVERS - Good tips for city gardeners

save time, money, resources, your environment!
sou have ways to hunt these down, now matter where you live. research first, then get creative in your own scene. any questions? contact G'G for help to go forth and be green.

a watering option for EASIER gardens?
Love growing veggies? have a needy plant? ever go on vacation? Consider the traditional global-gardening technique of buried clay irrigation. At Gardeners'Guild they're called 'Ollas'! http://www.gardenersguild.org/waterwiseollas.htm
neem oil concentrate?
This is a biodegradable plant oil that is safe AND effective in relieving plants from all kinds of bugs, on leaves and in the soil.
coco-fiber growing pots?
Ditch the peat and go nuts for coco-fiber. Highly renewable, this material comes from coconuts and maintains both moisture and oxygen levels in soil without becoming hydrophobic as peat can.
pre-emergent (corn gluten)?
For those who have established lawns, corn gluten offers a chemical-free way to stop weeds and fertilize too. Gardeners' Guild is committed to natural solutions for urban garden areas.

Some new year's resolutions really can be easy.

The calendar does not control you! You control the calendar.

In the new age of pencil-less procedures, GG goes against the grain and recommends keeping a lead-based writing form handy to track weather patterns on your nearest calendar. In other parts of the country, weather patterns are less extreme than in the desert southwest. Using a simple means of notation takes only a minute when important changes occur and frees the mind for things other than remembering.
Tips for winter maintenance:
1. Watering - It can be difficult to remember watering when temperatures get cold. Many watering systems are turned off, and the plants rely on nature and your nurture to get them through with grace. Over-watering can be an issue as well because it can prevent root development or rot them altogether. So in case of wacky and wild precipitation, or to provide a little life insurance for your plants, write it down! After acquiring the pencil, only one step required: Mark rain/snow dates down to maintain a healthy watering schedule.
2. Weeding - In January, we often start to see weeds sprouting up. The time to prevent them is BEFORE the plants appear. This can be easily accomplished with the pre-emergent corn gluten, now back in stock at GG. Corn gluten is natural and application is simple, best done with a seed spreader, but can be done by hand.
3. Feeding - When warmer temperatures return, your first fertilizing will already be done! The corn gluten is high in nitrogen and will provide extra nutrients in early spring without one thought.
Find out more about Corn Gluten as a weed'n'feed on the GG blog: www.gardenersguild.blogspot.com
In 2008, look for the new urban gardeners almanac to create your own chronicle!

Holiday hours at the GG supply shop:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (Dec 16-18th) 12noon -5pm
Wednesday the 19th through Saturday the 22nd 11am-7pm
Sunday, Monday (Dec 23rd and 24th) 12noon - 5pm
CLOSED Tuesday, Wednesday (Dec 25th AND 26th). Thanks!

Good things afoot for the New Year... Watch next week's email for details about 2008.

COMMENTARY: urbiphytes unite!

Searching for a very basic way to explain ‘xeric’ to recent transplants (people), an older edition dictionary led me to another word: “Xerophyte, a plant structurally adapted for life and growth with a limited water supply esp. by means of mechanisms that limit transpiration or that provide for the storage of water”. Also listed were xerophilious. xerophytic. xerothermic. and xeric. All are fantastic words that describe plants and touch on two key ideas: low water use and their ability to have adapted to extreme conditions. While the dryer conditions described in Webster’s definitions were expected, the specific focus on ‘adaptation’ was somewhat of a surprise.

Growing up as a city girl, and east of the Mississippi, the laws of nature that rule in the desert were so foreign. Having been here now for 15 years, I still recall that living in New Mexico didn’t seem that different from living on the moon. But over time, adapting to dryer conditions has been a positive – though initially reluctant – process of learning to appreciate the more subtle qualities of a desert existence. The delicate landscape has become a source of inspiration and a cause for rejuvenation, where seasons are not tortuous but opportunities to experiment. It occurred to me how I had gone through the very same process as that plant type to which Webster referred. The ideas of change and adaptation can be so challenging that it is easy to forget the great rewards that accompany such transformations.

As coordinator of a new membership-based not-for-profit supporting challenged urban gardeners, this concept of welcoming change and encouraging adaptation (creativity) is a key to reaching disenfranchised urbanites, ie. those who have lost connection with their true environment. Finding a clear and simple (not simplified) way to explain all things gardening is critical, and must demonstrate importance to their quality of life. At Gardeners’Guild, we feel that if citizens understand the reality of growing populations in their environments, more will act with these concerns in mind. Visited by many curious tourists and gardeners who have recently relocated to the area from more moist climates, a few words of careful encouragement with the most basic of drought-conscious growing tips can carry the arid climate novice pretty far. And as a person who has found plants later in life, I can attest to the role an individual can make to spark an interest, and trigger dramatic changes in our communities. At Gardeners’Guild we are rewarded with cognitive light bulbs on a regular basis. My point? When it comes to gardening, as individuals, we can make a difference. And I’ve learned that like myself, each person is potential for a new plant and a better quality of life.

