Farmers Market

Posted: Sunday, May 26, 2013 11:15 pm

Farmers’ Market and Garden Tips

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Richmond Farmers Market is open every Saturday at the Richmond Town Hall, located at the corner of Route 138 and 112, Richmond.

The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., featuring a wide range of local produce and handmade goods. For more information, visit the Richmond Farmers’ Market website.

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Beechwood Lecture Series

The URI Master Gardener Association and R.I. Wild Plant Society will join together for a Beechwood Lecture Series, offered to members and the general public at no charge.

Lectures will be Tuesdays, 10:30 a.m., at the Beechwood Center for life enrichment, 44 Beach St., North Kingstown. URI master gardeners receive education credits for attending.

If interested in attending, contact Lori McMullen at 401-268- 1597 or lmcmullen@northkingstown.org.

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(StatePoint) For many people, gardening is one of life’s greatest joys. But exercising your green thumb carries some risk.

In 2012, more than 41,200 people nationwide were injured while gardening, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Don’t let a day of digging, weeding and watering get the best of you. Take steps to prevent and treat common gardening injuries.

Protect Yourself

• Safety goggles and gloves shield your eyes and skin from chemicals and pesticides and protect you from sharp or motorized equipment.

• Spending hours in the sun each day can lead to sunburn and can increase your chance of skin cancer. Sport a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses and sunscreen with an SPF 30 or higher. Take frequent shady breaks, especially between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the sun is at its highest.

• While watering your plants, don’t forget to water yourself. Drink plenty of liquids, but avoid alcohol or sugary beverages that will dehydrate you. 

• Use lightweight hand tools with rubber handles and ergonomic designs. Tools with offset handles make digging and weeding easier. Or cover your current handles in foam tubing. Sharp, clean tools work better and require less effort, so maintain or replace your equipment often.  Handle extenders and reachers can help you reduce the need for bending, reaching and stretching.

• Stretch and get ready. “Prepare your knees and low back for all that bending and lifting. Before you get out of bed in the morning, lie on your back and pull your knees to your chest. Then drop your legs from side to side five to 10 times. If you begin this now, you’ll be rewarded with greater flexibility and a reduced chance of sprains and strains later in the season,” says Dr. Lauri Grossman, a New York chiropractor who has been practicing homeopathy for over 25 years.

Natural Remedies

• Did you get scraped or cut out there? Treat minor injuries with clove oil or aloe. Aloe also helps relieve sunburn and blisters.

• “Before pain gets in your way, treat it at the first sign with a homeopathic medicine that works with your body to relieve pain rather than mask symptoms,” says Dr. Grossman. She recommends a natural pain reliever like Arnicare Gel.

Try it for neck, back, shoulder and leg muscle pain and stiffness, swelling from injuries, and bruising. Arnicare Gel is unscented, non-greasy and quickly absorbed by the skin, so it’s convenient to apply and easy to use anywhere on your body. More information about muscle pain treatment and a $1 coupon for Arnicare can be found by visiting www.Arnicare.com.

• For stings and bug bites, apply honey, baking soda, toothpaste or ice.

By following a few precautions, you can make this gardening season a safe and pleasant one.

Photo Credit: (c) Terry Schmidbauer / Shutterstock.com

Most
children love playing in the dirt, and I know more than a few adults who do,
too.

Let the
kiddos in your life know about the Children’s Garden being held at Fair Oaks
Retirement Apartments. Master Gardeners have been working for several years at
Fair Oaks to provide residents with small, individual garden areas, a community
vegetable garden and general landscape beautification.

The
Children’s Garden Project will be held June 3 and June 10 with Master Gardeners
and parents assisting children in planting, watering and harvesting a variety
of vegetables, flowers and fruits. The children will also play games about
nutrition and learn about good and bad bugs and worms and other creepy
crawlies.

There are
two sessions from which to choose: 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. or 4 to 5 p.m. There is
no session if it’s raining. No registration is required, it is free and new
students are welcome. For more information, call the Denton County AM
AgriLife Extension Office at 940-349-2883. Fair Oaks is located at 1950
Lattimore St. in Denton.

