A few months ago, we told you about the exciting campaign to get the next President — our Eater-in-Chief — to grow an organic food garden on the White House lawn. Well, the campaign is still going strong (with coverage in more than 500 newspapers and support from the likes of Michael Pollan), and its founder Roger Doiron, has come up with plenty of new ways you can participate. The First Lawn is your lawn, after all.

1. Sign the petition.

2. Vote for this idea at OnDayOne.org, which is sort of a suggestion box for great ideas and projects the next President could implement.

3. Bid on the concept in an Ebay charity auction. (All money raised will go to support the campaign and the great work Doiron is doing over at nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International.)

4. Watch this video to learn more about the “Eat The View” campaign:

Even a toddler who grabs one for the first time knows why they are called stink bugs. The shield-shaped bug releases an unpleasant odor when handled, a natural defense against certain predators. Found in most of the United States, stink bugs are a major agricultural pest in the Southeast. Using needlelike mouth parts, they suck the life out of commercial row crops like cotton, rice and soybeans, as well as vegetables, fruits and nuts. Wilted leaves, deformed plants and damaged fruit can all be symptoms that stink bugs are in the area.

University of Florida entomologist Russell Mizell has a sneaky strategy when it comes to stink bugs. It could be called ‘feeding the hand that bites you’. He has designed a rotating menu of trap crops to lure the voracious insects away from cash crops. The trap cropping system can be customized for any planting season from spring to fall. It is farm-scale neutral and will work for organic or conventional farms.

Mizell used a Southern SARE On-Farm research grant to test a myriad of potential trap crops. He was seeking plants that would provide a steady source of food that is tastier to stinkbugs than the soybeans, peaches, pecans, grains or other crops a farmer might grow. The most desirable trap plants would be unappealing to deer while being attractive to as many stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs as possible. Seeds also would have to be widely available from commercial dealers.

The tests were conducted for two growing seasons at the North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy. Mizell’s detailed final report reads like a detective novel with a distinct process of elimination. Some plants that showed promise didn’t make the cut because they took too long to mature or didn’t reach preferred height requirements or were difficult to manage.

So what were the most successful trap crops?

For earliest spring protection (March to April in North Florida), fall-planted triticale was found to thrive in the mild Florida winter plus attract a wide variety of stink bugs. Next, buckwheat and sunflower planted in the cool soils of early spring can be ready to lure the bugs when triticale gets past its prime. Additionally, buckwheat can be planted repeatedly throughout the growing season because its early maturation makes it a good relay crop between the other trap crops. For summer-through-fall plantings, sorghum and millet can be added to buckwheat and sunflower.

In his study of stink bug behavior, Mizell found that placement of the trap crops is also important. These pests prefer to travel Tarzan-like from plant to plant rather than streaming through corridors where they could be spotted by predators, so the trap crops worked best when planted between the cash crop and whatever vegetation the bugs were migrating from.

In large fields this placement can be achieved through strip plantings. In smaller fields or home gardens, the trap crops can be planted as a perimeter band around the cash crops. On a very small scale, portable containers could be the most efficient way to use the trap crops. Mizell has access to used nursery containers, something that many growers already have or can obtain at little or no cost. Large containers (10 to 20 gallons) are big enough to plant two or three plant species in each. They hold water for a long period and they are portable by hand truck or front-end loader. Smaller ones can be moved by hand.

How many containers? “I have not quantified that in an experiment,” Mizell says, “But my experience with stink bug behavior is that placement and quality of the seeds on the plants are more critical than numbers of containers.”

He recommends adding a visual attractor to the containers, such as a 3-by-36-inch mailing tube or a 5-gallon plant container on a pole. Paint the attractors safety-yellow to make them irresistible to stink bugs as well as their natural enemies. So what to do when you lure all those stink bugs to one place? They can be netted or trapped with simple homemade devices. See Mizell’s illustrated instructions for collecting stink bugs.

For more information see the Stink Bug Trap Crop poster and the SARE On-Farm Research Project final report for OS06-029.

Green stink bugs chow down on a millet seed head.

