The Providential Gardener

Speaking of Backyard Gardens....

Speaking of backyard gardens... is Katherine Brown, Executive Director of Southside Community Land Trust. Take 5 minutes to see this video filmed in the summer of 2007 on Natural News Network. Katherine describes the work SCLT does to establish community and individual gardens in and around Providence. Her dream is to establish 10,000 gardens here in the city ~ to influence the neighborhood planning process so that community gardens are included in open spaces where possible. SCLT garden practices are exclusively organic, and they welcome interested visitors. Of course their annual plant sale in May is always a great place to buy flowers and vegetables ~ and there's always a good assortment of herbs and perennials.

Rhode Island Real Food Coalition ~ A New Statewide Campus Initiative

The Sustainable Food Initiative (SuFI) at Brown University is well organized and active on several fronts.  I think these excerpts from their November 19th, 2007, email will interest readers of The Providential Gardener, especially those who are connected with other Rhode Island colleges and universities:

Here is a link to a report about The Real Food Summit at Yale:

The Real Food Summit: A Campus Movement Takes Shape

"Now the Sustainable Food Initiative is  working with students from the Green Collaborative at Johnson and Wales University, Providence College, and our friends at RISD to start a "RI Real Food" group--a statewide coalition of students demanding a change in campus dining--working to leverage a big change in the way our colleges and universities spend their money.  We are planning to officially associate in January.

IF you know folks who are (potentially) interested in environmental issues, or just and sustainable food at other schools in RI (Salve Regina, CCRI, Roger William, URI, etc.), LET US KNOW!!!

Email contact for SuFI: David Schwartz

Garden/Landscape Masters & Professionals

Although garden and landscape work is winding down in mid-October [although it's hard to keep that in mind when the temperature hits 76 degrees, as it did today], the Master Gardeners and RINLA professionals are still busy.

URI Master Gardeners are looking forward to their annual meeting in November, and they are still answering the URI Master Gardener Hotline for a few more weeks. Call them if you are having garden problems Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., at 1-800-448-1011 (this only works in Rhode Island). They are also working on the Poinsettia Sale on Saturday, December 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at URI East Farm on Route 108, one mile south of the intersection of Route 138.

But most of all, I'd like to recommend you take the Master Gardener course yourself. Registration is open for this February-April, 16-week course that trains people to be volunteers who help Rhode Islanders learn about sustainable gardening practices. Find out more about the program on the MG About Us page, and consider taking the course ~ if not this year, then in a year or two. It took me a few years to work this into my schedule, but I succeeded this year and have completed more than the required 50 hours of volunteer work to earn the official recognition of Master Gardener. Another Rhode Island blogger, Caroline Brown, was in the class of 2006 and wrote about her experiences on Earth Friendly Gardening. Hope you join us one day!

Professional Gardeners include members of Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association (RINLA) , a trade organization that takes the industry far beyond the mow, blow, and go guys to provide "education, research support, legislative representation, certification, and promotion of the value of green industry goods and services to the public."

If you hire people to tend your lawn, gardens, or landscape, be sure to read the RINLA links page. They  explain how to choose a garden center, horticulturist, landscape contractor or designer, lawn service, stone mason, or arborist. RINLA runs a horticulturist certification program. If you are going to pay good money for your landscape, you owe it to yourself to know what professional landscape expertise would look like.

New England Carnivorous Plant Society Plans Amazing Show

Members of the New England Carnivorous Plant Society are gathering on September 8th to finish plans for their 5th annual Carnivorous Plant Show, to be held September 29-30 at Roger Williams Park greenhouses, Providence, RI. You may want to join in on the fun. This is an active and interesting group, to say nothing of their beloved plants!

Seeds of Hope Garden Tour

Take a walk through Southside Community Land Trust's Somerset Community Garden and City Farm and learn about our broad range of programs that help people grown food. 

THURSDAYS at 6pm
August 9th
August 16th
August 23rd
August 30th

To sign up for a free, hour-long tour, call Taylor at (401)273-9419, x23 or email outreach@southsideclt.org.

Pollution, Coastlines, and Invasive Species

Here are other comments on some recent Providence Journal articles. And by the way, there are a lot of environmental issues and wouldn't it be great if Projo produced many more!

