The Urban Permaculture Farm Magazine
For
The Garden Girl
I am proud to present the final issue of Urban Sustainable Living Magazine for 2010. This issue is a Holiday double issue! This year has been a whirlwind for me and I'm excited to hibernate for a bit and spend time with the family over the holidays. I've included articles to help you out in the garden and help you to get thru the holidays.
Finding the right gift for that special someone can be difficult, so in this issue we've put together a short list of gifts to make it a little easier on you. Garden sculpture and garden art are an important element in the garden and Shawna Coronado shows us how to bring out your inner artist and create Green Garden Art.
There are new video releases on How to Prune your fruit trees, How to Make a Healthy Smoothie with Pawpaw Fruit, and one of my favorite topics, Composting.
We've also included healthy holiday recipes that will become an instant hit with your family. It's also seed catalog time so don't for get to check out the article on 5 top organic and heirloom seed catalog companies with quick links to request their catalogs. As always, forward this issue to your friends and family. Thank you for your continued support. See you next Year.
From the Sustainable Home Front,
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl
Green Garden Art – Save Your Old Shovels and Rakes From The Landfill
When cleaning out my garage I found dozens of old tools I never used any more. Solution? Reuse them as garden art.
Using Freecycle, I found free mirrors in my local community from people who wanted to get rid of them without cluttering the landfill. Then, with my newly created garden art, I mixed it up on the back wall of my garden.
Voila!
New Video Releases
All About Pawpaws
How to Prune a Fruit Tree
Composting
Helen’s Haven, a garden for everyone and for one’s own
Helen’s Haven was designed to be a sustainable, safe haven for the three B’s: birds, bees, butterflies and of course humans, especially kids.
A Purposeful Garden
Our garden, Helen’s Haven, was designed as a place to admire the wildlife and a place where children can stop their play to taste a fig ripened on the shrub; pop a cherry tomato in their mouth warmed from the sun, fresh from the vine, and of course, to stop to smell the roses. While Helen’s Haven is a tidy garden, it isn’t fussy. An errant ball in the borders is nothing to worry about, nor are kids cutting through the beds, rolling in the grass, or picking flowers for an impromptu arrangement or to spread petals along the driveway and paths.
Top Eco-Friendly Gifts for the Holidays
1. The Pitch Birdhouse
A green gift idea for the gardener in your life. Made of 100% recycled milk jugs, detergent bottles and other plastics, this long lasting birdhouse will hold up to the elements and adds a modern take on the traditional birdhouse. Encourage wildlife to thrive in your back yard. The 1 &1/4" hole in this bird house will attract these species of birds: Nuthatch, Chickadee, Titmouse, Beswick's Wren, Downy Woodpecker.
The 5 Seed Catalogs for Organic and Heirloom Seeds
'Tis the Season to be Jolly...It's Seed Catalog time. This is a cherished time for gardeners because it's our time to plan what we're going to grow in the garden starting in the spring. What better way to help, but seed catalogs. We've put together a list of 5 catalog companies that specialize in heirloom and organic seed with easy links to order their catalogs for free. Because of the high demand for these types of seeds, you'll need to place your order soon, many varieties sell out quickly. These catalogs are also chock full of information about unique heirlooms with pictures that will have you trying new things in your kitchen garden.
Life on the Farm . . . . . How Hard Can it Be?
Can a chic overachieving doctor and a successful Manhattan advertising executive leave the Big Apple and survive on a historic farm in upstate New York? I doubt it. Especially since most New Yorkers think Central Park is the vast wilderness . . . What knuckleheads would think they could actually survive in a mansion built in 1802, with a herd of eighty-eight goats, a flock or two of chickens, a couple of barn cats and bunnies, a large legendary heirloom kitchen garden and a brand-spanking-new business selling handmade goat-milk soap? Did I mention they're gay and that one is an ex-drag queen?
In The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers, Josh Kilmer-Purcell superbly documents his courageous, harebrained idea of leaving his grandiose job at a Madison Avenue advertising agency to become a goat farmer. With the help of his partner, Brent Ridge, known to fans as Dr. Brent, on The Martha Stewart Show, they pack up their big city belongings from their small city apartment and a good chunk of their savings account to live the so-called bucolic life on the farm. The farmers, and I use the word very loosely, found the mansion while on their annual trip upstate to an apple orchard in Sharon Springs, New York; a small town packed with charm that has now found its happy place on the map. (Planet Green began filming a show about the farm and its new owners, entitled The Fabulous Beekman Boys, in 2009.)
Holiday Recipes
Nadine’s Carrot Salad
- 6 carrots, shredded
- 1 small onion, finely minced
- 3 tablespoons dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 2 teaspoons mint, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- dash of freshly ground black pepper
Growing UP in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
On a sunny afternoon last month, scaffolding and construction obscured the front of Cava Tapas and Wine Bar, a small restaurant with an outdoor patio tucked away on Commercial Alley in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But within a few hours, the plain brick façade was transformed into a vertical garden, the first such garden in the area: The Coastal Home/Charles C Hugo Landscape Design Vertical Garden at Cava.
More than half a dozen species of predominantly native perennials fill the 160 square feet of vertical green space, a design planned and executed by Charles Hugo and Maya Travaglia of Charles C Hugo Landscape Design.
Around The Web
How To Green Your Holidays
Raw Food Christmas Feast Holiday Celebration Meal
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An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.
Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.