Green Your Garden: Garden Organics, Garden Nerd, Heart Beet Gardening and Seeds of Change
You might use organic potting soil for your houseplants. And those plants are, indeed, doing their part to green your home by removing airborne toxins. But in these economically challenging times, try growing something that goes beyond the mere decorative and put your pots and planter boxes to work by planting organic vegetables.
Think you don’t have enough space? Take a page from the playbook of Christy Wilhelmi, the founder of Garden Nerd, who started her plot of organic goodies on her apartment’s balcony. Or consider translating some of your lawn space into garden—but make sure the dirt is free of toxic lawn chemicals. (You aren’t still using those, are you? Read all about Pesticide Watch’s work against TruGreen ChemLawn, which has been linked to cancer and asthma. Scary stuff.) If you just don’t have room, seek out a community garden where you can make a plot your own.
There are two ways to get your green thumb off on the right foot. The least-expensive but slowest yielding option is to start with stellar organic seeds, says Wilhelmi. She recommends the Spring Heirloom Collections by Seeds of Change, which includes choice varieties of beets, cucumbers, carrots, eggplant, watermelon, basil, squashes and four types of lettuce. Our mouths are watering already!
Or if you’d prefer a little head start, hit your local farmer’s market or natural food store in search of seedlings. Kathleen Hiraga, the garden director at Los Angeles based Garden Organics, advises us to, “Look for plants that have new leaves and are still clustered low in the cup. This means the plant is far from maturity and will have a longer, healthier life in your garden. It also means longer production and more eating for you.” Dee-lish!
Either way, you can spice things up with unusual choices of plants to expand the, um, palate. The garden fairies at Los Angeles-based Heart Beet Gardening suggest container-friendly aphrodisiac plants like basil, garlic, strawberries, onion and arugula. Some of you may be growing those already. Who knew?
Think you’ve got a black thumb? We found a secret weapon in Organics Rx Supergrow and Sea-Kelp 100 organic plant nutrition. It’s a miraculous, truly organic way to enrich your soil and protect from pests and disease.
Now, get growing!
