The StoryCorps recording studio. Photo by Rob Lowell

Last week we told you about how excited we are to have StoryCorps come to the Garden in March to record our oral history.  But to truly tell the Garden’s story, we need your story.  The link is now open on our website and  for you to submit your story. If you are interested in telling how Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden has affected your life,  we hope you’ll take the time to submit 500 words or less how the Garden has impacted your life.  But do it soon, the deadline is February 15th.  If your story is chosen, it will be archived in the Library of Congress and may even air on NPR.

Beth Monroe, the Garden’s Director of PR & Marketing, shares her story as a sample submission, to give you an idea of what we are looking for:

I have the honor of working at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden,so the impact this special place has had on my life is significant. However, one of my most profound experiences was as a parent chaperone on my daughter’s kindergarten field trip to the Garden. The children planted seeds, tasted herbs and then – a toad hopped across the pathway! Their teacher gently scooped the creature up and held it for all to see. The children crowded around, eyes shining with excitement, as the teacher talked about the toad and its dependence on a healthy environment for survival. The children listened intently. I realized I was witnessing the Garden’s mission in action — providing opportunities to learn more about and to care for the natural world. It’s the magic that happens at the Garden every day. Experiencing it first-hand is something I’ll always remember. – Beth Monroe, Henrico, VA. (would like to interview Kelly Riley, Children’s Education Coordinator)

Mocking bird & cardinal at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Photo by Micah Chelf

Plants and wildlife go together like peanut butter & jelly.  At  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, not only do we have great wildlife  like groundhogs, turtles and snakes and also plenty of  birds.  We have birdfeeders throughout the Garden, and also a bird trail.  Last year we had  regular visits from a bald eagle in Children’s Garden looking for fish in Lakeside Lake.  We regularly see beautiful large blue herons and hawks.

This fall, the Garden hosted our first ever Photography Day in the Garden, featuring a full day of workshops by renowned local professional photographers  on various aspects of photography.   Micah Chelf, one of the participants, and a student at Chesterfield Technical Center under teacher Lynda Richardson,  took this  photo of a Northern mocking bird  and a cardinal feasting on berries.  Great photo, huh? My guess is that being a bird photographer take much more focus and patience than being a plant photographer (the subject I’m used to).  Kudos to those who can capture natures winged wonders with such finesse.  If you are like me, and perhaps could learn a bit more about how to best photograph nature (so you can be a star on Pinterest) you might want to look into the many photography class offerings at the Garden, all taught by nationally recognized nature photographer, Lynda Richardson.

*Photographing Winter’s Wonders Short Course / February 9, 11, 16 The winter landscape is a visual feast of texture and subtle color; learn to make the most of it

*Advanced Flash Clinic / March 15, 17, 22, 24, 29  NEW Go in-depth to learn how to use this important tool for successful photographs

*Making the Most of Your Digital Camera / April 18, 21, 25, 28, May 2  Master your digital camera by going beyond the basics

And good news! Photography Day, will be back again this fall —  tentatively scheduled for October 20, 2012.  Stay tuned for more info.

The Lewis Ginter Community Kitchen Garden is now shut down for the winter. Volunteers in the garden produced 9,913 pounds of high quality produce for FeedMore’s Community Kitchen.

Weight distribution by type:

Tomatoes – 5,594.5 lbs.

Zucchini/ yellow squash – 3,035.5 lbs.

Cauliflower – 460 lbs.

Cabbage – 235 lbs.

Broccoli – 220 lbs.

Green Peppers – 18 lbs.

While falling just shy of the 10,000 pound goal, the 2011 yield represents an 8 percent increase over 2010 production. This excellent yield was made possible by the hundreds of hours of sweat equity volunteers invested in the garden throughout 2011.

The oldest red cabbage leaves produced a kaleidoscope of color.

The red cabbages were a bit of a disappointment by not fully maturing even after 100 days in the field. It’s probably due to getting them planted too late in September.

It’s a bloomin’ cabbage! After the primary heads were harvested, we left the cabbage plants in the field and the plants produced these wonderful clusters of rosettes.

While not heavy or dense, the rosettes were tender and fresh.

Award-winning author, Leonard M. Adkins, will speak at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden tomorrow night (Thursday, January 5) at the Virginia Native Plant Society (Pocahontas Chapter) meeting. Adkins, profiled by Backpacker Magazine, and referred to as the “Habitual Hiker,” will present Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains.
Adkins has walked more than 19,000 miles in North America, Europe and the Caribbean.   The Society of American Travel Writers Foundation awarded Adkins the Lowell Thomas Journalism Award for his book,  The Appalachian Trail: a Visitor’s Companion.  

Did you know that you could buy plants and seeds with food stamps? Over 46 million Americans use food stamps —  nearly 15 percent of the population — but many don’t know they use food stamps to buy plants that will produce food for them all summer long.  And while having  a big plot for a garden is a plus,  you can grow food on containers, and even urban rooftop Gardens.  Gardeners tend to be creative types. I’ve seen Christmas lights used in green houses to warm early seeds,  gutters attached to walls of buildings for a creative vertical garden,  and even HGTV has  a story on rooftop gardens:  “No yard? No problem.”

Here at the Garden, we’ve done our best to help produce  fresh, local veggies and deliver them, with our partners, to those who need them most. Each season we  grow nearly 10,000 lbs of greens, squash, tomatoes, califlower, zucchini, peppers, broccoli and more  in our Community Kitchen Garden. Those veggies go to nearby nonprofit, FeedMore, the parent organization for The Central Virginia FoodBank and Meals on Wheels of Central Virginia to feed those who need fresh veggies most, but can’t buy them.

