From ashlea at nexicom.net Tue Mar 2 15:42:34 2010 From: ashlea at nexicom.net (Ashlea Hegedus-Viola) Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:42:34 -0500 Subject: [Garden] Campus Composting Discussion Message-ID: <4B8D783A.4070004@nexicom.net> Hi gardeners, There will be a meeting about composting on campus next week and I wanted to extend the invitation to see if anyone would be interested in attending. The details are below. If you have any questions please let myself or Alison know. Thanks, -Ashlea -------- You are invited to join us for a campus composting discussion on *Tuesday March 9 at from 2:30-3:30* in the SLC room 2134. It's key to have a diverse representation of groups on campus, so if you would like to invite others to attend, let me know and it'll be fine! The goal of this discussion isn't necessarily to dive into a new action plan, but rather to educate each other about what else is going on at Waterloo, to offer advice, and to build a network of contacts. Light snacks will be provided. Please RSVP and I hope to see you there! Alison Lee UWP Rez Council Sustainability Rep alison.v.lee at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cwormsbe at gmail.com Mon Mar 15 14:09:36 2010 From: cwormsbe at gmail.com (candace wormsbecker) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:09:36 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Fwd: [Cgwr-network] 3 month job posting In-Reply-To: <880260CB3A6BC24EB8A17DC90449266346FC9C1D74@MAIL.region.waterloo.on.ca> References: <880260CB3A6BC24EB8A17DC90449266346FC9C1D74@MAIL.region.waterloo.on.ca> Message-ID: Part of my old job, if anyone is interested.... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Carol Popovic Date: Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 11:57 AM Subject: [Cgwr-network] 3 month job posting To: Raj Gill , "KW-Announce at lists.wpirg.org" < KW-Announce at lists.wpirg.org>, "Students' Public Interest Research Group \" < laurier-students-public-interest-research-group at googlegroups.com>, \" ' cgwr-network at together4health.ca' \" , \" ' employers at theworkingcentre.org' \" , \" ' mimi at kwmc-on.com' \" \" lspirg" Cc: Sanjay Govindaraj *Job Posting **C:\Documents and Settings\plcarol\My Documents\DCC Job Ad - March 15 2010.pdf* *Research & Outreach Coordinator: Waterloo Region Diggable Communities* *Collaborative* Short term Contract: 3 month Contract, 25 hours per week Start & End Dates: April 12, 2010 to July 23, 2010 Pay Rate: $20 per hour Office Location: Opportunities Waterloo Region * * *Description: *The individual will be responsible for conducting a needs assessment and developing an outreach strategy to assist the Community Garden Council of Waterloo in creating spaces that are positive and inclusive of diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds and sexual orientations in local community gardens. The goal of this strategy is to improve access to the gardens for newcomers. *COUNCIL OF AGENCIES SERVING SOUTH ASIANS (CASSA)* CASSA is seeking an individual to conduct a community needs assessment with communities with limited involvement in area community gardens in regards to their interest in community gardening. The individual will conduct the assessment and develop strategies and workshop ideas to assist with making all area gardens more accessible and inclusive. A toolkit that documents community input, outreach ideas and workshops will be completed for use by the Community Garden Council in enhancing diversity in regional gardens. *Deadline for applications is Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 5 pm.* Please submit your resume and cover letter to the hiring committee by emailing hr at cassa.on.ca. _______________________________________________ Cgwr-network mailing list Cgwr-network at together4health.ca http://lists.together4health.ca/mailman/listinfo/cgwr-network -- ?Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alicia.mah at gmail.com Fri Mar 19 13:41:55 2010 From: alicia.mah at gmail.com (Alicia Mah) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:41:55 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Reminder: Pre-planting party on March 23 at 7:30p.m. in SLC 2143 Message-ID: <2ec448741003191041q18ed9108p16a3c486331e1eac@mail.gmail.com> Hi Gardeners, Our pre-planting party/social will be held at 7:30 p.m. on March 23 in the Student Life Centre in Rm 2143. There will be a small amount of food and drink there, courtesy of WPIRG. Feel free to bring something small to share. Agenda for Pre-Planting Party: 1. ?Introductions of people there 2. ?History of the Garden 3. ?Structure of the garden (communal plot idea) 4. ?Where the garden is located 5. ?How to participate? 6. ?When gardening starts? 7. ?What you get by participating? (Food) 8. ?Other events/partnerships we have developed and that could be revisited if someone is interested. 9. ?Questions, other business 10. Next Steps - planting party 11. Pizza and Socializing!! Look forward to seeing everybody there, and feel free to bring a friend or two. Cheers, Alicia From jrochon at uwaterloo.ca Mon Mar 22 10:23:05 2010 From: jrochon at uwaterloo.ca (J. Rochon) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:23:05 -0400 Subject: [Garden] A brief look at guerrilla gardening Message-ID: <4BA77D49.6080502@uwaterloo.ca> Gardeners, Here's an article on some unconventional gardeners: How guerrilla gardening took root By Mark Fraser Step Up, BBC Scotland *Guerrilla gardeners in Glasgow have been liberating derelict and barren land in the city and turning it into gardens. BBC Scotland takes a look at the history of movement.