25 May 2010

Tonight we are going to talk about Lanscaping and gardening. Our first Guest is Sue Reed, author of Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for your Home and Garden.  Then we’ll talk with a local gardener:  We visited Jef Inslee in his garden to learn more about how to create a diverse edible and ornamental garden in one’s own back—and front—yard.

Local Connections with Green Landscaping

Since we’re taking about landscaping and gardening tonight, we thought we’d give you some events and resources for gardening.

The Chico Permaculture Guild is holidng a garden wheel and monthly meeting at the Ladwig home in Chico on Saturday, May 29, from 10am to 4pm. For more information call Stephanie at 828-6390 or go to the Permaculture Guild website: chicopermacultureguild.ning.co

For the past two years, David Grau, of Valley Oak Tools, has been offering an Organic Gardening class from January through the spring, taught by master gardeners and farmers in our region. The newsletters from that class are filled with gardening tips, really, practically a whole course on organic farming and gardening. You can find issues of the newsletter by going to the website: ValleyOakTools.com. Click on the link on the left “Organic Gardening Newsletter.

 Another great resource in our area is Jennifer Jewell’s website, Jewellgarden.com. Her website includes a calendar of regional gardening events; an online journal about plants, food, events, and people in the gardening world; and podcasts of her radio program “In a Northstate Garden.” The site is not only informative but beautiful in its extensive use of lush photos. She also includes extensive resources and links, such as  Botanic, Teaching and Open Gardens; National & State Garden Club Organizations; Regional Garden Clubs; Plant Societies; Master Gardener Programs; Independent Nurseries; Horticulture Libraries & Bookstores; Regional Gardening Publications.

Our Discussion with Sue Reed

our guest is Sue Reed, author of is Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for your Home and Garden.  She’s a landscape architect with years of experience helping homeowners create comfortable, livable, beautiful and energy-efficient landscapes. She lives and works in Shelburne Falls in western Massachusetts. 

  1. As the title of your book—Energy-Wise Landscape Design–suggests, you maintain that we can improve our comfort and our use of energy by recreating the landscape surrounding our homes. How can we save energy through improved landscaping?
  2. The first two sections of your book describe ways of cooling our houses in the summer and warming our houses in the winter. Let’s start with cooling, since summer is almost here. What are some ways we can cool our houses in the summer?
  3. And how can we use landscape to keep our houses warmer in the winter?
  4. You also say that we can save energy, time and money by creating a healthy ecosystem. What does a healthy ecosystem consist of?
  5. Later in the program we’ll be taking with a homeowner who has eliminated most of his grass in favor of a garden. What are the advantages of replacing one’s lawn with a garden?
  6. What are some other elements of landscape design that people should consider as they are recreating or creating their land use?
  7. We might have listeners who would like to do one or two things to improve their landscape this summer. What would you recommend for people who want to take on this process one step at a time?

 We’ve been talking with Sue Reed. Her book is Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for your Home and Garden, published by New Society Publishers  

Our Conversation with Jef Inslee

We recorded an inter view with Jef in his backyard. If we can figure out the complexities of various electronic devices, we will download it from our fancy “professional grade” recorder and upload it through the mysteries of File Transfer Protocol, whatever that is.  Maybe you’ll find a link to it here.

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