Welcome!
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Cool stuff I found, out shopping!
Out back, in the garden...
Soil Builder/Compost Alert!
Book of the Month
Monthly Reminders
To Ponder...
Growing Community
Closing Comments
Garden Notes Archives
WELCOME Garden Notes Subscribers!!
YOUR yard this spring if you act NOW!
It is STATE FAIR Time again! So don't forget to check
out our Growing Community section for some great information
for your area!
We've lined up EVERY fair in EVERY state for you, whew, and school started this
month too!
Hannah is proud! 
(Guess I get the 'Smiley Green Tomato Award' this month.)
Fall planting season is HERE!
Garden Simply's Bulbmall is open and stocked,
ready for your planting (genius!) decisions! Check out the
Spring Daffodils
to get you started!
Thanks so much and Happy Reading!
- Some Okies have a beef with Idol's latest title
An article from the 'Oklahoman'. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.
- Growing Cucumbers
Learn How to Plant, Pick and Preserve This Crisp Vining Squash
- The Top 10 Best Companion Plants
Are you getting the most out of your garden arrangment?
- Stormy Weather
Incessant rain, rampaging ivy and a squelchy lawn can combine to make
autumn a particularly trying season.
- Stress Management and Relief – The Keys to Health
Stress has become one of the main causes of poor health in the
modern world. We all 'know' stress; we have all felt its impact
upon us. But did we also know that we can easily and readily
reduce it, saving ourselves the pain and anguish of many
illnesses? It's time to remember how!
- WHO Endorses GM foods in its New Report
The recently released report of the World Health Organization (WHO) titled
“Modern Food Biotechnology, Human Health and Development: An Evidence –Based
Study” makes an unapologetic case for the acceptance of GM foods saying they
can “contribute directly to enhancing human health”.
- Environmental Toxicants and Developmental Disabilities
With their underdeveloped livers and kidneys and their greater intake of food,
air and water on a per bodyweight basis, young children are more vulnerable to
the effects of environmental contaminants than adults. Just last week the
Centers for Disease Control’s Third National Report on Human Exposure to
Environmental Chemicals found that virtually all U.S. adults and children carry
a mixture of contaminants, including pesticides, in their bodies.
- Gardening Projects for Children
A Whole New Category!
- Do Good Bugs!
A guide to choosing and using beneficial insects, mites and nematodes.
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These are SO convenient. When I was an apartment manager back in the early '80's
they even let me keep them for the groundskeepers to use. (Ja! I know, they've been
around forEVER!) Well, it's because they are handy and useful. What I like the most
is that after you use them to store all the leaves you can in the winter, you can
break them down and put them in the garage in the spring. (at least until the grass
clippings start to take over! They are like those shoes in your closet, the ones
you only wear with that 'certain' outfit... but when you wear it, you NEED them!
Economical, Expandable Compost Bin
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Click photo for more information!
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You may need only one composter most of the year, but where can you put that
mountain of leaves every fall? This wire bin holds 150 dry gallons (20 cubic
feet) of leaves and garden scraps, without the investment of an enclosed composter.
In fact, it's so inexpensive that many gardeners connect two or three together:
one to collect waste, one for cooking compost, and one for finished compost.
- Each bin holds 150 dry gallons.
- It's easy to connect 2 or 3 together.
- Save when you buy 2 or more.
- Hold's a yard's worth of leaves!
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Out back, in the garden...
Seeds germinate fast when the soil is already nice and warm. For delicious,
picture-perfect fall crops of spinach, lettuce, peas, kale and broccoli, now’s
the time to plant. Here are 4 easy steps to ensure your success.
Pull Some, Plant Some. As soon as any early season plants have passed their
prime, pull them out and replant. Even little sections where a cucumber plant
expired or the cilantro went to seed. Put the old plants in your compost pile,
then aerate and replenish the soil by forking in some compost and organic fertilizer.
Rake the surface smooth and sow something new!
Screen the Sun. For good late-summer germination, it’s important to keep
the soil surface from drying out and not let soil temperatures rise over 80
degrees F.
Wire Hoops
and Shade Netting
are an easy solution. Fall-planted seeds should be sown twice as deep as in the
spring. Natural shade from a trellis or tall plant can also provide a good spot
for seeding a second crop. When cold weather arrives, keep plants warm with a
floating Row Cover.
