Gardening

Lesson Learned - Planting Three Sisters

2011-06-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Gardening lesson learned: I planted the Three Sisters (corn/squash/beans) this year and I am learning that you need to wait until the corn has sprouted to plant the beans and the squash. I had read to wait on the beans, but not the squash. The squash (zucchini in my case) has grown so fast it is shadowing out the corn. Also I staggered my planting times, which means I did block planting where I planted the first block then waited 2 weeks to plant the second. So I'll have staggered harvest times. That method has worked out great and aloud me to implement my lessons learned for the final block.

Seed Exchanges

2011-02-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

I recently had the pleasure of attending a Seed Exchange in my local area. It was a very informative and exciting event that left me feeling very anxious about the upcoming season. A Seed Exchange is a great place to mingle with other gardeners, learn some new tricks, and get a lot of seeds for the cost of admissions. The day included drawings for different garden products, which I never have any luck at, but you may. Despite not winning any door prizes, I walked away with enough seeds to have both a great flower garden and vegetable garden. Since entering the Master Gardener program in my area, I've been able to learn about different Seed Exchanges taking place. So if you're interested just check in with the Master Gardener program in your area. More than likely the Master Gardeners will be hosting some sort of seed exchange.

Planning Our Gardens & Using Resources

2011-01-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!! As many of us wait patiently for Spring to arrive we begin to dream of our gardens. So start planning now and share with us your ideas if you like. One thing I've found most helpful over the past year is subscribing to a gardening magazine. Last year I got 6 free issues of Organic Gardening. Every issue contains a wealth of information about organic gardening and the different things people are doing in their gardens. This year I decided to subscribe to Mother Earth News just to check out another magazine. Mother Earth News has the option of reading it strictly online, strictly mailed or both. What are your favorite ways to learn about gardening and to keep up with the latest gardening news?

2010-05-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ah spring is here and everything is blooming! I love it! In the picture above you'll see my roma tomatoes coming to life. Organic Gardening has been a whole lot easier than I thought. I started out small this year and plan to expand next year. Currently I have zuchinni, potatoes, onions, chard and the roma tomatoes growing along with a patch of my favorite herbs. I've learned it takes daily maintence to keep the weeds down, but only a few minutes, which is part of my watering routine. What gardening stories do you have so far this year?

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

I was able to spend Earth Day helping a local organization plant tree seedlings. The tree seedlings were all native to this area and will be planted in various locations to help reduce runoff and to filter out pollutants from local farms. It was a great experience! I'd helped out a couple weeks ago, too and today was able to see that some of the seedlings had started to bud out. It was awesome and truly rewarding!

Garden updates:

My garden beds are ready! The ivy is gone for the most part, but it will be a continuing maintenance project. Although there are herbicides that will elliminate it completely, I do not want to go that route. But to me pulling up a few shoots here and there is better than putting a chemical down. In place of the ivy annuals (and some natives) are going in this season, but next year I hope to make it completely native.
One early plant I was able to sow was chard in my front yard garden bed. I was so excited to see the first seedling pop up! The chard is a leafy vegetable that I think has stems that are similar in texture to rubarb or celery, but looks a lot like kale. It is awesome in salads and a great source of vitamins. I've also planted potatoes and I am getting ready to plant onions and after danger of frost, zucchini. On the flower end, I found columbine (a native to my area) at our local nursery and since it is a perrenial I was able to plant it a couple weeks ago. It is a beautiful flowering plant that likes shade. It seems to be doing well in its new home.
What are you doing with your gardens this year? Please share.

Spring is almost here :)

2010-03-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

For the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic States, winter was truly an adventure! So I am very glad Spring is in the air. I've been planning my gardens for months and now I have begun the outdoor work :) With the help of several gardening magazines and one awesome organic garden book I am looking foward to seeing what grows from using organic gardening techniques. The garden book I am using is called "The Organic Garden Book" by Geoff Hamilton. I originally checked it out at my local library, but I liked it so much, that I bought a used copy of it from Amazon for $1.95. [Buying from an online store is probably not the best way to reduce my carbon footprint, but I figured it was better than driving around trying to find it locally and it came by U.S. Postal. So I guess its all about balance.] The book contains lots and lots of great tips for starting and maintaining an organic garden. So if you are at your local library check it out and see what you think. Don't get to overwhelmed by the amount of information. Maybe just try using some of the techniques this year and then adding more next year.

Invasive Plants

2009-10-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

I've been moving into a beautiful new house with a large yard. As with many new home owners sometimes you inherit things you didn't want. For me, I inherited a lawn full of English Ivy. I have been trying for about 3 weeks now to pull up every bit of it before it takes over anymore. Unfortunately it has already gotten to at least 3 trees in the back yard. Two of the trees are evergreens, which look like they may not survive the invasion.

