Disney Parks Give a Day Get a Day community service project in San Antonio and San Diego!!

What to know how to assemble seed packs for The Dinner Garden Witkids event?

Here is a video made by two volunteers!

Disney Parks Give a Day Get a Day community service projects in San Antonio and San Diego!

The Dinner Garden and Witkids.org have teamed up to create a day of service like no other! Pack up seeds for people in need and get a free day at Disney Parks! There are only 140 spots! Sign up today!

These days of service will take place in San Diego, CA in February and in San Antonio, TX in March!

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day

Here is a video showing how the event went in San Diego!

New Community Garden in San Antonio!

Isn't gardening expensive?

This is a question we get at The Dinner Garden all the time. Sure, giving away seeds is a good idea, but how can people afford to grow stuff when gardening supplies are so expensive?

Remember that people were growing their own food long before gardening stores were invented!

Sure, those gardening catalogs are lovely, and there are definitely products that make gardening easier and plants grow faster. BUT, you don't need those products to grow enough food for your family.

Our Dinner Gardeners are really creative when it comes to growing food with no extra money to spend. They grow in old pots, milk jugs, discarded baby pools, boxes lined with plastic bags and holes for drainage, old coolers, coffee cans, soda bottles, and cartons.  They make their own dirt out of yard clippings, bags of leaves people leave by the road, and kitchen waste. Our Gardeners make their own fertilizer out of compost and their own seed starting pots out of discarded paper. They collect rainwater and rinse water for their plants.

We have gardeners who plant in their front and back yards. We also have gardeners who have no yards and grow veggies in every available window.

Don't be tricked into thinking you are not a gardener. We are all gardeners. Anyone can grow their own food.

The seeds do all the work!

Nice Article about The Dinner Garden!

Geri Miller wrote a really nice article about The Dinner Garden.

Please remember to tell all your friends about us. America needs more Dinner Gardeners!

Here is the article Digging In The Dirt, Changing Lives One Garden at a Time

Some notes about Growing Tomatoes indoors

Here is some advice from our friends from Home Grown Edible Landscapes

Three things to consider:
1)Make sure that the container provides adequate depth for the variety of tomato (they've hybridized some specifically to grow in containers - mostly cherries). Typical depth is 14-16 inches for cherries and 16-18 for your typical variety.

2)Toms do best in a warm environment with moderate humidity (no drafts). The tricky part is keeping the indoor temps and humidity in the optimum range for flower set and pollen release. Otherwise you'll end up with a beautiful green plant! :) ...not that that's a bad thing. There is considerable evidence that night temperature is the critical factor in setting tomato fruit, the optimal range being 59° to 68°F. With night temperatures much below or above this, fruiting is reduced or absent. Low temperatures reduce the production and viability of pollen. High temperature, especially if accompanied by low humidity and moisture, hinders fruit set through failure in pollination and/or fertilization.

3) Soil - make sure that new garden soil is used in these pots every year. Toms are susceptible to early or late blight which is an easily communicated soil borne organism. Just like we rotate our crops in the garden, we should be careful not to replant a crop of the same family in the same pot year to year. Tomatoes are part of the Solanaceae family which also includes potatoes, pepper, eggplant, and husk tomato so don't plant any of these plants where you planted tomatoes last year.

Also, keep in mind that tomatoes are heavy feeders...this may be commonly known, but people forget that it becomes even more important indoors and in pots. They'll need to keep their eyes on their plants to watch for signs that the soil may be depleted of a certain nutrient.



We thank them for their help with info for our Dinner Gardeners!

Let Giving Begin This Year- by Volunteer Julie

It can start with a church reaching out to The Dinner Garden for help with feeding its congregation. Never ending sentiment pours from emails and letters… ebbs and flows with each planting season.

Why not expand your horizons this year?
Plant a church garden and donate produce to families in need?
This alone ‘screams’ teen youth project. Let it begin as a small patch out back or even framing the front door. Edible landscapes can be gloriously beautiful! Offer a volunteer garden at a local senior center. Kale can be planted and both broccoli and cabbage go in the ground now for April’s harvest [unless your ground’s frozen].

If you have a few flowerpots there’s the ‘makings’ of an apartment garden. Follow the adventures of www.patiofarmersguild.com for pointers. And, finally, give seeds as a gift. Embolden a child’s world with the power to grow. There’s science, nature and God encapsulated in each seed.