fishes and loaves:

last saturday dan took time to man the company booth at the garden tour at orenco station, an event that raised funding for fishes and loaves, a non-profit organization that runs food centers and deliveries to ensure that senior citizens in need receive adequate nutrition and social contact.

willamette not only helped sponsor the event but used their booth to communicate the tools and ideas used to provide organic landscaping. among twelve properties landscaped 100% organic by willamette, five are in orenco station. it has been really interesting learning the politics and biology of “going organic” by watching dan at work. it is common for an organization to decide it wants its property to have organic landscaping but then balk at the cost or the methods.

here, i demonstrate the good ol’ fashioned way to weed. it takes time, which takes money, but that’s the organic way instead of squirting a tiny chemical cocktail.

one of dan’s original ‘scapes

i got to touch the fertilizer and smell the organic WEED ZAP, both of which dan wanted me to guess the ingredients. the ZAP smelled like cinnamon and clove while the fertilizer ….well, it’s entirely made of chicken manure. the snail seemed to like it.

  

hi, i’m mr. snail. chicken poop lawn. yum!