Vegetable Gardening 1st News for Wednesday March 9th, 2011

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Classes, classes, and more classes is the theme for today's first news in vegetable gardening. You can always tell when vegetable gardening season is at hand. Co-op's, agriculture experts and enthusiasts gather together to share ideas and experiences to ensure that everyone's growing season is a good one. Here are some that made our first news cut this morning.



Vegetable Gardening the Easy Way
Nancy Szerlag will present ideas to help you make your home vegetable gardening easier and more productive. Nancy has been a serious gardener in Michigan for more than thirty years. Home vegetable gardening is becoming more and more popular. It is a way to get fresh and better tasting vegetables on the table while providing exercise. Gardening is a great opportunity to ...
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110307/NEIGHBORHOODS01/103070338



Olson’s Garden Shoppe in Payson now offers classes
It's the time of year when spring is in the air, when some people eagerly look forward to the smell of fresh-tilled earth with salivating anticipation of the taste of home-grown vegetables. If you're a seasoned gardener wanting to share your knowledge or a novice looking to start a new hobby, Olson's Garden Shoppe in Payson may be the place ...
http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/south/payson/article_c82207f8-8bce-5111-88ed-3596635d1b58.html



Vegetable gardening class March 22
Presented by Derrick Bender, agriculture and natural resources educator and master gardener coordinator, the class will cover tips for planting a vegetable garden, choosing vegetables to plant, selecting the best site, preparing the soil and ...
http://times-news.com/local/x814629710/Vegetable-gardening-class-March-22



Master gardener programs at libraries
Hennepin County Master Gardeners from the University of Minnesota Extension Service will present dozens of free gardening workshops at Hennepin County libraries during the next ...
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/117447073.html

Worried About The Cost of Starting Early? Don’t Be!

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Plato once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. I don’t know how you garden, but for me, truer words were never spoken! If you’re anything like me you race out to your mail box this time of year with great haste, wondering what plethora of gardening catalogs are waiting to greet to you. Lustingly you scan every page and item, marking the ones you want.

Slowly you scroll down to see the price and your draw drops to the floor. $500 for a decent sized cold frame? That’s insane!

Well at least that’s my reaction! Most of us gardeners don’t have the buku bucks to spend endlessly on what we drool over or even need. So why isn’t it cheaper? It is, you just have to be creative!

For example, the catalogs sell all kinds of various contraptions to help us protect from frost and extend our growing season/get an early start. I have used everything from flannel sheets, fleece blankets(by far the best for frost protection); even bulk material from the local fabric store that was on clearance. Another fantastic and easily affordable option is your local second hand store.

They almost always have sheets and blankets in stock. Plus, if they get dirty you can simply throw them in the washing machine! Need it to have a frame? Build your own! Lumber (especially construction grade) is cheap, and I would highly suggest something like Velcro to attach the material. That way you can interchange the frame material from frost protection to shade cloth!

Speaking of shade cloth, you can get that at your local fabric store too(or second hand store if you’re lucky). Early last summer I was trying to keep my potatoes alive, but since I had planted such a large lot, buying that much shade cloth was out of the question.

However, at the fabric store, I found some semi-transparent white, breezy material. I live in zone 9, and by utilizing this process my potatoes lasted into July, and only died back when the potatoes were ripe and ready to be harvested.

The white, breezy/semi-transparent material is important if you are going to find and use your own shade cloth. You have to have a certain amount of light transmission for them to grow (or you’ll end up with spindly plants that fall over), and the white (unlike black shade cloth) does not attract, nor trap in extra heat.

Don’t be afraid to try something new and experiment; you never know what you will find! Following these few, simple, easy and low cost ideas will largely extend the grow/harvest time of all your crops( both cool season as well as summer vegetables).

About the Author
Megan McDonald is a garden blog writer for heirloomgardengirl on Wordpress and is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, the exclusive home for the Seeds of the Month Club.

Vegetable Gardening 1st News for Monday March 7th, 2011

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Gardening classes, boot camps that will show you how to maximize vegetable production, back yard chickens, raised beds and inexpensive gardening, all make up the topics of this morning's first news in vegetable gardening.


Chester County gardening news
Penn State Cooperative Extension in Chester County will hold a workshop, "Thinking of Starting a Vegetable Garden?," for residents interested in growing their own food.
http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/03/04/news/green/doc4d712734e828d653407086.txt

Vegetable gardening boot camp May 1 in Milan
University of Illinois Extension's Veggie Boot Camp offers information on how to maximize fruit and vegetable production to get the most from a garden.University of Illinois vegetable and herb specialist Charles Voigt...
http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=533747

Vegetable gardening: Raising the bed improves your odds
There is a good chance you are among the multitude considering planting a vegetable garden this year. You may find yourself wondering where to start. Over the years I have humorously said ... http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-02-28/classified/sc-home-0228-garden-veggie-20110228_1_local-garden-club-soil-vegetable-gardening

Toward self-sufficiency: Family fills backyard with chickens, vegetable garden

As the weather warms and the brown landscape turns green, Stephanie Weyenberg's thoughts turn to planting for her family's early spring garden.
Gardening is more than just a hobby: She and her husband, Matt, grow most of the fruit and vegetables they eat. They also rely on...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jQ7yuhLwSb_jb1Y5MHLaLhHPHRPA?docId=6120792

Free Spring Gardening Classes Coming Soon

It's time to think about planting tomatoes, tending to rose plants and harvesting citrus. Spring in Calabasas is afoot. Free information and advice for the novice to experienced gardener will be offered in the form of...

http://calabasas.patch.com/articles/free-spring-garden-classes-in-calabasas

Gardening made easy, and deliciously inexpensive

Gagliardi is a horticulturalist for the American Horticultural Society, whose headquarters are located on land where George Washington's relatives used to farm. But like any backyard gardener, he says...

