Sacramento Urban Agriculture Alliance

do you live in sacramento? do you love food? do you love to grow food? do you love the idea of healthy, clean, affordable food for all?

join the SUAA google group!  based off the SFUAA group, with your help, the SUAA group will become the network for all things agriculture related in the metro area.

 have extra fencing? post it! 

need a garden manager for a school plot? post it!

need advice on what the heck is eating your plants? post it!

this is just getting started—we need you to connect and make it your own! 

think for yourself

there’s been a lot of vegan talk on my dash and at the same time, people keep reposting stuff i write about the failure of education to teach people how to think for themselves. 

people are very good at arguing why something is not vegan, but they’re not good at stepping outside the vegan program and seeing the whole picture. i know they can reprogram themselves to a certain degree, because vegans have stepped out of the program of the typical industrial diet. but, why stop at vegan?! i’m all for baby steps, but it just seems like people have decided to sit down and not try to see where they’re going anymore when they declare they are vegan. just as long as the toffuti ice cream sandwiches and dayia don’t get too expensive, they’re happy. 

how about eating naturally? we’ve destroyed the genetics of so many animals and plants on earth through human interaction.  check out botany of desire by michael pollen, which is on hulu and it’s a book. it’s about how none of the stuff we eat anymore is natural. and i don’t need to tell the vegans of tumblr what human interaction has done to animal populations…

we need to try and find the balance! go with the flow of equilibrium! eating mass amounts of soy is not natural. eating protein powder is not natural. eating processed oil is not natural. 

growing your own food, getting food from the farmer’s market, buying locally and organically is as close to natural as we have in today’s society.

here’s my advice for everyone: get rid of mine, get rid of yours. get rid of right, get rid of wrong. open pollinate your plants. let nature run it’s course. i planted some wild lettuce mix in a plot 3 years ago and didn’t touch it very much…now i have some vigorous self-seeded greens that are BEAUTIFUL and something completely new. what if we pushed over all the fences in the world and let all the breeds cross their genes? we’d have some crazy cool diversity and the ones we’ve created with factories would fall to natural selection.  

i’m gonna plant 3 kinds of corn right next to each other when the frost date passes. and i don’t give a fuck that everyone tells me not to. i want to create a new kind of corn that is right for my exact microclimate! because honestly, it’s the do as your told mentality that got is into our current mess.

so i’m gonna do what i want. i’m not going to let the vegan box dictate my life. or the society box. the only box i live in is the lily box—the box i created, the box i create every second with my thoughts and perceptions of the world. and i’m gonna fill the lily box with so much love that everyone will see my box and start creating their own boxes with all their love. and then all of a sudden the entire universe is just a bright shining box of love.

yeah. 

i hope to inspire you, people of tumblr! please share if you are inspired and then go get off your computer and make the world a better place. 

starting to dig up the front lawn

journey through the garden, 2013

leopard lily’s planting guide for your garden

begin at the beginning. 

what do i wish to achieve with a garden?

what space do i have to cultivate?

what are the energy flows (people, wind, sunlight, animals) of the space?

what is my dream garden?

next, start planning. 

what do i wish to plant? 

how am i going to care for it?

where would each plant like to live best?

how can i best design the space for my needs?

now, implement.

you need soil, seeds, water, sunlight, love and energy. 

garden in the winter light

sunlight. the light of the sun in february is striking. 

some of my favorite plants…

tree collards, perennial native of africa

tree collards. if you live in the sacramento area, i’d love to give one to you. 

garlic! ajo!garlic is sprouting. now is the time to plant garlic. and peas. 

planting tubers: garlic, ginger, sunchoke (jerusalem artichoke), potato

jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke), potato, garlic, and ginger. need to find turmeric, yacon, and maca roots for my garden. pinecone added for energy. 

mint - propagated from cuttings

mint is easy to propagate from cuttings. it is a water loving plant. 

propagating rosemary

rosemary, propagating into a hedge. just take cuttings, remove the leaves from most of it, root in water for a day or two, and stick em en the ground. roots will grow from where the leaves once were. 

baby broccoli

baby broccoli! so cute. i love any baby plant. now is the time for broccoli, kale, chard, collards, and peas. and onion. and radishes. 

planting tons of flowers and herbsplanting lots of herbs and flowers. yarrow, black sage, cumin, chamomile, mullein, wood bettony, coriander, culinary sage, lupine, dill, elecampane, and borage. hopefully the bees like that. 

welcome to my garden

i hope you like my garden. come visit anytime. 

