Container Gardening Class Take-Aways

Church-Sponsored Gardening Class with Master Gardener Lisa Lemza

When Master Gardener Lisa Lemza teaches a gardening class, she mixes botanical terms with colloquialisms,  sharing  a wealth of information without intimidating her students.  No wonder her classes are so popular on Saturdays at Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga.

Her first class of the season was about container gardening.  She covered the practical and the pretty, the maintenance and the fun.  "It's your garden," she encouraged her students, "please yourself and have fun with it!"  She showed us everything from designer-colored glazed pots to plantings in an old shoe.  

Lemza encouraged using the best potting soil you can find and creating a healthy environment for whatever you choose to plant in your small container.  "In a pot you're creating a little miniature world and the more good stuff in there, the better off your plants are gonna be."

Here are some of the most useful takeaways I got from her class:

*Give your plant a generously sized pot

*Glazed pots hold moisture better, while terra cotta pots dry out faster

*Do not put shards or stones in the bottom of the pot

*Do put screen in the bottom of the pot and make sure there are plenty of drainage holes

Gardening classes are held in conjunction with the community garden program at Grace.

Surfing and Savoring The Best of Hawaii

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Arby's for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

The kai (ocean) and kahakai (beach) are calling me to visit the beautiful island of Hawaii!  Can you imagine what you'd do with carefree days and nights in Honolulu?  How about learning to ride the waves with Hawaii's finest firefighters who are also surf instructors at Hawaiian Fire?  Sounds hot to me too!

You still have a chance to win this vacation of a lifetime in the Arby’s Hawaiian Getaway Sweepstakes.  Arby's grand prize winner and a companion will be flying round trip, with four nights' stay in Honolulu.  Plus, the winner will have to chance to learn surfing with a premium group lesson from Hawaiian Fire.

I'm ready for a luxury vacation like this!  My husband, on the other hand, could get just as excited about a hot roast beef sandwich on special KING'S HAWAIIAN bread.  For a limited time, Arby's is teaming up with the popular KING'S HAWAIIAN brand to offer two premium sandwiches.  The Arby’s KING’S HAWAIIAN Roast Beef sandwich offers an extra helping of roast beef on the slightly sweet KING'S HAWAIIAN bun.  Start with all that, adding Swiss cheese, crunchy pickles and creamy Dijon spread, and you have the KING'S HAWAIIAN Roast Beef & Swiss sandwich.  These sandwiches are clever combos of savory and sweet tastes, with buns crafted in the tradition of Robert Taira's 1950-era Hawaiian bakery that's grown into nationally known KING'S HAWAIIAN.

You can only catch the taste of Arby's new KING'S HAWAIIAN sandwiches for a limited time.  And your chance to catch some waves and more in Arby's Hawaiian vacation contest ends May 26.  So enter now at the above sweepstakes link.

How Church Got Started with GreenFaith Ministry

Seeing a medium- or large-sized church with a program in place like GreenFaith, the program might seem daunting to a smaller church or to one that previously had no focus on creation care.   While the leaders I met recently at Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga are certainly well-organized and talented, they say any faith community can do what they've done. Church efforts include sustainable landscaping, recycling, composting, a community garden and a weekly farmers' market. 

GreenFaith Team leader Marion Pound encourages others to start with education and then one small action step at a time.  She said something as simple as recycling could help a congregation get started.  "Start with one thing and then watch it grow.  I think you will be surprised at how people will get excited!"

Master Gardener Lisa Lemza noted that a community garden project needs a manager.  She also explained that both budget and the need for low maintenance are important details to consider before getting started.

The Rev. Susan J. Butler
Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, TN

The Reverend Susan J. Butler said she's amazed at how well the various talents and concerns of church members came together to make GreenFaith projects work.  And yes, she credits a higher power. "As a Christian minister, when you asked me why this happened, what I believe is that it was the movement of the Holy Spirit. That people who have a passion for the preservation and restoration of the earth just presented themselves and said 'you know we really think that Grace Church ought to get GreenFaith certified, ought to incorporate the preservation and restoration of the creation into our Sunday school program, not just for kids but for adults as well…that our liturgies ought to reflect creation-centered  spiritually and theology.'  I think that the Holy Spirit just moved here…to encourage people, to give them voice.”

GreenFaith offers a free start-up kit of ideas for faith communities who want to green their ministries.

People dig community garden!

Ministry brings farmers and residents together!

Southern church celebrates God's creation!

People Dig Church-Sponsored Community Garden

Community Garden Manager Lisa Lemza

The Senior Warden of the Vestry at Grace Episcopal Church met me wearing boots and a rain slicker at the  community garden still soggy from a morning rain shower.  She'd been greeting people from the neighborhood at the annual plant sale, and she was a few minutes away from teaching a gardening class.  I wanted to ask her about the neat, numbered, raised garden beds that her church rents out for $20 a year.

