Hi I’m Jennifer and my life is about promoting organic gardening and healthy lifestyle practices through nutritional coaching, education and understanding what makes you groove. My mission is to help spread the word that your health is in your hands more than most doctors would have you believe and when things get out of balance…..there is hope and very nurturing healing available. I want to share how your food choices can impact your life in ways you never thought possible; how your happiness truly does affect your well being; how having love in your life is such a primary food for your soul and that you have the ability to have all of that greatness in your life! I hope to help you learn some basic fundamentals about organic gardening and what having a healthy organic diet tailored to your specific sensitivities can do to make you feel GREAT!
I am an avid organic gardener and have learned mostly through trial and error and think that is the best way to learn. My goal this summer is to grow enough food so that I do not have to purchase fresh veggies and fruits from the market. The more I have gotten into gardening I have come to understand that it is a grounding force for me. I am able to process my day and let the stress fade when I have my hands in the dirt or sometimes when I am just sitting in my garden looking what I have planted and created, its very powerful! Gardening and creating are very individual practices and there is no one right way. So as you are debating grab a shovel and just start, nothing is permanent and most everything can be moved! It is a very forgiving art with the exception of large trees and usually trees come into the picture after you get the gardening bug going for a season or two.
Another great passion of mine is animals rescue. This little farm in Tarzana, CA is something I have dreamed about since childhood. I have always wanted lots of animals and came from a one dog and two cat limit kind of family. Well I am the 3 dogs, 8 cats, 4 bunnies, 1 guinea pig, 1 chinchilla, 11 chickens and 1 cockatiel family. I don’t bother to count how many water turtles and fish we have because that is a fluctuating number and they live in a pond. I have a good balance with all the 29 permanent residents and love them all and feel blessed I have this place for them to live and a family that supports what I do.
I truly am living a blessed life. I eat 100% organic foods, I cook (and have learned to love it) most foods we eat, I bake amazing organic gluten free breads weekly which still surprises me and I have become a much healthier woman in the last 18 months. Life changes in instant and learning that your health is paramount to all that you do should be something that you make a very big note to self about. My husband is my partner in life, in love and happiness and had he not gone through a catastrophic unexpected health crisis January 31, 2011 I would not be here today crating this blog to capture your attention about finding foods and a lifestyle that make you healthy in mind, body and spirit.
organic urban farm girl 
Looking forward to learning from your blog, Jenny! I truly believe we are what we eat. I was diagnosed with allergy-induced asthma 3 1/2 years ago and was very ill last year, and am trying to eat more and more organically as I learn what all these chemicals, petroleum products and pesticides do to our bodies. Especially women’s hormones! I am doing what I can from the inside out but it is a struggle because I live in the city and can’t grow much here. Any suggestions for city dwellers? My biggest challenge is the expense of organic food in the city. I can buy produce off a truck a few blocks away for pennies on the dollar versus a grocery store, but they don’t have organic produce. Wait! I think I just found a marketing need!
La amiga de tu hermana,
Michelle
Hey Michelle I know you wrote a while back but as I am checking in with things today I have a few suggestions for you. If you have a small balcony or yard how about getting a tower garden? These are wonderful things and require very little space, reuse water, you compost your kitchen waste in the bottom so you create your own fertilizer and you can grow on abundance of organic produce that you would eat. copy and paste these into your browser and you can see what this awesome company is doing. https://www.facebook.com/GardenTowerProject and this too http://kck.st/HLB98C
Also I would love to speak with you more in depth about your adult onset asthma I may be able to provide some helpful tips with your diet that may change your outcome.
I have built many raised ganreds and I use landscape bricks. I use the 7 bricks and it is extremely easy to assemble. You just lay it how long you want then alternate the bricks. Check it out with Home Depot, Lowes, or any hardware store. Then you fill it with top soil with compost and you are good to go. It is easy to do I am a woman and also assembled a raised bed the length of my house (with a broken hand) in a couple of hours. You can do it.
Lettuces and spinach take ltltie space and are easy to grow during the spring and fall.Carrots and radishes can be planted pretty densely and radishes only take a month from seed to harvest so several crops can be planted in a season. I would often eat them right out the garden.A couple of tomatoes are a must. They are more vertical space. At least a cherry (for eating in the garden) and a beefsteak for slicing. Buy or make big sturdy cagesSugar snap peas are a favorite. Build a trellis for them to climb and they take ltltie space.Same goes for vine cucumbers.Peppers and eggplants are pretty compact but I gave up on them after the flea beetles arrived.Zucchini and yellow squash are big plants but you can get a big yield from one mound of plants.Hope that helps.-Brian
Hi, I’m a vegan and would like to introduce mylesf to sustainable organic gardening to save money on expensive organic food. At the moment, I do not live in an area that will allow me to actually start a garden, but I would still like to learn about organic gardening and possibly start growing herbs and small vegetables in my apartment. If anyone could recommend to me some solid websites and books, I would much appreciate it. Thanks.
I like your blog so much that I have nominated you for the Reader’s Appreciation Award. It will appear in my blog tomorrow. You can check it out,to see what is involved. 🙂
Julia
Hi Julia…I’m speechless! Which for me is something that doesn’t happen very often. You are so kind and I really appreciate your attention to my baby blog. I will be checking your page right away. Have a great day!
Your welcome, you deserve it! 🙂
I started out sraeevl years ago learning as I went along and now this year I have decided to have just herbs in big containers with sand and pea gravel throughout the walking area next year. The first year I dug everything really well and used lots of peat and manure and it was wonderful. But as time went by I got older and tireder of doing all that work so this year I still have the herbs, roses, raspberry bushes and just one big tomato plant and one pepper plant. It’s easier to just buy from the farmer’s market only 15 minutes from my house. The point is that I have been out there every year and it is so healthy for mind, body, and soul, that I will probably always have something in that corner. Like I heard from so many gardeners when I started, it can always be changed or moved if you don’t like it or it doesn’t work for you. That’s the great part, it is NOT SET IN CONCRETE. Just have fun!! Just do what you love instead of struggling to do it right. Any plant that makes you go oooooh, get it.
I posted an eaielrr thread about purchasing a juicer, and growing my own garden in the spring. Many people who responded, said that it would be best to grow organic fruits and veggies. I would love to do this, but I dont think I know how. I assumed that if I planted seeds in my yard, and took care of them properly, than they would grow into organic produce. I assume this because I wont use chemicals or pesticides. Am I right, or is there something special needed to grow organic foods?