* Bowery Garden 1973 The Bowery Garden circa 1973 Guerrilla gardeners wage urban campaign The roots of guerrilla gardening can be traced back to New York in 1973. Artist Liz Christy, who lived in the city's Lower East Side, assembled her friends and neighbours to clean out and take back an abandoned lot on the corner of Bowery and Houston. Dubbing themselves the Green Guerrillas they removed the rubbish and revitalised the soil, planting flowers, trees and edibles, while offering gardening workshops. Liz Christy took to petitioning the city's Housing and Preservation Department to make their newly-created garden - which they called the Bowery Garden - an official community garden. To this day it remains, taken care of by the Green Guerrillas and volunteers. It is now recognised by the city as an established community garden. The history of illicit gardening in Britain goes back centuries, starting with "the Diggers" - a group of socialites in the 17th Century who fought for the right to cultivate land. Bowery Garden present day. How the Bowery Garden looks today Some say that the origins of guerrilla gardening in the modern age can be traced back to the hippie movement in the 1960s. More recently, a statue of Winston Churchill was given an impromptu grass mohawk during the May Day riots in London in 2000. But it was not until Richard Reynolds decided to create a blog about his "illicit cultivations around London" in 2004 that it started to become a community in the UK. In 2008 Mr Reynolds cemented his status as the de facto figurehead of the guerrilla gardening movement by writing a book titled On Guerrilla Gardening. Not a manifesto as such, it gives a detailed history of guerrilla gardening as well as stories he has picked up on his travels visiting other guerrilla gardeners around the world. *Unconventional weapons* The movement has spread its seeds far and wide, with "cells" existing in places as far flung as Australia and Brazil. Indeed, any country that has a community of obsessive gardeners is likely to have an underground community of guerrillas, taking back public space. The "seed bomb" is one of the more unconventional weapons they use, alongside the more traditional watering cans, shovels, trowels, pitchforks, plants and seeds. Green grenade, seed bomb 1973 The seed bomb of 1973 was known as the "green grenade" Primarily aimed to be used in areas where guerrilla gardeners are unable to cultivate land by themselves - be it through fear of reprisal for hanging around one place too long or in a place where they simply cannot reach - the seed bomb contains all the vital elements for plant life to begin. The current seed bomb is a far cry from the green grenades that were used when the movement began in 1973. Back then, they contained water, peat moss, fertilizer and seeds encased in Christmas decorations and water balloons. Nowadays there is more than one design and they are more environmentally conscious, using peat-free compost and organic fertilisers. The most common type of seed bomb is the clay seed ball. These can be created at home using a mixture of clay soil, compost, seeds and water and can be moulded into any shape. As times change so does the sophistication of the weaponry, and the latest innovation in seed bomb design has come from Glasgow-based studio Kabloom. THE MODERN SEED BOMB Seedbom Contains peat moss, organic fertilizer and seeds Contents held in a biodegradable grenade shaped shell Unlike the green grenades, they use rain water to grow These new, more environmentally-friendly "SeedBoms" were created by Darren Wilson, who became involved in the Glasgow guerrilla gardening movement after finding out about it during research for the product. He created his own grenade-shaped version which is made using recycled materials alongside the ingredients needed to grow the flowers. "It's a bit fun, a bit quirky - a bit different. It's all about the fun, all about the interaction and making an impact... anyone can use these," he said. Darren has gone on to become an integral part of the guerrilla gardening cell in Glasgow, alongside founders Jennifer Calder and Michael Gallacher. While the actions of guerrilla gardeners are technically illegal, as they are transforming land which does not belong to them, the Glasgow group has won the endorsement of the local city council. The head of the local authority's land and environmental services division, Stevie Scott, has given encouragement to the movement. The council cannot afford to revitalise every bit of barren space in Glasgow, but is happy to support the guerrilla gardeners in their efforts to bring more colour back to the "dear green place". -- ----------------------- Jason Rochon Campus Tech, Student Life Centre Monday to Friday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Shop 24/7 at campustech.uwaterloo.ca. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 999999.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: _47419948_seedbom.