So you’ve
taken a class and made a rainbarrel? Now what? Learn about considerations for
installing your rain barrel and how to use this water at the conservation class
held at the city of Lewisville’s Kealy Operations Center at 1100 N. Kealy St.,
Suite D, in Lewisville.

This
class will also show how to construct a rain garden to save water, minimize
runoff and beautify your yard, all at the same time.

The free
class will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 4, with registration required at
rdavis@cityoflewisville.com or by calling 972-219-3504. Light refreshments will
be provided. Registration is open to the public, and Lewisville residency is
not required.

This
class will be taught by Denton County Master Gardeners Sue Hudiburgh and Lynda
Harvey.

Get your
garden bounty ready and mark your calendars for the Denton County Fruit,
Vegetable, Herb and Flower Show on June 15, starting at 9 a.m.

This is a
free contest open to all Denton County residents and will be held at the
Firefighters Memorial Park (at the corner of Carroll and Mulberry streets in
Denton).

All the
rules and details can be found at our office or online at www.dcmga.com.

JANET LAMINACK is the horticulture county
extension agent with Texas AM AgriLife Extension. She can be reached at
940-349-2883 or jelaminack@ag.tamu.edu.

 

Born and raised in northern Idaho, the granddaughter of avid gardeners, Mary Ann Newcomer grew up with an appreciation of native Rocky Mountain flora and the unique brand of nurturing it can require.

“The region is very much characterized by basin and range. We get less than 12 inches of rain a year and sometimes horrendous snowfall as well as blistering hot temperatures,” said Newcomer, a gardening expert whose newest book, “Rocky Mountain Gardener’s Handbook” ($24.99; Cool Springs Press; 272 pages), focuses on all forms of gardening – decorative to functional – in the Rocky Mountain region. The book, co-authored with Colorado horticulturist John Cretti and published late last year, includes techniques for cultivation and maintenance and a vast catalog of plants – annuals and perennials, grasses, edibles and trees – known to thrive regionally, given the proper care.

“There are some places in this region where they’re never without a frosty night, so there are a few places without much of a growing season at all, especially the higher elevations,” said Newcomer, whose book includes a special section on fire-wise and drought-tolerant gardening. Still, “there are a lot of high country plants that do very well.”

Stretching more than 3,000 miles from northern British Columbia to New Mexico, the arid Rocky Mountain region and its terrain can present a challenge for traditional gardeners. While dryness is occasionally an issue for temperate gardeners, for growers here, low rainfall and drought are quotidian concerns that must be considered at the front end.

“We’re just so dry, you have to do everything you can to make the most of the water you do have and direct that water to the garden. I think we’ve adapted really well,” Newcomer said. “There are also wild temperature swings. In one day, we can go up or drop by as much as 50 degrees in some places.”

Even the most rugged, high-altitude gardens need not go bare, though, given the right plantings and caretaker.

“There’s always something (that will grow), and Colorado is a really great example of that,” she said.

In fact, if a plant could thrive in Colorado, Newcomer considered it hardy enough to handle the entirety of the Rocky Mountain region, and worthy of inclusion in her book.

“If they can make it in Colorado, they can pretty much make it anywhere,” she said.

Flowers making the cut include hollyhock, wild daisy and syringa.

“A lot of the things that people associate with old, historic gardens – the sentimental favorites like lilacs, peonies, and irises – do very well here,” she said. “They survive with very little water and are tough as nails.”

Still, a successful Rocky Mountain gardener must remain vigilant, able to quickly and deftly respond to quickly changing outdoor conditions.

The climate “makes it difficult to know what’s going to happen next,” Newcomer said. “Your garden really has to be prepared and you need to be on guard to make sure you’re out there, with polar fleece blankets if it’s cold and sunscreen if it’s hot.”

