Tired of tasteless produce that is shipped thousands of miles just to reach your local grocer?

Are your meals just not cutting it with dried herbs and spices that have sat on shelves for an indeterminate amount of time?

Have you wanted a variety of food not available at your local store?

Do you find yourself throwing out spoiled produce that you just didn’t have time to prepare?

Wish that you didn’t have to waste time, effort, and resources caring for a lawn you never even use?

These are many of the very reasons that inspired me to start a transition within my life years ago.

Welcome to the Growing Dinner Transition Challenge 2012! Inspired by the TransitionUS Transition Town Movement of 2012, Growing Dinner Gardenscapes will sponsor a local outreach for the Napa Valley Area of Northern California. As part of the Growing Dinner Transition we are encouraging everyone to make small changes to help ease our dependence on energy and non-local foods. By each making small changes we can make a large impact!

To help teach and encourage people we are offering our Growing Dinner Garden Consults free for the month of May! These 90 minute in-depth consultations are geared to teach, inspire, and help people create their own edible gardens. Partnered with Annie Haven of Authentic Haven Brand Manure Tea, we will show how we can grow spectacular sustainable gardens organically. We offer knowledge and experience on creating a sustainable ecosystem within the soil. We will show you how that by feeding our soil we are feeding our plants.

To help spread the word we will be holding a giveaway contest. A variety 3 pack of Authentic Haven Brand Manure Tea will be randomly chosen to the entries within the month of May. I have firsthand experience with the wonders of this Manure Tea, and I hope to encourage its use in encouraging a vibrant healthy soil.

The restrictions for the Giveaway Contest are simply that contestants must reside within the continental United States. For our free Garden Consultations applicants must reside within 30 minutes of Napa, CA.

To receive a Free Garden Consultation LIKE our Facebook page, and either post on our wall or email us on how you would like to Transition 2012. Consultations are limited in space and will be run by first-come/first-serve.

For the free 3 pack of Haven Authentic Brand Manure Tea we will be accepting entries all during the month of May. You can enter once a day by doing one of the following:

• Replying to this post
• Posting on our Facebook Page at Facebook.com/growingdinnergardenscapes.com
• Tweeting our page with @growingdinner or #growingdinner2012 in the message

We are excited to bring you this outreach and encourage you to visit the TransitionUS website to learn more about the Transition Challenge 2012.

The coming of spring has been so hectic that I have barely had time to dedicate to sitting indoors and working here on the computer. With the absolutely beautiful weather that we have had these past few weeks I have headed full on into working jobs right after immersing myself in the amazing sights of the San Francisco Garden Show. Heading out to the San Mateo Event Center at the latter half of March I was flushed with excitement. Among the sights I had heard people buzzing about there were conferences from some of the big names in the Garden community I had followed and had greatly influenced my paths forward towards a greener and more sustainable future of gardening.

The moment we had stepped into the garden design centers we were overcome by an unusual mystique and virtual inspiration. The fact that they had put together these garden designs in thought and exertion amazed me. The plethora of themes and feelings that these gardens evoked were only overshadowed by the sheer beauty of it all. Urban gardens to snaking walkways lost beneath towering grasses to the infamous ‘Hillbilly Hotel’.

Being a special place in my heart was the dragon carved from ‘Darjit’ which I am to gather is made from recycled materials. The use of so many ordinary items creating such peaceful beauty and nourishing gardens was awe inspiring. The recycled/upcycled gardens were truly spectacular to behold.

I’m not a big fan of the commercialization of many conferences, but understand that they have their place. However, once I stepped into the hall with the vendors I was swept away with the smells. So many smells vibrant and aromatic. Nothing was overpowering, and it only made me yearn to have some of those scents in my garden or home. While I did get to view just about every booth there were a few that I spent multiple days spending the most of my time perusing and enjoying.

Annies Annuals was there of course, but of note I had fallen in love with Morningsun Herb Farm from the moment I happened by there. Even the artist booths had a few that completely floored me. Andy Byrne, I must make special note had such intricate and beautiful work I will not easily forget. the Rustiques booth was full of wonderful designs I had only wished I had not been on such a budget. One of the oddities that struck me as interesting was the booth for ‘Air Plants’. I cannot begin to describe the many forms that these plants were in all soilless.

The names I mention are by no means the Best or Greatest, but are just a few of the ones I was able to attend or excited about learning from. Jack McKinnon of jackthegardencoach.com taught beginner pruning. I was able to actually learn a bit from him, and he was a very entertaining fellow. Alane O’Reilly Weber taught vermicomposting and I am quite inspired to begin vermicompost very soon. Martin Yan is…Martin Yan. If you have not been able to see him in person I can only say that it is something you must do with your life. Not only was his food amazing, but his techniques were intense to watch, but most of all he is one of the most entertaining fellows I have ever come across.

Of special note I want to say that Fern Richardson of Lifeonthebalcony.com was a pleasant surprise to catch. Having to deal with small space gardening for most of my experience it was great to see her talking about that very same subject. Her book is on my ever growing and already overbearing ‘To-Buy’ list.

My personal treat was to catch Joe Lamp’l of Growingagreenerworld.com. Joe is simply great. He’s so down to earth and knows so much I just sit there absorbing everything he has to say. Joe was a special treat for me because it was his show along with his book Over the Fence with Joe Gardener that inspired me toward building this very business Growing Dinner Gardenscapes. And if Joe ever reads this I can hope he will know how much what he and the others of GrowingAGreenerWorld mean to the rest of us. (And I really had a wonderful time after the show chatting!)

