GardeningNude

Feeding the Hungry – A Homemade Video On How You and Your Children Can Make A Difference For A Food Bank!

According to AmpleHarvest.org,”an estimated 100 billion pounds of food, enough to totally eliminate hunger, is thrown away annually in the United States.” Be shocked – and then make a difference for your community by stopping the waste.

Regularly clean out your food pantry - – if you are not eating the food in your home, donate it to a local food pantry before it gets outdated. If you grow a garden and have leftover vegetables, do not leave it standing on the plants; take it to a local food pantry and donate it to someone who could really use it like we  did in the above video. Organizations like AmpleHarvest.org enable neighbors in need to obtain garden fresh produce that might be left standing unharvested due to over production in home and community gardens. Please send food pantry’s that are unregistered to this website to help make a difference for people in your community.

Above is a homemade video my daughter and I made about collecting vegetables from the garden and taking it to be donated. Having my eight year old help plant and grow the plants, then film our trip, gave her a strong sense of ownership with the experience. Notice how excited and proud she is that she is bringing “her baby” the pumpkin to give to some other child.

All of our children should understand and identify with the feeling of caring for others, most especially those in need right in our very own neighborhoods. Building our community means building our economy and contributing to the emotional health of other human beings. Of all lessons in life, I believe this one should take priority for our children. Grow a garden if you can because it can make a real difference for the world. Teach your family and neighbors how to grow a garden as well. Get started planning right NOW – at the end of this gardening season – to plan for next year’s vegetable garden. Purposely plant vegetables which are easy to grow and which might be mass producers so you can contribute more to help those who really need it. If you cannot grow a garden on your property, invite your neighbors to participate or build a community garden on a local community property.

What will you do to have your children understand the importance of helping the hungry?

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

World Naked Gardening Day – Make a Difference for Multiple Sclerosis

Tomorrow is “World Naked Gardening Day” – no kidding – there is really a day for this interesting and rather chilly past time. Not only that; there’s a website - www.wngd.org – be warned if you have a sensitive mindset or a sensitive stomach there IS nudity on the link (and it is not all pretty).

Over the last two months I have received 42 emails requesting that I cover “World Naked Gardening Day”. Again… NO KIDDING! With the calmest and nicest response I say, “You DO realize that ‘Gardening Nude’ is simply a metaphorical expression, right? This is about living a green lifestyle. You do understand this?”

After that the begging commences. SO – below you see a photo of two lovely nearly naked clowns enjoying a garden in celebration of “World Naked Gardening Day.” These garden clowns represent a wonderful cause: the Clown Calendar, and most specifically, the Judy Finelli Fund. This fund advocates cures and treatments of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), promotes artistic expression through circus arts, and enables those affected by MS to pursue their passions. 100% of the net profits from the sale of each calendar goes to the Judy Finelli Fund and makes a big difference for those afflicted with this disease. Clowns all over the country are hoping to raise one million dollars for MS.

Celebrate “World Naked Gardening Day” with me right now and MAKE A DIFFERENCE - go order your Clown Calendar in advance for 2010  at www.nakedclowncalendar.com.

And remember that “gardening nude” is all about being metaphorically naked. METAPHORICAL people!

::grin::

Happy World Naked Gardening Day!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Work Together To Make A Difference – How Teams Can Build Community

My blog theme this week has been all about “building community.”

Along these lines, I spent my entire yesterday working with Jim Kleinwachter (a.k.a. my conservation mentor and the King of Green) installing rain barrels and building compost bins. Jim runs the Conservation @ Home education program through The Conservation Foundation in Illinois.

Tom Reid came out and filmed the whole experience. He is from Crazy Green (www.gocrazygreen.net)  It was a fantastic team effort. Working as a team to make a video is a great way to educate people on being green – I can’t wait until the video is edited so I can show my readers.

Although I did some green educating, I also learned a lot about how difficult it is to be in front of and behind a camera. There is no filming until the proper time has been spent on set-up. Below is a photo of the boys on location helping assemble one of the composters we talked about from Clean Air Gardening.

We did not have a formal script, so the entire team worked together to help come up with Shawna-On-The-Spot commentary. It was fantastic.There is no filming until all the team has worked together to create a message for the viewer. When you think about it – doing anything worth while as a group often requires cooperation, friendship, and hard work.

This type of cooperation leads to something very important – community. Working together to accomplish goals, building relationships, and best yet – help each other through life – is a great way to get something done.