–

Contact Stephanie Earls: 636-0364

(Photo credit: Linda Tanner)

by Jakob Barry

Spring and summer are the seasons when home water usage rises due to homeowners using more of it in the yard and garden. Nevertheless, an eye should always be turned towards water conservation because of the following:

• Freshwater resources aren’t as abundant as we think and generally don’t get replenished as fast as they’re tapped.
• Droughts have been experienced by large portions of the country in recent years making water reserves all the more precious.
• Conservation keeps water bills low.

That said consider some of the following ideas for more efficient water usage around the property in the coming months.

Low maintenance perennials

Some species of plants and vegetation need a lot of water to survive while others are low maintenance. A typical example is lawns and how some varieties can’t survive the sun’s rays without daily watering. A solution is to replace high maintenance grass with a species that needs less attention.

The same could be said for other high maintenance vegetation. They could be switched out for drought tolerant perennials, specifically those which grow regionally and do well within the local climate.

Drip irrigation

Whether decisions are made to change the landscaping or not a drip irrigation system can go a long way towards conserving water. Drip irrigation is based on the fact that most types of plant life only need small amounts of water to survive.

The basic system consists of perforated plastic tubing connected to a hose with the perforated parts placed in close proximity to the base of plants near roots. When turned on the system delivers water under low pressure to those areas with the water seeping out through the holes.

Years ago drip irrigation was mainly used in arid regions like Austin, Texas but landscapers from Newark to Atlantic City are familiar with the method.

NOTE: If you plan on setting up a drip irrigation system yourself be aware there are easy to assemble to more intricate versions so research which works best for you.

Hose vs watering can

Garden hoses are extremely useful for transporting water from one area of the yard to another without much effort, however, they aren’t efficient when it comes to watering. That’s because even on the lowest setting hoses usually have a strong stream which isn’t always easy to control.

That being the case, the best thing to do is use the hose as a means of bringing water a distance but spray into a watering can and feed from there. That way water can be directed towards roots more easily and less will be wasted.

Furthermore, early morning is usually the best time for feeding because the sun’s rays aren’t as strong and won’t dry moisture as quickly. Once the sun is high in the sky it may heat topsoil but the earth below will remain moist longer.

Mulch

Finally, something that goes hand in hand with watering is mulching. Mulch can be made from any number of organic substances such as bark, branches, leaves, and seaweed to name a few.

The ground around plants is covered with one or more of these blocking direct sun from contact with the soil. This allows the ground around roots to stay moist even longer keeping plants healthier and with less need of water again that day.

Jakob Barry is a green living journalist for Networx.com. Networx.com helps homeowners save time, money and frustration by connecting them with home improvement professionals. From roofers to carpentors to plumbing contractors, Networx simplifies the process of locating a reliable professional.

When weeds appear in the lawn and landscape, many homeowners turn to chemical weedkillers to take care of the problem. Herbicides (weedkillers) kill plants. That is what they are supposed to do. When used correctly, they can be an effective tool. When used improperly, they can damage desirable plants.

Before you reach for a weedkiller, here are some guidelines for using these chemical tools:

1. Read the label — the entire label — before using the product. Many of the “weed and feed” products or broadleaf weedkillers contain a combination of 2,4-D, MCPP and dicamba. Somewhere on the label of these products it will note that they should not be used in the root zone of “desirable trees and shrubs.” If you have a landscape with established shade trees, you will be applying these materials in the root zone of “desirable trees and shrubs.”

So what can you do if you have weeds and trees in your lawn? If you just have a few weeds here and there, don’t use an herbicide product over the entire lawn. Spot spray the individual weeds or dig them out. I like the “weed popper” tools like Fiskars Uproot Lawn and Garden Weeder or Grampa’s Weeder (grampasgardenware.com) that use leverage to pop out the weeds along with most of their roots. This avoids tedious back-breaking digging with a hand weeder.

2. If you’re not using a ready-to-use product in a spray bottle, it’s wise to use a separate garden sprayer for herbicide sprays. If a sprayer is not cleaned thoroughly, you can end up damaging your plants with a contaminated sprayer.