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2203 bytes Desc: not available URL: From raj at wpirg.org Mon Mar 22 13:49:07 2010 From: raj at wpirg.org (Raj Gill) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:49:07 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Action Group info for Annual report Message-ID: Dear Action Group, On Monday April 5th, WPIRG is holding its Annual General Meeting. The Annual Report is prepared each year as part of the AGM to give an overview of WPIRG's year. Please email umaraftab at hotmail.com one to three sentences describing what the action groups has accomplished this past year, briefing any projects and events that took place, giving a summary of the action groups year, to appear in the Annual Report. It would be great if I could have these by next Friday the 26th of March. And of course, join us for an informative night full of food, fun and friends! WPIRG Annual General Meeting and End of Term Social April 5th, 2010, 5:30pm Best, Umar Aftab -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From chay_lene at hotmail.com Wed Mar 24 00:37:19 2010 From: chay_lene at hotmail.com (Chaylene Grieve-Saunders) Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:37:19 -0400 Subject: [Garden] A brief look at guerrilla gardening In-Reply-To: <4BA77D49.6080502@uwaterloo.ca> References: <4BA77D49.6080502@uwaterloo.ca> Message-ID: Hello Gardeners! Are you thinking of guerrilla gardening? There is another organization in town called KW Urban Harvester - its a volunteer organization that helps community members find free backyards to garden in as well as gardens a few plots collectively with community members. One of the things we are doing is hoping to establish some more perrenial public gardens We also want to have weekly guerrilla gardening sessions around town. Maybe we could make a partnership? Here is our website http://kw-uh.wikidot.com/. Under the "land share" section there is a google map where people can post if they are looking for land or if they have a backyard to lend. Also under the forums section there is a forum we've started where people can share spaces in town they know of that could be gg'd (guerrilla gardened). I've also attached a pamphlet about is if you could pass it along to anybody you know. We need more backyards for people in town to use. Send me an e-mail if anybody is interested in KW urban Harvester and I'll put you on the mailing list etc. kind wishes chaylene Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:23:05 -0400 From: jrochon at uwaterloo.ca To: garden at lists.wpirg.org; plcarol at region.waterloo.on.ca Subject: [Garden] A brief look at guerrilla gardening Gardeners, Here's an article on some unconventional gardeners: How guerrilla gardening took root By Mark Fraser Step Up, BBC Scotland Guerrilla gardeners in Glasgow have been liberating derelict and barren land in the city and turning it into gardens. BBC Scotland takes a look at the history of movement. The Bowery Garden circa 1973 Guerrilla gardeners wage urban campaign The roots of guerrilla gardening can be traced back to New York in 1973. Artist Liz Christy, who lived in the city's Lower East Side, assembled her friends and neighbours to clean out and take back an abandoned lot on the corner of Bowery and Houston. Dubbing themselves the Green Guerrillas they removed the rubbish and revitalised the soil, planting flowers, trees and edibles, while offering gardening workshops. Liz Christy took to petitioning the city's Housing and Preservation Department to make their newly-created garden - which they called the Bowery Garden - an official community garden. To this day it remains, taken care of by the Green Guerrillas and volunteers. It is now recognised by the city as an established community garden. The history of illicit gardening in Britain goes back centuries, starting with "the Diggers" - a group of socialites in the 17th Century who fought for the right to cultivate land. How the Bowery Garden looks today Some say that the origins of guerrilla gardening in the modern age can be traced back to the hippie movement in the 1960s. More recently, a statue of Winston Churchill was given an impromptu grass mohawk during the May Day riots in London in 2000. But it was not until Richard Reynolds decided to create a blog about his "illicit cultivations around London" in 2004 that it started to become a community in the UK. In 2008 Mr Reynolds cemented his status as the de facto figurehead of the guerrilla gardening movement by writing a book titled On Guerrilla Gardening. Not a manifesto as such, it gives a detailed history of guerrilla gardening as well as stories he has picked up on his travels visiting other guerrilla gardeners around the world. Unconventional weapons The movement has spread its seeds far and wide, with "cells" existing in places as far flung as Australia and Brazil. Indeed, any country that has a community of obsessive gardeners is likely to have an underground community of guerrillas, taking back public space. The "seed bomb" is one of the more unconventional weapons they use, alongside the more traditional watering cans, shovels, trowels, pitchforks, plants and seeds. The seed bomb of 1973 was known as the "green grenade" Primarily aimed to be used in areas where guerrilla gardeners are unable to cultivate land by themselves - be it through fear of reprisal for hanging around one place too long or in a place where they simply cannot reach - the seed bomb contains all the vital elements for plant life to begin. The current seed bomb is a far cry from the green grenades that were used when the movement began in 1973. Back then, they contained water, peat moss, fertilizer and seeds encased in Christmas decorations and water balloons. Nowadays there is more than one design and they are more environmentally conscious, using peat-free compost and organic fertilisers. The most common type of seed bomb is the clay seed ball. These can be created at home using a mixture of clay soil, compost, seeds and water and can be moulded into any shape. As times change so does the sophistication of the weaponry, and the latest