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 big move:

Now, what happened to summer? July and August have flown by, but good things are growing. Gardeners'Guild has a new location which provides brand new opportunities to create an urban oasis and demonstrate the simplicity of greening the world around us. While it may seem so difficult to rally large groups together, great progress can be made in many other ways. Each individual can follow along and apply the simple principles laid out in this habitat blog to green their scene!

Gardeners'Guild grows healthy environments, one garden at a time!
Over the next months, the new GG headquarters will transition into a full-blown educational space, where city gardeners can absorb the information they need and the quiet they may be seeking - in the middle of an urban environment. Bring birds, beneficial bugs and a bounty of food and flowers to your home. Please join to support the groups efforts!

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.

Welcome 2008!

The wonderful thing about a New Year is the new-ness itself.
The new year is invigorating, but not because of its date. Thanks to the Gregorian calendar, most western countries celebrate the year's turning on January 1st. But countries like Greece, Tibet, Poland, China and Thailand will have their new year on different dates ranging from now until the end of April. So why is the new year so inspiring?
It's a new beginning!
The new year affords a 'fresh start', uplifting the spirit with thoughts of a clean slate and another opportunity to create a vibrant and healthful environment. The new year is a friendly milestone, motivating us and marking change or improvements we hope to make.

Fortunately, resolutions made with fresh eyes, need not be saved for this one time of year. Positive change is something that can be achieved all year, a little every day. Solutions that are sustainable are deliberate, not drastic. And in 2008, Gardeners'Guild emphasizes sharing known ways and exploring new ways to make our environments (air, food, water, shelter) fresher. The group supports a network of people and possibilities, sharing information and sustainable solutions for today's environmental issues. Designed for city gardeners and their urban habitats, GG provides the tools and assistance to grow healthy habits for healthier city habitats.

Realistic solutions require a balance of time, money and effort in the formula. Each person has a means to contribute to a cleaner and healthier future by choosing the best place to invest their resources. Whether growing fresh food with better flavor and nutrition, or cultivating the conversation with a fresh perspective, each citizen has the opportunity to improve our environmental condition.

"Now I know, a refuge never grows from a chin in the hand and a thoughtful pose. Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose". (Indigo Girls) Grow your sustainable oasis in the city this year with GG.
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2008 & the goings-on Gardeners'Guild:
SLICE, or Sustainable Living in City Environments, will continue as GG's curriculum-building initiative, developing new educational tools suitable for urban residents and spaces, making them available through distance learning, ie. structured education via internet. Those projects with the greatest success have been in collaboration with students and beginning gardeners, finding that educating these community members results in enthusiasm and action. GG will also continue in the specific pursuit of urban-centered Permaculture curricula for the purpose of exposing these wonderful (and sometimes bewildering) concepts to a new group with flexibility, creativity, clarity and in ways that are appropriate for urban gardeners.

DUFFE, or Distributed Urban Farming and Food Exchange, is the vision for fresher affordable food in cities. GG is recruiting backyards for food production! The closer it's grown to home, the better it is for everyone -- but there's no need to buy the farm. Residential dwellings have lots of spots to grow, even if there's only concrete. Edibles love pots, so don't be discouraged as an city dweller.
Look online for a description of this initiative, and attend the January Social to get organized.

In companion, GG is growing a new kind of gardening journal to provide fun and easy record keeping. This will be the perfect place to note unusual temperatures, rainfall and document plantings throughout the year. While journal-keeping as a gardener can be a wonderful way to reflect, journals are also an educational tool that helps us learn from our own experiences.
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Fresh new products are coming this way, as soon as next month!
Most importantly, we have found a local potter with beautiful hand-thrown shapes. While big pots are impressive, great things come in small packages when dressed with artistic glazes and created from the love of the craft.
To showcase new artists and celebrate a year in our new space, GG will host an Open House/Member Social at the supply shop, in January. A simple affair, and probably potluck, more details on the way!

