Profiles in Victory: Vanessa Richins (a.k.a. @treesandshrubs)

Vanessa Richins is something of a dynamo. Having graduated from BYU in 2003, she's a prolific garden writer for popular web sites About.com (where she writes on a popular topic, trees and shrubs), UrbanGardenCasual.com, and TomatoCasual.com. Richins also launched her community's local Freecycle chapter (more on that in a moment). 

To me, Richins' successful online advocacy for Victory Gardens demonstrates my "Victory Gardens 3.0" notion. We definitely need more people following her lead, working in their homes, gardens and on the web to educate and recruit new gardeners.

RW&G: Tell us about your work thus far in supporting the Victory Garden revival.

VR: I've been following Eat the View's campaign and writing about it for a while now.  I helped start Twitter 4 Victory Gardens, where we promote Victory Gardening through Twitter.  I also just won't stop talking about growing your own food these days.  I tell everyone I know and find more people to teach.  I also like getting down and dirty by volunteering to help clean peoples' yards up, so they can have room for their gardens.

I've also been impressed by people like Will Allen of Growing Power, the former basketball star who is now an urban farmer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I'm working on ways that I can be more like him.  I've also considered applying to be an intern at his farms.

RW&G: You were a top contender in Eat The View.org's race to collect the most signatures for its Facebook petition. Why did that contest bring out your competitive side?

VR: I would be remiss if I didn't mention that one of my hobbies is entering sweepstakes--I love to win! The coolest prize I ever won was a custom BBQ pit made out of the back of a Toyota Tundra truck. BUT....this petition drive was different.  I got the email that they were looking to reach their goal of 100,000 signatures, and that they were having a small contest to go along with it.  I started gathering some signatures because it's a cause I strongly believe in, but didn't really think about the contest.  A few days later, I got another email that they were raising the stakes with some bigger prizes.  I saw that third prize was $200 to Johnny's Select Seeds and an idea popped into my head ; I could use my winning luck and get these seeds to donate to community gardens. 

I sent petition invitations to all of my Facebook friends.  I begged people throughout the contest on Twitter.  I posted on forums I belonged to.  I kept my goal of seeds for community gardens in mind to drive me to find ways to get people to sign the petition under me.  I am very stubborn and just wouldn't quit pestering...I mean inspiring people to join the cause.  I also really wanted to do my part in helping Eat The View reach their goal.

I ended up winning second place, which was a year of organic dairy.  I was able to trade with 3rd place and the seed certificate is on the way.  I also won a two-year membership to GrowVeg.com.   Now I am having fun figuring out who will receive some seeds and supplies.  I am especially interested in school gardens, as I think gardening is a great activity for children.  They can learn science, math, business skills, patience, and a whole host of other skills.

RW&G: Beside your online activism with the revival, how do you support sustainability endeavours? 

VR: Well, one of them is online--years ago I started a local chapter of Freecycle, the organization that allows people to give away items they don't need anymore.  People can also ask for items they are looking for.  It's helped people to realize that they have other options than just throwing away their possessions.  The group has grown in leaps and bounds - at first it was for the whole county, then I split it into three groups when it grew too large.  My Provo Freecycle now boasts over 6,200 members and counting.

I also teach classes on gardening for the community education system at a local university.  In my spare time, I have also taught classes to groups on a volunteer basis.

I was going to start a six-acre community garden to educate people and donate produce to food banks, but the plans are on hold for the moment.  My partner in crime has informed me that the plot we were going to borrow may have to be sold, so we are waiting to see what happens.  Instead, I think I am going to start a gardening contest for my state in hopes that I can encourage people to start planting

RW&G: You've got a new blog, right? Tell us about it.

I've been looking to set up a place where I could promote Twitter 4 Victory Gardens more and generally show people in urban areas that they,too, can garden.  I just got accepted as the National Urban Gardening Examiner at Examiner.com. 

I plan on using this to report on some of the latest news in the victory garden movement, as well as announcements for Twitter 4 Victory Gardens.  There will also be lessons and projects that urban gardeners can use in their small spaces.