I love how this video from non-profit, Snap Gardens, explains how growing your own food when you are living in poverty is empowering. It offers a way for parents to spend time and connect with their children and to actually teach their children about gardening.  So cool.

The non-profit,  Dinner Garden,  sends starter seeds to anyone who wants them.    Dinner Garden founder, Holly Hirshberg, makes preparing veggies and fruits less intimidating by illustrating how to cut and eat everything from cantaloupe to cucumbers on her YouTube channel.

With the help of a $1,000 microgrant from Awesome Food, SNAP Gardens will start working with The Dinner Garden … to set up a telephone hotline with gardening information. (Simon said that Dinner Garden founder Holly Hirshberg didn’t know about using SNAP benefits for seeds until he told her.) Part of the grant will also pay to include a flyer about using EBT for seeds with every packet The Dinner Garden sends out, with the assumption that many of those requesting free seeds might also be eligible for SNAP.

Or, if you are not a gardener, you might consider using your  SNAP to buy fresh local produce at the Farmer’s Market. Often the prices on veggies at the market are cheaper than the grocery store – especially at the end of the day when the market is closing.  Fresh veggies, weather you grow them yourself, get them at the local farmers market or get them from FeedMore, can’t be beat when it comes to taste & nutrition.

Read more of the article from Grist.

We’re only about one week away from shutting down the 2011 Lewis Ginter Community Kitchen Garden. We still have some kale and a few red cabbages growing, but it’s likely those will not contribute substantial weight to our total yield for 2011. We’ll end the season with a total yield slightly north of 9,825 pounds of fresh, high-quality produce contributed to Feedmore’s Community Kitchen. While that number falls short of our 10,000-pound goal, we are still celebrating: our 2011 yield represents a 7.4 percent increase over the 2010 yield.

Kudos to the many volunteers who contributed sweat equity to the Community Kitchen Garden over the 2011 season. Your efforts produced a significant benefit for the needy in the Greater Richmond area. In addition, the success of the Community Kitchen Garden was a major factor in the National Medal recognition bestowed on Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden by the Institute of Museums and Library Services.

Here’s some special recognition for those dedicated volunteers who participated in the most work sessions in the garden this season:

A few words published in Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch from the Garden’s President & CEO, Frank Robinson, captured it better than anything else:

It seemed an improbable uniting of people and place. A strikingly beautiful refugee from Southern Sudan, mother of 10, glowingly represented the Erie Art Museum (in Pennsylvania) as it received one of the national medals for “service to the community” from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Through the art museum, Victoria transformed her traditional African dance into a full-time career in her new homeland to support her family.

We were on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the impressive and somber Cannon House Caucus Room. Cokie Roberts, the renowned journalist, was presenting the keynote address and handing out the 10 coveted awards presented annually by the IMLS and the White House. There was every reason for humility and serious reflection.

It was impossible to miss the tears of pride of the mother sitting in front of me as her son accepted the medal for his employer, the Madison Children’s Museum (in Wisconsin). Benjamin suffered a brain hemorrhage at 7. After years of surgery and learning to walk and talk again, his volunteering at the Museum resulted in his dream job — as a full-time visitors services associate, daily welcoming patrons, young and old alike. When we met later, his warmth and smile immediately showed how perfect he was for the role.

And then, there was Chris…..

Chris Corsello, Lisa Watts, his aide, and Garden CEO & President Frank Robinson

Chris is the Garden’s own volunteer who accepted the National Medal along with Frank Robinson & the Garden’s Chair of the Board, Bill King.  If you have time, click through and read the entire piece.  You’ll be glad you did.

“The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex,” says author Charles Fishman.

Wow, never really thought of it that way. It certainly does make you stop and think before you sip!

Our fledgling Botanical Book Club got some great news this week when we were contacted by Charles Fishman,  author of the book they are reading, The Big Thirst.  The book club meets today at 11 a.m. in the Lora Robins Library in the Education & Library Complex.  Needless to say, this is going to be a very special book club meeting.

The Garden’s Executive Director, Shane Tippett, will start the meeting by  speaking  for a few minutes about Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s water management plan and our plans to build a demonstration garden to educate the public about what they can do in their own back yard to help keep the Chesapeake Bay clean. Then Mr. Fishman will join the book club conversation for 15 minutes via conference call from Mexico City.

Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $21 billion. A journey into the economics — and psychology — of an unlikely business boom. And what it says about our culture of indulgence.

Gretchen Friday, the book club’s leader and founder says, “We are all thrilled to have been offered the unique opportunity to speak to Mr. Fishman about his book. We are looking forward to hearing his thoughts and being able to ask him questions about The Big Thirst. ”

The Garden’s Botanical Book Club meets the second Friday, every other month at 11 a.m. in the Lora Robins Library of the Education & Library Complex.

If you’d like to learn more about Charles Fishman and his ideas about water, you can also listen to his interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. 
Photos courtesy of http://www.thebigthirst.com/

The cauliflower and broccoli in the Lewis Ginter Community Kitchen Garden have been simply stunning, despite the warm weather. We have currently donated 9,503 total pounds of freshly-grown produce to The Central Virginia FoodBank, Meals on Wheels of Central Virginia & FeedMore’s  Community Kitchen for the 2011 season. We are still producing!  A couple of side benefits to note: 1) Broccoli and cauliflower leaves are edible and tasty, and 2) allowing the broccoli plants to produce side shoots after harvesting the primary crown is worth the wait (see photo below).

Laura Schumm holds a "big catch" of cauliflower. Note the abundance of edible, but often ignored, leaves.

Nice continued production of broccoli side shoots. Not a lot of pure weight - but worth the wait.

Part of the 64 pounds of broccoli harvested 11/28/11 (156 lbs. of broccoli year-to-date).