What is Square Gardening?
4 feet by 4 feet gardens built out of plywood. A grid is made in the garden making 16 sections. There is about 7 inches of soil in the garden. In each grid something different is planted. I grow a lot of basil and tomatoes. The produce grows so quickly and so easily. One thing I had to be mindful of is the deer population eating the produce. To solve this problem, we (husband and I) created mesh wire gates to cover the top and sides of the garden keeping the deer out and the produce in. This is our second year having the square garden.
CSA: Community Supported Agriculture
Involved since 2000
In January or February, I pay the farmer $500 which is the cost of produce throughout the year. The summer season is from May – October while the winter season is December – March. Some of the produce includes: lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, root vegetables, and blueberries…
Why participate it the CSA?
It helps the local farmer, and you get to eat organically.
Once a week I get produce delivered right to my house. The owners of the CSA that I belong to are close family friends & I also work on the farm, helping them with the wedding and picking of the produce. The CSA owners are a married couple where the woman runs the gray barn and the husband is a high school science teacher.
What is happening in your house?
My husband and I recently replaced 25 year old windows in our house with new environmental windows that are not only environmentally friendly but they keep the house extremely cool.
What about transportation?
I walk to school (a 6 minute walk) where I am a substitute teacher. I also drive a Prius Hybrid. My family and I were able to drive from New York to Maine on one tank of gas!!! We get about 52 miles to the galloon.
What about food?
I make and can my own salsa and jam. As a family our goal is to pick 100 pounds of blueberries a season to make jam. When shopping, I do my best to buy organically. I shop consciously and pay attention when eating. For example: on the ingredient list of a product, if there are ingredients you cannot pronounce and there are lots of ingredients, it probably isn’t the best choice for you. When it comes to meat, we buy organic beef and pork in advance. The beef we buy from a local farmer and freeze what we don’t use and the pork buy at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. Portion size is also important. “If we ate what we were supposed to eat we’d be okay.”
What is your response to people who say it is too expensive to eat organically?
Look at the cost of 1 bag of cheese doodles and 1 apple. It is relatively the same. And eating healthy is so much better for you and way more satisfying.
How does living in Ithaca help your environmental efforts?
Ithaca does curbside recycle pickup so that makes it easy. Living in Ithaca makes environmental efforts easy and is encouraging. There are lots of helpful resources available.
How has family influenced you?
I have been influenced by my relatives. My cousin lived in an apartment and yet was still able to compost. Actually, she had a drawer in her kitchen with the red worms for composting... Laughs...Like my cousin, people have to want it to work; we need motivation to live an environmentally conscious lifestyle become convenience is definitely a factor. I also have family members who garden and grow their own produce. You could say it is a lot of my lifestyle.
What made you start composting?
The amount of waste we produced. How much stuff was going into the garbage was upsetting to me. I’ve been composting for 13 years.
What are some other activities you participate in?
I cook! It takes time, but is SO worth it. I also don’t eat that much meat.
I run, road bike, kayak, trail run, walk my dog Juno.
What is your advice to future generations?
Just do it.
People have to care. Earth is our plant and we have an obligation to take care of it.
Pick one thing you can do. My advice to others who are interested in becoming more environmentally conscious is to pick something that you realistically can do such as paying attention to the food you purchase. Start small and build upon it.