If you build closer relationships both in business and in your neighborhood it will help you feel better about who you are and how you are living life. This is an intricate part of living a green lifestyle as well. Do the right thing and build community whenever you can. Why? Because sharing life is a whole lot better than living in isolation.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Build a Green Community – Teach Non-Natives To Speak English

Shopping in Mexico when you speak very little Spanish is a wild adventure to say the least – I just experienced it two weeks ago on my 14 day eco-blogging adventure. You can see by the photo that it is difficult to understand when you go to the grocery store and are faced with a wall of “foreign” language.

Imagine if you felt this frustration every day of your life? Imagine if you could not read signs, pharmaceuticals, and ingredient lists? How would you be able to take the correct medicine dosages or find the best value for the least amount of money? You would not be able to. Simple truth.

Now I want you to consider something controversial in the United States - nearly one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home according to the Census Bureau. This has been an increase of nearly 50 percent during the past decade with most speaking Spanish, followed by Chinese then Russian. Americans who discriminate against non-English speakers would shout, “THEN GET AN EDUCATION! SPEAK ENGLISH!”

Although I agree that people should learn the primary language of the country they live in, I propose that the solution is far from realistic. Our culture has truly become the melting pot that our founding fathers imagined. My family has a mixed ethnic heritage, and so does most everyone’s in the U.S., and now even President Obama shows us that a “non-traditional” family is the norm for American society.

With that in mind, instead of fighting against the non-English speaking community, why not welcome them and try to help them to learn English? Many non-English speaking individuals who live in the U.S. cannot afford English lessons and some are not even literate. This is happening in my own suburban community.

Instead of complaining and whining about this problem in our communities, why not do something about it? If we teach other people how to speak English and build community together, than we are HELPING OURSELVES too.

Here’s why – if you could learn how to read labels, than you would understand that CFL light bulbs utilize less electricity. If you could speak English, you could ask people how you can save money on your utilities. If you could be a part of a greener community that works together to conserve water and electricity, you would pay less for utilities and be able to save more money so you could put food on your family’s table instead. Even more importantly, understanding medical labels (like the ones above) would mean you or your family might have less emergency room visits. Also, you would be able to go to a doctor and understand what he says for your family’s health.

Do you see a pattern here?

If you claim to be “green” in your lifestyle, an important part of that green lifestyle is helping your community to understand each other and the world. Make a difference for your community today – be generous with your time and help someone learn English.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Make A Difference In The Life Of Another

Yesterday I was surprised when I walked out into the back garden and saw these fragrant blooms and smiled as I realized these flowers represent more than the heralding of Spring, they represent community. My friend, Helen Dale, gave me these bulbs and last fall, on a cold and blustery day, I dug a small hole and planted them with loving thoughts of her smile. Helen may live in San Francisco and I may live in Chicago, but our friendship is no less meaningful because of the distance. This bulb reminds me that she is a part of my community and I am grateful.

Community and good mental health is connected by a thin and marvelous strand of powerful glue. It is about helping the people you touch realize less isolation. We in the United States take more anti-depressants than any other country. Why do you think that is? My belief is it is partly due to isolation from each other and isolation from nature.

Connecting people and getting to know more people in my community whenever I can has become my joy. In particular, gardeners have a marvelous skill at uniting community. Most gardeners I have met are generous to a fault and are fantastic at getting people out in nature to help each other. Most gardeners realize that gardening – and therefore being in nature - is therapy and work to bring people together by giving plants away and educating whoever is within earshot on the benefits of helping the earth. And guess what? Almost every homeowner can try to be a gardener and a good neighbor in their community.

Why not spend some time today bringing community together and making a mental health difference for someone you know?

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Gardening Nude Naked Winner of the Week: Rachel Edson of La Familia International – An International Mission To Make a Difference

On most Friday's, Gardening Nude The Blog features a special person or organization for the day. This person or org is the "Naked Winner of the Week." All people featured in this category are winners for doing great things for the community and trying to make a difference for the world. You can make a difference too.

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The naked winner of the week for 03-13-09 is ::drum roll please::

Rachel Edson, a member of La Familia International “The Family International” is doing her best to educate and bring community together to help each other. Here you see her in Guatemala at a party the group organized for one of the orphanages they visit and care for weekly.

Rachel Edson is an interesting woman. I met her on the street – literally – while she was visiting the United States. Dressed in a ball cap and a ponytail, she was standing on a street corner in Warrenville, Illinois and I drove up to the intersection. She was passing out flyers from a church on how people can make a difference in the world and for their community. As soon as she said hello, I immediately recognized in Rachel a quality which very few people in the world truly possess – a genuine passion for caring and giving.