Vestry Warden Lisa Lemza explained that the church wants to include anyone in the surrounding Brainerd neighborhood of Chattanooga who is willing to tend their own garden.  She teaches classes and is available to answer questions, since she is also a Master Gardener and manager of the community garden.  But if you don't keep your garden spot tidy, Lemza said you could lose your planting bed to the next person on the waiting list. "We want to keep the garden beautiful.  A garden shouldn't just be functional.  It should always be beautiful.  It should be a place of peace, serenity, repose, escape, it's what the natural world offers us even in tame and urbanized settings."

The raised beds are built from composite board in order to last longer than wood.  Central to the garden is a neat trio of composting bins complete with user-friendly signs.  The garden also features blackberry bushes and vines such as muscadine.  Nearby is the pavilion with a living roof growing with plants, where the free classes take place.  The community garden is both a missional and educational component of the church's GreenFaith efforts to live out faith through environmental stewardship.  The Reverend Susan J. Butler explained that the garden and related efforts are
ways to live out scriptural lessons, “We’re learning every day from the process of what it means to be incarnational ministers, what it means to reflect what Jesus taught us; you actually have to do it, not just talk about it.”

When I asked her why a community garden is a good thing for a church to host, Lemza answered in her own down-to-earth style, "“It’s our job to take care of the earth, it’s what we’re here for and an ethic we’ve been ignoring for the last 100 years.  Those chickens are coming home to roost pretty hard right now.  Stewardship is a recurring theme throughout all biblical interpretation that’s worth a hoot. So it’s our job to take care of the earth, it’s our job to pass on to our children and grandchildren a world that’s better than the one we’ve received, not one that’s been decimated and saw the juice sucked out and tossed a cinder to our grandchildren -- that’s an abomination.”

The Rev. Susan J. Butler
Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga

The community garden is one of many components that Grace planted while achieving its GreenFaith certification that was recently awarded in 2013.  Certification was a two-year process.  GreenFaith team leader Marion Pound is also motivated to not only do good works but to share her faith through these programs.  “If our spirituality doesn’t lead us to care for the earth and to care about being more responsible and living more simply and thinking about the people downstream from our choices, if that’s not a part of our faith, I think our faith is incomplete somehow.”

Tomorrow:  what worked for this church and how yours could get started with a GreenFaith program 

Christian Mission Brings Farmers and Residents Together

Rainy Saturdy Morning at Brainerd Farmers' Market

Just across the street from a typical grocery store and strip mall, in a modest Chattanooga, Tennessee neighborhood, the parking lot is bustling with people at the Brainerd Farmers' Market.  A rain shower has scattered the usual Saturday morning crowd, and some vendors are packing up.  They've brought flowers and garden plants, fresh food and more.

Brainerd Farmers' Market is nestled on the grounds of Grace Episcopal Church.  The Reverend Susan J. Butler explains, "Indeed, Saturday mornings here, probably nine months out of the year, is like a mini-church, the fellowship angle of a church, without the actual worship."  While shoppers and vendors are made to feel welcome, there's no obligation to step inside on Sunday mornings.  Free music is a frequent addition to the open-air gatherings.  Parishioner Marion Pound shares, "I think it's evangelical in a very low-key sort of way.  They don't ever have to come to a service, but their coming and being a part of this is a way to preach the gospel."

Farmers Alex McGregor and Wife Leslie Smith
with Farm Intern Allison Banks

Vendor Alexa McGregor and his wife, Leslie Smith are selling strawberry plants and more from their organic Walden Farm.  They've enlisted an intern to help at the market, and they tell me business has grown for them each year that they've participated at Brainerd.  McGregor said, "Every year we've almost doubled our sales!"

Shoppers can not only bring cash, but they can use their EBT or food stamp cards for food and vegetable gardening items.  The church runs promotions to double the amount of points EBT card holders can use at the market, stretching their mission to feed the hungry.  Parishioner Kathleen Russell, who started the Farmers' Market three years ago, says it attracts local vendors who use organic and sustainable practices, even if they're not all USDA Organic certified.  McGregor shared that his customers want to talk with him directly about his growing practices, and that means even more to his farm than a government seal.  Market manager Catherine Durham said the community is best served when the church can help keep shopping local.  "People feel really good when they buy from someone they know is part of their community," added Russell.

Grace Episcopal's GreenFaith Team Leader Marion Pound (left)
Brainard Farmers' Market Founder (and GreenFaith Leader) Kathleen Russell

The Saturday morning market is part of a larger GreenFaith project the church is implementing. The project challenges congregations of faith to become environmental leaders through a wide range of sustainability programs. 

Tomorrow: see why the community really digs this church!

