Goodbye For Now: Check Out Our Website and World Food Day

Dear Friends,

For all intents and purposes, this will be the final post on our Planting The Seed Blog. All of the posts will remain available for referencing and sharing (Don't forget about your canna seeds in February!). Thank you for your continued support of our blog. You can still contact Planting The Seed via our About Us link, or by visiting our Website. If you are interested in our landscape design services, please contact us via telephone or email. Again, thank you for supporting our blogging efforts and for your continued support of our local business.

As many of you know, today is World Food Day 2012. It's an extremely important day, most especially for those who are needlessly impoverished and going hungry. Please refer to the information below to learn about World Food Day, the Millenium Development Goals, and World Hunger.

Thank you,

Planting The Seed

from fao.org

Today is World Food Day.

If you're interested in learning why we need to do more to end world hunger, check out these links:

• Learn
• Millenium Development Goals from the G8 Summit

If you're interested in learning how to help, check out these links:

• Act 
• Get Involved

More Information:

• World Food Day
• FAO.org
• OXFAM

Hungry Planet: Episode 20

Desmond Tutu for World Food Day

Food Justice: Fixing Our Broken Food System

Islamic Relief USA

Can I Get Some Canna?

If you've got canna in your yard, which you should, you've definitely noticed that they're going to seed right now. 

If you don't have canna, you should get some seeds from your friends that do. 

Get some seeds, put them in a paper bag or ziplock bag, and put them in the freezer or refrigerator until February.

I know it's a long time away, but I promise to remind you when the time comes!

Here's what you need:

•  A pair of heavy duty toenail clippers or sandpaper (safer)
• Clean plastic flower pots (3 or 4 inch).
• Some multipurpose compost or potting soil.
• A small stemless glass (for stability reasons).
• Some canna seeds.

Here's what you do:

• First get the toenail clippers or sandpaper and sand or chip away at the think black coating of the seed. STOP as soon as you see any white.
• Next, fill a glass with slightly warm water and soak the seeds for a few days. 
• OR get a plastic ziplock bag, a paper towel, and your seeds. Wet the paper towel (damp, not dripping), wrap the seeds in the paper towel (making sure to keep them separate), and put it in the bag. DO NOT SEAL the bag. 
• Once the seeds have germinated, it's time to put them in pots. Keep them in pots until the danger of frost has passed. Then plant them in your yard.
• It's a good idea to have organic compost mixed with organic peat moss. 

Canna come back every year on their own!.

So once they're set, you don't need to worry about them!

from demandstudios.com

from photobucket.com

It's autumn and the leaves know it

It's finally time for the leaves to start changing. 

Do you have some favorite fall foliage you'd like to share? 

Let us know in the comments or on facebook!

Here are a couple of our fall favorites!

Ginkgo

from plantsystematics.org

Japanese Maple

photograph by Brandon McLeod

Gulf Coast Glory with Carol Zimlich Reeves

Coming up next Tuesday (9 October) you have the great privilege and opportunity to learn from Carol Zimlich Reeves.

The proprietor of Elizabeth's Garden (On McGregor near Old Shell), Carol Zimlich Reeves will be teaching attendees how to create home arrangements using heritage and garden-grown flowers and greenery. Learn how to see the beauty of your backyard in a whole new way.

The cost is $5 per person 

the event runs from 1pm until 3pm 

at the Mobile Botanical Gardens Larkins Learning Center

You don't want to miss it!

from elizabethsgardenmobile.com

School Gardening

Check out the images below for information on the many benefits of teaching children how to garden. 

There are many things you can do to help! If you have a son or daughter in a school that doesn't have a gardening program, encourage the administration to start one as soon as possible. 

You can even print these images out as a PDF and take them along. Kidsgardening.org even provides a guide to help you make your case (more on that Friday!).

Don't have kids, but still want to help, you can Give a Garden or even Become a Sponsor.

from kidsgardening.org

from kidsgardening.org

from kidsgardening.org

from kidsgardening.org

from kidsgardening.org

from kidsgardening.org

from kidsgardening.org

Kids Gardening - Growing more than just food.

If you have kids, it's a great idea to get them gardening early. Teaching children to garden has many great benefits including discipline, teaching biology, encouraging love of nature, sustainability, responsibility, self-sufficiency, and building self-esteem.

from kidsgardening.org

This month, we'll be featuring several articles on family gardening, school gardening, and community gardening. We at Planting the Seed strongly encourage you to get your family (especially children) involved in gardening. 

Gardening isn't just a great way to improve your lawn (or your diet), it's a great way to teach and a great way to improve your community. This can be done by teaching your children (and your children's friends) to garden, starting or joining a community garden, or getting involved with  your children's schools to make sure that they teach gardening in the classroom.

from worldfooddayusa.org

October features World Food Day (October 16), a global movement to teach children and adults about current approaches to ending world hunger. Consider starting a family garden, to help teach your kids about the need for cooperation, aid, and education.

Here's a Parents' Primer to help you get started:

"Many other writings on kids' gardening start with what to grow and how to design and build a kids' garden, prepare soil, and plant, but this primer is not just about creating one garden for your kids. It's about taking advantage of "gardening moments" with your kids every week in your own backyard ... and front yard and in the garage and at the windowsill and in the basement ...

Through the seasons there are big projects and little opportunities for gardening with kids that can fit seamlessly into your life. This primer will help you learn to recognize those opportunities and turn your kids'questions into fun discoveries. And you'll get the garden-building basics too!" (kidsgardening.org)

Chapter 1: Gardening at Every Age 

(kidsgardening.org)