I will do lots of gardening experiments for children.  I started myself when I was a little girl.  I would order the Park Seed catalog and study the gorgeous pictures of fruits and veggies, picking some out to order.  I'd grow a strawberry patch and enjoy my sweet bounty.  I'd love to help kids discover how fun gardening can be, and get them eating healthier while they are at it.

It will also be a way to chronicle some of my wacky adventures as an urban gardener.  Whether it's growing mangroves in my aquarium, papyrus in buckets, or trying out upside-down tomatoes, I like to have fun and try new things in my garden. 

RW&G: When you were a kid, would you have ever imagined that you would use technology to help bring cultural change?

VR: I certainly never imagined all that I would end up doing with computers!  I started using them at elementary school in the 80s (this was before they were standard in every school).  I hopped online in 1994 and never looked back.  At first, it was just a way to play games and learn from the vast wealth of information online. 

I first joined another Freecycle just to find free items.  When the opportunity came to split off, I volunteered and started the Utah County Freecycle.  All transactions occur through a Yahoo group. As I saw the ways that people were able to connect and help each other out, I realized I had stumbled onto something more than just a free website. We've been able to save thousands of items from just cluttering up the landfills and creating a community.  We've donated coats and food to those in need.  It has also made me more conscious of the environment around me and I recycle everything that I can. 

I also love that I am able to teach people how to garden and grow their own food all day long, throughout the entire year.  It can be snowy outside at 2 am in December, but through the Internet I am still able to help people around the world.

RW&G:  Bonus round! Please tell us about five web sites that you frequent. They don't have to be garden-related; it's actually more fun if they aren't.

VR: Cakewrecks is a definite love. Online-Sweepstakes.com.  Television Without Pity.  About.com. I also love using Stumble Upon to find new sites and blogs.

RW&G: Thanks, Vanessa! Readers, feel free to leave a question for Vanessa if you'd like.

Memo to All First Ladies

Memo to all First Ladies from Anthony-Masterson on Vimeo.

Oh, and for fun, check out Pattie Baker's Georgia-based blog, Georgia's Garden.

What I've Been Up To: Dig for Texas

UPDATE: Regular RW&G readers know that since this post first appeared, DigforTexas.com launched. Here's a bit of an update on the Texas Governor's Mansion. Obviously, the First Family's priorities are on rebuilding the fire-bombed structure.

Okay, so the cat's outta the bag... and in a story distributed to some 400 newspapers nationwide. GASP!

I've been working behind-the-scenes to start up a Texas-centric version of Eat The View, with Roger Doiron's blessing. Mostly research thus far, but I've lined up some partners in grime (get it? gardeners? dirt?) and hope to launch something online soon. In my head, I call it "Dig for Texas". And, yup, it's partisan-neutral. We'll be looking at providing an inventory of existing public vegetable gardens and garden resources. From there? Well, the hope is that the message will trickle down to folks in individual counties who'll decide to start community and home gardens, too.

The good news is that I discovered AFTER chatting initially with the reporter that the Texas Governor's Mansion has had a veggie garden since, oh, forever. It just hasn't been well-publicized, and I sure didn't recall seeing it when I'd been to the mansion years ago. Of course, with the firebombing last year, the mansion is outta commission for awhile... there's even some news today suggesting that the mansion may be converted into a historical center. So our challenge here is how we mobilize the, er, troops to celebrate our state's garden heritage without over-relying on the governor's home garden in the short run. 

Personally, I really think that the heritage angle is the way to go here. Why? As I said in the article:

“‘Well, the Obamas put one on their White House lawn,’ is probably not going to be the most appealing argument,” [Price] says of her budding campaign to convince the Republican Texas governor and his wife to plant a kitchen garden. 

Still chuckling when I read that. That's the model of an understatement, no? Teehee.

Ideas? Want in on the action? Volunteers needed! Leave a note.

Film Trailer: The Garden (Opens Friday, Lmtd. Release)

Your reaction?

Explore More:
• Official web site: The Garden
•South Central Farmers

Happy Earth Day!

