Brummet's Conscious Blog

Understanding Garden Terms Do you find yourself confused by terms like: hybrid, genetically modified, heirloom, open-pollinated, heritage and microsystem? In this article we will go over some basics that will help clear up some of the confusion. First, let’s look at the difference between a microsystem and an ecosystem. To gardeners an ecosystem would be used to describe the region’s average high and low temperatures, sea level, rainfall and moisture and the zone. A micro-system  (also spelled: microsystem) could be your entire property or sections of the property. For instance, if you have one corner that tends to remain moist, and another that gets mostly shade, while a different area has full sun… those are all examples of different micro-systems. Each microsystem will have plants and wildlife that will thrive in those particular conditions. Open-pollinated  means the plants produced naturally with nature doing all the work. Heritage  has come to mean open-pollinat...

-- Recommended Resources --  Tis the season... for inspiring thoughts on gardening, landscaping and youth/senior/volunteer programs that green up communities. In fact, our seed orders are coming in the mail box and while we had a freak storm pass through where blizzard winds and snow packed against the windows, I sat infatuated by seed packets and catalogue descriptions spread out on the floor before me.  http://www.ted.com/talks/ann_cooper_talks_school_lunches This speaker, Ann Cooper, shares some fantastic statistics (American) on what schools are offering for lunch, how that is contributing to both academic and health issues in our young citizens, and some great examples of what innovative schools are doing about it. I thought this group might be interested in this for several reasons -getting local youth tours happening for local growers/producers/manufacturers -getting youth volunteer (hands on learning) opportunities for classes, home schoolers,...

-- Recommended Resources --  Let's start today with a link to a large public-interest non-profit organization that focuses on health, justice and sustainability in agriculture. You'll find plenty of campaigns you can join, projects you can support, networking, community events and volunteer/ gardening connections. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ Next: Here is a humorous and informative discussion by Michael Pollan – about how plants manipulate their environment to their benefit, and looking at the plant’s point of view when it comes to agriculture. In this talk he gives the example of Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm ( www.PolyFaceFarms.com ) where on just 100 acres he is able to produce 40000 lbs of beef, 000 lbs of rabbit, 30000 lbs of pork, 25,0000 eggs and hay, with an additional 450 acres of sustainably managed forest. This talk touches on all the terms we hear about in the industry – biodynamic, biodiversity, sustainable,...

-- Quote of the Day --    “It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others.”  ~ Sydney Harris   -- Positive News  -- Farmers who are looking to stand out as being unique in a highly competitive marketplace while diversifying income from their land may well be interested in looking at sharing… sharing the sun that is. Now you’ve heard me mention that in some areas they are experimenting with sharing land with tall wind power turbines and crops in between them on the ground. This idea is a similar one to what I’m talking about here in that solar panels can be spaced out in a grid fashion over the land and crops can still be grown underneath. When you think about it, farmland has an immense sq...