Seed Swappers

Join us Feb. 7, from 1-3pm at the Common Ground Co-op in Urbana for a seed swap. Bring your seeds; we’ll have food, a seed starter set up and a special bee keeping demonstration by Robbie Nagel!

GARAGE & PLANT SALE TO SUPPORT THE HOME BIRTH SAFETY ACT

This two-day garage and plant sale is a fundraiser to help support HB 226 which: “Creates the Home Birth Safety Act. Provides for the licensure of midwives by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Creates the Illinois Midwifery Board. Sets forth provisions concerning qualifications, grounds for disciplinary action, and administrative procedures. Imposes conditions on any rulemaking authority…” and in general gives people greater freedom to have safe births at home if they choose to do so. Come by and get some good deals, pick up some plants for your garden, and support home birthing in Illinois. If you wish to sell plants, want to help
with the sale, or have any other questions call Sarah at 384-0429. Thank you!

NEIGHBORHOOD FARM EMERGES: TAPPING MAPLE TREES IN URBANA
Late this winter, Sam Vandegrift (known as the winepunk on www.smilepolitely.com) and his daughter Mamie tapped several maple trees on Lynn St. and Fairlawn Dr. in Pre-Historic East Urbana. Their efforts created a buzz among the neighbors. Sam and Mamie collected over 100 hundred gallons of sap, which boiled down, after a lot of hard work, to two gallons of maple syrup. Sam is a part of a loose knit, growing group of neighbors that are raising and sharing vegetables together and advocating for a more exciting, mutually beneficial engagement with food and our neighborhoods. Garage & Garden is a part of this growing cooperation and is pleased to host an exhibition documenting (photos by Sarah Ross) the tapping of our neighborhood trees. Sam will give a short talk on Saturday at 2 PM.

WATER WORKSHOP
This workshop is a general introduction to sustainable home water use and awareness. We will discuss greywater, blackwater, rainwater harvesting, composting urinals & urine fertilizer, groundwater, aquifers, municipal code, the inefficiencies and wastefulness of privatized water, and more. Participants will make their own greywater sand filters for
home and apartment use. They will also receive a small booklet that covers the topics of the workshop and
has resources for further water explorations. If you want to attend the water workshop, you must sign
up at the Common Group Food Coop, in Lincoln Square Mall, Urbana. To sign up, stop by the
store or email meagan@commonground.coop. Cost of the workshop is $20 for owners and
$40 for non-owners. Space is limited. Contact the Common Ground for date and time.

What's Growin' On

By Michael Tennesen

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=invasive-earthworms-denude-forests