Come and check out the great lineup of vendors that we have for the 2nd Annual Loco for Local Evening Farmers’ Market at the Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado.  We have delicious local food, music and entertainment, as well as local arts!

Check out the entire event-flier HERE—>>> L4L 2010_Event Information_5.9.10

Here are our vendors to-date:

It is that time of year when you are beginning to feel Spring in the air (except in Colorado where it was snowing today), and that means time for planting.  As I watch the baby calves, chicks, ducklings, and kids (goat-youth, that is) frolic around in the warm air, I am inspired to again try to grow something.

Hopefully you are too, and you are most likely better at it than I am.  So please send us your stories, as we would like to incorporate them here, and in our publication.

I had found a couple of websites dedicated to saving seeds, specifically heirloom varieties, you can read that post here: Seed Banks – Saving History & Agriculture.

It’s important to support local, and it is also important to support companies and businesses that garner sustainability.  Support companies and organizations that protect agriculture and embrace sustainability by avoiding practices that have to do with the genetic modification of our food.

-Tisha Casida

By: Becky Elder

Soil serves all life; sustains all life. Yours and mine. Soil is the base of the entire planet’s population, not just people population. Soil is sacred to many indigenous people, to some gardeners and to permaculturists.

Every plant plays a part in the grand scheme of nature. The leaves of plants feed back into the soil. They fall to the ground, becoming crisp and fragile. Under winter snows and spring rains, those leaves begin to breakdown, soften and become food for microorganisms and fungus. Worms tear pieces off and retreat into their tunneled homes. Other biota, slugs, snails and beetles, come to dine, all the while entertaining the unseen micro-biota, busy on the microscopic scale. Making soil.

All these chewing and rasping mouths deliver food to the body, which then must eliminate unused portions. Call it what you will, manure is soil food. A primary function of soil is providing a home for decomposers, who keep the planet clean by consuming waste products, whether plants or animals. Making soil.

Worms are superb soil builders. It’s their job. Mulching calls in the worms to balance air, minerals and water. When faced with depleted soil, introduce organic material: rotted leaves, compost or aged manure. Mulch deeply and let the soil begin to regain health. Health, to soil, would be a legion of biota, the littler lives that live, breathe and eat soil. A spoonful of healthy soil can harbor six billion soil organisms. Through composting and mulching soil, the worm population takes over the task of building soil.

Forest gardens are mulched, heavily, with sheet mulch. Mulches help control weeds and smother pests, like apple’s coddling moth. Dense plantings of onions, chives, comfrey, clovers, yarrow or legumes serve as living mulch and do well with fruit trees. Plants that are perennial or self-sowing annuals are encouraged. They can serve up their crops for as long as the gardener is there to harvest and sow seed.

My forest gardens provide for me and also for my animals. My rabbits cycle the sun’s energy from the leaves of plants back into the soil. So-called “weeds” are bunny salad. The rabbits provide organic, non-burning fertilizer for the plants. This is a cycle that can continue forever… plants to bunnies to soil to plants to bunnies…

Once established, a forest garden manages itself almost completely. Protected by shade and wind buffering, a forest garden needs less water and less attention than standard vegetable gardens, traditional flower gardens or bluegrass lawns.

Ponds add a critical water element to a forest garden, which, especially at ground level, needs it. In dry Colorado, installing bog gardens, waterways, ponds, or even multiple birdbaths will bring balance into the system. Permaculture design could direct runaway water to a pond; planting bulrushes, cattails or watercress will filter and clean the water. Design could direct excess water into rain gardens where plants receive more water than the rest of the garden. Water systems weave another stabilizing strand into the garden web. Plunk in fish, frogs or crayfish and weave yet another strand.

Working with nature allows the gardener to relax and witness life in action. “The best work is done in the hammock.” is a common saying in permaculture circles, and it means that allowing time to simply observe the land and listen to subtler voices will inspire the best designs. Observe and replicate natural patterns. Touch the soil. The world is a pattern of events nested within each other. Taking time to “let the land speak for itself” will open up visions that will work and offer returns far beyond the standards of mainstream landscapes.

Abstract-
From October 2009 through December 2009, using non-probability sampling tools including an online survey, a paper survey and personal interviews, data was collected from the citizens of Pueblo, Colorado to determine if there was an interest in and/or desire for curbside recycling, composting and community gardens.  Results strongly indicate there is an interest in participating in and a willingness to support these programs.  Recommendations as a result of this project include making any subsequent recycling program as convenient and inclusive as possible for every household.  It is also recommended that those interested in creating successful recycling programs provide education and most importantly model desired recycling behavior  and encourage friends and neighbors to follow suit  to create the most  successful outcomes.

For the rest of this story and study, see Page 3 of That’s Natural! Quarter 1, 2010 – here: http://issuu.com/ThatsNatural/docs/tnq1_2010_web

And visit: www.thatsnatural.info

Talk with a tree. Have tea with a shrub. Listen to a flower… Plants can help people maintain a spiritual relationship with the planet. Let the work of living mulch, worms and the soil organisms satisfy a gardener’s heart.

Care for the earth, care for people and share the abundance are the base ethics of permaculture for living sustainably on the Earth and sharing the wealth of the organic. Forest gardening holds that philosophy connecting back into nature. Like French-intensive gardening, a forest garden is packed with food and function to make small produce big and works to increase the output of the land while improving the land’s health.  These gardens can be beautiful and walk in tune with meditation gardens, children’s gardens and xeriscapes.

Read the Entire Story on Page 9, That’s Natural! Quarter 1, 2010, here:  http://issuu.com/ThatsNatural/docs/tnq1_2010_web