Fall Gardening

It'll seem strange to many of you, especially those from colder climates, but I spent last weekend (September 16th and 17th) sowing seeds!

Whether you’ve got a few pots by the front door, or an extensive backyard garden, one of the fun things about green thumbs in the Bay Area is our year round growing season. As we move into the fall, here are some things to think about. It’s a great time to plant greens: lettuces, kales, chards, and spinach are all great fall and winter crops. In late October and November, you can plant peas again. Other great fall and winter crops include brussels sprouts, broccoli, leeks, Onions, and radishes. It’s also time to think about cover crops to enrich your soil; fava beans, winter rye and hairy vetch are all candidates for fall or winter planted cover crops.

If you’re interested in gardening with native plants, fall the time to introduce new plants to your garden. The fall and winter rains will help them get established before next summer’s dry season. It’s also the time to think about planting many landscape plants. Trees, shrubs and ground covers should all be planted now for the same reason – our winter rains will help them establish root systems that will sustain them through the dry summer.

The Ecology Center store has a great selection of gardening books and products. If you want more information on gardening in our neighborhoods this fall and winter, check out Pam Pierce’s Golden Gate Gardening, Katherine Grace Endicott’s Norhtern California Gardening: a Month-by-Month Guide, and Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Region produced by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. If you don’t have dirt in the ground to play in, you should also check out McGee & Stuckey’s The Bountiful Container, a comprehensive guide to all sorts of gardening in containers.

Out of season seeds are on sale! Come into to the store to get seeds for next season for 50% off.

Organic Cotton Baby Stuff!

You probably know that the Ecology Center stocks a fun selection of organic cotton t-shirts, but unless you’ve been in the store in the last few weeks, you don’t know about our great new selection of organic cotton baby stuff!

I’ve been looking for organic cotton baby items for years. At my last big trade show, I literally went around to every single baby vendor, and no one had anything organic. This month, the market is definitely booming. I have clothing coming in from seven different vendors – t-shirts, onesies, footies, many with matching hats, bibs and blankies. The sizes range from newborn to 4T, and I can order some styles in 6T. Just as exciting is a fantastic line of organic cotton stuffed animals. They’re adorable!

Switching from conventional to organic cotton products is one very important move for those of us looking to live more sustainable lives. Conventional cotton farming uses more insecticides than any other crop, and, according to the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) “epitomizes the worst effects of chemically dependent agriculture” (Organic Cotton Breifing Kit, PANNA, http://www.panna.org).

Both the volume and the toxicity of pesticides used on cotton are particularly bad, many of the chemicals used on cotton were developed during WWII as chemical weapons – they’re nerve agents. While much of the world’s cotton is grown in the global south, pesticide intensive cotton growing is certainly not a removed problem. Also according to PANNA, in comparing pesticide linked illnesses of farm workers in California, conventional cotton is the third worst offender. In addition to purely chemical problems, Monsanto introduced Bt cotton, a genetically engineered plant in 1996. All of the strains of genetically modified cotton have had serious problems wherever they are grown, many actually showing signs of significantly lower resistance to pests and disease than non GM cotton varieties (Myers, Adrian, Organic Futures: The Case for Organic Farming).

Organizing for a Simpler Life

Ok folks,

We've been in a flurry of activity down here. In August, I attended a great trade show, and found a bunch of wonderful new products. The winning category was definitely organic baby! Many of you know that I've been looking for good organic baby products for quite a while now, and all of a sudden there are tons of options. I've got products coming in from seven new vendors, so come on in and see what we have!

I'm also in a flurry of organizing activity. It has to do with the 2nd Annual Simplicity Conference that I just got to attend in Oakland. As usual for these events, I bought some books that I thought would intrigue that audience in particular.... and we've got a collection of Organizing books by Donna Smallin.

Here we have "Organizing Plain & Simple" which, if you're a beginner is great, but if you're an old pro (like I am) at trying to get organized, you'll have heard most of these suggestions before. My favorite so far "The One-Minute Organizer." Because, while I have heard some of these suggestions before, it's great to have them in little bite-sized pieces that you can squeeze into that 15 minutes before lunch, when you don't have time to do anything big... but those small things can really add up! Finally, I'm very much looking forward to "Unclutter Your Mind," which, for me, is the biggest organization project of all!

Here's to organizing!
Jill