El Paso Cactus Club Presents Garden Tours and Plant Sale

The El Paso Cactus and Rock Club will open eleven cactus and succulent gardens to the public on Saturday and Sunday, April 4 and 5. Seven west side gardens are open on Saturday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Then on Sunday, April 5 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., four northeast gardens will be open to the public. Admission is $5.00 per person or $8.00 per family to visit all eleven gardens.

West side locations 417 Valplano, 7237 Orizaba, 5734 Kingsfield, 805 Baltimore, 1225 Robinson, 1006 Madeline and 701 Blacker. Northeast locations are 3413 Sunnyside, 3008 Titanic, 8937 Eclipse, 4432 Loma Diamante. Tickets will be available at all locations. The public may purchase plants for their own gardens at 5734 Kingsfield on Saturday and 3008 Titanic on Sunday.

The El Paso Cactus and Rock Club meets the first Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. at 3105 Grant Avenue. For additional information, call 613-4902 or 240-7414.

Yardsharing

Here's another version of yardsharing that could work in any neighborhood or town: Each neighbor commits to growing one (or two) particular vegetables. Everyone in the neighborhood then shares equally with everyone else what they have grown. A Maryland school teacher used this concept to start the Murray Hill Row-by-Row Project. She blogs here.

Greg Plotkin interviews Eliza Toomey (the Maryland teacher) in How to grow sustainable food in your backyard - and excellent piece on different strategies for urban dwellers with little land. (There is land in and around El Paso once you have broken through the caliche or the concrete and rock too many people used to zero-scape their yards with thus killing the underlying soil.)

Welden Yerby Senior Citizens Garden: Take 2

Elizabeth Ruiz has written a great piece on the Yerby garden for the Newspaper Tree: How does your garden grow. One wonders why such a garden has not been repeated all over the City. Is it because of the politics of envy that have long plagued El Paso? If we can't have one, you can't have one. Is this why the Yerby Garden is one of the best kept secrets in El Paso?

If you do want to start a community garden in your neighborhood or at your church or even do yardsharing: here are some good tips. (By the way, Wise Bread is an interesting site. It's worth surfing especially if you are into freesharing or like to save money.)

Finally, take the time to read the comment posted to my January 15, 2009 post: Las Abuelas Saben.

Sustainable Means Buying More Than Local Food

Please read Peter Applebome's A Bookstore Closes in Chappaqua, and a Town Is Poorer for It in yesterday's New York Times.

He talks about independent bookstores being forced to close; but he could be talking about any local business. Sustainability is more about buying local (period) and not just buying locally-grown food.

His concluding paragraphs are worth reading again and taking to heart:

"Way down on the decibel scale is a buy-local movement struggling to be heard. On the Internet, in small business groups, even from groups focused on local bookstores (http://www.indiebound.org/) its message is that if people want local stores, a downtown that’s vital, they should shop there, even if they can get the Tylenol cheaper at Target and the John Grisham book cheaper at Amazon.

Nothing is forever, certainly not an independent bookstore. A lot of things killed our bookstore, including the terrible economy and the incessant information overload that makes reading a book like a quaint rite from the past. But if we lost it out of indifference, or to save a buck or two on Amazon, we lost a lot more than we saved."

Speaking about locally grown, we should all be inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama and Chef Sam Kass. The new organic garden at the White House is the way to lead by example.

It is time that more community gardens begin to sprout in the Frontera. Churches can do them; and Las Cruces is showing how to take the "edge off bills".

Community Gardens

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see news stories about the growing (pun is intended - thank you very much) trend of community gardens. People in sprawling, crowded urban areas are coming together to raise food especially in these recessionary times. One such urban farm is Ocean View Farms highlighted in an online story by Lindsay William-Ross: Growing Up: Why Angelenos Should Really Dig Gardening.

Even young, upscale urbanites are raising their own veggies and racing home from work to work in the soil of the garden.

Having begun in 1979, the Weldon Yerby Senior Citizen Garden in El Paso is way ahead of its time for sure. However, it is El Paso's best kept secret. Will there be other community gardens or even yardsharing?

In this hot, dusty, dry environment, why are we destroying our shade trees

Topping trees is just plain wrong. There is a right way to prune trees and there are wrong ways. Topping is the worst. Yet, in spite of City of El Paso ordinances, contractors (and I suspect City workers) routinely top trees. Take a look at these poor trees at Fox Plaza:




Look at this stump along Mesa Street by the Carl's Junior near UTEP


There are national standards for pruning trees. A good online source for how to properly prune trees can be found at the West Texas Urban Forestry Council web page on pruning.

The City of El Paso has strict ordinances about the care of trees in parking lots and vehicular use areas. To my knowledge, the ordinance has never been enforced. Here is the applicable code with my emphases:

Chapter 18.46 LANDSCAPE
18.46.090 Required plants.
3. Parking Lots and Vehicular Use Areas.
a. Shading shall be required for parking lots and vehicular use areas that are located within the project, with more than fifteen parking spaces or an area greater than two thousand seven hundred square feet shall be provided with at least one parking lot tree for every fifteen parking spaces or two thousand seven hundred square feet of vehicular use area or portion thereof.

18.46.130 Maintenance standards.
A. Landscaping and irrigation shall be regularly and properly maintained to ensure healthy and vigorous plant material. The property owner is responsible for regular weeding, mowing of grass, irrigating, fertilizing, pest prevention, pruning, and other maintenance of all plantings as needed. Trees may not be trimmed beyond national nursery standards for any reason.

18.46.160 Enforcement.
A. Revocation of Permit. Permits may be revoked in accordance with the provisions in Section 18.02.102 of this code.
B. Citations. The director shall be authorized to issue citations for violations of this chapter, which shall be prosecuted in municipal court.(Ord. 16985 § 51, 2008: Ord. 16654 § 1 (part), 2007)

"Director" means the director of the development services department or his designee.

18.46.180 Violations--Penalty.
A. Civil and Criminal Penalties. The city shall have the power to administer and enforce the provisions of this chapter as may be required by governing law. Any person, firm, corporation or agent who shall violate a provision of this code, or fails to comply therewith, or with any of the requirements thereof, or who shall has erected, constructed, altered, installed, demolished or moved any landscaping or irrigation system, or has erected, constructed, altered, repaired, moved or demolished any landscaping or irrigation system, in violation of a detailed statement or drawing submitted and permitted under this chapter, is subject to suit for injunctive relief as
well as prosecution for criminal violations. Any violation of the ordinance codified in this chapter is declared to be a nuisance.

Title 9 HEALTH AND SAFETY
Chapter 9.11 TREE CARE
D. Definitions. The following definitions apply under this chapter:

2. "Damage" means and includes, but not be limited to, the uprooting of a tree, severance of the root or branch system, the compaction of soil around a tree, a substantial change in the natural grade above a root system or around a trunk, or excessive pruning of living tissue.

3. "Public property" means all grounds owned and controlled by the city of El Paso and where the city has the responsibility of maintenance.

4. "Public tree" means any tree with at least two-thirds of its trunk on public
property.

5. "Topping" means the severe reduction of the tree's size using heading cuts that shorten limbs or branches back to a predetermined crown size or limit with the result of reducing the natural canopy or disfigure the tree.
F. Trees Located on Public Property.
1. Destruction or Damage of Trees Prohibited. It is unlawful for any person to intentionally damage, cut, carve, abuse, poison or otherwise harm or injure any tree located on public property. This section does not apply to persons authorized by the city who are taking actions necessary for the preservation and safety of the public or the proper care or maintenance of any tree in accordance with the Arboricultural Specifications Manual. The city of El Paso and its authorized agents, employees, and contractors shall have the authority to trim or remove any trees within public
property.

2. Maintenance of Trees.

c. Tree Topping. No tree located on public property shall be topped. Trees severely damaged by storms or other causes, or certain trees under utility wires or other obstructions where other pruning practices are impractical may be crown reduced where necessary to protect the public health, safety and welfare.

e. Jurisdiction
Over Public Property. The directors of the street department and Parks
Department or his or her designee shall have the power to perform accepted tree care in accordance with the Arboricultural Specifications Manual. If any tree or any part thereof is in unsafe condition, or is injurious to the common good, or to the sewer pipes, pavements or improvements, or is infested by disease or insects which are dangerous to other trees, the city arborist may remove such trees or part thereof, or spray such tree, or order such tree, or part thereof removed.
H. Any person who shall cause, create, keep, or otherwise permit a nuisance declared under this chapter or any person who intentionally damages, cuts, carves, abuses poisons or otherwise harms or injures any tree located on public property shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined as provided in Sections 1.08.010, 1.08.020 and 1.08.030. Each day that such nuisance shall continue shall constitute a separate offense; provided, the imposition of a penalty hereunder shall not abrogate the right of the city to cause the abatement of any nuisance.

The sample tree butcheries in Fox Plaza and along Mesa beg some questions:

1) What contractor(s) were responsible? (People who top trees and who do not know correct pruning standards or who don't refuse to prune incorrectly cannot be called "arborists".)

2) If an "arborist" did do this why are they going against industry standards?

3) If not an "arborist" who did this? Do they consider or call themselves a professional?

4) If they are professionals and they are knowledgeable of industry standards why do they not educate the tree owner on the correct and healthy method of pruning?

5) Shouldn't the city landscape ordianance apply in the parking lot situations? Certainly it should be a concern when it comes to stormwater management.

6) The Public Tree ordinance should apply to the trees along Mesa as they are planted in a public right of way. So why has the city not fined the owner or person who topped the trees near Carl's Jr ? Or did City workers destroy these trees?

7) How can a City that says that it is environmentally-friendly allow the destruction of trees like this?

8) Where is the public outcry?

In this hot dry dusty environment, we cannot afford to destroy our shade. Why put the money, time and effort into growing a tree for several years just to destroy it in a few minutes?

El Paso's Advantage

In case you missed the comment, Chris from Seattle wrote:

"I am moving to El Paso in May after 3 years here in Seattle. Though I miss the desert and am looking forward to being on the border, I have lamented the loss of locally grown markets that are ubiquitous up here. I fully support the mission of this blog and look forward to learning more and helping to establish both community gardens and local markets."

I fully understand. Prior to moving back to my hometown two and a half years ago, I lived in the Seattle area - Issaquah and Sammamish to be exact. It was there where I began valuing all of the locally-grown food, organic farming, support for farmers and farmers markets. During my last four years there I helped a local farmer's organization, the Sno-Valley Tilth, with some of their marketing. I was part of the committee that began and oversaw the now very successful farmers market in Carnation in the beautiful Snoqualmie Valley. For three years I wrote the market e-letter once a week for 52 weeks of the year. It was there that I also began my blog on the trend toward local, organic food: Conkey's Tavern.

So, welcome back to the desert, Chris. Know one advantage the El Paso region has over the Pacific Northwest (besides sunshine): a growing season that is 365 days long year after year.