To clean a sprayer:

— If you can’t use all the material you have mixed, spray it somewhere in the landscape where it won’t harm plants. Check the label to determine what areas are safe. Do not store any mixed product in your sprayer.

— Check the product label for specific directions on how to clean the sprayer after using the product. If there are none, thoroughly rinse the tank, hoses, wand, nozzle and any other parts with water. Spray the rinse water over a wide area that will not cause damage. Don’t dump it on the ground or down the drain.

— After cleaning the sprayer when using 2,4-D or a similar herbicide, fill the tank with water and add ammonia (1/3 cup of ammonia per gallon of water). Allow it to soak for 24 hours, being sure that the ammonia solution is also run through the sprayer and all its parts before soaking. This will remove much, but not all, of the 2,4-D from the sprayer.

3. Damage to plants from weed killers can also be caused by drift that occurs when sprays are applied when it’s windy. It is hard to find a calm day in this region, but you should never apply herbicides when the wind speed is more than 15 mph. It’s best to wait until the wind is 5 mph or less. Also, the larger the droplet size, the less likely the material will drift off target.

— Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.

The news that UK wildlife is in trouble, with one in three species halving in number in the past half century, should galvanise us all to make our own patch of green as welcoming as possible to wildlife. It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but the 15m gardens in the UK cover 270,000 hectares, covering more space than all the National Nature Reserves in the UK. Here’s what to do to make your garden more wildlife-friendly:

Leaving garden debris in place helps creatures like hedgehogs find a place to hibernate. Photograph: Arterra Picture Library/Alamy

Don’t be a neat freak
Garden debris – dead leaves, plant stems and the like – provide all sorts of benefits for wildlife, from the lacewings and ladybirds that overwinter in hollow stems to the birds who gather this material for their nests and the hedgehogs who hibernate in dead leaves at the bottom of a hedge. One great way to incorporate dead material into your garden is what’s known as a “dead hedge”. Here’s how.

Get a pond, and your garden will be full of life. Photograph: Ashley Cooper/Corbis

Build a pond
A stretch of water – even a puddle a few centimetres deep made from an upturned dustbin lid – will entice plenty of wildlife into your garden, from dragonflies and bats to frogs and newts. But don’t add goldfish – they eat smaller animals and encourage algal blooms. There’s an excellent guide to making a wildlife pond on the Pond Conservation website.

A bee arrives at of a flowering crocus in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Choose plants for pollinators
Many plants bred in the past few years have done pollinating insects no favours: the fashion for elaborate double flowers that don’t allow bees access to pollen and nectar is a real blow to our falling pollinator population. But a resurgence in pollinator-friendly blooms is well under way. Try to buy plants from the RHS Plants for Pollinators list and concentrate on providing a long and uninterrupted season of flowers, from crocuses, single-flowered snowdrops and hellebores in winter, through to asters and anemones in autumn.

A blue tit emerging from nest box. Photograph: Peter Grimmett/Alamy

Give birds a place to stay
It’s easy to buy (or build) nest boxes suitable for almost every garden bird imaginable, from owls to robins and sparrows to housemartins. Take in the BTO’s advice on positioning boxes and remember it may take a while before you get any residents – one of my boxes has blue tits raising their brood it for the first time after a three-year wait.

A wildlife stack doesn’t have to be ugly. Photograph: Dawn Isaac

And don’t forget the insects
They’re aren’t as photogenic as birds, but without insects none of your fruit trees will be pollinated and the birds will have nothing to feed on. Insect hotels have become a popular purchase at the garden centre in the past few years, but often their impact is limited by their small size. If you have room, think about creating a wildlife stack instead, using old wooden pallets, roof tiles, scavenged bricks, bamboo canes and stones. You can make a surprisingly attractive garden feature this way – see garden designer’s Dawn Isaac’s guide to making wildlife stacks for more advice. And if you want to keep the insect population healthy, garden organically, avoiding the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and weedkillers which have been linked to pollinator decline.