Southern Church Celebrates God's Creation

The stately stone building anchors the block of a quaint Chattanooga, Tennessee neighborhood, complete with slate tile roof and Celtic cross.  Its surrounding lawn is perhaps what you would expect near a house of worship, except for small differences in the details.  Clover is allowed in otherwise tidy stretches of grass.  

Generous areas are mulched and filled with native plants. Absent are those small white flags that indicate toxins have been sprayed on the lawn by a typical lawn care service.  Century-old trees look healthy and well cared for.  A parking lot median is planted in vegetables free for the picking, instead of decorative flowers.

Grace Episcopal Church, GreenFaith congregation in Chattanooga, TN

A visitor to Grace Episcopal Church gets the message that God's Creation is important, before ever entering the sanctuary.  That's intentional.  Grace is the first Episcopal church in Tennessee to join the GreenFaith Certification Program.  During Sunday morning breakfasts and Wednesday dinners, efforts are made to include wholesome, locally grown food.  Utility and maintenance work is done with a measure of care. Leader Marion Pound of the local GreenFaith Team explained, "We've changed all of our cleaners to green cleaners and we switched all of our light bulbs and we have recycling programs and composting programs, so now nothing's wasted inside."

Native plants fill large planting beds near mature shade trees

Sunday school classes spend time outdoors to enjoy a butterfly garden and bluebird houses.  They even have creation care included in their curriculum.  Pound, a mother of two, explained, "I feel like it's a critical component and especially raising children and their awareness of that connection between creation care and their spirituality.  We're hoping that they are well educated from the beginning that that's a part of their Christian responsibility."

Church member Jerry Evans mulches a "free picking"
vegetable bed with newspapers before adding pine straw 

Grace Episcopal Church is doing much more to minister to its neighborhood outside the church walls.  Tomorrow, see what else is growing there!

When Faith Inspires Green

How does your faith inspire you?  Remember when those "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets were so popular?  

Congregations of faith are asking questions like "What does Jesus have to do with Creation?" and they're figuring out ways to live out their faith in greener ways.  Not because green is trendy, but because their faith calls them to do so.  

This week at FlourSackMama.com, visit one of those congregations where "going to church" doesn't always look like you might expect, and where the mission field is -- getting greener!

Defending the Family Strawberry Patch

Anything better than strawberry picking in May and June?  I don't think so.  Our family's getting anxious for the homegrown berries that have been ripening in our garden.

Trouble is, the pillbugs keep getting the first bite just as the strawberries start to ripen!  It's been a damp week, and that hasn't helped matters.  In a more arid climate, I don't think this would be a problem.  I also wonder if the same conditions that have created an otherwise healthy looking strawberry crop, such as nutrient-rich, compost-filled planting beds, are the same conditions attracting these bugs.

I tried diatomaceous earth (an all-natural flour made of crushed shells) around the plants, which has deterred pests from other plants in the garden.  Unfortunately, a hard rain came shortly after I applied it, making the dust useless.  I'd run out and buy more, but at some point this will become cost prohibitive.

So, we're working on keeping the area where the ripe strawberries set dryer and less appealing to pests (without resorting to toxic, persistent pesticides).

Appalachian Feet offers all sorts of great information about pillbugs in the garden, so check out what they have to say.

More later...time to go work in the garden...

How Do You Spell The Name of That Blog?

"What's the name of your blog?"

"How do you spell it?"

"Flower?"

"Huh?"

Grandma never knew about the internet.  Wonder what she'd think if she knew she inspired a blog because she was so resourceful that she could create useful quilts and beautiful dresses from flour sack fabric?  Is this blog about sewing and quilting?  Sometimes.  Is it all about old-fashioned things from Grandma's generation?  Not necessarily.

Still confused?  Thousands of you keep coming back to see what's happening here, so we must be doing something right.  Here's a smattering of what other people have to say about FlourSackMama.com:

Examining Human Costs of Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia

We flip on the switch, read a book or run our computer all evening and don't give it a second thought.  We don't even ask what it took to make that happen. Bumper stickers remind me "Coal, It Keeps the Lights On," and I can't argue with the truth in that. Businesses and individuals feel intrinsically they need to "support coal" and its jobs, and they proudly display signs saying so in the tiny town of Appalachia, Virginia. It may take an up-close look at exactly what it means to extract coal these days from the ancient mountains of Appalachia to see that we're literally destroying the earth for short-term gain.   

It was difficult to hear accounts of young lives lost and at risk in poor communities near mountaintop removal mining.  The industry disputes any health connection. 

Residents in several Appalachian states have been calling for better air, water and forest protections for the mountain region for years.

Coalfields are becoming a new sort of mission field for Christian college students who are gathering health data about residents near MTR activities.

Discovering your connection to MTR is easy.  What you do about it, is up to you.