10 Million New Gardeners

Community gardens have surged across the country with the demand for vegetable seeds skyrocketing [up 35 to 75 percent over last year] especially of staples like beans, potatoes and lettuces. They are expecting over ten million new gardeners this year and "Industry observers attribute the boost in sales to a concern for food safety following outbreaks of E. coli and salmonella poisonings and a desire by consumers to be a part of the local food movement."

Other experts speculate the primary reasons are "the recession, income loss and the need for people to lower their grocery bills by growing their own." but Michelle Obama's new vegetable garden at the White House may also be inspiring people. Their first harvest was 73 lbs of lettuce, 12 lbs of snap peas and one cucumber. Obama and the children then trooped into the White House kitchen to wash lettuce and shell and cook the peas for lunch, which they ate outside on red and white checked tablecloths." 1


http://www.echotech.org

Urban and roof top gardens are popping up in cities across America and as one pioneer in Wisconsin put it; “We need 50 million more people growing food,” Allen told them, “on porches, in pots, in side yards.” The reasons are simple: as oil prices rise, cities expand and housing developments replace farmland, the ability to grow more food in less space becomes ever more important. "2

This motivates me even more to get my garden beds ready for July seed planting. We really enjoyed picking our own organic salads this past spring, all grown in containers. But autumn gardens are always the best here in Florida, especially the lettuces so we are building larger raised beds this summer so we can grow even more of our own this fall.

Over the next few weeks, this newsletter will be focusing on Planning your space, How-to-build raised beds and square foot gardening. Since the first seeds can be planted either in the ground or in 4" containers beginning July 15, it's time to start planning and thinking about what you want to eat this fall. Good crops to consider are seed potatoes, winter squash, peas, spinach, beets, pole beans, onions, lettuces, herbs and carrots.


GREEN LIGHT SPECIAL!
Buy 1 Rose [AS IS ] and get the second Rose bush at 50% OFF this week.

It feels like the Dog Days of Summer are here. Did you know that Palmers Maintenance has a service for LAWN AND SHRUB MAINTENANCE? Call us for a free estimate on taking care of your yard for you.


Butterfly Food
Right now the gardens here are full of butterflies, searching for nectar as well as a place to lay their eggs. Parsley is a great host larva plant for the Eastern Black Swallowtail and some beautiful parsley plants just arrived. We also have Milkweed in orange and in solid yellow for the Monarchs, Dutchman's pipe for the Pipevine Swallowtail and numerous colors of passion flower vine for the orange Gulf Fritillary to lay their eggs on. If you like to watch all the stages of the butterly, stop by and pick up what you need to feed them. Next week: Looking for Butterfly Larva on your plants

Growing Together,
The Palmers Team

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(1) Demand for Vegetable Seeds Is Rooted in Recession
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061402741.html

(2) Street Farmer
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html