Here's some news worth celebrating:

In another sign that the Department of Agriculture is embracing sustainable food, the agency today will unveil expanded plans for a People's Garden that will include the entire six-acre grounds of the Whitten Building, the department's neoclassic marble headquarters on the Mall.

The plans, to be announced at the agency's Earth Day celebrations, include a 1,300-square-foot organic vegetable garden -- slightly larger than the one at the White House -- as well as ornamental flower gardens and bioswales, or mini-wetlands designed to reduce pollution and surface water runoff. The building grounds now are landscaped with grass, flower borders and trees planted to honor a person or mark an event...

In March, [Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack] convened a one-day meeting in Washington at which 47 gardening and horticulture organizations, including the Rodale Institute, Seed Savers and the American Community Gardeners Association, offered feedback on the project and brainstormed ways to spread the message to schools, churches and communities.

"I kept having to pinch myself in this meeting," said Rose Hayden-Smith, a historian and food systems educator at the University of California. "We're not the kind of people who have been invited to Washington, D.C., before. We're the guerrilla gardeners, the pollinator people, the seed savers. It wasn't our usual cast of characters. People were grinning from ear to ear."

Source: WashingtonPost.com

Nourishing Your Victory Garden Naturally

Note: This post is part of the ongoing Virtual Victory Guide, a quick primer for new gardeners.

If you’ve opted to establish an organic (or near organic) garden, then you’re likely willing to put forth a bit more effort to provide your veggies proper sustenance. As convenient as ready-made, synthetic chemical fertilizers may be, they’re less essential to successful home vegetable production than advertisers would have you believe. And while many companies now make commercial organic fertilizers available right alongside the more traditional stuff, you’ll want to inspect the ingredients list and instructions carefully before applying it to your garden. Just because it’s “all natural” doesn’t mean that there are risks associated with using a product.

Alternatively, you can enrich your soil and feed your plants using homemade materials that pose no risk to you, your family or your plants. Yes, really. Lots of people do it. Even celebrities.

“My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap.” – Bette Midler

Not everyone experiences a peak moment from composting, but it is a popular technique among gardeners, especially for folks with outdoor space to spare. It’s also a cornerstone of organic gardening since it contributes to the your soil’s long-term vitality. Nutrient rich and possessed of a wonderful earthy smell, compost may be referred to as “black gold”—but it’s cheap and easy to make at home.

Yard clippings, leaves, certain types of kitchen waste (especially coffee grounds, obtained from your coffe maker or your local coffee shop), and some types of paper can be tossed on a heap and cultivated to yield nutrient rich matter to spread in your garden. Fruit is not recommended, however, since it can attract ants and other pests. If your grass clippings are not tainted with pesticides (either from your own application or through run off in your neighborhood), they can be composted as well. Keep diseased or bug-ridden garden debris and weeds out of your compost pile, too.

The compost heap can be started directly on the ground (the cheapest option) or in a commercial composter. If your garden is container-based or if you have limited space in which to create “black gold,” you can now  purchase bags of ready-made compost at most nurseries, home supply stores, and some grocery chains. It’ll cost more than the DIY method, but you’ll reap the same benefits. With composting, in addition to creating a natural substance that will enrich your soil, you get the added satisfaction of knowing that you can help conserve landfill space.

Vermiculture has developed a widespread following in recent years. For this organic technique, worms are placed in an indoor or outdoor bin along with newspaper and appropriate kitchen waste, creating a rich soil conditioner and fertilizer that can be harvested periodically and used in the garden. The bins can be purchased online or crafted at home.

Readers: Other tips for nourishing the garden naturally? Feel free to weigh in and/or provide links to relevant posts from your own blogs.

Update: Great new post over at May Dreams Gardens on composting.

Joe Gardener's $25 Victory Garden Update (Episode 2)

What I love about Joe Gardener's $25 Victory Garden idea is the potential it holds to illustrate ordinary American's natural generosity. What I think will happen...hope will happen...is that more and more people will decide to mimic this experiment in their own communities, on a smaller scale. It's possible, you know. He's already been on ABC's Good Morning America a couple of times.

