Out back, in the garden...
Book of the Month!
Featured Article
Garden Monthly!
To Ponder/What's THAT?
Growing Community
Closing Comments
Garden Notes Archives
WELCOME !!
Garden Notes Subscribers!!!
Jodi here, still enjoying the beauty of Oregon! What a lush forest and fertile
valleys they have here! An undeniable horticulture delight! I have enjoyed the ocean,
immensely, although not as much as our dogs have! Came here to finish my Botony
degree at OSU, but personal reasons are taking me back to Oklahoma as soon as school
is out in June. I'll be going back to an empty vegetable garden since I've not
been there to start it. Anyone out there in Northeast Oklahoma? --ha ha!
Speaking of vegetable gardening, is anyone going to grow
Three Sisters this year? If you do,
PLEASE send pictures!
and a report on how you what varieties you used and your results! Thanks!
I found this really neat website about pecans. There are tips on buying and
storing them, nutrition, news, and recipes. If you like pecans, are interested
in growing them or how they are good for you, this is a good site to visit!
>> I Love Pecans.org
May is one of the most beautiful months of the year any where you are!!
Snow and ice (if you get them!) have melted and summer's heat has not yet begun.
The first garden crops are beginning to sprout in May. The grass and trees are
green and the wild plants are all emerging. Many birds have built their nests
and are sitting on eggs that will hatch soon! It is a very hopeful time of year.
Enjoy!
May is:
Memorial Day or Decoration Day is observed, in
most states of the United States, the last Monday in May. It is observed in
memory of those who died while serving the United States in war. The graves of
the war heroes are decorated with flowers. It was first observed in 1866.
Mother's Day
was first observed in 1908. It was designated by Presidential
proclamation, and was recognized officially by Congress and the President in
1914. It is celebrated in honor of Mothers on the second Sunday of May.
The Kentucky Derby takes place on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs,
Louisville, Kentucky. It is the most famous horse race in the United States.
1828 - Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park London, opened
There is also.....
• Egg Month
• Stawberry Month
• National Mental Health Month
• Herb Week
• Vegetarian Week (UK)
• and Strawberry Festivals around the world!
Thank you for all your comments and suggestions this month! Wow! Gardeners are
such great people! Here's a new email we received!
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Hello ,
I really like this website. I would like to know if you would do more articles
on local buying and why it's important. Even make a list of local food coops,
like the one you have on state extension offices. Thanks, keep up the good work!
Keith Marlow
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Thanks for your comments Keith. We value them and strive to meet your requests
and this month in Garden Notes, we've got the information you requested in the new
Growing Community section.
Please take a minute and check out the nursery
even if you are not in the buying mood today; couldn't we tempt you??
As we mentioned back in February,
we've decided to start posting all our new articles in the newsletter for
the review of all interested... it's a pain going there and looking to see
what has changed every so often (like you'd know if you saw it right?
)
So we thought this would make it easier for all our members to see things as
they are added.
Happy Reading!
Container Water Garden Kit
Complete Water Garden
Including Plants, Just $99!
This is the quickest, easiest way ever to create an enchanting water garden.
Designed by one of America's leading aquatic nurseries, our Container Water
Garden Kit includes a handsome kettle and an assortment of easy-to-grow plants,
each on its own "floating island".
Plants include: Creeping Jenny, Golden Creeping Jenny with bright yellow
leaves, Corkscrew Rush for its unqiue texture, and pure white Calla Lily
Includes handy drain plug to make emptying easy
Out back, in the garden...
Your yard, regardless of what size it is, can be a harmonic medley of color
this summer and simultaneously grow vegetables for your table.
Pole beans or runner beans are an efficient use of vertical space in small or
even larger gardens. While feeding your soul with beauty, climbing beans can
sustain you and your family with an extended season and even attract wildlife.
Hummingbirds especially love the bright blossoms of the Scarlet Runner beans.
* Growing tips: You can find many interesting varieties locally. Sow seeds
directly in the ground when both air and soil are well warmed and settled -
usually around mid-May. Plant seeds l inch deep every 3 inches, then thin
half the plants once established.