Sow the Right Crops. Plants that thrive in fall weather include: carrots,
beets, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale and all kinds of salad and Asian greens. Choose
disease-resistant varieties that mature quickly. All can be direct sown into the
garden, though broccoli can also be started indoors under lights
or in a greenhouse
If planting a fall crop of peas, choose bush peas rather than traditional climbers.
Don’t Delay. Summer-planted crops usually require an extra 2 weeks to mature
(since days are shorter and air temperatures are cooler). Using the days-to-maturity
figure on the seed packet, count back from your fall frost date, then add a 14-day
“fall factor”. This will give you your fall planting date.
PRIORITY LIST
- Remember to keep up with watering. And when you do, be sure to irrigate
deeply and infrequently. If you're watering for a few minutes each day, it's
like sipping the bottom of the cup when it's empty and you're dying of thirst!
- Early autumn is the best time of the year for the sowing of grass seed.
Grass sown in spring is often killed by hot, dry, summer weather. For more vigorous
growth, spread a very thin mulch of clean straw over newly seeded areas. The straw
shades delicate seedlings from the hot sun and helps preserve moisture in the soil,
yet lets enough light through for germination. By the time cold weather arrives,
the grass is fairly well established and ready to grow and thicken early the following spring.
- Take special care of any wooden handles on your tools. Handles should be
smooth (sand if needed). Apply a coat of bright-colored, water-resistant paint to
keep wood from drying out, prevent shrinking or splitting, and make them easier
to see if left out in the garden.
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Compost Alert
Turn over a new leaf this fall!
George Dickerson (New Mexico State University's
Cooperative Extension Service) says "This time of year
leaves make up the biggest component of landscape wastes. Leaves are one of the
easiest landscape wastes to compost. Another benefit of removing leaves around
shrubs and trees in the landscape is that it helps expose overwintering bugs to
freezing weather."
Before placing leaves in a compost bin or pile, it's best to run them through
a shredder or rotary mower. Shredding speeds up the composting process because it
increases surface area, making it easier for microorganisms to do their job of
decomposing wastes. Adding food waste, grass clippings, livestock manure, or a
nitrogen fertilizer to the shredded leaves also will help microorganisms break
down carbon in the leaves.
"Don't forget to add some water to the pile or bin when you're mixing
everything up," Dickerson said. "The consistency should be that of a damp
sponge. It's also a good idea to add some soil because it contains microorganisms
to help the pile decompose."
Just make sure that you get a pile started if you haven't already. And (honestly!)
if you're as lazy as I can be when it comes to compost I
have found fall to be the very BEST time to start one as you can load it all up and
just let it sit all winter! It is also a great time to build the pile since there's
an abundance of organic matter to add to it from lawn mowing and other plant
care activities that keep us busy during the growing season.
The basic process is the same; it just takes longer. Since the outside temperatures
will quickly drop, count on fall composting as being less precise, less demanding,
and much less work. Fall composting is more like planting flowering bulbs. You won't
see much success until spring, but you won't do much work in the meantime.
It is truly the lifeblood of your garden!
Not sure where to start? Learn to Compost.
Need an entire compost primer?
Check out our
Master Series Gardening Courses!
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B O O K O F T H E M O N T H
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Greenhouse Gardener's Companion: Growing Food and Flowers in Your Greenhouse or Sunspace
Smith write simple enough for beginners. His saving grace is a quiet sense of
humor that's evident throughout the book--from his warnings about weather to his
"biased opinion of hydroponics." When Smith does get around to soil, he goes at
it from the point of view of providing plants with a healthy root system--covering
soil pH and nutrients and organic soil amendments in beds and pots.
There's something refreshing about a gardening book that doesn't start out
with soil. Smith
( The Bountiful Solar Greenhouse )
puts off the nitty-gritty subject until chapter nine. In the meantime, he covers
such subjects as vegetables, flowers and herbs, light and temperature, ground beds
and containers, and crop spacing and scheduling. This is not a complicated book;
the operative word for it is "companion." And while some of the advice is rather
elementary, it does lead the reader painlessly through the steps and requirements
of owning and gardening in a greenhouse.
The extensive final chapter is devoted to everything that can go wrong--i.e.,
pests and diseases, for which Smith recommends mostly organic and biologic
controls. As he points out, a "greenhouse or sunroom garden is probably the closest
garden you'll ever live with." This is a book to live with. As a Wyoming
gardener, he puts a good deal of emphasis on using the greenhouse in summer as well
as in winter, but this is a useful, practical guide for readers in most of the
continental United States.