“Observing the food and therefore changing the notion of food preservation, we could find the answer to current situations such as the overuse of energy and food wastage. My design is a tool to implement that knowledge in a tangible way and slowly it changes the bigger picture of society. I believe that once people are given a tool that triggers their minds and requires a mental effort to use it, new traditions and new rituals can be introduced into our culture.” noticing how loud, clunky, inefficient, and energy sucking (both electricity and the flow of the room) refrigerators are. then i remembered this awesome project i saw a while ago. when i build my house, i won’t have a fridge. so i’ll be using the techniques presented here. as well as crazy ones thought up by me.
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“Observing the food and therefore changing the notion of food preservation, we could find the answer to current situations such as the overuse of energy and food wastage. My design is a tool to implement that knowledge in a tangible way and slowly it changes the bigger picture of society. I believe that once people are given a tool that triggers their minds and requires a mental effort to use it, new traditions and new rituals can be introduced into our culture.”

noticing how loud, clunky, inefficient, and energy sucking (both electricity and the flow of the room) refrigerators are. then i remembered this awesome project i saw a while ago. when i build my house, i won’t have a fridge. so i’ll be using the techniques presented here. as well as crazy ones thought up by me.

‘every seed you plant contains within itself an enormous amount of information about the Universe. nothing made by human hands can compare with this information either in size or accuracy. through the help of these data the seed know the exact time, down to the millisecond, when it is to come alive, to grow, what juices it is to take from the Earth, how to make use of the rays of the celestial bodies—the Sun, Moon and stars—what it is to grow into, what fruit to bring forth. these fruits are designed to sustain Man’s life. more powerfully and effectively than any manufactured drugs of the present or future, these fruits are capable of counteracting and withstanding any disease of the human body. but to this end the seed must know about the human condition. so that during the maturation process it can satiate its fruit with the right correlation of substances to heal a specific individual of his disease, if needed he has it or is prone to it.
in order for the seed of a cucumber, tomato or any other plant grown in one’s plot to have such information, the following steps are necessary:
before planting, put into your mouth one or more little seeds, hold them in your mouth, under the tongue, for at lease nine minutes.*
then place the seed between the palms of your hand and hold it there for about thirty seconds. during this time it is important that you be standing barefoot on the spot of the earth where you will later be planting it.
open your hands, and carefully raise the seed which you are holding to your mouth. then blow on it lightly, warming it with your breath, and the wee little seed will know everything that is within you.
then you need to hold it with your hands open another thirty seconds, presenting the seed to the celestial bodies. and the seed will determine the moment of its awakening. the planets will all help it! and they will give the sprouts the light they need to produce fruit especially for you.
after that you may plant the seed in the ground. in no case should you water it right off, so as not to wash away the saliva which is now covering it, along with other information about you that the seed will take in. it can be watered three days after planting.
the planting must be done on days appropriate to each vegetable (people already know this, from the lunar calendar). in the absence of watering, a premature planting is not as harmful as an overdue planting.
it is not a good idea to pull up all the weeds growing in the vicinity of the sprouts. at least one of each kind should be left in place. the weeds can be cut back…’
according to anastasia, the seed is thus able to take in information about the person who plants it, and then, during the cultivation of its fruit, it will pick up from the Universe and the Earth the maximum amount of energies needed for a given individual. the weeds should not be disposed of completely, as they have their own appointed function. some weeds serve to protect the plant from disease while others give supplemental information. during the cultivation time it is vital to communicate with the plant. and it is desirable to approach it and touch it during a full moon at least once during its growth period.
anastasia maintains that the fruit cultivated from the seed in this manner, and consumed by the individual who cultivated it, is capable not only of curing him of all diseases of the flesh whatsoever but also of significantly retarding the aging process, rescuing him from harmful habits, tremendously increasing his mental abilities and giving him a sense of inner peace. the fruit will have the most effective influence when consumed no later than three days after harvesting.
the above-mentioned steps should be taken with a variety of plant species in the garden plot.
it is not necessary to plant a whole bed of cucumbers, tomatoes etc., in this manner; just a few plants each is enough.
the fruit of plants grown like this will be distinguished from other plants of the same species not only in taste. if analysed, it will be seen that they are also distinct in terms of the substances they contain.
when planting the seedlings, it is important to soften the dirt in the excavated hole with one’s fingers and bare toes, and spit into the hole. responding to my question ‘why the feet?’, anastasia explained that through perspiration from one’s feet come substances (toxins, no doubt) containing information about bodily diseases. this information is taken in by the seedlings. they transmit it to the fruit, which will thus be enabled to counteract diseases. anastasia recommended walking around the plot barefoot from time to time.