With a little luck and a bit of tweaking of the concept to fit more challenging climates (like mine), the concept just might go viral. And wouldn't that be a wonderful thing to behold?

Related Link:

• The $25 Victory Garden Video (Episode 1)
• Twitter for Victory Gardens (#twitter4vg) - This is the Twitter group through which Joe found new friends willing to support his effort to feed his family on $25 worth of supplies.
• The $25 Victory Garden - This is the Facebook page for project fans and supporters.

Pro-Victory Garden PowerPoint Revised

RedWhiteAndGrewVGRevREV

This is a Spring 2009 revision of my previous pro-Victory Gardening presentation. When you download it from Scribd.com, you can see the speaker's notes.

Note that there's still a funky format matter with the second quote. I cannot figure out how to fix it, but it's fine when you download the file. If you know how to fix this, PLEASE tell me! Thanks!

Growing Food: A Guide for Beginners (Excerpt)

A love of nature bridges generations.

Jean Ann Van Krevelen (@JeanAnnVK) has a new book coming out, and she recently gave me a sneak peek at it. Growing Food: A Guide for Beginners offers new gardeners practical, easy-to-follow advice on how to cultivate homegrown veggies. She also gives a very nice nod to the victory garden movement.

Below is an excerpt from the volume, specifically the dedication page that illustrates how the "gift" of gardening is one passed from generation to generation. As soon as I read the page, I knew it was perfect for RW&G. This blog is, after all, dedicated to one of my own grandparents. And today we're talking "Kids & Gardens" as part of #twitter4vg Tuesday, so this particular bit from the book seemed....well, it was serendipity! Fortunately, Jean Ann graciously agreed to share these lovely words, which I think you'll find as moving as I did. (Be sure to see her blog, Gardener to Farmer, too.) Enjoy!

This book is dedicated to my grandmother, Bea Van Krevelen and my mom, Claire Merryman. The two women who helped me see the wonder of gardening.

I spent much of my childhood living with my grandparents. My grandmother wasn’t often successful in getting me outside to admire her gardening skills, particularly during the hot Oklahoma summers. I knew she loved to “dig in the dirt”, but I could not understand why she would choose to be out there, instead of in the air conditioning with me. We had a deep bond, to be sure, but it certainly wasn’t around anything to do with nature.

I was grown and living in another state when I learned that my grandmother was terminally ill. I returned home and was fortunate to be with her during her final weeks. She was too ill to do much, so we spent a lot of time watching gardening and cooking shows. Martha Stewart Living was our morning ritual. When my grandmother passed away, I was deeply distraught. And even though my both of my parents were (and are) alive, I suddenly felt like an orphan.

I offered to help with the estate and spent the next few months going through the house, cleaning out closets, painting walls, peeling wallpaper, digging into the attic…generally getting the home ready for sale. I welcomed this time spent in her home, not yet ready to move on without her.

Early on in the process, I realized that the yard would need to be mowed, the beds cleaned up and the empty pots filled with sunny flowers. I am no real estate expert, but even I know that curbside appearance matters. Having absolutely no idea what to do, I called my mom.

Thankfully, my mom had taken the time to learn about gardening from my grandmother. Mom took me on my first spring planting excursion. We went to nurseries and home improvement stores. I still remember her explaining the difference between an annual and a perennial. We brought our beauties home and started planting. Mom taught me about growing in containers, feeding the roses, keeping the beds watered…every time I had a gardening question, her phone started ringing.

Looking back on that time, I recognize the incredible gift given to me by these amazing women. They cared for me as they cared for their gardens, with love and patience, coaxing me along, helping me blossom into the woman I am today. Mom now helps me harvest bushels of raspberries and baskets of blueberries from my berry patch. And when I visit my vegetable garden, I still find my grandmother there. She is the soft breeze, the sweet smelling earth, and the warm rays of the sun. Each spring, she embraces me with hope and love as I return to work the beds, continuing her gardening legacy.

Now, please tell Jean Ann and I about the people in your family that inspire you to garden--or the ones whom you seek to inspire!