>> Buy It!
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 September!
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T O P O N D E R
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There is much to do this month, and reading an online newsletter may not be high
on your list of priorities, but there is much to learn!
Much to be involved in!
Take Back Your Time Day
Date: Monday, October 24, 2005
Contact Information:
Web Site: Take Back Your Time
Description:
Take Back Your Time is a major U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic
of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our
families and relationships, our communities and our environment.
The Take Back Your Time Legislative Agenda:
- Make Election Day a national holiday
- Enact paid Family & Medical Leave as part of the Family & Medical Leave Act
- Enact three weeks minimum annual paid leave for all workers
- Enact a cap on mandatory overtime
For more information about how you can get involved please visit the
Take Back Your Time web site.
G R O W I N G C O M M U N I T Y
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Farm Aid. A celebration of Farm Aid's 20th Anniversary and a tribute to the contribution of America's farmers.
And what could be MORE 'community' that the state fair? All around the country in
the good 'ole US of A there is a wonderful tradition that we call the 'state' fair!
Everyone's got one... there are little county fairs, BIG county fairs, and then
the 'mother' of all fairs, the STATE FAIR?
Sure, state fairs have carnivals, concerts, and cotton candy, but they also have
some of the best displays of homegrown harvests around. (maybe yours??) Garden
Simply encourages you to take a trip to your state fair
this year, and check out grand prize winning tomatoes and blue ribbon dahlias.
American state and county fairs can credit Elkanah Watson, a wealthy New England
farmer and businessman, for their start. Watson showcased his sheep under the great
Elm tree in the public square in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1807. To attract
attention, he clanged an old ship's bell with a piece of iron. Watson owned woolen
mills and wanted to encourage the local farmers to raise Merino sheep because the
wool was of superior quality.
Since then, Americans have attended state and county fairs to see the latest
technologies, the biggest pumpkins, the blue ribbon cakes and the most thrilling
entertainment. Equal in attraction is the enticing fair foods! Not guaranteed to
be especially healthy, but it only comes once a year! (How's that for rationalization?)
A longtime champion of touting the newest, the biggest and the best, fairs
continue to inspire Americans to discover the diversity and history of their heritage.
From horticulture to arts and crafts, the talents of the area's most gifted are
featured at the fair. Some of the oldest and most creative competitions are the
"Best Recipe" contests.
The tradition of recipe contests is almost as old as the fairs themselves. The
contests originally showcased the best of locally-grown food as well as the best
local recipes. Almost two centuries later, delicious and interesting creations
are entered by both first-time entrants and longtime winners.
In recent years, sponsorship of recipe contests by national food companies has
become popular at fairs across America. The companies award generous prizes for
original recipes featuring their products. (Surely someone could come up
with a GM FREE recipe?)
Famous foods have originated at state fairs before, addressing the need of 'the
times'. In 1852 at the first State Fair of Texas, a notable entrant named Gail
Borden Jr. entered a dried "meat biscuit" recipe. His fame and success arrived
later after making his processed and condensed milk into a national brand. I mean,
people were starting to look for convenience even then, now that we've got the
convenient thing under control, maybe we could bring the health concious that so
many millions of Americans are thrilled to see!
Recipe contests used to be considered a women's competition. In 1903 one writer
called the contests "monuments to housewifery". Now the contests have grown to
include everyone, inspiring generations of families to enjoy competing in this age
old American tradition.
Find a State Fair in your state!!
Adapted from State Fair Recipes.com
We at Garden Simply would like to encourage anyone that has strong feelings
about getting our food in a healthful and local way to support their local
food coops and community gardens.
For more information about Community Foods:
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!
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C L O S I N G C O M M E N T S
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Don't forget your
FREE Gift!!
Just for our {{ subscribers!! }}... it's timely and it's cute!
We have big goals 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 a variety of accurate and
informative help we can to aide you in your pursuits toward a sustainable
lifestyle, no matter where you live!
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.
We are pleased to offer products from one of the largest, most dependable, and
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They offer simply everything you'll need to get done what you want to get done.
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Until next month, remember the words of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche...
"Those who have a why can endure any how."
Believe it.
Never underestimate the value of what you are doing.
Life is short,
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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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