anastasia speaking in anastasia, book one of the ringing cedar series. 

*’please note that store-bought seeds available in america and elsewhere in the ‘civilized world’ are often coated with rat poison for ease of storage, and should never be used for planting in the way recommended here. if you wish to follow the planting advice set forth herein, be sure to use your own seeds or procure organic seeds from a reputable producer.’

first, omgwhatthefuck about the rat poison. thank you government regulation once again. and saving seed is very important for creating a variety that is well adapted to your microclimate! 

second, it’s funny that they use the word weeds. i’m surprised that a book this advanced uses a word with such negative connotations. in my mind, there is no such thing as weeds. all plants are plants. it’s similar to how we separate people into different labels and discriminate based on their label. i prefer to use the words ‘companion plants.’

also, they use the word ‘seedlings’ when that would mean a sprouted seed and i think she means just a seed. actually, vladimir (the author of the book) is the only one who uses the word seedlings. 

also, ‘fruit’ is used loosely, and i think she’s talking about the edible part of a plant, not just what science has defined as a fruit. 

now that that’s out of the way…

isn’t this amazing? doesn’t it fill you with wonder and joy about a new way of living? no more sick people, no more sickly hospitals, no more crippled elderly people? and think of the intelligence and vibrancy of people and their communities! oh….how amazing. 

a lovely day in eugene, oregon

yesterday my cousin and i went on a walk to the eugene public library. we have both strayed away from the path of institutionalized education and have chosen not to join the mainstream workforce, and consequentially we are able to fill our time as we please.  and so far in our time together, we typically do one thing in one day. one adventure. one walk. one outing. and i’ve got to say, life at this pace feels perfect. 

lee and me

so we left the house in the mid-afternoon to go adventuring to the library. we’ve taken to walking places, talking to the neighbors and admiring art, gardens and houses. we go slowly, as there is lots of beauty on the streets here. there are also lots of little plants around our feet, and i must inspect all the ones that interest me, collecting samples and seeds whenever i can. 

my cousin and the deer.

we walked in the greenbelt on our way downtown and came across this lovely street art. we liked the moon over the deer’s head, the village in the background, and the constellations in the sky. another day, we came across this mural, which we also love.  there’s only one man, which i feel represents the shifting, rebalancing, energy from male to female. we stood in front of this for many minutes just taking it all in. 

mural in eugene

continuing on our way, i met some thriving thyme plants in a planter by the sidewalk. after taking a sample, i looked up to see a wonder: an herbalist shop! lee told me she had wanted to take me here. how perfect. we entered, and i was enthralled. beautiful relics of old traditions, jasper, obsidian, children’s books, beautiful greeting cards, books, music, honey, candles, and, most importantly, herbs! herbs galore! there was even a community space and an office space. the conversations we overheard were fun musings on life. real people were drawn to the space, with real problems, finding real solutions. i could feel the healing energy immediately. not at all like a doctor’s office, which emanates an energy of sickness, to me. this small building felt vibrantly alive and well. 

my cousin, who is writing a children’s book, and i, delighted in reading the children’s books heather, the herbalist, had in her store. this one in particular was delightful. 

i wanted to read this kids book.

the story was well told, but the drawings were stunningly intricate and displayed a sense of order and elegance that seemed to replicate the beauty of a vibrant forest. 

what a great children's book.