If you have non-native plants in your yard I encourage you to keep them under control or replace them with native plants. I've seen that in a couple of yards near my house that the English Ivy is being kept under control, but if it isn't it will take over everything.

I really want to encourage planting native. Recently the Master Gardeners in my area put on a session where you could learn about native plants in your area and purchase some of those plants. I was able to learn a lot about the plants native to my area and even purchase some new plants to replace the English ivy. Of course I had to get the English ivy cleared out before planting my new plants. Unfortunately, keeping the English ivy out will be a constant task, but believe me it is worth it. My new plants adapted well to their new surroundings and I really look forward to seeing them come alive again in the spring. I encourage you to contact your local Master Gardener to learn more about planting native in your local area. You can also use the resources provided on the Pathways to the Three R's website http://www.umuc.edu/gogreen/resources/watershedmgmt.shtml to learn more about planting native.

Canada

2009-07-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to vacation in Canmore, Canada. Canmore is located about 5 minutes from the entrance to Banff & Jasper National Park. The park is a beautifully preserved area where people have worked hard for many years to keep it beautiful. There are very few towns and they park is designed to attract hikers. You can hike/bike all the way through the park with overnight camping stops every 20km.
Alberta, Canada is known as Wild Rose Country (according the licensens plate). While on our first hike I learned what that really meant. The picture of the flower is the beautiful wild rose that grows all over the countryside. Another tidbit I learned a little more about was the growing season in that part of Canada. Because it is so cold the evergreens (most prominent tree) do not grow very large. At one point in Jasper National Park our guide pointed out trees that were about 500 years old, but they looked like they couldn't be more than 20 years old when comparing them to evergreens I've seen grow in parts of the U.S. It was amazing to think they had lasted for 500 years. After learning and seeing that I watched carefully where I stepped while hiking to insure I wasn't stepping on any "saplings".

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Earth Day!

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation sent out messages urging people to watch PBS' Frontline special: Poisoned Waters (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poisonedwaters/). The PBS special covers a lot of information about America's waterways including numerous interviews with farmers, fishermen, scientists, Perdue owner and politicians. My husband caught all the political slants, but the episode still left him thinking deeply about our impact on the environment.

How do you think a special called Poisoned Waters relates to gardening and the benefits of gardening? How can gardening using sustainable practices help reduce our impact on the water cycle?

Food Packaging

2009-03-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Another thing that has caught my eye lately is how food is packaged. I just noticed not long ago that Trader Joes sells some things in biodegradable, compostable packaging. How can we go about promoting this in other stores?

Also just think about all the packaging you save by growing your own food. Fruits, vegies, spices often need a lot of packaging to keep them fresh. We can reduce our waste just by growing our own food or buying from local farmers rather than the supermarket.

Where does our food come from?

2009-03-18T16:45:00.001-07:00

I am currently reading a book called Havest of Hope by Jane Goodall. Yes the chimpanzee lady has a book about food and where our food comes from. I am sure we have all heard the stories aired on various nightly news channels about the way chickens, cows and pigs are treated on various factory farms. I've had a hard time finding organic meat products that don't cost a fortune. Ms. Goodall points out that organic, sustainably grown animals will be more expensive upfront, but healthier in the long run (Harvest of Hope, p. 110). Throughout the book Ms. Goodall stresses the need to realize that animals feel pain and anixety just like us, but a happy animal produces more and lives longer. If you have already given up meat, Ms. Goodall has a lot of good advice on buying/eating organic products. For example labels to look for in the grocery store and how to convince grocery store owners to sell organic products. It is a good book if you get a chance.
So you may be wondering how Harvest of Hope applies to gardening. As gardeners we are probably concerned or at least interested in where our food comes from. Our food may be a combination of fruits and vegies from our gardens and the meat we buy in stores. So gardening may just be one part of our food supply.

Memories of Gardening

2009-02-25T16:42:00.001-08:00

Although I haven't always been able to garden due to the places I've lived, gardening has been a part of my life since I was very young. I remember playing near the garden while my mom worked. One of my most vivid memories of the garden is the snake that lived near the small patch of corn. It would scare my mom to death as she tried to weed through the garden. The snake never hurt us and I learned the importance of letting other living things exist as they were meant to exist. In other words leaving the snake alone and "he" in turn left us alone.
When I was a teenager I spent several summers with my Great Aunt in Minesota. She had a huge garden filled with everything including raspberries. I have found that the taste of home grown vegetables and raspberries cannot be found in any local supermarket. So in every place I have lived I will seek out the local farmer's markets, orchards, or any other place that I know is selling home grown produce. My hope is to have my own big garden someday. For now though, I grow herbs in pots and I have plans this spring to plant tomatoes in the small flower bed surrounding my house.

What are your favorite memories of gardening? Have your tried starting a garden in a small area? Was it successful?