Doing: Pruning the Social Media Maze

Looking for something to jazz up your Tuesday night? Itching to blend your love of gardening with your love of Tweeting, but can't figure out how? Then I recommend attending Pruning the Social Media Maze for Gardeners and Garden Organizers being held this evening at the Walker Jones Education Campus Library. Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine, will tell you where gardeners are hanging out in the social media sphere and how best to reach them. The pros, cons, how's, and why's of Twitter, Facebook, blogging, e-newsletters, and, the newest to the party, Google+ will also be discussed.

WHAT: Pruning the Social Media Maze for Gardeners and Garden Organizers
WHO: Moderated by Kathy Jentz, editor/publisher of Washington Gardeners
WHERE: Walker Jones Education Campus Library at 1125 New Jersey
Avenue NW
WHEN: Tuesday, September 27th at 5:00pm
WHY: Because it's awesome.

Doing: Saving the WORLD!

Greetings, guerillas!

Today's post is brought to you by the letters S, T, W, and P, and an exclamation point. As in SAVE THE WORLD, PEOPLE!

Listen (or read) carefully, because I'm going to give you step by step instructions on how to preserve the planet. Here goes:

1. Read this article about the Landreth Seed Company, the oldest seed house in America and the fourth oldest corporation of any kind in the U.S.

2. Raise your fist in the air and silently curse our crappy economy and its effect on companies like Landreth Seed.

3. Ruminate on "heirloom seeds" and acknowledge that you really have no idea what they are. Read this to find out why you love heirloom seeds with all your squishy blood-filled heart, and why you want to eat them with all your saliva-laden taste buds.

3. Recognize a growing warmth in your bosom, telling you to take action to save Landreth. And to eat more endangered tomatoes.

4. Hunt and peck your way to www.landrethseeds.com and purchase a $5.00 seed catalog. Maybe purchase some seeds while you're at it.

5. Get on the horn and tell everyone you know about Landreth, the crappy economy, the coolness of heirloom seeds, the warmth in your bosom, and your soon-to-arrive wicked cool Landreth Seed Catalog.

6. Feel like a superhero, because you totally are.

And just like that, you've saved the world. Capital S. Capital T. Capital W. And an exclamation point.

All right, so maybe buying a seed catalog won't save the whole wide stinkin' world, but it will save a company. Saving Landreth will save heirloom seeds, and those heirloom seeds and their vegetable fabulousness could quite possibly, very maybily* SAVE THE WORLD. Only it will be a longterm-ish kind of save.

Fight genetically modified veggies! Fight the system! Fight the crapola economy! Buy a catalog and tell everyone you know to do the same.

CATALOG BUYING INCENTIVE: Anyone** who buys a Landreth Seed Catalog and brings their receipt to the D.C. Guerilla Gardeners' booth at the D.C. State Fair on October 1 will get a super-cool gift. Save the world. Get a present. It's a win-win.

*Maybily adv 1) A word I made up. 2) An adverbed*** version of a word that is already an adverb. 3) An incorrect way to say "perhaps; possibly."

** Limited to the first *mumble mumble* people who come to the booth with a receipt. (Number of gifts available as of yet undetermined. Depends on my level of laziness over the next week. [Level of laziness is directly proportionate to the number of gifts I can make. I'm just sayin'.])

***An adverbed adverb is a word that is already an adverb, but with an unnecessary -ly added at the end. It makes it more fun that way.

Doing: The Pimped-Out Police Call Box

Good afternoon, guerillas!

It's been a slow season here at the OK Corral, aka the DCGG, but slow isn't necessarily bad. In fact, in gardening slow is often good! Trees grow slowly, right? And trees are good, right? So if trees grow slowly (let's call that A) and trees are good (let's call that B), then Logic tells us that slow is good! (A = B) Look'a me! Doing math!

Because of our slowy gardening goodness, Guerilla #2 (G2) and I were able to tackle an ambitious project on behalf of some super cool peeps from over the pond. Hayes Garden Furniture - a company I like because they're British (pip pip!), because they sell gardening furniture at discounted rates, and because they support our guerilla-y antics - contacted the D.C. Guerilla Gardeners and said, "Yo! D.C. Guerilla Gardeners! We totally support your efforts and want to help. P.S. Theresa, you're friggin' awesome; Great Britain loves you.*"

Hayes' monetary support of the DCGG brought about this totally amazing project that I have lovingly entitled "The Pimped-Out Police Call Box."
I present it to you here a la Dr. Who, because: 1) Dr. Who is the fan-freakin'-best; 2) the new and improved call box was painted Tardis blue (the Tardis being The Doctor's time and space-traveling police call box); and 3) our sponsor is British, just like Dr. Who and Paul Bettany, who's totally hot. See? There is a method to my madness after all.

But before I get into the project itself, a brief history lesson...

The District is littered with the skeletal remains of emergency call boxes. You've probably seen them around and wondered, "What the heck's up with these rusty thingamajigs?" What's up is that the rusty thingamajigs (pre rust) were installed in the 1860s to provide a direct link to police and fire services in case of emergencies.

Emergency call box, Washington, D.C., year 1912 (Source: Wikipedia)

The introduction of the 911 emergency call system in the 1970s made the elegant call boxes obsolete, and by 1995 the working electrical components were all removed. Non-functioning though they were, the heavy structures remained on their street corners, prey to the destructive forces of weather and vandalism.

Fast forward one hundred years to today, when one lucky box fell prey to the constructive forces of me, Guerilla #2, and Hayes Garden Furniture (UK).

Meet The Box. This lovely clunker resides on the corner of 10th Street at W Street NW, about two blocks from the U Street Corridor. Rusty, peeling and nasty, The Box was victim to graffiti, dog urine, and garbage stashing.