innovation in seed bomb design has come from Glasgow-based studio Kabloom. THE MODERN SEED BOMB Contains peat moss, organic fertilizer and seeds Contents held in a biodegradable grenade shaped shell Unlike the green grenades, they use rain water to grow These new, more environmentally-friendly "SeedBoms" were created by Darren Wilson, who became involved in the Glasgow guerrilla gardening movement after finding out about it during research for the product. He created his own grenade-shaped version which is made using recycled materials alongside the ingredients needed to grow the flowers. "It's a bit fun, a bit quirky - a bit different. It's all about the fun, all about the interaction and making an impact... anyone can use these," he said. Darren has gone on to become an integral part of the guerrilla gardening cell in Glasgow, alongside founders Jennifer Calder and Michael Gallacher. While the actions of guerrilla gardeners are technically illegal, as they are transforming land which does not belong to them, the Glasgow group has won the endorsement of the local city council. The head of the local authority's land and environmental services division, Stevie Scott, has given encouragement to the movement. The council cannot afford to revitalise every bit of barren space in Glasgow, but is happy to support the guerrilla gardeners in their efforts to bring more colour back to the "dear green place". -- ----------------------- Jason Rochon Campus Tech, Student Life Centre Monday to Friday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Shop 24/7 at campustech.uwaterloo.ca. _________________________________________________________________ Say Happy New Year with Messenger for Mobile. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9706117 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _47419948_seedbom.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2203 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _47420113_seedbomb73.gif Type: image/gif Size: 42586 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _47453591_path.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 19309 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: inline_dashed_line.gif Type: image/gif Size: 58 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: _47453592_lcbh2.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 15302 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: o.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 999999.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SBYpamphlet_Kitchener_Waterloo_ON[1].pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 576507 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jrochon at uwaterloo.ca Tue Mar 30 15:14:48 2010 From: jrochon at uwaterloo.ca (J. Rochon) Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:14:48 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Jalapeno seeds Message-ID: <4BB24DA8.4060502@uwaterloo.ca> Gardeners, I picked up a packet of jalape?o pepper seeds. I do not want to be reimbursed for them, since I'll be sharing some of the excess. -- ----------------------- Jason Rochon Campus Tech, Student Life Centre Monday to Friday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Shop 24/7 at campustech.uwaterloo.ca. From cwormsbe at gmail.com Wed Mar 31 15:00:43 2010 From: cwormsbe at gmail.com (candace wormsbecker) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:00:43 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Looking for Volunteers on Organic Farm this Summer Message-ID: Hello Gardeners, I am in need of volunteers for Transpire Organic Farm this 2010 season. I am looking for a casual pool of labour for odd jobs or drop-ins as well as more committed volunteers. Unfortunately I am unable to pay any one for this season but I am able to share knowledge in organic agriculture and of course free vegetables. For this I am in need of a commitment of 10 hours/wk. I am somewhat flexible in how this is set up so if either of these opportunities interest you please let me know and I can provide you with more details. You can also check out www.transpireorganic.ca for more information. Thanks for your interest. Candace -- "If you trust your dreams half as much as you doubt them, you would get everything you want." - Mama Gena -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ethanhding at gmail.com Wed Mar 31 15:20:25 2010 From: ethanhding at gmail.com (Ethan Ding) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:20:25 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Looking for Volunteers on Organic Farm this Summer In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I may be willing to pitch in depending what I do this summer. On 31 March 2010 15:00, candace wormsbecker wrote: > Hello Gardeners, > > I am in need of volunteers for Transpire Organic Farm this 2010 season. I > am looking for a casual pool of labour for odd jobs or drop-ins as well as > more committed volunteers. Unfortunately I am unable to pay any one for > this season but I am able to share knowledge in organic agriculture and of > course free vegetables. For this I am in need of a commitment of 10 > hours/wk. I am somewhat flexible in how this is set up so if either of > these opportunities interest you please let me know and I can provide you > with more details. You can also check out www.transpireorganic.ca for > more information. > > Thanks for your interest. > > Candace > > -- > "If you trust your dreams half as much as you doubt them, you would get > everything you want." > > - Mama Gena > > > > _______________________________________________ > Garden mailing list > Garden at lists.wpirg.org > http://lists.wpirg.org/mailman/listinfo/garden_lists.wpirg.org > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vero.guillo at gmail.com Wed Mar 31 17:37:02 2010 From: vero.guillo at gmail.com (Vero Diaz) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:37:02 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Looking for Volunteers on Organic Farm this Summer In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Candance, We met last year with the UW community garden. I am also friends with Kat, Emily, and ashlea. Kat told me about your endevour and it sounds fascinating! I would love to volunteer! And Do you still have spot for your farm share? Thanks! Have fun, Veronica On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 3:00 PM, candace wormsbecker wrote: > Hello Gardeners, > > I am in need of volunteers for Transpire Organic Farm this 2010 season. I > am looking for a casual pool of labour for odd jobs or drop-ins as well as > more committed volunteers. Unfortunately I am unable to pay any one for > this season but I am able to share knowledge in organic agriculture and of > course free vegetables. For this I am in need of a commitment of 10 > hours/wk. I am somewhat flexible in how this is set up so if either of > these opportunities interest you please let me know and I can provide you > with more details. You can also check out www.transpireorganic.ca for > more information. > > Thanks for your interest. > > Candace > > -- > "If you trust your dreams half as much as you doubt them, you would get > everything you want." > > - Mama Gena > > > > _______________________________________________ > Garden mailing list > Garden at lists.wpirg.org > http://lists.wpirg.org/mailman/listinfo/garden_lists.wpirg.org > > -- Environmental Studies and Latin American Studies Undergraduate student, University of Waterloo -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pixie_da_first at hotmail.com Wed Mar 31 17:57:04 2010 From: pixie_da_first at hotmail.com (Sylvia Chapman) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:57:04 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Looking for Volunteers on Organic Farm this Summer In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: HI Candace, I am interested in volunteering. My availability would end come mid-June, but I'd be up for planting, tending,weeding ect in the begginings! The only experience I have with gardens is with helping my family out, which mostly involved weeding, harvesting and cooking/processing, but I am up for learning! I don't have a car, and so am hoping that the plot is either accessible by bus, bikeable, or I that I might be able to catch a ride with another volunteer driving out there. thanks, ~Sylvia. Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:00:43 -0400 From: cwormsbe at gmail.com To: garden at lists.wpirg.org Subject: [Garden] Looking for Volunteers on Organic Farm this Summer Hello Gardeners, I am in need of volunteers for Transpire Organic Farm this 2010 season. I am looking for a casual pool of labour for odd jobs or drop-ins as well as more committed volunteers. Unfortunately I am unable to pay any one for this season but I am able to share knowledge in organic agriculture and of course free vegetables. For this I am in need of a commitment of 10 hours/wk. I am somewhat flexible in how this is set up so if either of these opportunities interest you please let me know and I can provide you with more details. You can also check out www.transpireorganic.ca for more information. Thanks for your interest. Candace -- "If you trust your dreams half as much as you doubt them, you would get everything you want." - Mama Gena _________________________________________________________________ IM on the go with Messenger on your phone http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9712960 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From britton.jenner at gmail.com Wed Mar 31 18:17:49 2010 From: britton.jenner at gmail.com (Britton Jenner) Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:17:49 -0400 Subject: [Garden] Looking for Volunteers on Organic Farm this Summer In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Candace, I would love to volunteer at your farm and gain some organic farming experience. I'll likely be working during the summer and I'm getting married on June 5th so I have no idea what my schedule will be, but I'd love to help out when I can! Britton On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 3:00 PM, candace wormsbecker wrote: > Hello Gardeners, > > I am in need of volunteers for Transpire Organic Farm this 2010 season. I > am looking for a casual pool of labour for odd jobs or drop-ins as well as > more committed volunteers. Unfortunately I am unable to pay any one for > this season but I am able to share knowledge in organic agriculture and of > course free vegetables. For this I am in need of a commitment of 10 > hours/wk. I am somewhat flexible in how this is set up so if either of > these opportunities interest you please let me know and I can provide you > with more details. You can also check out www.transpireorganic.ca for > more information. > > Thanks for your interest. > > Candace > > -- > "If you trust your dreams half as much as you doubt them, you would get > everything you want." > > - Mama Gena > > > > _______________________________________________ > Garden mailing list > Garden at lists.wpirg.org > http://lists.wpirg.org/mailman/listinfo/garden_lists.wpirg.org > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jrochon at uwaterloo.ca Mon Mar 1 10:57:51 2010 From: jrochon at uwaterloo.ca (J. Rochon) Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:57:51 -0000 Subject: [Garden] Trendy Seeds Message-ID: <4B8BE3F4.3040505@uwaterloo.ca> Gardeners, Here's a little light reading: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/16/DD861BICQA.DTL -- ----------------------- Jason Rochon Campus Tech, Student Life Centre Monday to Friday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Shop 24/7 at campustech.uwaterloo.ca. From jrochon at uwaterloo.ca Mon Mar 1 14:43:18 2010 From: jrochon at uwaterloo.ca (J. Rochon) Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:43:18 -0000 Subject: [Garden] Fertilizers and soil health Message-ID: <4B8C18BF.3020202@uwaterloo.ca> Gardeners, Preppers and Armchair Economists, It seems that there's a small group of academics contesting the notion that artificial nitrogen fertilizer results in carbon sequestration. If they are right then artificial nitrogen actually reduces soil fertility, and locks farmers into using ever increasing amounts of fertilizer to offset the damage done by fertilizer. Sadly, they have repeatable results to back up their position.Clearly, we have gone a long time with artificial nitrogen, itself a product of WWI research, and it has put a lot of food on our plates. The point of diminishing returns remains unknown. ------------ Fairly used facts from from: http://www.energybulletin.net/print/51697 Most photos removed to keep your mailbox from swelling. san *New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health* Published Tue, 02/23/2010 - 08:00 by Grist /Just precisely what does all of that nitrogen ferilizer /do/ to the soil? "Fertilizer is good for the father and bad for the sons." ---Dutch saying/ For all of its ecological baggage, synthetic nitrogen does one good deed for the environment: it helps build carbon in soil. At least, that's what scientists have assumed for decades. If that were true, it would count as a major environmental benefit of synthetic N use. At a time of climate chaos and ever-growing global greenhouse gas emissions, anything that helps vast swaths of farmland sponge up carbon would be a stabilizing force. Moreover, carbon-rich soils store nutrients and have the potential to remain fertile over time---a boon for future generations. The case for synthetic N as a climate stabilizer goes like this. Dousing farm fields with synthetic nitrogen makes plants grow bigger and faster. As plants grow, they pull carbon dioxide from the air. Some of the plant is harvested as crop, but the rest---the residue---stays in the field and ultimately becomes soil. In this way, some of the carbon gobbled up by those N-enhanced plants stays in the ground and out of the atmosphere. Well, that logic has come under fierce challenge from a team of University of Illinois researchers led by professors Richard Mulvaney, Saeed Khan, and Tim Ellsworth. In two recent papers (see here and here ) the trio argues that the net effect of synthetic nitrogen use is to reduce soil's organic matter content. Why? Because, they posit, nitrogen fertilizer stimulates soil microbes, which feast on organic matter. Over time, the impact of this enhanced microbial appetite outweighs the benefits of more crop residues. And their analysis gets more alarming. Synthetic nitrogen use, they argue, creates a kind of treadmill effect. As organic matter dissipates, soil's ability to store organic nitrogen declines. A large amount of nitrogen then leeches away, fouling ground water in the form of nitrates, and entering the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas with some 300 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. In turn, with its ability to store organic nitrogen compromised, only one thing can help heavily fertilized farmland keep cranking out monster yields: more additions of synthetic N. The loss of organic matter has other ill effects, the researchers say. Injured soil becomes prone to compaction, which makes it vulnerable to runoff and erosion and limits the growth of stabilizing plant roots. Worse yet, soil has a harder time holding water, making it ever more reliant on irrigation. As water becomes scarcer, this consequence of widespread synthetic N use will become more and more challenging. In short, "the soil is bleeding," Mulvaney told me in an interview. If the Illinois team is correct, synthetic nitrogen's effect on carbon sequestration swings from being an important ecological advantage to perhaps its gravest liability. Not only would nitrogen fertilizer be contributing to climate change in a way not previously taken into account, but it would also be undermining the long-term productivity of the soil. /Getting their hands dirty: Saeed Khan, Richard Mulvaney, and Tim Ellsworth (l.