UCCE gardening efforts get blogged

Efforts by UC Cooperative Extension to encourage Californians to garden were, coincidentally, the topics of two blog entries this week.

An unsigned entry in the San Diego Roots Sustainable Foods Project blog noted that a two-hour planning meeting for the ONE Garden at a Time Project in San Diego County was held last Thursday at the "Farm and Home Advisors Conference Room." (I'm not sure that's what the conference room is really called, but it is a quaint name -- a throwback to UCCE's roots.)

In addition to UCCE and the Master Gardener program, the following organizations helped lay the project's groundwork:

• San Diego Roots
• Food Not Lawns
• Backyard Organics
• Plant Soup
• TLC Community Giving Garden
• Your Enchanted Gardener

In the blog Slow Food Nation, UCCE Ventura County advisor Rose Hayden-Smith authored an entry titled "Victory Gardens as Purpose," which appeared yesterday - the same day, as noted in the blog, that the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden broke ground in San Francisco.

Hayden-Smith wrote that some view Victory Gardens within the larger context of war and the unhealthy sort of nationalism that often parades as patriotism. She believes that Victory Gardens showcase patriotism in its truest sense, with each of person taking personal responsibility for doing a part to create a healthy, fair and affordable food system.

For more on Hayden-Smith's Victory Garden efforts and a three-minute video about getting started in the garden, see the spotlight story on the UC ANR Web site.

Rose Hayden-Smith in front of a demonstration Victory Garden.

Read more