Community CROPS April 2009 Newsletter
Garden Tips and News
Welcome to spring! It's definitely time to be getting out in the garden and planting some delicious vegetables. Things that can be planted now include: potatoes, spinach, lettuce, kale, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, onions, beets, radishes and more. These are all plants that can tolerate a bit of frost and enjoy the cooler weather. This is also a good time to plan out new garden beds and lay down cardboard to kill the grass or weeds for a few weeks in that area.
If you haven't already heard, there's quite a bit of interest in community gardening and gardening throughout the country, including a garden being planted on the White House lawn. New York Times Article
Community CROPS has been busy preparing for spring with our five new garden sites, new farm participants and some great new staff. We have all sorts of little plants growing in preparation for the plant sale and we've been organizing a variety of garden classes to help everyone learn how easy and fun it is to grow your own food. Keep reading for all the details.
Garden Classes
We have a series of three basic gardening classes scheduled over the next month, each with a different focus, and each in a different location. On April 16, Janet Buck will be presenting a basic 'how to garden' class in northeast Lincoln. Bertine Loop will be explaining how to grow vegetables in containers on April 29 in northwest Lincoln. On May 6, George Edgar will be teaching a basic gardening class, with a focus on how to prevent diseases and what organic chemicals are available locally. Join us for any or all of these sessions -- see our Workshops Page for details.
Seed Swap
Come talk seeds! We're having our annual Community CROPS Seed Swap on Saturday, April 18th, 2-4pm at the F Street Rec Center. Bring seeds you've saved or just extra seed packets to share, and join us for a fun afternoon with other gardeners. Swap your seeds for varieties of vegetables that do well here in Nebraska and get some good stories to go along with them! Don't have anything to share? Come anyway--there's bound to be plenty and you'll learn a lot from the experienced gardeners there.
Lincoln's Earth Day Celebration
Last year Lincoln had an awesome Earth Day event--this year's is destined to be amazing! This year’s theme is "Energy – A Time for Action", the event will spotlight effective ways of using "energy" to make Lincoln a more sustainable community. Located in downtown Lincoln at 12th & R Streets and on UNL City Campus, Lincoln Earth Day will be full of learning opportunities for energy conservation and renewable energy innovations, but even more importantly, for using human energy in the form of personal and political engagement to hasten the transition to sustainability. Community CROPS will have a booth as well as offer a short garden "teach in" during the day. Lincoln's Earth Day
Fresh Vegetables Picked Weekly--No Work Needed
You know you should be eating more vegetables...but sometimes it is hard to find the extra time in the day to get a garden going--or maybe you just don't have the space. The beginning farmers in our Urban Farmers Project would be happy to grow you a variety of delicious vegetables and harvest them the day you receive them. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage and much more can be picked up weekly. Shares are filling up quickly so see our CSA page to sign up now!Community Gardens -- Grow Your Own
Need a little bit of land to grow your own garden? We still have a few spots left in the community gardens around Lincoln. With 15 locations, there's bound to be one close to you. We'll provide the land, water, seeds and tools--you just need to do the work to grow a bounty of vegetables all summer. Not ready for your own plot? Sign up to share a communal plot and learn how to garden with others. Gardens Page
Community CROPS 6th Annual Plant Sale
Saturday, May 9, 1:30-4pm, West Gate Bank, 50th and O
Mark your calendar for this year's plant sale--always an event to attend and enjoy. Hundreds of vegetable transplants will be available for you to buy, everything from White Sausage Tomatoes to Calabrese Broccoli. There will also be plenty of hardy perennials, flowers, herbs and house plants to choose from. Plant Sale page
Eileen Schell: The Rhetoric of Local Food
Thursday, April 9, from 2:15pm-3:45pm in Dudley Bailey Library, 229 Andrews Hall
Eileen Schell’s talk examines the rhetoric of 21st-century “Victory Gardens,” including calls for citizens to return to local food systems in response to unsustainable food practices and a food system dependent on fossil fuel transport, fertilizers, and large scale industrial farming. Tracing the rhetorical history of efforts to return to “local food” through the most local of all local venues—the yard surrounding a residence—Schell examines various contemporary “agrifood social movements.” This talk is free and open to the public.
Pioneers Park Nature Center Nature's Market
Saturday, April 18, 9am-1pm
Head on out to Pioneers Park Nature Center for a fun event for the whole family including opportunities to purchase great art, make nature crafts, visit booths (including Community CROPS), and purchase your very own rain barrel. The beautifully painted rain barrels you've seen around Lincoln will be on live auction, beginning at 9:30am. PP Nature Center
New Tote Bags!
Show the world that you support Community CROPS! Purchase a new 2009 designed tote bag and use it for all your shopping outings. Bags read "Food Grown Where You Live". Bags will be available for sale at the Nature's Market, Earth Day, and our farmers' market stands, or order on-line.
