rubbing nickels » Gardening

Plant a Rainbow This Spring!

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:58:21 +0000

We all know how important it is to have your child eat well balanced meals, especially when it means including vegetables. Aside from french fried potatoes and buttered corn, is your child getting a full range of the nutritionally rich vegetables that are considered the “Rainbow Foods”?

Read the rest of this entry »

GARDEN ESSAY

admin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:14:48 +0000

I'm back with more thrifty gardening tips.

Read the rest of this entry »

HOW DOES MY GARDEN GROW?

admin — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:28:43 +0000

Gardening is a low-cost pleasure. There is something meditative about being in nature, making things grow. The only problem is, I’ve never been very good at it. I’ve even been known to plant things upside-down, with the roots swaying in the air like the audience at a rock concert.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Good Garden Helps Kids Understand Hunger

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:05:01 +0000

The Good Garden helps kids understand world hunger and the challenging issue of food security. Stories about poverty, famine, and food shortages are often in the news. Can one person, even one child, make a difference? A new children’s book, The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough (Kids Can Press), gives [...]

Plant Some Sunflowers!

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:20:47 +0000

Sunflowers!

They can be tall, short, or in between, yellow, orange or red, ornamental or edible. It’s a summer favorite of young and old alike and hopefully there’s room in your garden for at least one flower.

Read the rest of this entry »

Grow Your Own Lettuce for Fresh Summer Salads

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:44:12 +0000

I'm not much of a gardener but I've been tempted lately to get the family involved as the price of my favorite organic lettuces gets higher and higher. It's clear that growing your own vegetables is one of the ways to save.

Read the rest of this entry »

Get Your Garden Going!

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:09:56 +0000

Seed Starting Late winter is the perfect time to start seeds indoor. You don’t need to have a greenhouse or green thumb: starting seeds are easy, fun and an economical way to get the plants you desire for your home garden. If you don’t have any experience, chances are your child has done this in school! [...]

Tis the Season for Planting Your Fall/Winter Vegetables

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:49:28 +0000

No matter where you live in the country, chances are your summer vegetables are on their last legs. Hopefully you’ve had a productive and fruitful season and gotten your fill of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, beans, peppers and eggplant and are ready to move on to some cold weather vegetables. You’ll have to start by taking [...]

Mulching Saves!

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:42:36 +0000

Now that your low water-need plants are in and you have some irrigation, there’s one more important step to take in your garden to save you money and water: adding mulch. Mulching means applying a material, preferably organic, to exposed soil. Its purpose is to maintain soil moisture so that less water is needed. A [...]

Home Composting: Next Steps

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:31:31 +0000

Last time we looked at the simplest form of home composting: using a plain old bucket to collect your kitchen scraps. You may need to graduate to more sophisticated means, especially if you have more kitchen and garden materials than you know what to do with. If so, there are several commercial compost bins available. Stacking [...]