Current events can be complex, and we count on news reporting to be balanced, or at least to start shining light on issues. Not having conducted my own research on these topics, I don't have positions on them, but there are basic principles that come from common sense, and most of us share these principles and sense. Having started this paragraph by noting complexity, life is nonetheless simple as well.

DEM & Tiverton

HEALTHY HOMES AND [MILLION] DOLLAR BILLS: Several recent Projo articles have reported on the RI Department of Environmental Management's contract with an out of state law firm to bring its case against Southern Union, which now owns Fall River Gas. None of us would like to discover that we own property that we are forbidden to dig in because of toxic chemicals being deposited there 50 years ago. And Rhode Island taxpayers cannot be happy about the costs involved in this lawsuit. We expect state employees and elected officials to manage money wisely.

CRMC & CLF

KEEPING THE BIG PICTURE IN MIND: Another Projo article reported that The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) is asking for an investigation of the Coastal Resources Management Council's (CRMC) decisions in 18 cases. Agencies like CRMC hear proposals to override existing regulations, and surely the requestors and their lawyers can make good cases. But in regard to our coastal lands, when you make one exception, then it's a little easier to make another exception, and then another.... So before long, so much shoreland can be developed or altered that the entire Narragansett Bay will be unable to cope with a major storm surge during a hurricane. Folks, that undeveloped shoreline is the natural flood plain for the high water of occasional megastorms. This very problem was a contributing cause to the New Orleans disaster, wasn't it? The shore buffer zones and regulations preventing shore development have a sound basis. And who knows? If Rhode Island kept to a conservative shoreline development policy, that could have a positive impact on the problem of rising insurance rates or no available insurance for shore properties.

Invasive Species

PREPAREDNESS: Besides news in the paper, there are the editorials and commentaries, the op-ed pieces. One recent commentary by David  W. Gregg of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey (RINHS) negatively compared Rhode Island to Massachusetts when it comes to dealing with invasive species:

"...Rhode Island, by contrast [with Massachusetts], has only a rudimentary invasive-species education program, a patchwork of prevention regulations, and neither a coordinated monitoring system nor a rapid-response plan...."

Are there other dimensions or sides to this problem? Comment on this post! Do you know anything about RINHS's Invasive Species Preparedness Strategy for Rhode Island? Here is the link to the RINHS page for the Rhode Island Invasive Species Portal. 

USDA Open House, Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Several federal and state agencies are housed at The USDA Service Center, 60 Quaker Lane, Warwick, RI, and they are having an open house on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 from 3:00pm to 5:30pm. The space is newly remodeled. This event is hosted by:

• Roylene Rides at the Door, Natural Resources Conservation Service State Conservationist
• Robert Swanson, Farm Service Agency Executive Director in Rhode Island
• David Delisle, Rural Development Area Director

Come and learn about USDA programs in Rhode Island. Directions.

Rhode Island Agriculture Day at the State House, 2007

The upper rotunda of the State House was the setting for Rhode Island Agriculture Day, Tuesday, May 22, 2007. We enjoyed good food, including oysters on the half shell and stuffed quahaugs, saw several folks honored with induction into the Rhode Island Agricultural Hall of Fame, and we found out there are a LOT of groups supporting farming in our small state.

I'll be your eyes and ears, because many of you may not have had the opportunity ~ Here is a list of exhibiting groups, events I found out about, and a detail or two about each that you would have learned had you been there (the order is random: it's how the papers made it out of my book bag onto my desk tonight). How many of these groups do you know about? The rest of this post is LONG! But I aim to write briefly about each group some time soon, and I'll add links.

Rhode Island Agriculture Day, Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The time is 11:30 to 5pm, the place is the Statehouse rotunda in Providence, and featured attractions are:

• 25 Exhibitors offering local food samples
• Announcement of the first inductees into the RI Agricultural Hall of Fame
• Announcement of $70,000 in Farm Viability Grants

Come celebrate Rhode Island agriculture and meet the folks who bring you local food! You do eat, don't you? Why not locally grown food? For more info, see the rest of this post, which is a press release from the Department of Environmental Management on the web:
 

Environmental Fair at the JCC

Local farmers and environmental groups will be on hand for the first Tu B'Shvat and Environmental Fair at the RI JCC on Elmgrove Avenue in Providence this Sunday, Feb 4. It's organized by the newly formed Rhode Island Jewish Environmental Alliance, and runs from 1 to 4 pm.