Upcoming Events, and Butterfly Pics

Here are some upcoming events!  Good food, farming practices and nature!!!

 

FRESH from last weeks blog post,

head out to the Global Greens Farm for a potluck, activities and farm tours!

Thursday, August 4, 2016 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Global Greens Farm - 4444 Fuller Rd, West Des Moines
You can register for this fun, free event! 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, Practical Farmers of Iowa will be conducting a field day at Maple Edge Farm in SW Iowa

“From a Soil Conservation to a Soil Regeneration Mindset” will explore soil regeneration practices
Wednesday, July 27, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.,
Near Hastings (55755 370th St., about 3.5 miles north of town).

 

 

Ruby the Reading Red Panda at The Waukee Public Library
August 4th 10:00 & 10:45 a.m.
Ages 2-4                                                      
Come and enjoy a special storytime with Ruby the Reading Red Panda and another animal friend from the Blank Park Zoo!
Registration for this event can be found HERE

 

 

 

 

More from Blank Park Zoo & Plant.Grow.Fly, the 2016 Monarch Festival is coming up Sunday, September 18.

Celebrate the beginning of the miraculous migration of the monarch butterfly.  There will be crafts and activities for families. Enjoy a Bug Parade where kids dress up as their favorite insect!

 

 

 

If you don't have a pollinator garden yet, contact us today! 

 

Pollinator plants are also included in many of our design services, especially tree guilds.

 

 

Here are some of the visitors we had this week in our PFG garden!

 

 

 

 

Until next week, Keep Growing!

 



Global Greens Farm

Global Greens Farm is a training center for 24 refugee families on their road to self-sufficiency, through sustainable local agriculture and related business training.  Multi year training includes production, record keeping, marketing and more.

Three of these families have launched their own businesses and sell independently at the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market. They have two acres in Carlisle and share three acres in Van Meter. They will graduate after this year.

“Many former refugees who have agricultural backgrounds have a strong desire to reconnect with the land,” said Nick Wuertz, LSI director of refugee community services. “Growing food also has tremendous benefits in areas of nutrition, health and wellness, mental health and socialization, and it also provides opportunities for small business income.”

Located on 6 acres at the Valley Community Center, the farm uses pesticide-free and sustainable practices to grow Certified Naturally Grown produce which is used by their families and sold through their CSA and Farmer's Market.





Global Green's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is new this season.  For more information on their CSA program go to: http://lsiowa.org/index.php/services/refugee/programs/global-greens/market-farming/csa/#register

Here's a peek at the great looking produce in last week's basket!

The Global Greens Farmer's Market is located at the LSI Refugee Connection Center parking lot Saturdays 9am-1pm through October 8th.
3200 University Ave
Des Moines, IA 50311

Also new this year they are one of six farmers markets in Iowa that is running the Double Up Food Bucks program.   The Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB) matches SNAP EBT Card benefits spent at farmers markets. Whatever you spend on your SNAP Card, you’ll get a dollar for dollar match of up to $10 in DUFB that you can spend on locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.

Come out to the LSI Global Greens Farmers Market and learn more!


Last Fall I had the opportunity to tour the farm with my friend and LSI Farm Associate Zac Couture.  He explained how the farm worked, showed me a few tricks he's learned and has implemented at the site, and I even got to lend a hand during the garlic planting.



The recent harvest looked GREAT!

Are you interested in getting more involved?
It takes lots of work to maintain these gardens and start new ones.

Lutheran Services of Iowa has over 180 families connected to community gardens this year at 12 sites around the city (with various partners and private landowners.)

They have a waitlist of 100+ families waiting for space in existing community gardens. Every year LSI has to turn down many people to community gardens and also the training site in West Des Moines because we don’t have the space. They are always looking for motivated partners to host new sites.

Global Greens relies on charity and grants to continue this work.  You can Donate Here if interested.

They are also always looking for hard-working advocates of food justice to help out.  You could volunteer as a Community Garden Liaison.  As a Liaison you would be visiting the garden once a week, maybe even growing your own educational demonstration garden, for a term of one growing season. 

This is how to actually do the work, get your hands dirty!

FREE Screening of "INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective"

Come to the Ames Library for a free screening of INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective. This documentary explores the many environmental and agricultural issues facing us today and examines solutions that are being applied using the ecological design process called permaculture.

Abundant Design is cosponsoring the event in collaboration with the Ames Food Forest.

Monday, July 18th, 7pm

 

Ames Public Library

Farwell T. Brown Auditorium

515 Douglas Ave

Ames, Iowa 50010

 

‘Inhabit’ is a documentary film project that explores the tools for and promise of meeting human needs while also caring for and regenerating ecosystem health. It is an exploration into the idea of conscience inhabitance through permaculture. Focused mostly on the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States, ‘Inhabit’ provides an intimate look at permaculture peoples and practices in these regions - examining their daily lives as influenced by permaculture design.

Permaculture is a design science based on the observation and replication of patterns and relationships found in nature; it is an approach to designing sustainable systems of agriculture, community, economics, politics, and more. ‘Inhabit’ will look at practices in rural, suburban, and urban environments to explore the breadth of response to local and global challenges - from issues of food, water, and medicine, to governance, economy, and culture. It is an attempt to illuminate certain societal and planetary ails through the lens of on-ground, Earth-based solutions. 

Mid-Year 2016

In the corporate world, its mid-year review time.  Its one way to track our progress and look forward to the rest of the year. 

So how about a midyear review for Abundant Design.

Upcoming this week I'll be helping out with Waukee's Explore the Outdoors and More camp.  We'll talk a little bit about my favorite things I get to do in my business, pollinators and their importance, and making pollinator Seed Bombs.

Last weekend we celebrated Independence Day, and participated in Waukee's annual parade!  The fireworks were a great finale to the weekend!

 

I am really excited for the projects coming in with customers wanting to be more responsible stewards of our planet and growing some of their own food.  Here are a few pics from earlier this year.



Keyhole Raised beds with retaining wall and integrated rain barrel and irrigation

Fruiting Wall with three Apple varieties and thornless Raspberries

 

Abundant Design's feature garden also won 'Best in Show' at the Des Moines Home & Outdoor Living Show!

 

At the Spring Seed Exchange attendees were excited for the free apple tree grafting workshop and live music provided by "Sweet Tater" TeRonde!

 

 

 

In our own yard we've been sampling our new peaches, watching butterflies, and getting plant propagation beds rebuilt.

 

 

Here's to a great second half of 2016!

 





Happy Independance Day Weekend!

 

Happy 240th America!

Come see us in the Waukee Independence Day Parade!

Parade starts at 3:00 p.m. beginning the Historic Downtown and ending at Centennial Park.

Centennial Park will have inflatables, games, food vendors and more. 

The band Standing Hampton will provide live music at 6 p.m.

Stick around for the great fireworks show after dusk.

Thank you Waukee for hosting this yearly celebration of our nation's independence!