Well it sure has been an ideal Spring for a wonderful year of early planting. or has it? Often we gardeners get so excited about this burst of spring we forget that Mother Nature surprises us with one last frosty slap in the face. Garden centers know about this, however, and even i have been victim once or twice.

What you should understand is that the majority of plants available in our local garden centers are grown within the controlled environments of greenhouses and nurseries. It is quite possible you could have very successful plants, but mother nature has a sense of this and strives to throw a monkey wrench into even the best laid plans.

We have sure had a a warm and dry winter this year and our soil temperatures are higher than normal around this time of year. This means we are more likely to get good germination from direct sowing certain cool weather crops. Most of our favorites, however, will suffer in the colder temperatures. We can start our beets, potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, and radishes now in our gardens and see some success.

This is now the time to start our tomatoes and peppers indoors if you have not already. it is still much too cold to set these plants out, but for those starts gained from the garden centers you could start a hardening off by setting these plants out during the day where our temperatures are averaging around 65-70 lately. Cucumbers could use the same practice, but are much more sensitive to the cold and our vicious valley winds.

One of the tools that I use is a handy garden slide rule called Clyde’s Garden Planner. Seeing that our local average last frost date is march 22 I slide the rule and can see when and how I should plant some of the more common garden crops and even have the depths and distances of planting. I would consider this tool invaluable and recommend you head over there to grab one of your own.

Another invaluable resource is the Sunset book of of Edibles. I am continually referring to this book for information and entertainment.

So please remember that while seeing all the wonderful plants available at the garden centers get our garden juices flowing to use your wisdom and choose that which you are prepared to care for. If you do not have greenhouse, cold frames, or starting areas available, choose that which you can safely plant right in the ground. Our true Spring is just around the corner, and we will enjoy the wonderful successes it brings.

Any questions please feel free to contact me. I am available for garden consultations via web or phone for the entire continental United States, and do Garden Installations and Maintenance services for those within Tracy California.

Recently I was introduced to someone who gardens through a mutual friend. I enjoyed chatting, but until today I had not realized just how closely our thoughts collide. I read through a blog post of hers today and was awed by just how much alike we are in gardening and eating goals.

I began a goal to start eating more healthy after watching Food Inc. This path led me to wondering where I could get my own safe and sustainable produce. This train of thought of course led to home gardening. What began in simplicity and just a feigned interest soon turned into a passion. This passion got a jump start from tasting a literal “Fruit of my Labor”. A Tomato tasted plainly, but bursting with such flavor I was immediately hooked on gardening.

As my gardening passion grew so did my experimentation with cooking. Now I will admit happily I am not a good cook, or even one who enjoys this. But I do enjoy the taste that preparing my own food that comes fresh from my garden has. Like the ebb and flow of life so has my garden shown this same pattern. Like she says in her own blog,

“Every year since our garden has evolved.  The first two years the garden was small.  Then we started to expand.  One year it went back to being really small.”

With the winter months it is hard to imagine having a bountiful garden. Yet, in our own climate here there are several crops that will grow for us to enjoy. This year I am hoping to expand our winter meals with food that has been preserved.

“I have my canning equipment, my dehydrator and all of the books and resources to help with the things I need to learn.  I’m really hoping we can put some food up this year to use in the winter. “

Like, Melissa, I plan on trying to can and preserve much more this year. I have found that freezing has helped sustain much of our summer harvests through our winter. We are almost out of Basil, however, and that is unacceptable next year!

I would like to thank Melissa for allowing me to quote her blog post and recommend you check out her many posts from the Hippie Home Cook or her garden blog at Lea Urban Farming.

It seems as if we are having an unusually warm winter season this year. With the past few weeks in the low to mid 60s, and some areas even reaching 70 I feel in the middle of a heat wave. Gone are the winter blankets and the all-day jackets are delegated to the wee hours of the morning. Living in zone 9b we are averaged for last frost to hit around mid-march. Yet, here I am feeling like I let the ball drop for preparing for my Spring garden.

Now I believe I have felt this way before, so I am still cautious about greeting the full swing of Spring yet. It IS seed sowing time, however. Cool season crops can still be sown outdoors now. Even I have begun separating the carrots and greens that are my cool season staples. So easy to grow in our area it’s practically a crime!

Many herbs, root vegetables, and greens can all be grown quite successfully with limited care and attention through our mild winters, and while they may slow to almost dormancy once we have the weather like we have been having they spring forth to life! My Italian parsley is just an example, but it has grown beyond expectation. Even my hot peppers have continued to produce through the winter. Like I mentioned before I am still wary of another frost risk, but I’m completely giddy with the warmth and brightness that is dawning ever greater upon my garden and yours.

Sitting out in the evening in just a t-shirt and jeans enjoying the warmth as I spend time in my garden was the greatest gift mother nature has afforded me this week. I encourage you to do the same. And inspired but this heat wave here is a song to celebrate it!

My first video is up and running over on our Youtube channel. Please let us know what you think and I hope this helps you get started Growing Dinner!

We are in the process of finalizing our design and service portfolio for viewing and interaction on the website for a February launch.

We do invite you to participate and query our knowledge in the meantime by visiting us on Facebook and Like Our Page.

You can also Follow Us on Twitter where we participate in #gardenchat, #seedchat, #herbchat, and #hobbyfarm hashtag chats.