Can a concept grown in Vermont take root in Costa Rica? Our founder, Will Raap, has found that the answer is yes, with some modifications. 
To produce crops at Finca Lagunita in Costa Rica, farmers have to employ special techniques, such as iguana fencing.
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Over the years, Gardener’s Supply has successfully incubated and supported a number of complementary enterprises with improve-the-earth-through-business missions. Close to home, these have included Vermont’s first and now largest community composting facility, and its first and largest community-supported farm (now providing organic produce, eggs, cheese and meat to more than 1,000 people each week of the growing season). In support of these and other local initiatives, we also founded the Intervale Center, which is now an internationally recognized nonprofit organization promoting sustainable farming and local food production.
It was about ten years ago that I began wondering if this approach to building linked, values-based enterprises that yield a more sustainable economy could work in a less-receptive and less-developed setting than Vermont. In 2000, I began working on this question in Costa Rica where my wife’s relatives live. What we’ve found is that our vision of working to support local agriculture has had to adapt to the local realities and opportunities in Guanacaste, the northwestern province in Costa Rica that we now call our home away from home.
One of several projects in the works is a farm we’ve named Finca Lagunita. The farm is our first effort to spark a renewal and diversification of local farming. The Farm’s motto is "Recordando el pasado, sembrando el futuro” (Remembering the past, sowing the future). We are growing traditional crops for the local market, including corn, beans, rice, squash and plantain. We’ve also introduced new crops that appeal to the local expat market (such as cherry tomatoes and heat-tolerant greens), and new techniques (such as composting) for dealing with the low fertility, soil erosion and runoff issues that plague our area. The weather problems in Guanacaste are more severe than they are in Vermont (heat, intense sun, wind, no rain/too much rain). Plus we have some new challenges, like monkeys eating the papayas, and iguanas grazing on our baby tomatoes and stray rodeo bulls busting up the shade houses. Among our biggest issues is synchronizing production with the peaks in local demand for farm produce during the ups and downs of the tourist seasons.
One thing we have confirmed with Finca Lagunita is that—much like in the States—there is a growing enthusiasm among both new home buyers and established local residents, to know where their food is produced, to have personal contact with the growers and to feel the security that some part of their diet is coming from “close to home.” Finca Lagunita also plays a role in the broader watershed goals, as its sunken beds, designed for wind protection and efficient watering in the dry season, are a major water harvesting trap and refuge for aquatic birds in the rainy season. As well, the farm infrastructure and staff allows us to produce thousands of native plants that are made available for erosion control and habitat restoration.
- Will Raap
Founder and Chairman, Gardener's Supply
Take a slideshow tour through the garden of Vicki Nowicki, one of the 2009 Garden Crusaders. Her garden is in Downer's Grove, IL
Vicki (right) and I in her garden. |
This past August, I had the great pleasure of spending a whole day with one of this year’s Garden Crusader award winners: Vicki Nowicki. It was exciting to visit her home just outside Chicago — ground zero for the sustainable landscaping business she runs with her husband — and to visit a few of the many interesting projects that she’s either started or is intimately involved with.
Our day began in Vicki’s garden and ended late in the evening, dining beneath the stars at a local organic farm. I left with the impression that just about everyone who is anyone in Chicago knows Vicki. She is an expert gardener and possibly even a more expert networker. What a dynamo!
Vicki and her husband Ron are both landscape architects. The Nowickis' landscape business is called The Land Office. For the past 30 years they have been slowly but surely spreading the word about sustainable landscaping, biodiversity, native plants, permaculture and the value of local food production. They design gardens and landscapes, and also install and help maintain them. This hands-on approach allows them to engage with homeowners and in turn, help those homeowners engage with their own yards and gardens.
For Vicki, planting and tending gardens has always been about much more than creating beauty. She and Ron are passionate defenders of the natural world. They believe strongly that every garden and landscape they design is an opportunity to restore the environment and help promote good earth stewardship.
Vicki’s life work has been to help people slow down, learn about the land they live on and take better care of it. As she says, “I want to help people glorify the place where they live and use food gardens to nail them down to their place. A garden helps to reveal the nature of your site and bonds you to the land.”
Vicki has been working against the dominant trend in landscape architecture her entire career. When she found it difficult to source tough plants that were appropriate for northeastern Illinois, she co-founded a local chapter of Wild Ones, a national organization devoted to using native plants in the home landscape.
