Garden Lady Home Garden
Memories
Ahh - gardening. Is there anything more
fun, more rewarding - and more work? Growing up in the
midwest, I helped my Grandmother plant row upon row of vegetable
seeds and saw them sprout and grow. I watched (wasn't much
help) as she canned jar after jar of green beans, corn, pinto beans
and tomatoes. The smell of cooking strawberry jam drew me
like a magnet - the foam that formed on top of the huge pot was my
favorite spread.
Helping pick strawberries, blackberries and red
raspberries, my own basket was usually empty as I ate them as fast
as I found them - it was a family joke that fruit had no chance of
getting to the house in my basket. What I learned was that
you plant a seed in the ground - and it grows. How hard is
that?
Living in the same area as a young adult, I did
the same. My garden wasn't as large as the one I played in as
a child, but it produced some great vegetables for our table.
Organic gardening was the "rage" and I tried it. Using no
pesticides I grew beautiful broccoli...and cooked it. Only on
the plate did we notice I had also cooked the worms on it. I
stayed with organic gardening as much as possible - but never grew
broccoli again.
Only when I moved to different parts of the
country did I learn about soil. Growing up with the rich dark
loam of the Midwest, I had to do some serious research when dealing
with Georgia red clay and Mississippi soil with high sand
content. What I've learned is that very few soils can be just
planted. Most must be amended with manure, peat, top soil,
sand...adding whatever "growing" component is missing. Once
you realize the necessity of amending the soil and do the work
required, gardening is fun again.
| Jeff Ball: Ergonomic hand tools are tops when gardening (Detroit News) Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:17:03 GMT It occurred to me this past week, as we were putting our gardens to bed for the winter, that in the past year Nancy and I, unintentionally, set aside virtually all of the hand tools we had in the shed for the relatively new line of gardening tools put out by the Radius Co.
| | | O'Neil: Castle tour in Scotland unearths common gardening bond (Times Herald) Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:37:19 GMT Foulis Castle, in the Highlands of northern Scotland, gave me insight into Scotland's clan history and life today.
| | | Sound Gardening: Put the garden to bed (Greenwich Time) Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:06:29 GMT Time to end the gardening season: The leaves are finally down, so you can decide which ones should stay in your garden, which get mulched to turn into compost, and which -- already composted -- get put back on those beds and borders.
| | | Gardening: Be proactive: Protect your trees this winter (The Star Press) Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:30:22 GMT Do you have young trees planted in your yard or at your business? If so, beware of sunscalding or frost cracking injuries that can affect the health and aesthetics of the trunk of your tree.
| | | Tropicalia: Edison & Ford Estates to host garden market (The News-Press) Sun, 23 Nov 2008 06:12:07 GMT If you've tried gardening in Southwest Florida after a lifetime of Northern training, you've probably learned that things are a little - well, a lot...
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