Wildflower Wednesday

Following a winter break, April is a good time to re-join Wildflower Wednesday, Gail's monthly celebration of (mostly native) wildflowers. It's such a joy having wildflowers blooming again here in the Chicago southland.

The foliage is just as pretty as the flowers on celandine poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum, above,) also commonly known as wood poppies. While I've read they need consistently moist soil, they thrive here in our dry shade woodland garden. Celandine poppies self-seed readily, so I generally try to stay on top of deadheading them. Keeping them deadheaded also helps keep them blooming here spring through fall.

I'm not sure if this a red or white trillium. We had both, though two of them haven't reappeared this spring. The reds were planted five years ago, and the white one two years ago. This will be the first one to ever bloom. Trilliums, also known as wake robin, can take years to become established and bloom. They are becoming more and more rare in their native habitats. Prized by many gardeners, care should be taken that they are purchased from reputable growers. Mom is very lucky to have a nice stand of them in her woods, but this is one of the plants I wouldn't disturb to bring home for our garden.

It's the first year our Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica,) are blooming! Planted three years ago, some came from Possibility Place, our local native plants nursery. A few also came from K's (my firstborn's) garden last spring. They sulked after transplanting them here, wilting and dying back within a couple of weeks. I was so happy to see them come back this spring!

Virginia bluebells, like trilliums, are spring ephemerals. Ephemerals are woodland plants with a short growing season during which they leaf out, bloom, set seed, and then the above-ground part of the plant dies back. Bluebells can be prolific self-seeders, forming large colonies in a few years. Now that our long-awaited blooms are here, some will be allowed to set seed, but most will be deadheaded to prevent them from taking over the garden. Extra seedlings can also easily be weeded from the garden or shared with fellow native-plant lovers.

Last but certainly not least are these mystery Spring beauties (Claytonia virginica,) another ephemeral. I'm not sure how these tiny plants got here, but am happy they came! Most likely their seeds arrived with the other woodland natives transplanted from Mom's woods or K's gardens last spring, or maybe they were planted by squirrels or birds. Spring beauties are also known as fairy spuds, as the tubers (which are edible and said to taste like chestnuts,) look like tiny potatoes.

Wildflower Wednesday is hosted on the fourth Wednesday each month by my friend Gail who blogs from Tennessee at Clay and Limestone. In honor of spring, this time she's celebrating wildflowers with a week-long extravaganza. Native plant lovers will revel in the plethora of inspiring posts by Gail and other participating bloggers.

April Bloom Day - Yay Spring!

Between our still mostly-chilly days this month, we've enjoyed a few gloriously mild, sunny ones. Every moment of those warmer days has been savored, with windows thrown open, patio furniture uncovered, and every possible minute spent outdoors. Blooms are a bit behind schedule compared to our last two springs, which were warmer than usual. I can't help hoping the cooler spring will lead to a milder, wetter summer than the last two hot, dry ones.

We have daffodils, scillas, hellebores, bloodroot (bloodroot thanks to Mom and Monica!) pulmonarias, and celandine poppies blooming, with Virginia bluebells and a hellebore (Mrs. Betty Ranicar with white, double blooms, added three years ago,) about to the bloom for the first time. We have a few more bluebells transplanted last spring from my oldest daughter K's garden, and three of those will be blooming shortly too. Bleeding hearts, wild geraniums, epimediums, anemones, and columbines, serviceberry, and Bradford pear are budding. Indoors, the African violet is once again in full, glorious bloom, and the one dragon wing begonia that's not in the basement is enjoying the streaming morning sunlight in the east window where it waits for warmer weather.

The garden continues to mature and this season will bring more blooms than ever. At this moment though, what I'm most excited about is that bloodroot; and mayapples, Dutchman's breeches, shooting stars, and trout lilies - the natives brought back from Mom's woods last spring. All survived the winter and are up and growing. The trout lilies won't bloom yet this spring. They are young, and each has only one leaf. But what beautiful, unusual leaves they are with their brown and green speckles. Speaking of Mom's, by the time you read this I'll be on my way up to Southwest Wisconsin for a visit. I wonder what will jump out of the woods and into the car for the trip back home this time!

For more Bloom Day posts, please visit Carol, the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day where she blogs at May Dreams Gardens.

A Mom Learns About GMOs

A mom-turned-activist talks about what she learned after one of her children had a severe allergic reaction to a typical industrial-food breakfast.

Part II: Be the Change - Garden Bloggers' Sustainable Living Project

This post is inspired by Jan, who is hosting the second annual Garden Bloggers Sustainable Living Project in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd. To participate and/or to see more garden bloggers' posts on sustainable living, please visit her where she blogs at Thanks for Today.

