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.

It’s Nearing Lettuce Season for Your Home Vegetable Garden

The different varieties of lettuce to choose from to grow in your home vegetable garden varies as greatly as the number of choices your local cable company or dish provider give you in the form of channels to surf through. Then when you break down each variety there are even more choices. And just when you thought you narrowed everything down, someone threw is a Mesclun mix! Yes, there are that many choices with lettuce.

But don’t fear. Although you have countless choices for your lettuce, the basic process by which to grow them are for the most part , the same.

Depending on which variety of lettuce you choose to plant will determine how deep you should plant the seed. As a rule of thumb the smaller the seed the closer to the surface the seed should be planted. One quarter inch to one half inch deep is the normal depth for most lettuce seeds. Expect the seeds to germinate in about fourteen days.

Start your lettuce seeds indoors four weeks prior to the last frost date in your area. Lettuce is a great cool weather crop and can be grown in both the fall and spring, which makes the transition from indoors to the outdoors during the winter/spring season much easier.

Lettuce likes the soil’s pH to be neutral (that is 7 on the scale). Although it will tolerate slight acidity, anything under 6.0 won’t be helpful to your lettuce`s growth. If you have been composting throughout the year with an even blend of `greens` and `browns` , your space should be ok. But pay the $3 for a pH soil tester just to make sure.

Spacing, watering and sun requirements will vary from variety to variety but for generic purposes, space out your lettuce ten to twelve inches, give them a light to moderate watering (every other day or even every three days), and plant in an area that receives partial shade to full sun.

When harvesting, many types of lettuce can simply have their leaves snipped off with a pair of scissors which allows the plant to continue to grow until it either stops producing or bolts due to surrounding conditions. The exception to this harvesting rule is iceberg lettuce. You will have to harvest the entire head for best results.

Lettuce makes a great companion for pretty much everything but does not rotate well with artichokes, endive and escarole.

Now is your chance to unleash your inner passion for salads by growing your lettuce which makes up the base for many types. Plant a pack of Mesclun mix in your home vegetable garden and you will have a near complete ready made salad.

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.

Growing Spinach in Your Home Vegetable Garden

When I was younger I could not stand the taste of spinach. of course that was more than likely due to the fact the only spinach my mom served came from a frozen box that had to be cooked. Then in my early twenties I grew (no pun intended) to love to eat fresh, raw spinach. That is when I began growing my own spinach. I found that this cool weather crop is a great addition to any home vegetable garden, and a lot easier to grow then you think.

Spinach is a great crop of choice to start indoors. Because it is a cooler weather crop you can start it 3 weeks prior to the last frost of the winter season in your area and move it outdoors. It also makes for a great crop choice for cold frame growers.

Spinach seeds are on the medium sized scale and can be planted as deep as one half inch beneath the surface. In optimal conditions spinach seeds will germinate in as little as seven days, but the normal is fourteen days.

When preparing the site where your spinach will grow, make sure the pH range is in the 6.5 to 7.5 area. As long as you are using composting methods all year round, you should be ok. Pick a spot that receives full sun, and although many varieties of spinach will grow in partial shade, full sun will really give it a great boost.

Spinach requires a decent amount of space. Try to space your spinach plants out at least twelve inches, and if you can spare more room for them, do so. They will repay you with great returns.

Your spinach will be ready to harvest when the leaves are of big enough size to consume. Yes I know that is very generic, however, you can begin to harvest your spinach when you feel the leaves are of adequate size. Use a pair of scissors to cut the spinach leaves off so as to not damage the plant from pulling them off.

Spinach is a great crop because after you harvest some leaves, they will keep producing. Production of your spinach will slow down or stop once the weather becomes too hot, which also makes spinach a great fall crop as well.

Rotates well with all vegetable varieties except for legumes. Companions great with cabbage, celery, lettuce, radish and onions, but not with potatoes.

I can’t promise you that consuming spinach will make you big and strong like Popeye, but I can tell you it is very easy to grow, and fresh spinach is loaded with many vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, who operates the largest Vegetable Gardening page on Facebook and the widely popular Seeds of the Month Club.