The orange Tachinidae fly lays its eggs on stink bugs where the larvae
parasitize both the stink bug nymphs and adults. This beneficial insect
also uses the pollen and nectar produced by trap crops.

The nymph of the southern green stink bug (Acrosternum hilare)

Okra with leaffooted bug (Leptoglossus phyllopus) and the brown
stink bug (Euschistus servus)

Putting a yellow visual trap into your trap containers 
can increase the response of stink bugs, as well as 
their natural enemies.

1. Always rake with the wind, and rake downhill whenever possible.

2. Share the wealth with your lawn. When the first leaves alight on a still-green lawn, mulch-mow to return the leaves and grass clippings to the soil. In addition to helping your lawn, it's easier to rake turf areas that have been smoothed over by a good mowing.

3. Use your mower to shred leaves to use as mulch or in compost. Set aside whole leaves in a separate pile, and deal with them later when you have more time.

4. Mix leaf species. Leaf-eating microorganisms that get started on thin maple or dogwood leaves will move on to thicker oak leaves as the mixture decomposes.

5. Don’t pick up leaves unless you must. Instead, collect leaves in a tarp or an old sheet, pick up the corners, and carry or drag the bundle to your piles.

6. Match your rake to your leaves, and to your body. At stores, try rakes on for size before you buy. Rakes with metal tines last longer than plastic ones, but plastic tines may be lighter.

7. Minimize how far you move your leaves. Rake them directly onto nearby beds that won’t be worked until spring. Use shredded leaves as mulch beneath foundation shrubs. Maintain leaf piles in different parts of your yard to reduce how far you must drag or carry tarps full of leaves.

8. Once you have your leaves in piles, stomp through them to keep the leaves from blowing away. If you are using a pen or other enclosure, leave it open on one side until you’re through collecting leaves. That way, you can rake or dump right into the pile without lifting your loads over the sides of the bin, and your pile will be accessible for walk-in stomping.

9. Wear gloves to prevent blisters. Cloth gloves are comfy, but any glove that protects your skin from rubbing on the rake handle will suffice.

10. Wear a dust mask when shredding leaves with your mower, especially if you have allergies or are easily irritated by dust.

11. Watch the noise. When you’re not in the mood to mess with your mower, blower, or other noisemaker, give in to the quiet. Rake. 

12. Work a little at a time, and stop when you’ve had enough. Leaf season will last for several weeks, so you have plenty of time to let yourself enjoy the work.

Do you have other tips to help fellow Mother Earth readers this leaf season? Please post them in the Comments section below.

'Tis the season for harvesting leaves, the most abundant free source of organic matter available to most gardeners. Microorganisms in soil and compost transform leaves into bits of organic matter, which helps the soil retain nutrients and moisture.  By themselves, leaves contain small amounts of 16 plant nutrients.

You can stockpile leaves in a bin or pen to use later as compost or mulch, but you don't have to wait until leaves decompose to put them to work. With some shredding assistance from your lawn mower, you can give your leaves useful jobs right now.

1. Turn lawn into garden. Prepare sections of lawn you want to develop into garden beds by smothering them with leaves. First scalp the grass by mowing as close to the surface as possible. Then cover the space with several thicknesses of newspaper or cardboard, and cover the base layer with two inches (or more) or compost or manure. Top with 3 to 4 inches of shredded leaves. 

2. Winterize hardy vegetables. Use shredded leaves to limit winter injury to kale, leeks, carrots and other hardy vegetables. Surround the planting with a low fence or burlap enclosure and fill it with up to 12 inches of shredded leaves. Mulch garlic and perennial onions with up to 6 inches of shredded leaves mixed with the season's last grass clippings.

3. Bury them in a trench. Improve the drainage and organic matter content in garden beds by digging narrow trenches, filling them with shredded leaves, and then covering them up. By late spring, the leaves will be sufficiently decomposed to mix into the soil, or you can plant right into the enriched trenches.

4. Mulch-mow them into your grass. Research done at Michigan State University reveals that when rather thick layers of leaves (to 12 inches) are shredded with a mower and allowed to rot where they fall, the grass greens up faster in spring and grows better the following summer. Just don't expect the leaves to disappear from view until the grass starts growing next year.