* Companion planting: These combinations of plants can mutually enhance growth
and productivity. Pole beans benefit from being planted with marigolds,
radishes, summer savory (great to season beans with too), corn and potatoes.
Keep away from onion crops.
Pole beans can be combined with other flowering vines like Clematis,
Morning Glories, Cardinal Climber just to name a few. Experiment with your
own combinations and create some happy plant marriages!
Are you having trouble with slugs yet? Sluggo Slug Bait
Is an organic pellet that eliminates slugs before they can devour your prize
hostas, ripe strawberries, and lettuce.
Sluggo
is clean and easy to use; just scatter one teaspoon per square yard in
the evening. Slugs that ingest the pellets stop feeding immediately, and die
in 3-6 days.
Compost Alert
There are several ways in which compost heaps can be made and various
theories exist as to the way in which they should be treated. There are two
important points which are essential for successful compost making and these
are adequate drainage and aeration and sufficient moisture.
Just make sure that you get one started if you haven't already. It's the lifeblood
of your garden! Not sure where to start? Try HERE.
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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 May!
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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!
B O O K O F T H E M O N T H
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The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control :
A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy
Without Chemicals
End your worries about garden problems with safe, effective solutions from
The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control!
- Easy-to-use problem-solving encyclopedia covers more than 200 vegetables,
fruits, herbs, flowers, trees, and shrubs
- Complete directions on how, when, and where to use preventive methods,
insect traps and barriers, biocontrols, homemade remedies, botanical
insecticides, and more
- More than 350 color photos for quick identification of insect pests,
beneficial insects, and plant diseases
Newly revised with the latest, safest organic controls.
"This book is our most helpful resource on pest control.
It's the first book we turn to for solutions."
--Terry Gips, President, International Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture
And we here at Garden Simply concur..... A resource NOT to be without!
Read More...
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F E A T U R E D A R T IC L E
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You may have heard that you can change the color of a hydrangea's flowers by
adjusting soil pH. But there's a little more to it than that....
Find out HERE!
Enjoy!
T O P O N D E R
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Question 1:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had eight kids already,
(three of whom were deaf, two of whom were blind, and one who was mentally
retarded), and she had syphilis; would you recommend that she have an abortion?
Question 2:
It is time to elect a new world leader, and your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:
Candidate A:
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.
He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks eight to ten martinis a day.
Candidate B:
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college,
and drinks a quart of whisky every evening.
Candidate C:
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an
occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.
Which of these candidates would be your choice?
Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.
And by the way: In answer to the abortion question
If you said yes,
you just killed Beethoven.
Pretty interesting isn't it?
Makes a person think, before judging someone with too little information.
Another interesting random thought:
Amateurs built the ark . . . .
Professionals built the Titanic . . . .
What's THAT?
Want to win ten packs of garden seeds?
Tell us what THIS is....
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G R O W I N G C O M M U N I T Y
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This month we spotlight the new Oklahoma Food Cooperative.
According to Robert Waldrop, president, Oklahoma Food Cooperative Organizing Committee,
"Less than a year ago, this was just a crazy idea floating around in cyberspace.
Now we are approaching our first order delivery cycle and are kicking things
off with a Celebration of Oklahoma Food."
The is a significant difference between a food cooperative and a community garden.
In a community garden the members grow their own food. In a coop, the members
harness the buying power of many and keep their local growers in business. It's a way
to keep our farmers in business and eat healthy at the same time.
Why buy local?
- It keeps money in the local community.
A large proportion of the money spent on food each year leaves the locality almost
immediately. When you buy from local producers and processors, that money stays
in the local community and benefits everyone.
- You get better tasting, higher quality, and fresher food.
For example, it's not an accident that supermarket tomatoes taste like watery
moosh. Agribizness tomatoes are grown from varieties selected, not for taste
and nutrition, but rather for their abilities to be picked green and shipped
long distances. Your local grower chooses varieties that taste good. What a concept.
- You know where the food is coming from and how it was produced.
- If we don't support family farmers, there won't be another generation
of family farmers.
