Mother Earth's Garden

Every year about this time the garden seed catalogs start arriving in the mail. I usually sit them carefully in a pile beside my chair in the living room until the hustle and bustle of the holidays is done. It seems like December always goes by in a blur of activity.

Then January hits and everything comes to a standstill. That’s when I start to get garden fever, or the winter blues, whatever you want to call it. I’m ready for spring! I’m done with winter and ready to start heading outside to the garden again.
That’s when I dive into the …read more

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Yesterday I talked about planning your garden for 2010, so today I want to share a few of my garden plans for the new year. I’ve spent some time over the last few weeks reflecting on my 2009 garden, what went right, and what wend wrong. I’ve also thought about what I’d like to grow more of, and what I need less of (or none of) for next years garden.

Here are my 2010 garden plans and goals:

I didn’t plant enough plants for fall decorating this year. I want to plant more gourds, broom corn, strawflowers, and other plants and flowers …read more

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Since 2009 is winding down, and 2010 is about to get off to a quick start, now is the perfect time to take a look at your garden plans for the new year. It’s a great time to sit down and map out your gardening goals, and plan out what you want to plant next year.

For me it’s good to plan things out a little before the garden seed catalogs start arriving in the mailbox every day and filling my head full of new and exciting plants I think I might need to try. If I go into it with …read more

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The Columbus Dispatch newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, will soon be hosting the 2010 Central Ohio Home & Garden Show, presented by PNC.
The 2010 Garden Show will be held February 27 – March 7, 2010 at the Ohio Expo Center on the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus Ohio. The theme of the show will be “Art in Bloom” and the display will include living landscapes inspired by masterpiece works of art, and feature stunning sculptures, paintings and other pieces within the gardens.

There will be fourteen full-sized gardens on display for visitors to enjoy, and experts will be on hand to …read more

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Scholastic and Welch’s are teaming together to help schools grow gardens to help children learn more about growing their own food.
Starting this month, K-8 teachers are able to enter to win one of 100 Harvest Grants through the Scholastic website: scholastic.com/harvest.

Entries are judged by the experts at the National Gardening Association. The panel will select two schools in every state to receive a Welch’s Harvest Grant: Welch’s will award 100 garden packages, together valued at $35,000, to the winning schools.
Five schools will receive $1,000 packages; 25 schools will receive $500 packages; and 70 schools will receive $250 packages. Each package …read more

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I got a really cool package in the mail the other day. It was a deck of 50 cards, but it wasn’t like your ordinary deck of cards. The cards I received were P. Allen Smith’s Container Gardens. The deck contains 50 recipes for container gardens you can plant all year round.
I love container gardens, and I love creating gardens for the different seasons. This time of year my attention turns to indoor gardening, which consists mainly of containers in my windowsills.
The Container Gardens Deck shows you some great techniques and ideas for creating potted gardens that will flourish on …read more

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The other day I talked a little about Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire premiering on PBS. Today I have information about a new interview Michael did with Organic Gardening about the dangers of organic factory farms, the future of organics, and what he thinks of Michelle Obama.

The interview appears in the the November/December/January 2009-2010 issue of Organic Gardening magazine, which hits newsstands today. I got to take a sneak peak at the article (even though my own issue of Organic Gardening hasn’t arrived in the mail quite yet.
I enjoyed reading the interview, and learning more about Michael Pollan and his …read more

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If you’re already pining for your garden, and you can’t wait for spring, here’s a little something you can add to your planner. The 2010 Nashville Lawn and Garden Show will be held Thursday, March 4, through Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds.

The theme of the 2010 Nashville Lawn and Garden Show is Artistic by Nature. The 2010 show will celebrate the beauty that’s created when natural artistry and man made artistry are combined in the garden.
The show will offer inspiration, ideas and information for gardeners and garden lovers. Some of the gardens at the 2010 show …read more

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While you’re making your garden plans for next spring, make sure you plan your garden so everything is rotated, and nothing is planted in the same spot it was this year.
Rotating your garden helps keep pests at bay naturally, and it can also help your soil.

Some plants, like beans, peas, and other legumes help make your soil better, other plants like corn take a lot out of your soil. Rotating your crops each year helps keep certain plants from robbing the soil of all of its nutrients.
Some garden pests over winter right in the garden, under the plants they plagued …read more

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It’s time to put this year’s garden to rest. It’s also time to clean up the garden tools and store them away until spring. If you put them away clean they aren’t as likely to rust during the long cold winter months.

Here are a few garden tool cleaning and storing tips:

Wipe the dirt off of your blades and tools, then coat them lightly with a little oil, or spray them with lubricating oil, to guard them against the cold damp weather.
You can use a wire brush, or a little steel wool to clean any stubborn dirt off your garden tools.
While …read more

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