Winter #gardening to do list & tips

#Mountainair gardeners are getting ready for spring. So are the Community Garden and Farm & Garden Market. Both have scheduled February meetings with the community garden scheduled for February 11, 10 am, at Alpine Alley and MFGM for February 25, 4 pm, at Mountain Arts on Broadway.

In the meantime, here are some tips and information for the winter gardener dreaming of spring ~ and a source worth bookmarking for future reference.

It's dark, it's cold, but that doesn't mean you can't work in the garden! GardenWise Online provides you with a to-do list to get you started on your garden for the new year.

FOOD GARDEN, GREENHOUSE/SEEDS, COMPOST, TREES, FRUIT TREES, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS

Start creating your garden for 2012. Beds should run north-south for best exposure; a little planning for what you will grow and where increases yields and you won’t be running around in May shoe-horning plants willy-nilly!

To get the most out of your space, think about how much zucchini you will use and what vegetables and fruits you and your family actually eat. How much time will you spend growing food? A few things for you to ponder:

Now read about GREENHOUSE/SEEDS, COMPOST, TREES, FRUIT TREES, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS, SHRUBS & PERENNIALS and the rest of the January garden to-do list: Winter gardening tips from GardenWise

'via Blog this'

Gardening Videos

Getting Headstarts on Garden Plants! Jan 29, 2012

Ready for a good "olde fashioned" how-to video? I will show you how to harvest, prep and dry your peppers to produce viable strong healthy seeds with higher germination rates. Having problems with leaves wilting, drying out or dropping like flies? I included a closeup demo for dealing with mildew, early blight and himidity problems. 

So when is the best time to plant your veggies for spring? How about RIGHT NOW? Yes that's right. Tune in and I'll show you how I plan to harvest peppers and even tomatoes months earlier than usual this year. 

This is the year to take a gardening journey into the Twilight Zone! I'll be your guide. It's going to be fun, a bit new and definitely a whole lot of fun! Ok enough rambling. Let's GROW SOMETHING! More 

More Gardening videos at Dance in the Sunshine, Praxxus' YouTube Channel. Related videos. Many Community Garden and high desert gardening videos too.

Local Food and The Farm Bill

Good news for #Mountainair #CommunityGarden, our #farmersmarket & #localfood (central to iCreate's local sustainability) movements across the country from the Environmental Working Group Ag Mag

For too long, funding provided by the United States’ most far-reaching food and farm legislation has primarily benefited agri-business and large scale industrial-scale commodity farms that aren’t growing food. Instead, they’re growing ingredients for animal feed, fuel and highly processed food — at a high cost to our nation’s health, environment and rural communities.

With the 2012 Farm Bill fast upon us, Congress has an opportunity to make smart, timely changes to help fix our broken food and farm system by embracing a package of policy reforms outlined in the Local Farms, Food and Jobs bill. This legislation was recently introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and is co-sponsored by 63 representatives in the House and 9 in the Senate.

The Pingree-Brown bill includes a comprehensive package of cost-effective policy reforms that would boost farmers’ and ranchers’ incomes by helping them meet the growing demand for local and regional food. The legislation also aims to make fresh, healthy and affordable food-especially fruits and vegetables- more accessible to consumers.

Local Food and The Farm Bill: Small Investments, Big Returns | Environmental Working Group

'via Blog this'

Updates, news & a call to action

Catch the quick iCreate update just published on Mountainair Arts (for being of broad community interest): recital (a hit), exciting news about our future and a call to action.

Monday, Lenora and Kay return to Santa Fe to bundle the iCreate Capital Outlay request with one on behalf of the Town of Mountainair for the community park and safe playground equipment.

All Mountainair ~ town, arts council, other local service organizations, schools, the entire community ~ has a part to play too. Call, email, fax state legislators urging their support. Tell your friends and family to do the same.

Here are legislator names and basic contact information:

• Speaker of the House, Ben Lujan. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4782; home phone,(505) 455-3354; e-mail, ben.lujan@nmlegis.gov
• Senator Pete Campos. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4311, office phone, (505) 454-2501; home phone, (505) 425-0508; e-mail: petecampos@newmexico.com
• Representative Rhonda King. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4438; Office Phone, (505) 832-5050; home phone, (505) 832-4603
• Senator Phil Griego. Capitol Phone, (505) 986-4861, office phone, (505) 469-9470; home phone, (575) 421-2863; e-mail: senatorgriego@yahoo.com
• Representative Larry Larrañaga. Capitol phone, (505) 986-4215; home phone,(505) 821-4948; e-mail, larry@larranaga.com

Ask them to welcome Lenora and Kay and support the Capital Outlay requests they will be delivering on behalf of iCreate and all Mountainair 

We've been busy. In addition to our new iCreate Facebook page ~ please visit, like and leave a message ~ we just started publishing a weekly newsletter, iCreate Weekly, on Paper.li that will cover various aspects of the iCreate mission: creativity. music, arts, education, sustainability, environment, community service and more.