NOW AVAILABLE! Journal of SUSTAINABILITY

Find it in Albuquerque or by internet, and have it shipped to you by mail for $7 plus postage.
Articles include:
"The Next Stage in Green" and
"Secrets of the Cobble Mulch Garden"
as well as other creative pieces.
Table of contents will be available online in January.
Contact info@gardenersguild.org or editors@radi.ws with questions.

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.

Weed it AND feed it!

Corn gluten meal (CGM) is a natural substitute for synthetic pre-emergence herbicides. Pre-emergence herbicides attack seeds while they're still in the ground, before the seedlings emerge from the soil. CGM is a by-product of commercial corn milling that contains the protein fraction of the corn. Its use poses no health risk to people or animals. In fact, because it is 60% protein, corn gluten meal is used as feed for cattle, poultry, fish, and dogs. In addition to the 60% protein, corn gluten meal is 10% nitrogen, by weight.

The use of corn gluten meal as an herbicide was discovered during turfgrass disease research conducted at Iowa State University. CGM was observed to prevent grass seeds from sprouting. Further research has shown that it also effectively prevents other seeds from sprouting, including seeds from many weeds such as crabgrass, chickweed, and even dandelions.

Corn gluten meal is effective only against seeds, not existing plants. Annual weeds that are already up and growing will not be killed by products made of corn gluten meal. They'll die on their own, though, by the end of autumn. But most of the seeds they produce later in the season shouldn't sprout - provided you've applied the CGM properly and at the correct time. Crabgrass, foxtail, purslane, and prostrate pigweed are examples of annual weeds found in lawns.

Existing perennial weeds such as quackgrass, plantain, and dandelions won't be damaged by CGM, either. And, they'll still come back from one year to the next because their roots survive most winters. What corn gluten meal will do is stop the seeds they shed each summer, so the population of these particular weeds won't increase. In fact, because some will die of "natural" causes, their numbers should actually decrease after several years of consistent CGM use.

Application:
Corn gluten meal is available in powdered and pelletized forms, both of which work equally well. The pelletized form is easier to use, though. Apply corn gluten meal first in late April/early May, then a second time around mid-August. Spread the product evenly, at a rate of twenty pounds per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Water it lightly into the soil in order to activate it. The CGM should remain effective for five to six weeks each time you apply it.

Most annual and perennial weed seeds sprout in spring or early summer, but there are a number of "winter annuals" that may sprout either in spring or fall. Chickweed, shepherd's purse, and speedwell (Veronica) are examples of winter annuals that may be found growing in lawns. When these seeds sprout in fall, their roots live over winter, giving them a head start the following spring. By the end of that growing season, they die, just like other annuals. Because of these winter annuals, you should apply corn gluten meal to the lawn in late summer as well as early spring.

Results of using CGM on lawns
Don't expect to see instant results from using corn gluten meal. Every consecutive year you apply CGM - assuming proper timing and rate - should give you better results than the year before. By the fourth year, weed control should be very good.

When you use corn gluten meal you are also fertilizing the lawn, which encourages it to grow thicker and help exclude weeds. Applying CGM at the recommended rate of twenty pounds per 1,000 square feet, twice a year, gives your lawn a total of four pounds of nitrogen annually - more than enough to meet its needs. Corn gluten meal does not supply phosphorus or potassium, however. You should have your soil tested periodically to see if either nutrient should be added, and in what amount. Contact your local county Extension office for more information or visit the University's Soil Testing Lab web site, http://soiltest.coafes.umn.edu.

Garden applications
Corn gluten meal may be used safely in gardens around established perennial plants, to keep weed seeds from sprouting. It can also be used after transplants have been in the soil long enough to have "taken hold." Follow label recommendations for application rates. Wait until seedlings are up and growing well before applying corn gluten meal to flower or vegetable gardens where seeds were sown directly into the soil. CGM will stop most seeds from germinating.

The Downside [which isn't as much of an issue in New Mexico]:
Potential problems with corn gluten meal stem from the fact that extensive moisture and microbial soil activity can reduce its effectiveness. You can control how much you water right after applying CGM, but you can't control rainfall. Sometimes seeds that had been prevented from forming roots can "outgrow" the problem.

