October 4, 2011
VOL. # 2 ISSUE #1
Desertification! – Saving your Shrubs – Community Gardens – Wangari Maathai (1940 – 2011) – Farmer’s Markets
Welcome to H2O To Grow, a newsletter from a San Antonio Native for local Rainwater Harvesting and Gardening Enthusiasts.
Thank God most of our neighbors to the north made it thru this drought without a wildfire, but our hearts go out to Bastrop and all others who lost property and homes to wildfires.
DESERTIFICATION!
As many of you are already beginning to suspect, droughts may become part of Texas’ Future for the next 9 years. Sounds hard to believe, but keep in mind that the Sahara desert was once a large tropical forest. And while many current models predict a slow change from greenery to sand-blown desert, the fact is the Sahara is now the largest desert in Africa, and second only to Antarctica in the world.
This process is currently occurring in the Hill Country and West Texas, and may not show the effects for many generations to come. A time where our children’s grandchildren will be suffering the consequences of our actions OR inactions.
To put it into perspective, the Roman Empire lasted from 44BC to 1453 AD. The United States as a country is less than 250 years old. What can we learn from this harsh lesson?
Well, I think what we can learn is that Mother Nature measures time in millennia, and we are just a blink of an eye to her.
There are many significant causes that lead to Desertification;
a) Over-Cultivation depletes the soils nutrients
b) Overgrazing vegetation causes soil erosion by wind.
c) Trees are cut down or die in droughts and their roots no longer hold the soil together.
In most areas, the layer of life giving soil that sustains the country is less than a foot deep, below that is bedrock or clay which is impossible for planting or farming.
Now most people will say, Texas has been dry for a long time and we don’t have any large deserts. Well, according to the United Nations Earth Summit 5, June 1997, Deserts don’t creep across land to swallow cities whole.
No, instead they form patches that eventually get larger and then join together, and suddenly a new Sahara is formed.
So a dry patch in Killeen and a dry patch in San Angelo and a dry patch in Uvalde can grow larger until they become one huge dry patch, or desert.
According to the Texas Drought Project, Texas is headed towards a perpetual drought, “possibly marked in hundreds of years--wherein rainfall continues to decrease and more of the state becomes desert-like, a process known as desertification.”
The Texas Drought Project is a group that is educating Texans about water conservation and the coming droughts. They also provide information and links to other groups of a like mind.
Desertification affect all of us because it will decrease agriculture, increase food prices due to scarcity and threaten the lives of many communities who could be without water as early as 2012.
How can we stop it? See our next issue!
“It is a bit sad that we have a government in this country that is actually overseeing the destruction of the forest…there comes a time when humanity is called upon to shift to a new level of consciousness… You raise your consciousness to a level where u feel that you must do the right thing. We see governments mistreating its citizens to the fullest.. who is going to question when the law keeper breaks the law?”
Wangari Maathai
Saving Your Shrubs
Today’s friendly tip straight from H2O To Grow Gardener, Cesar. (Note: This is for Shrubs. Trees use a different method.)
As we get past this drought and into fall, it may be time to take stock of what shrubs you can save and which may have to go into the compost bin.
Recycling and Re-Use are the best methods of conservation for a gardener on a budget, but the results could be spectacular.
We will be creating a system of delivering water directly to the root ball of your shrubs to minimize the loss of water due to evaporation.
As many of you know, mulch is a great groundcover that retains water on the soil when used in your flower beds and shrubs. But it does not effectively deliver the water to the root ball of the shrubs.
This is a method rediscovered by H2O To Grow and is given freely to everyone to use so please don’t charge others for it.
Here are the tools you’ll need for our technique;
1. Post Digger or narrow shovel
2. 6” diameter plastic pots (x2) with drain holes
3. Pea Gravel
4. Compost/Fertilizer Soil Mixture
5. Weed Barrier Material or any old cloth you don’t mind losing.
And now on to the Shrubs…
The first thing is to use the space efficiently. If you have a row of shrubs here is how to divide it up.
You will pair up the shrubs that are close together, and place a hole in between them. If there is an odd numbered shrub left, place a hole on the outside of that shrub.
For individual shrubbery spaced far apart, place the hole on the side facing the water faucet on your home.
Step 1: Dig the hole 18 inches down and 8 inches in diameter. It will have to be large enough to allow the pots to be stacked with a 2” lip above ground level. (You may have to go shallower or deeper depending on your pot’s size)
Step 2: Place the first pot in the hole. Line the bottom with weed barrier and fill with compost/fertilizer mixture to the rim.
