Issue #158
November 2005
What's New?
Out back, in the garden...
Compost Alert!
Book of the Month
To Ponder...
Growing Community
Web Finds
Closing Comments
Garden Notes Archives
WELCOME Garden Notes Subscribers!!
The Doctor is IN!
We have a new consultant on our GardenSimply team! Dr. Jack DeAngelis from
Living With Bugs.com a website devoted to
urban entomology, the study of insects that impact people and their property,
was an Extension Entomologist (PhD) at Oregon State University for 16 years until
his retirement in 2004. Jack's approach to pests is "the least-toxic solution".
(I like that!)
Jack has a 'bug' forum
getting started over at his site, so don't fail to check it out. There is a lot of
seasonally specific advice there. Ask questions and get answers .
Jack monitors it very well and provides prompt answers to your questions.
Jack and his wife live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Geeee... where have you
guys heard that before?? (yes, that's me sighing) I miss it. Oregon had to be the
most beautiful state I have ever lived in. (sigh)
Speaking of the Pacific Northwest, Seattle Homes and Lifestyles Magazine
mentioned us in their online magazine last month... neato.
Also, for our senior gardeners, and we are all moving in that direction,
we have a great article on,
"Gardening Gain With a Lot Less Pain."
Even if you are not a senior gardener you may want to share this information with
a friend or relative.
We have an entirely new section in our Reading Room!
Thanks so much! and Happy Reading!
- New "Sustainable" Label Aims to Compete with Organic
Tired of paying a premium for organic fruits and veggies? A coalition of farmers,
environmentalists, and public officials is promoting an alternative that they
say will be less costly: a "sustainable" certification system and label.
- Humus Fungi
A tutorial on how to grow fungi (mushrooms!) in humus (compost!)
- Malabar Gourd
The fruits are brightly coloured and mottled, and are quite huge. They can be
eaten very small like courgettes, but their real purpose is for them to be
left to ripen their hard skins.
- Yacon
Yacon is a tender perennial, meaning that it lives for many years but needs to be
protected from frost. Other tender perennials are potatoes (which, along with Yacon,
originates from the high Andes)and Dahlias.
- The Age Old Method of Air Layering
Believed to have been developed by the Chinese centuries ago.... this method has
been used successfully as a mean of propagating some more difficult-to-root
plants.
- Grow Your Own Nitrogen
Nitrogen makes up about three-fourths of the air we breathe. Since this colorless,
odorless gas is the basic building block for protein, its availability is extremely
important to the plants (and animals) that feed us.
- Yard Waste Recycling
Reducing the amount of solid waste entering landfills is an important reason to
recycle yard wastes at home. Your efforts benefit the entire community, and they
ultimately benefit your landscape.
- Benefit and Value of Insects
Excerpt pertaining to the season...
Grow winter annual cover crops to provide additional organic
matter without the effort of hauling, fix free nitrogen from
the air, reduce loss of soluble plant growth nutrients
through leaching, and provide a bright patch of greenery during
the winter months.
Who wouldn't want one?
Affordable Composting Helper
Click photo for more information!
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I want one of these things so bad I could scream...!
When I think of how much composting material goes to the dump every year, I cry.
Read my blog...
If I had one of these I could compost sooo SO much more over the winter. Leaves
are bad to matt up and not mix with other nitrogenous material in the compost, and
I always have more leaf than compost left... any of you have that problem? NOT
if you could SHRED them first!
- Quiet, powerful 8-amp electric motor.
- PERFECT Gift for me, I mean, the home gardener in your life!
Of course if any of you would like to make a charitable
donation to GardenSimply's test garden, that would be nice!
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PRIORITY LIST
- Tidy Up Around Fruit Trees...
No one likes worms and other pests in their fruit trees. A simple clean up now
can dramatically reduce the number of pests that return next year. Just pick up
and destroy any fallen fruit, branches, and leaves. Worms and other pests feed
on this fruit and debris, overwinter in the soil, and emerge in the spring to
lay eggs and start the cycle all over again.
- Monthly Reminders...
Evergreen Pruning...
Light pruning of both needle and broadleaf evergreens is recommended in late
fall to encourage a strong framework to help the plant overcome any snow damage.
Simply remove any weak or crowded branches with a pair of clean sharp pruners.
- Tools and Equipment Monthly Reminders...
Clean and oil your garden tools for winter storage. Place some sand and some oil
in a large bucket, then slide your garden tools in and out of the sand. This
will do an excellent job of cleaning them, as well as applying a light coat of
oil to prevent rusting.
- Trees, Shrubs, and Groundcovers Monthly Reminders...
Your trees and shrubs will begin to harden for the upcoming cold weather. To encourage
this, remove mulch from around the stems of shrubs and trees.
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Check out what goes on in the sustainable garden
in the month of November!
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Making compost in winter.