Rust, urine and garbage made it the perfect victim for us. It also made it gross.

First we cleaned the rubbish (I'm British!) out of it, rubbed it down with some steel wool, and then applied several coats of paint.

After the paint dried, we filled the base with a mixture of compost, enriched garden soil, and chicken wire. (The wire created an internal structure for roots to cling to.) Packed and ready to go, G2 and I planted stonecrop, rosemary, and hens and chicks.

Several hours later, our sad call box had a new lease on life. Gussied up and growing, no longer was the corner of 10th and W a broken-down reminder of the past. Now it was a bright blue statement that anywhere - everywhere - is a good place for a garden. Geronimo!

Sincere thanks to Hayes Garden Furniture (UK) for their generous sponsorship of this project.

*Okay, so this is a wee exaggeration... Hayes didn't actually say that Great Britain loves me, but I'm sure this is only because Great Britain's never met me. If it had, it would totally love me. Totally.

D.C.'s First Edible Urban Garden Tour

Get your grow on with DC’s first Edible Urban Garden Tour hosted by Loulies.com.

Explore city spaces and residential gardens that will open their doors and gates for the public to see what growing good food in our own backyards, front yards, rooftops, and empty lots is all about. It’s a chance to ask questions, learn from and hear what inspires some of DC’s best gardeners.

The tour will start at Old City Green, a beautiful, plant-filled garden shop and stretch through the revitalized neighborhoods of Shaw, Bloomingdale and Ledroit Park. Plus, see for yourself and learn more about Common Good City Farm, the community garden that Prince Charles recently toured as part of his inspiring Future of Food visit to DC. A map of tour locations will be distributed on the day of the event at Old City Green. Purchase tickets online or pay with credit/cash at the door.

The tour is self-guided and will cover several miles so a bike or a car is recommended.

LOCATION: Old City Green at 902 N Street NW
DATE: July 15, 2011
TIME: 3pm to 8pm
COST: $20 - To buy tickets, go here!

Oh, Those Clever Japanese! Gardening in Reused Bottle Caps

Reblogged from Springwise.com, Eco & Sustainability, April 8, 2011

Heightened interest in all things green means that gardens are popping up everywhere. We’ve seen them in greeting cards, we’ve seen them in giant bubbles — we’ve even seen them created on the sly in guerrilla fashion. (THAT'S US, PEOPLE! We're the guerilla fashionistas!) The latest spotting? Gardens in bottle caps from Japanese Merry Project.

Priced at JPY 158, the Merry Farming Kit includes a tablet of compressed, dry soil that’s just the right size to fit inside a standard plastic soda bottle cap along with basil seeds for planting. Urban gardeners need only place the soil in a cap, moisten it, and plant the seeds, as specified in the accompanying directions. After that, all that’s left to do is wait for the seeds to germinate and grow up into full-sized plants. Merry Project is planning to expand the selection of seeds it has available, according to its site.

Urban gardening is an alluring trend in its own right, but when combined with a dash of plastic reuse, it may just prove irresistible. Retailers around the world: one to offer for eco-minded adults and kids in your part of the global garden?

Spiral Growing Tubes Enable Farming in Small Spaces

Reblogged from Springwise.com, Eco & Sustainability, 1st June 2011Gardening in bottle caps is a fun concept that’s well-suited to urban settings, but consumers interested in growing more substantial crops might be better off with Whirligro instead. Targeting those with limited growing space, Whirligro uses spiral-shaped tubes to elevate food crops off the ground and enable greater production.

Designed primarily for fast-growing leaf crops, Whirligro uses durable, transportable growing tubes that can each hold three plants. Each Whirligro unit, in turn, holds 10 tubes spiraling around a central post, offering the combined ability to grow 30 plants in an area smaller than one meter by one meter. Plants grow through holes in the plastic tubing, reducing any weeding requirements to a bare minimum; because the plants are off the ground, meanwhile, pests tend not to be a problem, the device’s Scottish maker says. Watering can be done by hand or with a small drip irrigation system. Pricing for the Whirligro ranges from GBP 55 to GBP 140, depending on size.

No end in sight to the urban gardening trend. Who will help bring the Whirligro to urban farmers in your neck of the woods?To find out more, check out Whirligro's site, or send them a message.

Wanted: Someone Who Knows Facebook Better Than I Do!*

*Which is everyone.

Hear ye! Hear ye! I am in need of some help, y'all.

Any guerilla out there willing to take on the DCGG Facebook page? It's super easy... Right now nothing ever happens on the DCGG FB page, so anything you do will be an improvement. The bar has been set low so no matter what you do, you'll be a tremendous success! Guaranteed greatness, you gotta like that.

The problem is this: I don't understand Facebook. For someone who works in marketing, my inability to "get" Facebook is somewhat comical, but it be the truth, people! I don't "get" Facebook. All those Friends, all those Pokes, all those News Feeds and Notifications! Bwah! It makes my head swim, and not in that fun way that happens when you've taken too much Nyquil.

So! I need someone who will periodically check Facebook and respond to Friend Requests and Notifications, and who will post some things about gardening and stuff! You know, make our page cool and whatnot, so that people will think that I'm - *ahem!* *cough* WE'RE - cool and whatnot. I won't pay you, so you can be as slack as you like. Set your own goals and be fruitful! Or be not fruitful! Just so long as your not fruitful is more fruitful than my not fruitful. See? Low bar. Guaranteed greatness.

Seriously. I need help. Interested? Drop me a note and let me know if you'd like to manage the D.C. Guerilla Gardeners' Facebook page. You'd be my hero! And while I can't pay you, I CAN buy you a cup of coffee. Or a beer. Or a Cosmopolitan. Or lemonade. Or something. Anything beverage-y. I'll even throw in a pastry or two.

Gracias in advance, my greeny guerillas!