Step 3: Stack the second pot on top of the first in the hole. REMEMBER to leave a 2” lip above ground level.
Step 4: Line the bottom of the second pot with weed barrier and fill with pea gravel to ground level. That means leave top 2” of the pot empty.
Step 5: Fill in the space around the pots with the soil you had taken out of the hole and pat down to firmness.
Step 6: Spread the rest of the soil around or use it to fill in any other area in the lawn needing soil.
Hooray, you have finished. The benefits of this technique are;
· Waters the Root Ball Immediately AND encourages deeper root growth.
· Less time spent hand-watering. Just fill the pot until water overflows and move on to the next one.
· Minimal loss of water to evaporation, so you water MORE with LESS.
· Can be used with a sprinkler system but you will have to reconfigure the holes or the sprinklers to line up correctly.
· The pots can be pulled out once or twice a year to replace compost/fertilizer mix.
We will get to SAVING YOUR TREES on our next issue!
“We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.” - Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai
1940-2011
Mother Earth has lost a great advocate this year in the passing of Wangari Maathai, a role model for advocates, women and the world in general.
Her Credits are too numerous to list, but follow the links to learn more.
“In 1976, while she was serving the National Council of Women, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. She continued to develop this idea into a broad-based grassroots organization whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting. With the organization which became known as the Green Belt Movement Professor Maathai has assisted women in planting more than 40 million trees on community lands including farms, schools and church compounds.”
Perhaps the green-belt movement is what I will remember her the most for. She took her education and turned it into action.
We have so many geniuses like her in our midst, if we would only take the time to listen, we may learn something.
Please watch a film called “Dirt! The Movie” on Hulu for FREE! You will hear her tell the fable of the hummingbird. A story that should be read to all children at least once.
Her story has turned into the “‘I am the Hummingbird Campaign’ a nationwide all-inclusive tree planting campaign seeking to honour the memory of Wangari Maathai by doing that which she loved most: planting trees.” Our Condolences go out to her family!
“For me, one of the major reasons to move beyond just the planting of trees was that I have tendency to look at the causes of a problem. We often preoccupy ourselves with the symptoms, whereas if we went to the root cause of the problems, we would be able to overcome the problems once and for all.”---Wangari Maathai
Community Gardens Spotlight
Visit one of these San Antonio Community Gardens to get inspiration and information on starting your home garden!
We will publicize 5 gardens per issue until we circle back to the beginning of all the community gardens in San Antonio.
Each Community Garden is unique and offers its own twist on the everyday vegetable gardening.
Whenever possible, we will include photos as well or more information.
Many of these community gardens are part of Green Spaces Alliance Network of Community Gardens so please support this non-profit even if it’s just with an “atta boy’ for doing such a great job.
1. Beacon Hill Community Garden @ Intersection of Gramercy Place and Capitol Ave. 78212
2. Gardens of St Therese @ Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower. @ Intersection of Zarzamora and Culebra.
3. Jardin del Barrio @ 2121 SW 36th St, 78237
4. S. Presa Community Garden @ 1616 S Presa, 78210
5. Refugee Growers Community Garden @ 4702 Bucknell St, 78249 (by USAA)
Farmer’s Markets
Ø Every Tuesday, 8am – 12pm - Main Plaza115 Main Plaza, San Antonio, TX.
Ø Every Tuesday, 7:30am – 1pm – Olmos Basin100 Jackson Keller, 78216
Ø Every Wednesday, 7:30am – 1pm – Leon Valley6427 Evers Rd, 78238
Ø Every Wednesday, 8am – 1pm – St. Jude Church
130 S. San Augustine St., 78209
130 S. San Augustine St., 78209
Ø Every Wednesday, 4pm – Pearl Brewery – Pearl Park parking lot (say that 3 times real fast!)
Ø Every Thursday, 8 am – 1pm – SA Botanical Gardens
555 Funston Pl, 78209
555 Funston Pl, 78209
Ø Every Friday, 8am – 1pm – St. Matthew’s Church
11121 Wurzbach Rd, 78230
11121 Wurzbach Rd, 78230
Ø Every Saturday, 7am – 11am - Bracken Farmer’s and Artisans Market
7561 E Evans Rd, 78266
7561 E Evans Rd, 78266
Ø Every Saturday, 7:30am – 1pm - Olmos Basin 100 Jackson Keller, 78216
Ø Every Saturday, 9am – 1pm - Pearl Farmer’s Market – At Pearl Brewery along the banks of the San Antonio River.
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