When Mom and her Garden Buddy retired and moved north to rural southwest Wisconsin, besides (of course!) planting a large vegetable garden which provides nearly all of of their produce needs during the season, they preserve much of the surplus, which lasts until the next harvest. They've established a wonderful web of local, sustainable, organic farmers who provide them with pasture-raised eggs, dairy, meats, and some of the fruit they don't grow themselves. I've long wished I could find the same kind of food, but alas, here in Chicago's south suburbs, the best we could do for a long time was to grow some of our own vegetables and shop for organic food at local health food stores.

Homewood Kitchen Gardens at the last farmers market of the 2010 season. They grow organic herbs, vegetables, and flowers in their yards(!) to sell at the market, and create chemical-free soaps, body washes, candles, insect repellent, nature-inspired artwork, and other wonderful products.

Fortunately the food landscape here and in many urban and suburban areas throughout the country is gradually changing. People who want the best quality, sustainably, organically, locally-produced food now often have more options. Our own, and every surrounding little burg now has a farmers market. While organic produce is still not as readily available in our local farmers markets as I'd like, there are a few vendors who are selling organic food, and those are the ones I patronize.

We have two small raised beds in our semi-sunny side yards where I grow a surprising amount of food. Both are intensively planted, and supply most of our vegetables and herbs during the growing season; with enough extra to freeze, pickle, and dehydrate for winter. Even now in late March, we still have dried and frozen herbs, pickles, tomato sauce, and chopped, frozen peppers left from last summer. (Some of the peppers came from Mom's garden.)

Even a small garden can be surprisingly productive, especially one built with raised beds filled with really healthy soil and lots of compost. Here in our raised beds,every inch is used. Succession planting increases the yield. Containers add valuable real estate to our vegetable growing space, and are used by many small-space vegetable gardeners and urban farmers for growing some of their own food. All our veggies are heirloom varieties started from seed, grown organically. Some are started from seeds I save from year to year.

Buying clubs and CSAs (community supported agriculture,) are thriving in the south suburbs and NW Indiana, and becoming more readily available in urban and suburban areas around the country. Our local health food store, and a little local mom-and-pop grocery with a much larger-than-average percentage of local, organic, and sustainably-produced food fill in the gaps.

Using these wonderful resources, I've opted out of the industrial food machine. Although looking for alternatives to large grocery store chains, purchasing from a variety of sustainable resources, and cooking from scratch can be time-consuming, the benefits far outweigh the effort. Once the systems are in place, it becomes easy, efficient, and routine. Since ramping up efforts to seek sustainably-produced local food, my health has improved. And, it feels so good knowing who, and where our food comes from, and knowing it's being produced without chemical toxins like artificial hormones, antibiotics, fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, test-tube additives, and without genetically-modified ingredients.

For others who would like to get creative with their food supply, discover a rapidly-growing community of like-minded eaters, get to know the dedicated farmers growing wholesome foods in their area, and seek local, sustainably-grown produce, pasture-raised eggs, poultry, dairy, and meat, Eat Wild and Local Harvest provide information and resources for finding local farmers, buying clubs, co-ops, and farmers markets. Have fun, and enjoy the flavors, fragrances, textures, colors, and environmental and personal health benefits of REAL FOOD!

Thank you Jan, for hosting the second annual Garden Bloggers Sustainable Living Project. May we all be a little, or a lot more inspired to do as much as we can to live in harmony with Mother Earth. We need her a lot more than she needs us.

Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time . . . You must not lose faith in humanity . . .
You must be the change you want to see in the world . . . ~
Mahatma Gandhi

Part I: Be the Change - Garden Bloggers' Sustainable Living Project

This post is inspired by Jan, who is hosting the second annual Garden Bloggers Sustainable Living Project in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd. To participate and/or to see more garden bloggers' posts on sustainable living, please visit her where she blogs at Thanks for Today.

Growing up in a family of farmers and organic gardeners, and being a life-long organic vegetable gardener myself, I've always been passionate for sustainable, healthy living. My parents, four siblings and I spent our early years living in a 2-flat on Chicago's north side, and moved to our little house with the big yard in the spring when I was ten years old. Our first big family projects in our new home were building a very large compost bin and a huge vegetable garden. We grew up on organic vegetables, and local, free-range chicken and eggs Mom bartered for in exchange for her excellent sewing skills.

Mom and her Garden Buddy still grow a large vegetable garden. Most of the rest of their food comes from local organic farmers.

For some of our other groceries, Mom shopped at the local health food store, and a local farm stand, long before the days of the prolific farmers markets that continue to pop up all around the Chicago area and around the country. Almost everything we ate was fresh, whole, slow food. Even though we lived in an inner-ring suburb with little nearby farm land, we were locavores as much as possible in those days, long before those terms were coined and those concepts were trendy.