Having always been a big vegetable gardener, Vicki found every opportunity she could to work vegetables and other edibles into the landscape designs she and Ron were creating. The problem was, she found that the homeowners often didn’t pick the vegetables. When she asked why, they would tell her they didn’t know when they were ready or how to harvest them. So last year, she began offering a new service: she and her crew will come in and plant vegetables, maintain the gardens and then harvest the food. The key? The homeowners are encouraged to participate and along the way they learn how to take care of the gardens, when and how to harvest and how to cook and preserve the food they grow.
“These homes are sitting on some of the best soils in the world – literally the breadbasket, so it is only right that they grow vegetables,” she said. “We can get so much food out of these small gardens, that our clients end up sharing it with their neighbors.”
Vicki and Ron have turned their own suburban yard into a model permaculture site, combining native trees and shrubs, herbs, vegetables, berries and fruit trees. Walking around, I was overwhelmed by the diversity of plants, the healthy and abundant crops, the birds and butterflies and toads and sheer exuberance of life that surrounds their home. It’s an immediate way to understand the concept of permaculture, and a tremendous resource for the many workshops and tours that they host.
Vicki’s newest project is a website that pulls together everything she knows and believes about gardening: Liberty Gardens. The site will include tutorials, informational articles and garden journals that can be accessed by anyone interested in sustainable, organic gardening techniques.
As Vicki says, “Our lives will change and our world will change when we plant food gardens at home. It's a simple act that each person can choose to do at any time without a new law being passed, or a feasibility study being run or a stimulus package being doled out. Talk about a shovel-ready project!”
With Vicki Nowicki’s help, more and more people will be grabbing a shovel and joining in.
Slideshow: Vicki Nowicki's Garden |
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. |
Slideshow:Vicki Nowicki's Garden
To see captions, click on the image. To share comments or explore further, go to Flickr.
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The poinsettia has gotten pretty flashy in recent years. Not only are the colors amazing, some are dusted with glitter.
Slideshow: Poinsettias for 2009 | |
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. | | Slideshow:Poinsettias for 2009
To see captions, click on the image. To share comments or explore further, go to Flickr.
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Wow. Poinsettias sure have changed. We just received a fresh shipment at our store in Vermont, and the variety is amazing. The range of colors has expanded dramatically in the last few years. You can even get plants with sprayed-on glitter.
Poinsettias are fairly easy to care for. Just be aware that they are especially sensitive to cold. Make sure they're well-protected if you're transporting them on a cold day. Once in your house, they do best with about six hours of sunlight a day. Ideal daytime temperatures are 60-70 degrees F.; at night: 55-65 degrees F. No drafts, no blasting heat ducts.
Most folks treat poinsettias as a holiday annual and toss the plants when they start to deteriorate. But that doesn't sit well with many avid gardeners. You can try to keep a plant and bring it into bloom again. Leonard Perry of the University of Vermont Extension says: “If you do decide to hold your poinsettias until next fall, remember that they need darkness (13 hours, uninterrupted, as in a dark closet) every night from the end of September to Thanksgiving. Just remember to take plants out of the dark during the day and to give bright light. Most find it easier to buy new ones each year, with plants of better quality having been grown under ideal greenhouse conditions. An early December visit to a local greenhouse, full of thousands of plants all in bloom, makes a memorable outing.” For more, read his article, Poinsettias for the Holidays.
The other thing to know about poinsettias: They are not poisonous. This rumor has persisted for decades, possibly starting with a report from Hawaii about a fatality that happened 75 years ago. The myth was busted after research done in the 1970s at Ohio State University. However, there are a few holiday favorites—such as mistletoe and holly—that are indeed poisonous. Learn more in Leonard Perry's article, Holiday Plant Toxicity. In general, let the facts and common sense be your guide: Keep poinsettias out of reach of small children.
- David Grist
Online Content Coordinator, Gardener's Supply
Challenged to find the perfect gift for the gardener or birdwatcher on your list? Can't think of what to put in your own Dear Santa letter?
Challenged to find the perfect gift for the gardener or birdwatcher on your list? Can't think of what to put in your own Dear Santa letter? Shoppers come to our Vermont stores from all over the country, and they're looking for practical solutions and great-idea gifts. Here's sampling of what's hot this season:
Garden Kneeler: This tool may revolutionize gardening for the Boomer generation. Getting down and dirty isn't our problem—it's getting up again! The soft pad cradles aging knees and keeps them clean. The handles get us back on our feet with dignity. Turn it over and you can sit on it to admire your work or catch your breath. Lightweight and folds for storage. Now available in a new size with a wider seat.
Nitrile Gloves: These gloves are perfect for weeding and planting because they fit like a second skin and have a sure-grip surface on the palms and fingers. Breathable fabric on the back and wrist keeps them cooler in hot weather. Available in five sizes and a rainbow of color choices, there's a pair for everyone on your list. An employee favorite.