Heat, more than any other single factor, is what drives a compost pile and enables
it to turn raw materials like leaves and grass clippings into compost. Most of
the heat is actually generated within the compost pile by the microorganisms that
decompose the material, but the process speeds up during the heat of summer and
slows during the winter.
Your compost pile will stay active longer in cold weather if you insulate it by
mounding straw and leaves around and on top of the pile. You can also use rigid
insulation. Too much insulation can cut down on air movement in the pile, so
it's important to keep stirring -- an insulated pile probably won't freeze, and
you can continue stirring throughout the winter.
For you hard core composters, you can always make a 'winter compost' from old
storm windows. Slant the windows toward the south to pick up the long, low rays
of the winter sun. Stack staw bales around the sides to serve as insulation.
use the glass door as a lid for a 'greenhouse effect'. It will keep the animals
and snow out, and let the warming sun through. You'll find up to a 50° difference
between inside and outside temperatures on January morning. Said one happy Pennsylvnia
gardener, "I could just feel the billions of happy bacteria, hard at work in the
warm interior making black gold to spur the seeds in spring." (http://www.compostguide.com/)
One way to deal with leaves that won't fit into the compost pile is to put them
in plastic garbage bags into which you've poked a few holes. Drop a handful of
high-nitrogen lawn fertilizer (for example, 21-7-7) and a shovelful of soil in
with them, then just leave then in an out-of-the-way spot in the garden. By
spring the leaves will have rotted to about half their volume, and you've got
the makings of fabulous leaf mould for use on the spring garden.
Compost Tip: If you are in an apartment or condominium consider
worm composting.
If done properly it doesn't smell and is the perfect after dinner conversation piece.
Technical support for the above information came from
The All Seasons Gardener,
published by Penguin Books.
Not sure where to start? Learn to Compost.
Need an entire compost primer?
Check out our
Master Series Gardening Courses!
What are you reading when you're not reading Garden Notes?
Wonderful Gardening Magazines, are RIGHT HERE!
The Thanksgiving Ceremony
A book that celebrates Thanksgiving and offers readers the chance to
participate in a ceremony designed to be read aloud around the table.
It recounts the story of the early settlers and the challenges they,
and all subsequent immigrant generations, faced. The ceremony provides
roles for guests of all ages and takes about twenty minutes.
Families can create and customize their own ceremony, including pieces by Maya
Angelou, Irving Berlin, Woodie Guthrie, and Emily Dickinson.
I bought this book last year and our family time together was greatly blessed.
I highly recommend it!
>> Buy It!
In the last three years, 287 bills related to kicking junk food out of schools
have been proposed in some 45 states. The junk food industry has lobbied hard
against these laws and has successfully defeated over 85% of them. As the exception,
New Jersey and Maine recently passed "junk food laws" that will remove soda,
candy and other junk foods from schools (pre-kindergarten through high school)
by the end of 2007. The OCA's "Appetite for a Change" campaign is closely monitoring
similar proposed legislation in your state.
Learn more...
This month we spotlight The Edible School Yard,
a place to find locally grown produce, anywhere in the country!
The freshest, healthiest, most flavorful
organic food is what's grown
closest to you. Use their
website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably
grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other
goodies. Just click on the map below to zoom in, or use our search form for quick
results. If you are a farmer, market manager, or run a business related to
locally-grown food, you can add your listing to their directory - free.
As their web site explains, "Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days
before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of
1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taking into account only US grown
products! Those distances are substantially longer when we take into consideration
produce imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America, and other places."
"We can only afford to do this now because of the artificially low energy prices
that we currently enjoy, and by externalizing the environmental costs of such a
wasteful food system. We do this also to the detriment of small farmers by
subsidizing large scale, agribusiness-oriented agriculture with government
handouts and artificially cheap energy."
More links on food production and energy use:
Community Food Security: Definitions and Explanations
Want to find one in your state?
See the list!
You don't HAVE a community garden where you live?
Then START ONE!
REALLY COOL TIP!
I really like this idea, and can't wait to build one of my own!
If you have a large garden or just get weary of running to and fro from where
your tools and supplies are stored, consider placing mailboxes around the garden
at strategic locations and filling them with those items you use most or wish
you had at hand. You can place the traditional long, round-topped box on a short
4x4 set into the ground, or attach the flat, porch-type box to a fence or wall.
Keeping a trowel, notebook and pen, or other paraphernalia handy can be a real
time and energy saver, plus you'll be more likely to keep the garden in tip-top
shape.
Tip from Garden.org
LAST MONTH!!
To download this
FREE Gift!!
Just for our {{ subscribers!! }}... it's timely and it's cute!
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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...
and then some. They have some of the coolest home and garden accessories on the
internet, so please take a peek!
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Until next month, remember the words of Minnie Aumonier...
"When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy,
there is always the garden."
Never underestimate the value of what you are doing.
Life is short,
HELP OUT YOUR FRIENDS - - - - - -
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information and resources available at Garden Simply, help them learn how -
forward them a copy
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