5. Mulch your trees. Stockpile shredded leaves until early winter, and then tuck in trees, shrubs, and perennial beds with 3 to 4 inches of shredded leaf mulch. A thick leaf mulch helps moderate soil temperatures in winter, reducing cold-related injuries to shallow roots. Beneficial soil-dwelling fungi are also abundant beneath shredded leaf mulch – one reason why Colorado State University lists mulching among its Ten Commandments of Planting Trees.

There is one precaution: Be careful with black walnut leaves, which can cause reduced growth in many plants, including tomatoes. According to Iowa State University, the juglone in black walnut leaves is usually neutralized by 4 to 6 months of composting.

Do you have other leaf-handling methods that work great at your place? Be sure to share them in the Comments section below.

I was going to write about the obesity epidemic, and the news reports that show it’s worsening across the nation, yet ... what on earth is there left to say about that? Plant a Victory Garden and eat fresh, organic whole food? Explore your walkshed every day? Enough. How many times can I beat that dead horse?

So, there I was once again, with a fistful of herbs, heading to a neighbor’s house when it hit me: Something to share. Surely it's one of the most important health benefits of keeping a garden.

Ever since I have had my garden, I have had something to share. I no longer show up empty handed. No one ever leaves my house without something, and I am never stuck needing to run to the store in rush hour rain when I want to thank someone who has done me a kindness, or want to give a little pick-me-up to someone in pain. I save jars to fill with flowers and herbs, and leave them on doorsteps like old-time milk deliveries.

The folks to whom I give these things appreciate them, but I know that I’m the one who really gets the gift.

Forget the diet benefits of gardening. There are health benefits – connections to other people – that should not be overlooked. When push comes to shove, isn’t this all we really want? A way to share?

 
The October beans and most of the Flagrano flageolets are in the freezer, but still my garden is full of beans. As I gather pale pods of black-and-white Yin Yangs, I am amazed at the generosity of the sturdy little plants. Certainly I expected a nice harvest when I planted them, but their giving nature takes me by surprise.

And it's not just the Yin-Yangs. Looking around, I find a bounty of forgotten beans worth gathering: abandoned French Duet pole filet beans holding blue-black seeds, and a few Peking Black crowder peas that reseeded themselves in a back corner of the garden.  

Some of my finds seem too beautiful to eat, for example the nickel-size seeds hidden inside the long, leathery pods of Emperor scarlet runner beans. I toss them in the soup anyway. As they simmer in the company of summer's last tomatoes and peppers, their meatiness will make them seem like little steaks on a spoon.

The petite green limas are so precious that we eat them like garden caviar, slowly and in small amounts. They take forever to grow and are equally slow to shell, but there is no doubt that they are worth it. Besides, the bumblebees love them.

The biggest and best beans get set aside for replanting, but still it feels extravagant to be eating hundreds and hundreds of seeds. Satisfying, too, in a way that cannot be felt unless one grows the beans. You give them a home, bring them water when they need it, and step in when foxtail and crabgrass threaten to take over the planting.

It is a partnership in which you must keep up your end of the deal, and now you can claim your prize. As you run your hand through a bowl of drying beans, they might as well be gold coins. But what is the prize – the beans themselves, or the feeling of wealth that comes with having them? Either way, bean season is worth savoring.

The other day in my Environmental Studies class, my overly enthusiastic professor told the class about a special group of three plants, known as the Ancient Three Sisters, that, when grown together, actually help each other grow stronger and healthier.

The Sisters — corn, beans and squash — have been grown together by indigenous people for thousands of years, some evidence dating back 10,000 years. Here’s how it works:

Squash acts as a natural mulch, providing shade for the roots of the beans and corn, and keeping weeds away.

Beans have special nodules in their roots that store nitrogen. As the beans grow, the roots release some of the nitrogen into the soil, which any gardener will tell you is a necessary element for a garden to be successful, especially for nitrogen-loving corn plants.

Finally, corn serves as a natural bean pole, which the beans climb up for more sunlight.

Isn’t it amazing how the earth’s organisms interact?