In that one minute meeting we exchanged cards, bonded as friends, and as I drove off I shouted out the window, “I want to share your story – call me!” Amazingly, she did and over lunch one day she revealed her story.

From the time she was a small child, Rachel has lived around the world with her missionary parents. They taught her that giving to others and helping those in need can make a difference for humanity. She has grown up with that wonderful inspiration and is now returning this education to the world by giving to as many as she can. Her efforts have led her to a missionary group based in Guatemala called La Familia International.  Rachel and her friends at La Familia International dedicate their time and efforts to helping orphaned children and families within the community who need food, clean water, and an education. 

In the above photo you see the mission group putting on a meal for "Dia del Carino" (Valentine's Day). They distributed approximately 1,000 plates of food and gave out clothes, shoes, and toys. This event was held at "Parque San Francisco de Assis" in Guatemala.

If you would like to help Rachel and her wonderful La Familia International team, please contact them via email at lafamilia.guate@gmail.com.

Thank you, Rachel Edson and the entire La Familia International team for making a difference for humans all over the world who need help and love. You win a pat on the back and big cheer from the Gardening Nude blog – thank you for showing the community how important it is to help others.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! http://www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - http://www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo’ Green On Tuesday - “Everything’s Amazing, Nobody’s Happy” – Why?

The Story of Stuff at www.storyofstuff.com talks about a linier usage system in the United States whereby companies process natural resources into product, then advertise and sell the product which is built to be broken from the very beginning. It forever leaves American’s wanting more – and our landfills jammed full. I believe this is a true crisis in America. For example, your clothes and shoes are out of style before the next season, so retail company’s advertise you should buy new ones instead of being satisfied with what you have. Same with your antiquated computer, cell phone, car, and virtually everything else you own.

You purchase all of these new things, you experience all kinds of wondrous experiences in your life, but you are still not happy because you are TOLD you are not happy by media and advertisers. Louis CK, the comedian, was recently on the Conan O’Brien show and agrees with me:

Watch more SpikedHumor videos on AOL Video

It seems that the American dream is about consumerism instead of living a satisfied life. Not only consumerism, but greedy consumerism. People become so spoiled and selfish about all the things in their life, that they feel the world OWES them something. This produces mean, jaded individuals who selfishly choose to ignore the existence of overfilled landfills and global warming. These mean people spread the selfish virus everywhere they go and treat the world around them in a negative fashion. They are unhappy.

I challenge you to look at your lifestyle in a different way: try to be satisfied with the things in your life. Accept people for who they are. Smile more. Try to contribute to your community in a positive way. Make a difference with the way you treat the earth.

Purchase more things, use them for a short while, throw them in landfills, and start it all over again; this is the cycle. I challenge you to break that cycle by finding creative ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Find ways to help others by donating your old things to the needy. Build a better community and a better world. Stop listening to advertisers and media tell you to do things that are wrong – use your brain and common sense and start doing the RIGHT things for yourself and your world. Get yo’ green on and make a difference.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! http://www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - http://www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Make a Difference For the World - YES WE CAN!

My sister, Barbara Mountjoy, is a lawyer, published author, blogger, and mother. Her blog, "Awalkabout's Weblog" (http://awalkabout.wordpress.com) speaks to her daily experiences raising autistic children, as well as her adventure with her professional writing career. Today I am posting one of her recent blogs as I felt it touched a special place in my heart. Barbara calls for humanity to change the world for the better.

One of my goals is to have my readers understand that being green and healthy is not simply about recycling, but is a way of life. Being kind to one another and bringing communities together to take care of one another is as much a part of greening and better health as anything else. My belief is that if we take the time to care for one another than we also receive that positive energy back - call it good karma if you will. Happily, I can tell that my sister feels the same way.

Read on....

A Change Is Gonna Come

Some days I feel like we are falling into a deep hole with no way out, dealing with autism issues, the economic situation, material things that we want and don’t have. Fortunately, every so often some good hard kick in the pants comes along to short-circuit my self-pity.

The Cabana Boy and I saw the film Slumdog Millionaire last week, about a young man from the slums of Mumbai who gets a chance to play the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? I was primarily amazed this movie would actually come here, as we seldom get indie-type films in our little town, so we caught its first showing.

There it was, that kick in the pants.

The depiction of daily life in the Indian slums, where gangs roam the streets randomly killing women and children as police officers watch from their tabled card games, where children subsist on a tablespoon of food for a meal, where women wash the family clothing in filthy water, was stunning.