The best support we as "urban eaters" can give them is to buy food directly
from family farmers. Consolidation in the food production and distribution
system is rampant. A supermarket looks competitive, with many different brands,
but in fact most of them come from only 5 giant corporationss, and those 5
corporations are in the process of coalescing as two. A similar consolidation
is going on in the retail grocery market, as chains like Albertsons and Wal Mart
drive out independent grocers. As long as we pay for this process, it will continue.
It is critical that people increase their direct purchases of food products
from local farmers and processors so that we can preserve economic diversity
and family livelihoods in rural America. We will not like it if the production,
processing, and retail distribution of food becomes a locked in monopoly of
giant transnational corporations.
- Family farmers need our help.
The last twenty years have been hard on family farmers. The average age of an
Oklahoma farmer is 61. Government policies that are supposed to help family
farmers turn out to have the perverse consequence of encouraging consolidation
and larger operations. Billions of government dollars are funding the displacement
of the family farmer. Hidden behind these statistics are the brutal costs
economists ignore because they are "off the balance sheet". Ghost towns are
dotting the Oklahoma rural landscape. The fact is, you get what you pay for.
And this is what our agribizness dollars have wrought on the rural landscape.
- Eating is a moral act.
Much of our food is imported from foreign countries. In many of those countries,
poor farmers have been thrown off their land, with little or no compensation,
so that big US companies could come in and open factory farms to supply the
North American market. Water is diverted from peasant agriculture to these farms,
and the people who have farmed the lands for centuries become urban squatters
in the big slums on the outskirts of third world cities. And so it comes to pass
that the fresh salad greens you buy in the snows of the North American winter may
indeed have been snatched from the hands and mouths of hungry children in poor
countries. Agribizness foods grown in this country are harvested and processed
by exploited migrant labor. The workers receive below minimum wage, no benefits,
and are exposed to high levels of pesticides and other dangerous chemicals.
The exploitation of these people is a scandal, and it is funded by the agribizness
industry and your supermarket grocery dollar..
- Actions have consequences.
Food choices we make have practical consequences. By targeting as much of our
grocery dollar as possible towards locally grown, sustainably produced food,
we are "voting" for more prosperity, security, and a higher quality of life.
Our grandparents knew the importance of supporting the local business community,
and that includes the farmers. Food is such a critical aspect of life that we
would be foolish to turn the food producing and distribution system entirely
over to agribizness. The right to choose means little if all the choices are
dictated by faceless corporations with offices on five continents. The wave
of the future is direct local relationships between rural producers and urban
consumers. That's what the Oklahoma Food Cooperative is all about.
Excerpt http://oklahomafood.coop
More Information http://oksustainability.org/
For the next few months, we'll be putting information in this section of
Garden Notes for all who have requested information on community gardening
and buying locally. Do you know of any events you'd like to share??
We'd like your feedback!
Want to find one in your state?
See the list!
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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Thank you for your patience and understanding at not having a newsletter in
April. We spent most of the spring in Oregon due to some personal family issues.
Missed an enTIRE semester in school... Anyone else out there a single mother with
teenage boys?
The views were breathtaking, the
countryside rife with horticultural delight. The United States is so utterly
diverse! It made us stop and ponder if we could really accomplish the goal we
have set for Garden Simply! Each area of the world has its own unique challenges
to gardening. We promise you, our readers, to continue to add to our
reading room as much information as we can to
aide you in your pursuits toward a sustainable lifestyle.
Your future is very much in your own hands and we hope to help all to see that
the task at hand is very 'do' able! "Every journey starts with a single step...."
Walk the road to sustainability... nothing gives more peace of mind than to be
able to supply your own needs.
I know this edition if FULL of stuff, but one more thing! (I promise!!) We have
been debating among ourselves if the "This month is ______ month...." is just TMI
(toooo much Information.) One of us says yes, one of us says no. We want YOUR opinion.
Please vote and we'll act accordingly! Thanks, you guys are the best!
VOTE HERE!! 
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They offer simply everything you'll need to get done what you want to get done.
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moms at home with our children and help us all get through school!
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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!
Don't forget the "Tell Your Friends About Us!" button that we put on the
front page this last month. We'll send them a link to the current edition of
Garden Notes and a personal note that you write to them! You can find it
here....
Until next month, remember the words of T.S. Eliot ....
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
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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!