-r.), in front of the Morrow Plots, University of Illinois. / *An Old Idea Germinates Anew* While their research bucks decades of received wisdom, the Illinois researchers know they aren't breaking new ground here. "The fact is, the message we're delivering in our papers really is a rediscovery of a message that appeared in the '20s and '30s," Mulvaney says. In their latest paper, "Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers Deplete Soil Nitrogen: A Global Dilemma for Sustainable Cereal Production," which appeared last year in the /Journal of Environmental Quality,/ the researchers point to two pre-war academic papers that, according to Mulvaney, "state clearly and simply that synthetic nitrogen fertilizers were promoting the loss of soil carbon and organic nitrogen." That idea also appears prominently in /The Soil and Health /(1947), a founding text of modern organic agriculture. In that book, the British agronomist Sir Albert Howard stated the case clearly: The use of artificial manure, particularly [synthetic nitrogen] ... does untold harm. The presence of additional combined nitrogen in an easily assimilable form stimulates the growth of fungi and other organisms which, in the search for organic matter needed for energy and for building up microbial tissue, use up first the reserve of soil hummus and then the more resistant organic matter which cements soil particles. In other words, synthetic nitrogen degrades soil. That conclusion has been current in organic-farming circles since Sir Albert's time. In an essay in the important 2002 anthology /Fatal Harvest Reader, /the California organic farmer Jason McKenney puts it like this: Fertilizer application begins the destruction of soil biodiversity by diminishing the role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and amplifying the role of everything that feeds on nitrogen. These feeders then speed up the decomposition of organic matter and humus. As organic matter decreases, the physical structure of soil changes. With less pore space and less of their sponge-like qualities, soils are less efficient at storing water and air. More irrigation is needed. Water leeches through soils, draining away nutrients that no longer have an effective substrate on which to cling. With less available oxygen the growth of soil microbiology slows, and the intricate ecosystem of biological exchanges breaks down. Although those ideas flourished in organic-ag circles, they withered to dust among soil scientists at the big research universities. Mulvaney told me that in his academic training---he holds a PhD in soil fertility and chemistry from the University of Illinois, where he is now a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences---he was never exposed to the idea that synthetic nitrogen degrades soil. "It was completely overlooked," he says. "I had never heard of it, personally, until we dug into the literature." What sets the Illinois scientists apart from other critics of synthetic nitrogen is their provenance. Sir Albert's denouncement sits in a dusty old tome that's pretty obscure even within the organic-agriculture world ; Jason McKenney is an organic farmer who operates near Berkeley ---considered la-la land by mainstream soil scientists. Both can be---and, indeed have been---ignored by policymakers and large-scale farmers. By contrast, Mulvaney and his colleagues are living, credentialed scientists working at the premier research university in one of the nation's most prodigious corn-producing---and nitrogen-consuming---states. morrow plots /Abandon all hope, all fertilizer execs who enter here. / *The Dirt on Nitrogen, Soil, and Carbon * To come to their conclusions, the researchers studied data from the Morrow plots on the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus, which comprise the "the world's oldest experimental site under continuous corn" cultivation. The Morrow plots were first planted in 1876. Mulvaney and his collaborators analyzed annual soil-test data in test plots that were planted with three crop rotations: continuous corn, corn-soy, and corn-oats-hay. Some of the plots received moderate amounts of fertilizer application; some received high amounts; and some received no fertilizer at all. The crops in question, particularly corn, generate tremendous amounts of residue. Picture a Midwestern field in high summer, packed with towering corn plants. Only the cobs are harvested; the rest of the plant is left in the field. If synthetic nitrogen use really does promote carbon sequestration, you'd expect these fields to show clear gains in soil organic carbon over time. Instead, the researchers found, all three systems showed a "net decline occurred in soil [carbon] despite increasingly massive residue [carbon] incorporation." (They published their findings, "The Myth of Nitrogen Fertilization for Soil Carbon Sequestration," in the/ Journal of Environmental Quality/ in 2007.) In other words, synthetic nitrogen broke down organic matter faster than plant residue could create it. A particularly stark set of graphs traces soil organic carbon (SOC) in the surface layer of soil in the Morrow plots from 1904 to 2005. SOC rises steadily over the first several decades, when the fields were fertilized with livestock manure. After 1967, when synthetic nitrogen became the fertilizer of choice, SOC steadily drops. In their other major paper, "Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers Deplete Soil Nitrogen: A Global Dilemma for Sustainable Cereal Production" (2009), the authors looked at nitrogen retention in the soil. Given that the test plots received annual lashings of synthetic nitrogen, conventional ag science would predict a buildup of nitrogen. Sure, some nitrogen would be removed with the harvesting of crops, and some would be lost to runoff. But healthy, fertile soil should be capable of storing nitrogen. In fact, the researchers found just the opposite. "Instead of accumulating," they wrote, "soil nitrogen declined significantly in every subplot sampled." The only explanation, they conclude, is that the loss of organic matter depleted the soil's ability to store nitrogen. The practice of year-after-year fertilization had pushed the Morrow plots onto the chemical treadmill: unable to efficiently store nitrogen, they