i also fell in love with a children’s coloring book of medical plants. i couldn’t stop reading the plant descriptions of flora delaterre, the plant detective. now, i’m inspired to create my own book for the children in my life. with fruits, veggies, fungus, trees, animals and insects as well. i’ll add it to my growing list of things i want to do….

we exited the shop, back into the freezing eugene weather. i found a sage bush down the block and felt that heather had put it there. lee and i started contemplating how commercialized sports, celebrity gossip, politics, and even education and work serve as distractions for humanity. people get so wrapped up in those things and never stop to think, “what’s important to me?” “what is the meaning of life?” and “why are we here?”  …we decided that for sports, when money isn’t involved, and people don’t get lost in the competition of it all, they serve a vital role in community building. but now, sports tend to divide people more than join them together. 

we got to the library, and immediately had to take off almost all of our layers. the people inside were so real, we loved it. lee got a card, and we started looking at music, then dvds, then the non-fiction upstairs. we got so loaded up with books that we called her boyfriend for a ride home. i could barely wait to cook and finish eating dinner so we could dive into our books (we had tomato and squash coconut curry with cardamom rice, it was amazing.) i love the flower remedies book the most, i think. i haven’t gotten into all of them yet. 

currently reading.

the flower remedies book is about using flower essences to heal. a flower essence is made by putting fresh flowers in clean water in the sun, then discarding the flowers and using the charged water. the author describes how everything is made of prana, or life force, and how modern science has finally caught up to what the ancient masters knew in their hearts. i really like this book because it blends science with spiritual. it also offers healing techniques that you won’t find at the doctor’s office, like how to heal from cancer therapy (ha). it also lists an essence blend from flower essences services (based in nevada city, california) that uses different essences of yarrow and some other plants to create a shield from the effects of radiation. living in the west coast on the pacific, i must admit i think about how the radiation of fukushima must be affecting me. a shield sounds mighty nice right about now. 

adam purple and the garden of eden. 

throw a rock into water and watch the circles spiral. eventually, you can’t see them with the naked eye. but they’re still there, vibrating and changing. 

adam purple is a rock. i am a rock.

i am a circle. 

tips for you and your sacramento area plants

the sacramento bee publishes some great gardening tips in the home and garden section. they also publish some not-so-great tips. like “try avoiding pesticides.” really? how about writing instead, “stop burning the roots of your little baby plants! what is wrong with you!? why are you poisoning the body of the earth with that petroleum-intensive crap!?” they should hire me as their new home and garden section editor. 

planting chart for sacramento region

they do have some really handy information, however. like this chart. i hung it up on my wall. it’s a really great reference for what to plant, and when. i’m so happy they printed one, i was actually looking for just this kind of chart. i scanned it and stitched it up on the computer, so the lower right corner is a little off to the left. but the whole thing is still readable. just click on the photo (directs to my flickr), click the zoom icon to the top right of the photo, click view all sizes, and then click “original” to be able to read it easily. 

growing month by month - sacramento region

i’ve also posted their month-by-month checklist of what to do in the garden. i just like when they tell you what to put in their garden. most of this stuff i wouldn’t bother with. nature has it all figured out, after all. we just have to get out of the way and let the plants do the work. 

wishing you a year filled with happy plant relations! :)

need a gardener? i’m your gal.

looking to get that patch of weeds turned into a vibrantly diverse food landscape? live somewhere near sacramento, california? 

i can help you!

i can observe your land, dream up ideas, design a plan, and build you a low maitenence, water effiecient, biodiverse space of nature wherever you have some dirt! 

don’t have dirt? no problem! i also can design and build vertical gardens and arrange container gardens. all you need is a patio, roof, or wall. 

i love to do upcycled building and art, so rest assured, building material price will be low (hopefully free!) and your garden will not have chemically treated wood or anything like that. i may even be able to use all those wine bottles you’ve been saving…

as far as pricing: we’ll chat about it! i am sure we can figure out something that fits your budget. i love to barter and trade, so maybe you have something or can preform a service that will be useful for me.

i believe that gardening is for everyone. fresh, organic food is not for the rich. you can have herbs, greens, fruits and veggies in your backyard! and i can help you. :)

shoot me an email at lilyrothrock@gmail.com if you have any questions. even if you just want to chat to a local gardener, i’m here! i want to talk to you! everything is better when we share.