Tubtrugs: No need to need to wrap this gift. Fill it with everything else you're taking to the party and leave it for the hosts. It's one of my top-3, can't-live-without lawn and garden tools. Use them for kid's toys, laundry baskets, and tailgate ice buckets, too. With ten colors and three sizes to choose from, you'll find just the right one for everyone.
Squirrel-proof birdfeeders: Foil the squirrels and feed the birds without fancy baffles and high-tech feeders. Mix a few tablespoons of Cole's liquid Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce into 5 pounds of birdseed and watch those feeder hogs flee! Made from hot, hot, hot chili peppers, squirrels can't touch it, but birds eat it up without harm. Find a local distributor and send squirrels packing. Our local customers always come back for more!
Gift cards: Not sure which composter, garden cart, birdfeeder or tool they might like? Tuck a gift card into a pair of gloves, a trug, or compost crock to surprise and delight your recipient.
Happy Holidays!
In the mid-1970s, the South Bronx was a symbol of urban decay. But José Soto had a new vision for his neighborhood.
José Soto |
In the mid-1970s, the South Bronx was, literally, burning. There were 12,000 fires in one year and the area lost 40% of its housing. Meanwhile about 300,000 people fled the area. Many of the abandoned lots were havens for drug dealing and criminal activity.
While the South Bronx became synonymous with urban decay and blight for many people, it was also home to thousands of people, including José "Chema" Soto. And he had to walk past these empty lots every day. One day when he was walking his daughter to school, he decided to do something about one lot in his neighborhood. He started clearing the lot of debris, garbage and abandoned cars. Soon, 50 neighbors came out to help.
To honor Chema for creating urban gardens and a lasting center for his community, Gardener’s Supply has named him a 2009 Garden Crusader Winner in the Urban Renewal category. The South Bronx site is known as La Casita de Chema and it is many things to many people: a performance space, a place to play cards and dominoes, a place for impromptu jam sessions, a site for neighborhood cookouts and a space to grow vegetables.
The 3,000-square-foot corner lot includes a casita, an outdoor stage and community gardens. And it is a place where celebrated Latin musicians come to jam and perform. It now serves over 500 members, plus the community at large. And it is one of the oldest community centers and gardens in the South Bronx.
Francisco Velez, who nominated Chema for the award, calls it one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Chema said he never thought it would be as big and successful and impact as many people as it has. His goal, all along, was simply to bring Puerto Rico – where he and many of his neighbors grew up – closer to New York.
Garden Crusaders Slideshow |
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Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. |
| Garden Crusaders Slideshow: Photos from our Garden Crusaders photo album on Flickr. To see captions, click on the image. To share your own photos, go to Flickr and learn more.
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Backyard chickens are back! Longtime expert Pat Foreman shows urban dwellers how to raise chickens in her new book, City Chicks.
Pat Foreman, author of City Chicks
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I first met Pat Foreman about 20 years ago, when she and her partner, Andy Lee, were living in Vermont. Will Raap, our company's founder, had recruited Pat and Andy to start up Vermont's first membership farm. Once the Intervale Community Farm was up and going, Pat and Andy returned to their own farm in Virginia, but the foundation they laid here in Vermont was a good one. Today the Intervale Community Farm is one of New England's largest with more than 500 member households.
Pat and Andy are teachers and authors as well as farmers. In the early 1990s, they published a terrific book called Backyard Market Gardening. Having always included laying hens as part of their market gardens, they next wrote the definitive book on mobile chicken coops, called Chicken Tractor.
Pat visited Burlington last spring to show us galleys of her newest book, City Chicks. Having just started my own flock of laying hens, this book came at the perfect time. There's no doubt that our little flock of nine hens wouldn't be nearly as healthy and happy today if we didn't have Pat's sage advice at our fingertips.
When I spoke with Pat recently, she said the book's been a huge success. The New York Times even ran an article about it. She's been receiving book orders and fielding chicken-related questions from all over the world, and is particularly pleased that the book is finding an eager audience in Africa, where she was a Peace Corps volunteer years ago.
Pat's also been asked by Andy Schneider to co-host his radio talk show called the Chicken Whisperer. It's a daily talk show, broadcast at noon Monday to Saturday, but can be replayed anytime on demand via Blog Talk Radio. If you're into all things chicken, you might want to give it a listen.
I had no idea it would be so much fun having chickens. Whether laying hens are already a part of your life or you're still considering the idea, I recommend keeping a copy of City Chicks close at hand. For quickest delivery — and to learn a bit more about the books — you can order right from Pat's website.
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