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/story/2011/03/Gardening-made-easy-and-deliciously-inexpensive/44563286/1

Compost Pile Quick Tips

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I am convinced that composting is the number one thing you can do as a home vegetable gardener that is beneficial for your soil and plants. Adding good quality compost to your soil helps with drainage, nutrients in the soil and so many other things. Along with the soil benefits you can also take a lot of organic material that would otherwise find its way into a landfill and actually put it to good use. The question is, if you are new to gardening, how do you get from that organic material to usable, quality compost?

First lets start with what is “organic” material. Organic material can be grass clippings, leaves, your left over dinner, coffee grinds, banana peels and so on. Plastic, Styrofoam and meat bones are NOT considered organic material for the compost pile.

Set aside an area of your yard where you will dump all of these items into. As a side note, when it comes to left over food, it is best to bury that. It could draw in unwanted animals like raccoons, opossums, etc.

Once you have your pile of organic material in place you are all set. Nature will take care of the rest. Bacteria, insects and worms will work hard together to break your pile down into usable compost. If time is not a factor then you can literally let the pile sit there and it will eventually break down. However, like you, I want my compost a bit faster, so here are some things you can do to help speed things up.

Shred
Using a yard shredder, chipper or your lawn mower, you can break down larger items in very small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the quicker they will break down.

Water
You should be keeping your compost pile moist. Do not over water your compost pile as items in the pile will get matted down, which prohibits oxygen from reaching areas deep inside your compost pile, thus creating a “rotting” smell as anaerobic bacteria takes over. A lite watering every other day, or more often if it gets hot and dry outside will do the trick.

Turn
A good practice is to get into the habit of turning your pile over. A pitchfork is all you will need to complete this task. Every few days use your trusty pitchfork to literally turn the pile over by bringing the material from the bottom to the top and vice-versa. For optimal results you want to turn the pile over when the center of the compost pile reaches 140 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.. You can pick up a compost pile thermometer for a few bucks.

Finally, remember to keep your compost pile well ventilated. The more air that reaches through the pile, the quicker and the better the outcome will be.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the administrator for the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook. Join in the vegetable gardening conversation today with your Facebook account and find out how you can get 2 packs of seeds absolutely free.

Herb All you Want

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A few years ago Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton starred in a film called Bandits. After escaping from jail, the two men begin a bank robbing rush that made Bonnie and Clyde look like child’s play. This has to do with gardening. No doubt about it. After their initial heist, the two concoct a plan to rob future banks that will keep them from being caught by the law. It works perfectly and before they know it, they have garnered national attention.

Shortly after the news of the “Sleepover bandits” goes national, they show up at a banker’s home where they will stay the night and go in with the bank manager in the morning to clean out the vault. In the following scene, everyone, the bank manager, his wife and two kids and the Sleepover Bandits are sitting around the dinner table enjoying a spaghetti dinner.

Billy Bob’s character comments on the pasta sauce telling the bank manager’s wife that it is delicious. Crying, she thanks him and he begins to guess at what the secret ingredient might be. It adds the perfect flavor and he knows it is right on the tip of his tongue. “Tarragon!” he exclaims excitedly. The bank manager’s wife smiles and nods, though still crying, because she is flattered by his enjoyment of her cooking.

Tarragon is the point. Not just Tarragon, but thyme and basil, dill, mint, parsley and oh so many more herbs make for delightful cuisine. So many gardeners do not consider the joy of these tasty leaf-bearing plants though. Having a small raised bed for a variety of herbs, or even a half dozen hanging planters for their growth is a wonderful way to save money on expensive brand name herbs at a grocery store, control the growth (and therefore potency of flavor), and capture freshness.

Indoor herbs need only a sprinkling of water once a week as a controlled environment causes much less water depletion. Outdoor herbs, especially those planted in the ground can handle two waterings a week, but regardless of how they are planted, herbs are one of the easiest to grow plants and they arguably add the most to cooked dishes.

Most people will not be kidnapped by civilized, bank-robbing, food connoisseurs who appreciate the subtle flavor of tarragon, but that does not mean that the whole family and everyone who enjoys a cook’s dish will not want a fresh, perfect herbification. And yes, herbification is a new word. Use it. Love it. Do it.

Herbify: to grow one’s own herbs for the purpose of flavoring a dish to perfect taste.



About the Author
Jody Sperling is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC. The exclusive home for the Seeds of the Month Club.