As young children, we came home from school every day for a freshly-prepared, wholesome lunch. Our cream-top milk from a local dairy was delivered in glass returnable bottles along with eggs, butter, and other delicious, farm fresh food. After we moved to the suburbs and carried our (re-usable) lunchboxes to school, our lunches were made from whole foods and fresh fruits and veggies. Snacks besides vegetables, nuts, fresh and dried fruit were almost always homemade. (I still have fond memories of Mom's healthy and delicious oatmeal-raisin cookies, homemade bread, and whole-grain pizzas!) Our sandwiches were made from wholesome ingredients on brown breads while our friends were eating processed cold cuts, Wonder Bread and Twinkies.

My own three girls were raised on the same kinds of fresh, whole, wholesome foods, and got to grow up experiencing the pleasure of fresh garden vegetables, often eaten still warm from the sun. There was little room for boxed, canned, and other processed foods in our house, and there were times the girls, like their mom, aunt, and uncles before them were envious of friends who were growing up on the prolifically advertised and touted-as-modern-and-convenient heavily-processed boxed, frozen, and canned foods, and sugary sodas. Ding Dongs and orange cheese doodles were a lot more popular at school than fresh fruits and vegetables and real-food homemade snacks. We were the kids no one wanted to swap lunches with.

Just as I had, my daughters grew up on fresh, mostly homemade and home-grown slow food. Even then, organic was our first choice for everything that didn't come from our garden. As adults they have adopted these same kinds of choices in how they feed themselves and their own young families. They're grateful for having been raised as 'conscious eaters.' They understand the importance of, and know how to provide themselves and their families with whole, health-sustaining, as unadulterated-as-possible, nourishing foods.
My youngest in her grandma's garden

Over the years, the SAD (Standard American Diet) has become even more nutritionally-deficient, artificial, chemical-laden, inferior, and filled with cheap, health-robbing, government-subsidized commodity ingredients. Processed, convenience, and fast foods are produced by the enormous, highly-profitable US industrial food system and are pesticide-laced, artificially-colored and flavored, high in sugar, preservatives, hydrogenated and trans fats, genetically-modified, stripped of nutrients, and then, incredibly, fortified with cheap synthentic, poorly-assimilated isolated vitamins and minerals that cannot possibly take the place of whole, natural, fresh food.

Farm animals in this country are mostly raised in industrially-run CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations,) where they are fed horribly unnatural, genetically-modified diets supplemented with unspeakable garbage, treated with antibiotics, artificial and genetically-modified hormones, and housed in unnatural, often filthy environments, crowded and barely able to move, and often standing, sitting, and lying in their own waste. It's no wonder food-borne illness has become such a huge issue in our country. Food-borne illness takes a huge toll when it strikes families and individuals. It kills. When it doesn't kill, it can leave it's victims with chronic, incurable diseases. I am one of the unlucky individuals who learned this first-hand.

The waste from CAFO-raised animals is a huge problem which pollutes our water, air, and soil, and damages the quality of life in surrounding communities where the toxins and stench they unleash into the the environment lead to health problems for surrounding residents, especially the most vulnerable: the children. Antibiotics fed to livestock raised in these unnatural conditions are contributing to the dangerous rise in antibiotic-resistant superbugs like MRSA and certain strains of e-coli.

It's little wonder the United States now ranks 49th in the world for life expectancy, down from 24th in 1999, and 11th in 1986. Two years ago the US ranked 28th in the world in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960. For the first time in US history, today's young children can expect shorter lifespans than their parents, and are suffering from a host of health conditions virtually unknown in previous generations. Diet-related obesity and diabetes are afflicting our children at rates never seen before. And while the population of the US and the world is growing unsustainably, the alarmingly increasing rates of infertility and miscarriage are probably not the most desirable means of population control.

The US industrial food system is producing disease and our health care system is broken. Our air, water, and food are filled with dangerous toxins, and factory farming and industrial food are major contributors to these problems.

Here in the United States, the unholy alliance between our government and industrial polluters, Big Ag, and Big Pharma has led to a seriously broken system that is taking a huge toll on human, animal, and environmental health. Genetically-modified foods are being unleashed into our environment and into our food without proper, ethical scientific evidence of their safety. The news is not good.

As gardeners we may be in more direct contact with the natural world than the average person. We know the importance of organic and sustainable gardening - for the sake of our soil, our pollinators, and the other wildlife that visit our gardens, and for the health our of pets, our families, and our own health. Most of us know that pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are not healthy for the natural world, of which we are inextricably a part. More and more of us are using organic, sustainable gardening methods.

More and more of us are learning of the importance of native plants for the health of our soil and our beleaguered pollinators. More and more of us are planting open-pollinated heirlooms in our vegetable gardens, saving and swapping seeds, and going organic from seed to table. And more and more of us are becoming activists and advocates for local, organic, and sustainably-produced food. Home vegetable gardening is growing in popularity, and encouragingly, more and more young people are becoming sustainable, organic food gardeners and farmers.

In Part II, I'll talk about how I've opted out of the unsustainable industrial food system as completely as possible.