GroMatters with Tammi Riedl

02/12/2025

Always excited to see the colorful early blooms in the fields!

Even though it is winter, some pollinators still need a source for food. In our Sierra foothills there are early-blooming native plants that flower during February, March and into early April.
Early bloomers have evolved with specific pollinators to emerge at just the right time to feed on and pollinate these species. Some of these include flower flies, bumblebees, mason bees, digger bees and mining bees. Also the hummingbird is out looking for its food source. Redbud Chapter CNPS (California Native Plant Society)has a handout that lists many attractive, common locally native plants that bloom in late winter to early spring time.

Check out this handout for more information on early bloomers.

https://chapters.cnps.org/redbud/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/Early-Bloomers.pdf

(Photo credit:Barry Breckling)

Western Houndstongue (Adelinia grandis)

03/29/2023

Simple regenerative practices to use in your home gardens. Together we can do this!

🥕 Spring is here, and it's a wonderful time to get your victory garden ready.

🍅 “Climate Victory Gardens” were inspired by the “Victory Gardens” planted during the first and second World Wars. By 1944, nearly 20 million victory gardens produced eight million tons of food, equaling over 40 percent of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. at the time. These victory gardens fed Americans at home to make more farm-raised food available for the troops abroad.

🌎 We are once again in a position where we, as everyday citizens, have the opportunity to use our gardens as a force for change. Instead of gardening in support of war efforts, we are gardening to fight global warming.

🌿 Even your small home garden can utilize regenerative farming practices like keeping the soil covered, not tilling, encouraging biodiversity, using compost, avoiding the use of chemicals, and creating fertility onsite.

👉 Watch our friends Ron Finley and Rosario Dawson explain how you can make your home “victory garden” regenerative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK6NrUmrV4A&feature=youtu.be

03/29/2023

Regenerative leaf confetti, love it 🍂

Instead of polluting the planet with confetti, hole punch leaves instead! Fully biodegradable, and so cute!🖤🖤🖤

source...https://www.instagram.com/bluemountains_ecoconfetti/

03/06/2023

Sat March 11th!

FREE Workshop!!! "Attracting Pollinators to your Garden". Come and learn how to attract and protect our winged garden visitors; the hummingbirds, butterflies, native bees and other small, winged creatures that visit our backyards and landscapes and enrich our lives. Find out what they need and how we can make our gardens into pollinator magnets. GREAT workshop!!! Loads of information. See the plants! Next Saturday, March 11, from 10:30-11:30. This is both a live and a Zoom workshop, depending on what kind of Saturday person you are. Registration is required for the Zoom workshop. Get more information here: https://pcmg.ucanr.org/?calitem=546331&g=131834

Photo credit: K. Wiersch

garden

02/05/2023

Volunteers turning out the compost piles up at the Heartland Farm. These piles were started in the pallet bins last fall with layered green and dried garden waste and horse manure. The square (or rectangular) hand built shape is a biodynamic technique that provides more surface area for air and water and even weight distribution so the center doesn’t get too wet or anaerobic. This is what I consider a Stage 2 compost that will be ready to screen in late March just in time for spring planting.

01/24/2023

The long-awaited Permaculture Design Course is returning back to Heartland Collective on April 1-20th, 2023 to earn a full accredited curriculum for the world-renowned Permaculture Design Certification with a People Care Extension that includes a dozen specialized sessions on Social Permaculture.

The full course is April 1-20th, Heartland understands this is a big commitment, so we are offering an option of finishing the course on April 16th. The 2-week course gets you your certificate with the option to stay until the 20th to apply what we have learned in the last week with hands-on experiences at Heartland and other local farms.

We are also offering discounts and payment plans that can work for your budget to be able to sign up today to get the best price value we are offering for this course. To sign up and learn more please visit:

Permaculture Design Certification – Heartland Collective

Heartland Collective

01/18/2023

Was working with some small orchard trees up at the Heartland Collective farm today, staking to straighten the trunks, and observing the scars and damage as they are struggling to thrive with very wet feet from being planted too deep.

This seemed appropriate for the days work and empathetic ponderings…

"In the 27 years of my woodworking business, I have never thrown away a knot. Many people see knots as a defect, but to me knots are the visual representation of a trees struggle to thrive. Not all little limbs become big branches, but their combined efforts on behalf of the tree as a whole should be celebrated. Just like human scars they tell a story of sacrifice and healing. Each of these "scars" has a unique personality and deserve the chance to be appreciated as art."
– Keith Williams from Oddball Gallery

01/08/2023

Sometimes there’s just so much to share about.  heartland is hosting another Permaculture Design Certification program this April.  Immerse yourself fully in 21 days of hands-on learning while living in community.

01/07/2023

So blessed to be a part of this as the Farm Advisor, leading the weekly farm days, teaching and working with volunteers from all around the world as we collectively grow food for the community. Loving what I do 💕

Heartland Collective is a lifestyle rich collaborative, and together, we are building life 3.0Heartland exists where the wilderness of off grid life meets an...

01/07/2023

This is definitely a step above the two worm bins I was managing in our operations at Lincoln Hills Farm. The laying hens had access to fresh worms and we added the castings to our soil and biochar inoculations. Nice work!

Join us at Turkovich Walnut Orchard to learn about the impact of vermicompost (worm p**p!) on crops and soils

12/07/2022

Cherry Tomatoes from the Heartland Market Garden ready for counter ripening. Nom nom 🍅

10/17/2022

Just ordered my book! Looking forward to digging into the masterful wisdom of Amigo Bob 🌿

This is a handbook for Understanding and Utilizing Soil Analysis for Organic Growing. Written by Amigo Bob Cantisano, our founder, it is an indispensable guide to understanding the complex world of soil chemistry and biology. This handbook is a practical tool that can be used for understanding soil....