In case of inclement weather:

Seems impossible doesn't it?
There is still time for Winterizing -- What is it and what to do?
While we all know winter is coming, the recommendation to 'winterize' is short on details. For those who haven't grown up gardening, the term can be downright mystifying. Here is a list of those tasks to undertake while temperatures cool down, and plants begin to sleep.
#1. Keep watering! Root systems are still growing, and developing additional reach for the winter and following years. Many plants love the fall temperatures for the rest it provides, following the summer scorch. The stress of growing is reduced when conditions are moderate, and plants will fair well with a good watering every week until daily temperatures fall regularly below 60 or 65 degrees. A good watering at least once a month through the winter is also very important for perennials and trees, especially with a dry season predicted.
2. Rake it up. Look for piles of debris that invite insects to hunker down in your yard for the winter. Dry areas with good oxygen will make for unwanted homes to pests that emerge next spring. Lawn clippings, disturbed dried leaves and other organic matter can be good mulch, but don't 'pile' it on. Best idea is to compost these materials first and use it after compost worms have processed it into fertilizer. Rake out those remaining weeds.
3. Remove the dead. This includes 'dead heading' (removal of dead flower heads) of spent blooms from perennials to pare back plants for the lean and mean season. Roses can be pruned for shape and size, but must be pruned to prevent winter damage. For trees, prune dead branches only. Pruning living ones may stimulate growth at the worst time, exposing the tree to freezing temps. Removing the dead wood will foil another favorite living space for bad bugs. Spent foliage from bulbs can be removed, especially if brown, as the leaves have already given their remaining energy as fuel for next year.
4. Amend the soil. Add a low-cost or free manure to the soil to mature (compost) over winter. Some also recommend a high phosphorus fertilizer, like soft rock phosphate (SRF), an element less available to plants in very dry soils. Addition of phosphorus helps the plant's immune system, in photosynthesis, and nitrogen transport to plants. Remember, effectiveness of fertilizers does depend on the plants ability to find it small enough to absorb from soil. SRF can rejuvenate the soil with major minerals like calcium, and trace minerals if decomposition is happening. Use it sparingly in depleted (most of Albuquerque) soil: more is not usually better! As an aside, some say high levels of phosphorus can also deter weeds.
5. Condition the soil, with less labor. Layer mulch over your worst soil this winter with your favorites: manure, straw, other compost, pecan shells, etc! Three layers is recommended, and at least 3" thick each, for sheet mulching which returns life to soil in no time! Shovel it on and wait 'til spring to speed recovery of troubled soil. IMPORTANT NOTE - Be sure to keep layers away from woody plant stems and tree trunks to prevent rotting spots. See the mulch article at www.gardenersguild.org/mulch.htm to get more details.

SUPPLIES FOR WINTERIZING can be found at GG:
Burlap sacks are available, thanks to one of our Advocate members (that's you, Matt). They are great for wrapping trees, planted recently or a little more freeze-prone. Wrapping fruit trees can also be good if they have western or southern exposure -- email Gardeners'Guild for details if this might be causing issues for your struggling fruit trees.
Only a handful of hay bales are still available for mulch -- good insulation, composts well, few seeds, high in nutrients! This will be our last scheduled delivery of hay bales, so get them while they last! Find shovels, mulch sources and more details at GG, too.

weird, warm weather.

Well, melting of the Northwest Passage has made this mythological throughway an economic and environmental reality.
At least 10 years sooner than expected, open waters in the Artic have Russians planting their flag on the sea bottom floor. That's only the beginning. The first question coming to mind as footage plays on international news: "When did that happen?" Strangely enough, scientists were stunned about the accelerated conditions as long ago as October of 2006.
Canada must be excited about this. Finally, the moderate and kind have arrived on top -- they've been rewarded with one of the most valuable shipping routes on the globe. And with weather warming next year, too, maybe there's an opportunity for vacation cottages. Deputy Minister of the Environment to Canada's newest province, Nunavut, sees another upside. Warming trends will provide longer boating seasons and reduced energy consumption with rising temperatures.

Here are some other facts from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies:
"Global warming is now 0.6°C in the past three decades and 0.8°C in the past century. It is no longer correct to say that "most global warming occurred before 1940". More specifically, there was slow global warming, with large fluctuations, over the century up to 1975 and subsequent rapid warming of almost 0.2°C per decade."

Indeed the earth has warmed and cooled significantly over the last thousands and millions of years. Maybe we won't shrivel into a raisin tomorrow, or bake like a potatoes next year. But there is something awfully persuasive about clean air, clean water and, darn it. If we can reduce the damage done to the environment, ourselves, and the other living creations on this big blue marble, why not take a shot.

mulch for your seasons

the path to enlightenment (enlightened gardening) is mulched.

Mulching shades the soil which keeps it soft
Mulching reduces evaporation
Mulching discourages weeds
Mulching encourages earthworm activity
Mulching adds a design element wth minimal expense

why, where, when, what to use?
Mulching can save time, energy and the environment with a modest investments. Let's look at the basics...
choose what is best for you.

To make choice for your situation, identify the issues. Gardeners'Guild helps trowelers to prioritize their needs based on the following five concerns: time frame, budget, appearance, maintenance requirements and sustainability. Rank these five criteria in considering your current project, or long term plan. Then consider how mulching, as a step in the plan, relates to your priorities:

Mulch is quick to lay, especially lighter weight varieties. Many mulches are very reasonably prices, like compost, recycled newspaper or a decorative option like pecan shells.