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Spring Favorites
Beautiful summer gardens are born in the coldest winter months.
We have everything you need to start planning and planting today,
including quality-crafted greenhouses, sturdy tools, planters for
indoors or out and much more.
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Out back, in the garden...
Don't throw out that ash if you're burning wood in the fireplace this winter!
Save it until next spring then spread it in your gardens. Scatter it around
your carrots, radishes and onions to keep root maggots away. It will also
improve the flavor of your potatoes. Wood ash is high in potassium and will
raise the pH of soil.
Complex Plot
Planning your vegetable garden? You might want to consider rearranging
last year's setup, no matter how successful it was. The logic here is that
many diseases and insects afflict particular plants, so by moving the
vegetables around you won't give these plant assassins a head start on their
destruction. Also, if you have a mulching mower that collects grass
clippings, just lay a few inches of the mulch over your vegetable garden's
soil in the late spring and let it go to work as a fertilizer.
To Water or Not to Water
In winter, when indoor heating and the generally dry air help create
shriveled potted plants aplenty, home gardeners need to watch the moisture
of the soil carefully to keep plants healthy.
Overwatering, as well as underwatering, could kill your plants. Going on
a fixed "every Thursday" schedule isn't a good solution because watering
when a plant doesn't need it could drown the plant.
To monitor the situation of your indoor plants, get a
Light & Mositure Meter ,
stick the meter deep into the soil where the plant's roots are, and let the
readout tell you if your plant is thirsty or not.
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B O O K O F T H E M O N T H
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The Sustainable Vegetable Garden
More than 25 years ago, Jeavons wrote the best-selling How to Grow More Vegetables,
which sold more than 350,000 copies in seven languages. It was a how-to book on
high-yield, biologically intensive food-raising techniques. His new book, coauthored
by Carol Cox, is a somewhat simpler book written for gardeners trying biointensive
gardening for the first time. The focus is on the soil; and a good way to ensure
sustainable soil fertility, the authors say, is the biointensive method of growing...
Greening the Garden was a very interesting book because it discussed the non main
stream vegetables such as quinoa, amaranth, sunchokes, comfrey, dried beans, soybeans,
fava beans, and others. It was a nice introduction to what I consider the lesser used,
if not lesser known, vegetables.
This isn't another uninformative how to grow a tomato book. It does discuss
growing certain vegetables as I stated above, but what I really enjoyed, and
was surprised to find in the book, were the writings concerning our environment,
our current food productions inpact on earth and the inpact on people's health who
consume these foods (both meat and vegetable).
This book was a wonderful read on environmental problems such as considering how
much food we get from one cow per acre compared to if we grew vegetables on that
one acre. Per pound the vegetables would far out beat the cow and would supply
food for that many more people. There are discussions on chemical use and how
Indonesia is one of the first to ban chemical use and has reclaimed its rice
crops by doing so. The author gives us hope that our seed diversity which has
been declining over the years may not be gone forever. Apparently the author
found some genetic diversity in some bean seeds he's been saving. This, as he
says, is just a reminder that genes from the past may still be present in todays
seeds. One more reason to save and protect our open pollinated seeds.
Read More...
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F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E
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Last month we talked about gardening
under lights
If you are going to be starting your own seedlings for planting in your garden
this year, here is some must have up to date information.
It's not too long, but a step by step process of what to do to start your own
seedlings for your spring garden.
Seed Starting Made Easy
Enjoy!
And we would be remiss not to mention
TOMATOES!!
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G A R D E N M O N T H L Y
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Check out what goes on in the sustainable garden
in the month of March!
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HELP ANOTHER GARDENER OUT !
If you have any interesting gardening tips that you would like to share,
Share them HERE!
We continue creating a place to post all our subscribers' tips
and tricks to help out other gardeners. Full credit will be given for
every tip published, including your name and website if you have one.
Thank you for your help and suggestions!
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T O P O N D E R
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"Human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them,
they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and
saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores."
- William C. Roberts, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Cardiology
Requoted from VegSource.org
Read the whole article HERE
NOTE: We are not Vegan Vegetarians. But we have been leaning that direction...
it sure does make sense.
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G R O W I N G C O M M U N I T Y
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Imagine a city in which every neighborhood is filled with healthy street
trees, attractive parks, and productive gardens; where the air and water
are clean; where neighborhood youth take an active role in improving their
environment; and where diverse residents come together to build their city
stronger through community stewardship.
America's urban environments have become our most important ecosystems. In
addition to the fact that more than 75% of us live in cities, the condition of
the urban environment affects our economy, our culture, our society and our
natural resources on local, regional and national scales. Garden Simply
is taking action to improve public education and bring to attention this urban
environment to help revitalize our urban communities.
Community gardens empower individuals, knit together a stronger community,
beautify local areas, produce fresh and nutritious food, and provide valuable
recreational, spiritual and therapeutic opportunities. We believe that by
growing food together, we can restore ourselves to our ancestral, historical
and spiritual roots in agriculture, shared by people throughout the globe.
For the next few months, we'll be putting information in this section of
Garden Notes for all who have requested information on this.
We'd like your feedback!
This month, let's talk about how you can help a community garden.
- Donate or locate garden resources, such as: irrigation systems, garden
tools, construction tools, building supplies, rare fruit and perennial
seedlings, rubber boots, gloves, hats
- Offer technical advice, troubleshooting and design assistance
- And MOST importantly, Volunteer your time in the gardens
You don't HAVE a community garden where you live?
Then START ONE!
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C L O S I N G C O M M E N T S
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We still have two Welsh Corgi puppies to find homes for! If you would like to see
our adorable little bundles of love, check them out,
HERE.
We are pleased to offer products from one of the largest, most dependable, and
easiest places to navigate on the web, Gardener's Supply Company. They offer
simply everything you'll need to get done what you want to get done.
We incur expenses every month making Garden Simply a truly valuable internet
resource and with you visiting our sponsors, it will help keep us single
moms at home with our children and help us all get through school!
And NOTE! They are offering FREE SHIPPING! on all orders over $55!!!
Thank you for your support!
One last note before the quote! We have joined an a new email directory called
Cumuli.com If you like
Garden Notes, would you take a minute and please vote for us! Thanks so much!
Until next month, remember the words of Mark Twain ....
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,
it's time to pause and reflect."
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S U B S C R I P T I O N M A N A G M E N T
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HELP OUT YOUR FRIENDS - - - - - -
People you care about can take charge of their garden by
effectively using the information and resources available at Garden Simply.com
Help them learn how -
forward them a copy
of this months Garden Monthly.
Let GardenSimply help you with a plan of action
for YOUR garden every month!
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So we thought this would make it easier for all our members to see things as
they are added.