Open Thread: Monday Morning Ramble

Good stuff coming in the week ahead:

• For #twitter4vg Tuesday, we're talking "Kids & Gardens." The special guest this week is Bethe Almeras (@balmeras), co-founder of GreenHour.org and the founder of GrassStainGuru.com Chat with her from 10 AM to Noon (EST). Our regular co-hosts are @treesandshrubs and @kissmyaster. Look for thematic tweets from them (and me) throughout the day.

• Don't forget my "Food Not Lawns" giveaway!

• Look for a new Profile in Victory and possibly another book review here by Friday.

• Hmmm... I wonder if Joe Gardener will have another video up this week?

Food for thought:

• What Are You Defeating with "Victory Garden?" (Supereco.com)

Finally, what's on your mind and growing in your garden this week?

Victory Garden 3.0 Wallpaper!

How to Get This Wallpaper

I wrote about the Victory Garden 3.0 concept for Horticulture Magazine's website a few weeks ago. Today they came out with this wallpaper. Whaddaya think? (Me? I love it! And much cooler than the "recession garden" name... but I am kinda biased.)

Friday Fun: Tater Tot's First Titled Artwork

"Shoes, Jelly, & Juice"

March 2009

By Tater Tot, Age 3

Food Not Lawns Review & Giveaway

When I started this blog last April and set out to learn about Victory Gardening and edible landscapes, Heather C. Flores' Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2006) was among the first new volumes that I purchased. Why? Well, the second part of the title appealed to my decade-long interest in community engagement, including a great stint as president of a 600+-member non-profit social service organization. 

To my delight, the book lived up to the title. Flores begins with how readers can prepare their own yards for full-tilt, sustainable food cultivation. She widens her lens steadily with each successive chapter. Included are all sorts of tips and contraption descriptions (DIY seed- and herb-drying racks, garden cloches, worm bins) designed to increase one's knowledge of how to grow food while reducing one's over-reliance on things like electricity. Today, in the midst of a recession, advice on how to swap out an old-fashioned root cellar for a refrigerator has real (pardon the pun) currency. As she moves to the community level, Flores covers practical advice on how to organize people to create and maintain community gardens, organize seed swaps, and so forth. She also does a fine job of discussing conflict management, a useful skill in any setting. Where does she wind up? With a  thoughtful chapter on how to engage the next generation in first our gardens and eventually (hopefully?) in our community work. As someone who just spent three days canvassing our neighborhood with a preschooler in tow to promote an upcoming event, I appreciate anew the author's nod to the future canvassers, er, leaders.

When encountering folks eager to look at Victory Gardening as a move toward self-sufficiency and a means to feel more "rooted" in their communities, Food Not Lawns is among the first books that I recommend. For my right-of-center pals, I do issue a warning that this is a VERY left-of-center book, yet one that deserves a read  for the practical advice alone. Which brings me to this announcement...

Next Tuesday (April 10; 5:00 pm), I will give away one free copy of Food Not Lawns to one lucky reader ($25 value)! To have a shot at winning the book, I want to hear from you how you might use a copy in your own home and neighborhood. Keep in mind that I'm not asking for you to run out, rip out your lawn and start a new community garden just to win a book!!!!! No, I want y'all to share how you think this book may help you delve more deeply into ideas rattling around in your gray matter these days... the kind of things that likely led you to discover this blog in the first place. And if you've already got a copy but want an extra one to lend to others, that's a fine reason, too. 

Go ahead... I'm listening... oh, and thanks to Chelsea Green for providing the free copy!

Explore More: 

• Chelsea Green's Food Not Lawns page

• Food Not Lawns web site 

UPDATE: And the winner is... Joy who blogs at The Franklin Farm! Here's hoping that she and her fellow farmers keep us apprised of their garden projects.

CNN.com Story on Recession/Victory Gardens

Our garden is mentioned in a CNN.com story today. See it here.

I'd also like to encourage all my blog readers to upload pics or videos of their home gardens to iReport.com. They've issued a call for Victory Garden pics. 

If you do upload something, be sure to put the link to your page in Comments so we can all go and check it out!