Another potential drawback is price and availability. While it is becoming more readily available, corn gluten meal is still significantly more costly compared to other pre-emergence herbicides. Check places that sell garden supplies, farm stores or county co-ops that sell seed and grain for hobby farms, and some stores that specialize in selling food for wild birds. [Gardeners'Guild now has corn gluten back in stock at a 20% discount for members! No worries here.]

This article was authored by Jean Galligan, Horticulture Technician and Deborah Brown, Extension Horticulturist from the University of Minnesota.

Set the perfect holiday table...

...to wow your guests and offer them good taste in food AND atmosphere!
Whether vegetable gardeners or not, food is a feature topic when trowelers get into the holiday spirit. And no matter your holiday of celebration, food is the foundation for gatherings of friends and family. Either a cozy dinner for 2 or chaotic consumption for 20 can be highlight for your holiday season, but be sure to plan and reduce the stress of preparation for the most enjoyable occasion. A simple checklist will ensure the pieces for your feast are present.

1. grocery shopping list
Yes, many think they are better than that. But why take a chance? Remember we are reducing incidental stresses...
2. protection for important surfaces
Are younger folks coming? Hot plates? Antique table that you'd prefer without beverage rings? Tablecloths, place mats and chargers, as well as coasters are all very handy when available at a moment's notice. Collect these beforehand.
3. serving containers to suit your dishes - both food and table setting...
White always works to flatter the food, but color will add drama. What is your priority in serving up an ideal ambience?
4. accents of color to enhance your preparations
Definitely, do not shy away from color! But be deliberate about where it is used. Napkins and mats are a great opportunity for adding some zest. A lovely arrangement at the entryway is also a fun opportunity without constraints to really jazz things up. If doing a buffet style presentation, colored pillars on candleholders will add a simple but elegant touch. Your creativity is what matters here: don't be shy and take a few risks.
5. candles without fragrance and no scented centerpieces.
Be sure that there are no unexpected fragrances scenting your table. Pull out your candles to double check for ANY scent -- it will fight with the food. At entryways and gathering spots away from food, it is a good thing to use arrangements with rosemary for clearing and freshening the air. Use other aromatic edibles to fragrance and enhance the mood: cinnamon, clove, orange rind, etc. for your very own potpourri. Pine cones, collected free from Mother Nature, can be easily used in either table decor or in an entry arrangement. This is a great opportunity to put those wire ornament hangers to use for assembly, but leave sufficient time for creative projects. Don't plan to do it on the day!!
And lastly, but most important, #6. enough chairs to seat your guests.
This may seem an obvious one, but it is also the most nerve-wracking if forgotten.

The member special helps to...
Fill in missing pieces, this week the supply shop has a tableware special, including serving pieces, and place settings.
Save the regular 20% on the first piece and double your discount on more of the same item. Save lots! Support GG.

Holiday hours for Gardeners'Guild in the coming weeks of December:
SUNDAY, MONDAY AND TUESDAY from 12-5PM, and WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, the usual 11-7PM.

If you like to avoid crowds, remember that Thursday is the Nob Hill SHOP AND STROLL. If you like the chaos (jugglers, carolers, assorted edibles, bands, etc.) join the Nob Hill neighborhood businesses on DECEMBER 6TH, FROM 5-10PM.

A CHANCE TO SERVE...
Rio Grande Community Farms is searching for new board members. At RGCF, they will play more of an advisory role and assist in "high-level" community relationship building. The next board meeting is December 10, at 6:30pm, with a combo board meeting/pot luck at a member home. If you may be interested, contact Ian Simmons by phone, 917.3488 or by email: isimmon2@comcast.net. They will be looking for 3-5 new board members over the next few months. They do great work out there, and have wonderful support from the city.

FOR GREAT RECIPES
Check out Sunset.com
This is a favorite place to find delicious recipes that use OUR kind of ingredients... find a new specialty!