Children work all day collecting recyclables from huge piles of garbage that circle the poor rattletrap homes, and likely dine there as well. The poor live in huge mini-cities made of walls of rusty metal, full of little corridors and warrens tying them all together. People have nothing, not even much chance of escaping the poverty that has dragged them down for generations.

Mumbai is not an isolated case, of course. Much of the Third World is the same. Even countries of great wealth, places like Nigeria, where diamonds provide the country with astounding income, don’t put that money back into building up its impoverished population.

Thanksgiving Inspiration - Foreclosure and Bankruptcy Does Not Mean The End of Nature's Beauty For Children

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This special Thanksgiving blog is an excerpt from Shawna's newspaper column, The Casual Gardener (www.thecasualgardener.com). Enjoy!

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Dear Casual Gardener,

This year so many things have changed at my house. I am eleven years old and my parents went bankrupt. They have foreclosed on our home. We are moving into an apartment, we are all okay, but life is going to be different. We will no longer have a garden or a yard and I will miss playing in it. I am thankful this year that my family is still together, but I am sad that I will not be able to play in my yard or pick tomatoes from our garden any more. I wanted to know what you are thankful for?

Thank you,

Michelle

= = = = =

Dear Michelle,

My heart goes out to you Michelle, and I think I might understand a little about how you feel right now. When I was a young girl I lived on a farm. It was a beautiful place.  During the spring the farm was filled with nesting barn swallows, a swing set, and pink peonies.

Living on the farm meant learning to work hard and to take care of nature. During the summer the farm was filled with tomatoes from my grandmother’s garden, fields of wheat that stretched as far as my eye could see, and pastures with cows lowing in the early morning.

Monday Whazzup – Build Good Mental Health By Building Family Community - Make a Difference In The Life Of Another!

Being a part of a family and a community is good for the soul. Our society is often isolationist driven, which encourages poor mental health. Keeping in communication with our friends and family - especially having these people to depend on when you are in need can be the difference between living a happy and satisfied life, or living a life of loneliness, depression, and misery.

A great example of this is the relationship I have with my husband, who is also my best friend. My husband, Luis, and I learned early on in our marriage that I cannot find my way out of a brown paper bag. My history of being lost is extensive. Now something you should know about Luis and I is that we are opposites in almost every way. He is big, I am little. He is dark, I am fair. He is quiet, I am loud. And, of course, I am usually lost. He is usually not.

This is Luis and a friend of ours we recently met on vacation.

In the nearly ten years we have been married I have cell phoned him many times, typically once or twice a year, to announce that I am lost – I don’t know where – and he needs to get me home. Never has Luis lost his temper or gotten upset with me over this. The man realizes I am directionally challenged at a deep and genetic level, so therefore focuses on the task at hand – saving my hind-in – and then calmly goes about his business.

Below is an example of a typical exchange between us while I am in “OH-MY-GOD-I’M-LOST-PANIC-MODE” - -

Stressed out and panicked, I realize I have taken fourteen wrong turns and am heading for what looks like “the middle of no where,” I immediately call Luis’s cell phone.

Luis answers with tension in his voice, “Hey, I’m in middle of a meeting.”

I choke on my words and shout, “I’M LOST!!!”

“Okay,” he says patiently (knowing the entire office is listening in to his personal conversation), “where are you?”

“Uh…. If I knew THAT, I wouldn’t be lost!”

Trash In the Environment - Do You Care For Your Community - Or Is It Left To One Lonely Klutz?

'Tis the season to close up the garden - it is ready for the long winter nap - so today I had an adventure. I gather bulbs, gloves, shovel, bucket, and a rake together, balance them delicately in my arms and head out behind the fence to enjoy one last dig in the back garden.

As I take one long stride across the widest part of the bed, I put my foot down and feel as if I am going to over-balance. There's a slippery lump under my left foot and my right foot, now ponderously hanging in the air, is leaving no purchase. With a jerk, I try to find balance, managing to hang on to the armful of equipment with luck. Still teetering in a drunken fashion I take another step and without warning spin another 180 degrees before falling on my hind-in with a whump and cracking the back of my head solidly on the cement walkway.

Cars drive by. No one stops. I lay there looking at the sky for a few minutes, recovering what dignity I have left. Not much at this point, I might add, and get myself up and dust off. When I look back at the garden it looks as if an explosion has happened; bulbs, bucket, gloves, shovels and all equipment laying willy-nilly, and a surprise is laying in middle of the mess.

An unhappy surprise. There in the middle of my garden is a piece of garbage - a slick piece of cellophane wrapper, which is what slipped me up and now had me fuming. Imagine the audacity of that dastardly cellophane; purposely targeting me like that!

Monday Whazzup - Hunky Harry and G.I. Joe Save My Fanny

Today's Monday Whazzup features a republish of a "letter to the editor" I wrote a while back. Having Hunky Harry and G.I. Joe save my fanny was the best - thank you gentlemen for making my day - and better yet for doing good for the world. This is what Gardening Nude is all about: being healthy and doing the right thing for your community - building it. This means helping and thanking people who make a difference in your life. Today I thank the Warrenville Fire Department - you deserve it! 

Rescue workers, G.I. Joe and Hunky Harry - my heroes - in front of one of the company fire trucks. Thanks guys - for taking care of a woman in need!

Dear Editor,

I’m writing this to send a great big thank you out to the Warrenville Illinois Emergency Medical and 911 team that works for our community, as well as a special thank you to my children and our school system.

Generally speaking, I have been healthier than I have ever been in my life this last year. It’s been a great thing. You can imagine my horror when I caught the dreaded virus that was going around last season. I fondly called it “The Black Plague,” and it sent me to bed with a high fever for more than a week.

One particular afternoon I was at my feverish worst and spent most of the day lying in bed shivering uncontrollably. After my kids got home from school, I decided to get up and try and help them. Foolish mistake! Upon climbing out of bed, the room started spinning. Lurching like Frankenstein, I was surprised when the closet door came up and purposely hit me on the forehead. While trying to puzzle out the why’s and how’s of this experience, I teetered back and forth balancing like a tight rope walker. This was followed by some more staggering plus repeatedly banging my hip into the foot of the bed. At last, I did a weak 180 degree spin, tripped like Jerry Lewis, and slammed my head into the bedroom door, collapsing to the ground in a heap. Lights out!

Monday Whazzup - - Chipotle and Cat Hairballs; Why Being Kind To Others Can Make A Difference For MY Health

If you haven't figured it out yet; "gardening nude" is not about being naked in your garden. SURPRISE! It's about your health, greening the world, and doing good for others in your community - it is about making a difference for the world.

A perfect example of this is what happened to me at a local restaurant last week. My favorite burrito joint in the world is Chipotle. Really it is. I LOVE that place because of their Guacamole and Pico-de-gallo (which they call "Mild Salsa" for we Americans that cannot understand fancy Spanish words like Pico De Gallo or Pina Colada or Armadillo). They also have naturally raised chicken, which I think is a healthy choice to make and certainly sounds "naked" to me.

So I'm at the local Chipotle, it's a beautiful day, and I am sitting outside and snarfing taco's down while I'm reading a book. I rarely have time to read a book, so the simple fact that there's sunshine, a book, and a taco - the awesome threesome - all together in one spot is nothing short of amazing.

Being the Chipotle addicted idiot that I am, I'm not paying attention as I'm gobbling tacos faster than Michael Phelps can swim. What-do-you-know I somehow inhale a jalapeno pepper down the wrong pipe.

First I try coughing gently to release the irritating item. It soon becomes apparent that death is eminent, so I'm forced to hack up a half-chewed taco mess that remarkably resembles one of my cat's hairballs. Ahhh good times. Good times.

(This photo demonstrate's Kali-mazoo Coronado's opinion on hairballs.)

My eyes are watering furiously and I notice a rather uppity and snobbish woman with a very expensive purse draped on her arm giving me the evil eye. Apparently my near death experience interrupted her deeply intellectual conversation about nail polish.

However, kudos go to the Chipotle staff - who asked if I was alright. Also, thanks go to the young man sitting across from me who helped rescue me (I've titled him "Sir Lancelot, Rescuer of Fair Bloggers"). I didn't get his name and can only hope he reads of his heroic effort in this blog. With a suave and kind disregard to his own clothing and health, he whisked away the offending hairball and patted me gently on the back to make sure I was okay. He carefully examined my person to make sure I had no remaining bits of hairball as well. Okay, he might have been looking down my top and grappling me, but I prefer to believe he was checking for hairball.

Either way, I almost died at the Chipotle and am sure that more human beings should be kind to others like Sir Lancelot was kind to me. Think about it - improving your mental health involves becoming less isolated and building relationships with others in your community. It's being good to one another - and it is one of the most important things we can do to further humanity.

Here's a photo of one of my favorite Chipotle's - Wheaton, IL.

Shawna Coronado says to Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blog - www.gardeningnude.com