became reliant on the next fix. The researchers found similar data from other test plots. "Such evidence is common in the scientific literature but has seldom been acknowledged, perhaps because N fertilizer practices have been predicated largely on short-term economic gain rather than long-term sustainability," they write, citing some two dozen other studies which mirrored the patterns of the Morrow plots. The most recent bit of evidence for the Mulvaney team's nitrogen thesis comes from a team of researchers at Iowa State University and the USDA. In a 2009 paper (PDF), this group looked at data from two long-term experimental sites in Iowa. And they, too, found that soil carbon had declined after decades of synthetic nitrogen applications. They write: "Increases in decay rates with N fertilization apparently offset gains in carbon inputs to the soil in such a way that soil C sequestration was virtually nil in 78% of the systems studied, despite up to 48 years of N additions." /Fertile ground for research: the Morrow Plots at the University of Illinois. Photo:brianholsclaw / /*Slinging Dirt*/ Mulvaney and Khan laughed when I asked them what sort of response their work was getting in the soil-science world. "You can bet the fertilizer industry is aware of our work, and they aren't too pleased," Mulvaney said. "It's all about sales, and our conclusions aren't real good for sales." As for the soil-science community, Mulvaney said with a chuckle, "the response is still building." There has been negative word-of-mouth reaction, he added, but so far, only two responses have been published: a remarkable fact, given that the first paper came out in 2007. Both published responses fall into the those-data-don't-say-what-you-say-they category. The first, published as a letter to the editor (PDF) in the /Journal of Environmental Quality, /came from D. Keith Reid, a soil fertility specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Reid writes that the Mulvaney team's conclusion about synthetic nitrogen and soil carbon is "sensational" and "would be incredibly important if it was true." Reid acknowledges the drop in soil organic carbon, but argues that it was caused not by synthetic nitrogen itself, but rather by the difference in composition between manure and synthetic nitrogen. Manure is a mix of slow-release organic nitrogen and organic matter; synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is pure, readily available nitrogen. "It is much more likely that the decline in SOC is due to the change in the form of fertilizer than to the rate of fertilizer applied," Reid writes. Then he makes a startling concession: From the evidence presented in this paper, it would be fair to conclude that modern annual crop management systems are associated with declines in SOC concentrations and that increased residue inputs from high nitrogen applications do not mitigate this decline as much as we might hope. In other words, modern farming---i.e., the kind practiced on nearly all farmland in the United States---destroys soil carbon. (The Mulvaney team's response to Reid's critique can be found in the above-linked document.) The second second critique (PDF) came from a team led by D.S. Powlson at the Department of Soil Science and Centre for Soils and Ecosystem Function at the Rothamsted Research Station in the United Kingdom. Powlson and colleagues attack the Mulvaney team's contention that synthetic nitrogen depletes the soil's ability to store nitrogen. "We propose that the conclusion drawn by Mulvaney et al. (2009), that inorganic N fertilizer causes a decline in soil organic N concentration, is false and not supported by the data from the Morrow Plots or from numerous studies worldwide," they write. Then they, too, make a major concession: "the observation of significant soil C and N declines in subsoil layers is interesting and deserves further consideration." That is, they don't challenge Mulvaney team's contention that synthetic nitrogen destroys organic carbon in the subsoil. In their response (PDF), Mulvaney and his colleagues mount a vigorous defense of their methodology. And then they conclude: In the modern era of intensified agriculture, soils are generally managed as a commodity to maximize short-term economic gain. Unfortunately, this concept entirely ignores the consequences for a vast array of biotic and abiotic soil processes that aff ect air and water quality and most important, the soil itself. So who's right? For now, we know that the Illinois team has presented a robust cache of evidence that turns 50 years of conventional soil science on its head---and an analysis that conventional soil scientists acknowledge is "sensational" and "incredibly important" if true. We also know that their analysis is consistent with the founding principles of organic agriculture: that properly applied manure and nitrogen-fixing cover crops, not synthetic nitrogen, are key to long-term soil health and fertility. The subject demands more study and fierce debate. But if Mulvaney and his team are correct, the future health of our farmland hinges on a dramatic shift away from reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Content on this site is subject to our fair use notice . -- ----------------------- Jason Rochon Campus Tech, Student Life Centre Monday to Friday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Shop 24/7 at campustech.uwaterloo.ca. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: morrow_plots_sign_425.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 36202 bytes Desc: not available URL: