A good cause

A man came to our yard a couple of weeks ago admiring the bamboo and was wondering if he could have some if he dug it himself. Of course Carl seeing that some of the unruly stuff needed to be removed any way jumped at the chance to let someone else do the digging. He came back last week with a shovel, a wheelbarrow and an enormous amount of energy and dug up the offending plants and I gave him a goodly chunk of black bamboo, totaling about $300 to $400. As I followed him around my yard, I found out that he is working on a project in northern Guatemala where the civil war ravaged the local villages leaving 104 widows barely scraping by. He has a project to help them establish gardens to help them become more self sufficient. Of course that is after water and other necessities are established. He is planning a plant sale to help support the cause.
Any way I was able to help someone far away without even breaking a sweat, How cool is that?
http://eltiempohavenido.blogspot.com/

That is very touching. Does he need plants donated for the plant sale? Do you know how to contact him?

Hi Katie,
His name is Michael Ewens (mewens000@centurytel.net). Thank you for your interest!

I thought that I would pass this e-mail along in case anyone is interested thanks!!
Linda,
Greetings!
Last spring you forwarded my blog site to friends in your garden group. I was
wondering if they or you might consider helping us out. This April I would like
to have a Plant Yard sale to raise money for a vegetable gardening project in
Guatemala. My wife and I are like a lot of local gardeners with beautiful mother
plants spread around our yard. I have been collecting cuttings and starts to
resell in this plant sale. This has been so easy and fun for me (we are a little
addicted to growing things) and I realized if I could find a group of gardeners
willing to pot 5 or more small pots each that we could really help out these
women. With a little effort we can produce great results. In February we
distributed 45 wiener pigs and when I visited in November it astounded me to
see that the women were already on their second batch of pigs bought with the
profits they had earned on the first one. These projects are designed to be self
sustaining so even small gifts can have big impacts. I have attached a profile
of this project so you can review it.
“bamboo” Michael

Linda - I could do that. How can we get the plants to him?

I think many of us could contribute to this. Perhaps we can arrange for a 'pony express' of some sort to gather and transport plants from here to there..?? (not sure where 'there' is). I'm likely one of the furthest north and would be delighted to ferry some plants down to the Everett/Lynnwood area.

Michael is here in Gig Harbor, I will contact him to see what ideas he has in mind! Thanks

I'd be interested to know more, too. What kind of plants would he like? Would he like seeds to send to Guatemala also?

And when is his plant sale going to take place? I can certainly start potting up starts as things emerge. I tend to do this anyway, to either trade with my neighbor or sister, or give to my son for his yard (knowing he will likely neglect them, put them in the wrong spot, or let them die before he gets 'em planted...but also knowing one or two will make it and he will learn something in the process).

I would love to contribute extra seedlings, or divisions. I always have extra plants! If he isn't careful, he'll have more plants than he knows what to do with!

Maybe he could post something here to answer a couple of questions? I am a little confused about why the people do not already know how to grow things? I do not want to be dense, but so much already grows there... are we talking about growing vegetables for profit in order to increase the quality of life? My dh was looking at the photos and wondering why they didn't already grow things on their own. Is it the isolation of the community? I know they are looking at buying land, and that they are growing coffee already (certain to be a good seller). I'm just interested in knowing how it comes to pass that a people who live in a lush area filled with natural vegetation do not know how to grow vegetables.
I have a friend who owns an organization that serves a community of widows in Bolivia where they have done similar kinds of things, only using handcrafts rather than farming. Her daughter died there while on a Rotary scholarship. I wonder if she and this man know one another. My friend lives in Port Orchard.

Thanks Melissa I just sent him an E-mail suggesting just that. From my understanding he is trying to raise money to help the widows get their life back together after a long bloody war that left them totally devastated physically and mentally.

I see. Wow. That does make sense. I don't want to be an ignorant American. I just want to know. I figured that it had to be something along the line of the population being very discouraged because clearly things grow well there. I would be so happy to contribute plants to this cause.

Michael didn't set a date for his sale but hopefully it will be after the plant romp at Willows. Wouldn't that make things easier?

This message was edited Feb 23, 2010 8:21 AM

Maybe he could come on Saturday with a truck and collect everything we have brought together.

I just got an e-mail from Michael ........he maybe joining us at DG and has relatives in Bothell and seems willing to make the extra effort to get plants. Thanks for all the interest!

He should get hooked up with Jim at the Green Elephant plant swap at the Holy Cross Church in Redmond in a few weeks:

http://www.holycrossredmond.org/greenelephant.htm

Willow-Michael said he will bring a truck to Union on the 10th of April...thanks!

SUPER! Now we have a humanitarian reason to party. Doesn't get better than that. I will announce that on the greenshed thread also.

Bumping this up. The Ripple Effect Inc is a 501c non-profit established to aid those living in poverty in the highlands of Guatemala

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gig-Harbor-WA/The-Ripple-Effect-Inc/332822229450

While these people are in need of just about everything, transporting items to Guatemala just isn't feasible. The best way to help is with money.

We met Michael Ewens at Patricia's (Willowind) in Union last weekend. He will be collecting plants for a fund raising sale from us again in the late summer. Please save your extra volunteers and cuttings, especially for perennials and shrubs and trees.

If you're dividing Hostas, think about putting one or two in a pot for this event. Same with Heucheras. If you are rooting Hydrangea cuttings, think about adding one or two for Michael. If you have extra perennial volunteers, think about putting a few of them in a pot for the cause. How about starting some extra Columbine or Foxglove?

Water and feed them and grow them up good so they bring in top dollar. It's the best way we can help.

Michael lives in Gig Harbor, so we'll have to arrange for a central location for a drop off. Stay tuned.

Other suggestions are, of course, welcome on this thread!

Thank you so much for this reminder, Kathy. When I looked at the photos of the party, I could not remember who Michael was. Now I remember. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet him, but I certainly will put aside any number of pots of plants for him. This helps me out, too, since you know how I hate to throw good plants into the recycle bin. I'm fairly close to Gig Harbor, too.

Oh, and just a suggestion to label the plants well, along with growing instructions and zone information. We all know what it's like to buy a NOID plant.

This message was edited Apr 15, 2010 8:48 AM

Good point, Melissa! I've actually started the practice of keeping flats of 4 inch pots with potting soil sitting in a "nursery" area (I don't really have that down yet) to facilitate the process of getting the volunteers into a pot right away. I have so many things like Columbine and Foxglove that reseed themselves in the most awkward spot - and it's usually where I'm ripping something else out!

Plastic knives, pieces of old blinds, popsicle sticks all work well as inexpensive markers. As long as each plant is marked, you can do growing instructions once and send them along with your plants, explaining to Michael where they go.

I like to put packing tape completly over the name tag so it doesn't get wet or fade out. What would be nice is to put all the info on a card, laminate it and staple it to a stick of some kind.

Good idea!

I use the plastic blinds I get at goodwill for about 2$. then I use a paint marker to write on them. The paint takes years to fade, by which time the plant is either dead of well established. LOL! The other thing I use is wax pencil, which can be bought at any hardware store. They are weatherproof and easy to use. Regular #2 pencils work as well, if you use the blinds. You can get a lot of info on one of those tags in a neat way using pencil, and it doesn't fade or run. I have to have a method that doesn't take too much time or a lot of extra steps.

I use printed labels from my Brother label-maker (a business tool I have). Works great, they print in either black on white or black on clear, and seem to last forever (3 years anyway and counting). I use white labels on popcycle sticks for sharing, and clear labels on 2-legged metal plant markers in my herb garden.

I was thinking only of plant sale tagging. I rarely leave tags on my own stuff. I did mark my seeds with pscle sticks. One stick laid down on the edge covers threerows. Hope they don't fall off before they sprout.