Find out more
The tips above are just the start: there are hundreds of things you can do in your garden that will have a positive impact on wildlife. There is a wealth of information online and in print on wildlife gardening, but there’s no substitute for joining your local Wildlife Trusts group and learning from experts in your area. One of the best books is Wildlife Gardening for Everyone and the newly-published book by Kate Bradbury, The Wildlife Gardener.

Spring floods, summer droughts and temperature extremes take their toll on gardens and the gardeners who tend them. Help your gardens recover from the crazy temperature and moisture extremes that seem to occur each year.

Start by assessing the current condition of your landscape. Remove dead plants as soon as possible. They can harbor insect and disease organisms that can infest your healthy plantings. Consider replacing struggling plants with healthy plants better suited to the space, growing conditions and landscape design. You often achieve better results in less time by starting over rather than trying to nurse a sick plant back to health.

As always, select plants suited to the growing environment and that includes normal rainfall. Every season is different, but selecting plants suited to the average conditions will minimize the care needed and increase your odds for success. Roses, coneflowers, sedums and zinnias are just a few drought tolerant plants. Elderberry, ligularia, Siberian iris and marsh marigold are a few moisture tolerant plants.

Be prepared for worse case scenario. Install an irrigation system, such as the Snip-n-drip soaker system, in the garden. It allows you to apply water directly to the soil alongside plants. This means less water wasted to evaporation, wind and overhead watering. You’ll also reduce the risk of disease by keeping water off the plant leaves.

A properly installed and managed irrigation system will help save water. The convenience makes it easy to water thoroughly, encouraging deep roots, and only when needed. Turn the system on early in the day while you tend to other gardening and household chores. You’ll waste less water to evaporation and save time since the system does the watering for you.

Capture rainwater and use it to water container and in-ground gardens. Rain barrels and cisterns have long been used for this purpose and are experiencing renewed interest. Look for these features when buying or making your own rain barrel. Make sure the spigot is located close to the bottom so less water collects and stagnates. Select one that has a screen over the opening to keep out debris. And look for an overflow that directs the water into another barrel or away from the house.

Add a bit of paint to turn your rain barrel into a piece of art. Or tuck it behind some containers, shrubs or a decorative trellis. Just make sure it is easy to access.

Be sure to mulch trees and shrubs with shredded bark or woodchips to conserve moisture, suppress weeds and reduce competition from nearby grass. You’ll eliminate hand trimming while protecting trunks and stems from damaging weed whips and mowers.

Invigorate weather worn perennials with compost and an auger bit. Spread an inch of compost over the soil surface. Then use an auger bit, often used for planting bulbs, and drill the compost into the soil in open areas throughout the garden. You’ll help move the compost to the root zone of the plants and aerate the soil with this one activity.

A little advance planning and preparation can reduce your workload and increase your gardening enjoyment.

Gardening expert, TV host and author Melinda Myers’ website is www.melindamyers.com.

What is a kitchen garden? Let’s think of it as being a low-maintenance, no-till garden of containers or raised beds. How about a handy little vegetable garden that can always offer something fresh on hand for making salads, soups and stews all year long? With a bit of planning this is easily possible. Here are a few tips:

LET THERE BE LIGHT — Vegetables, especially winter and early spring crops, need at least six hours of light each day. While most cool-season vegetables and herbs tolerate coastal frosts, they will languish if there is not sufficient light.

PROVIDE ROOT SPACE — This means choosing wide, deep pots for container gardening. Containers should be 18-inches wide minimum, and at least as deep. With raised bed gardening, 8- to 12-inch tall beds are ideal. Place hardware cloth in the bottom of beds if gophers are in the vicinity.

FEED THE SOIL — Have on hand plenty of compost, composted manures, worm castings and a good slow-release organic fertilizer such as 4-4-4. Fall-planted vegetables destined for winter harvest will do best if additional amendments and nitrogen are added to the soil.

PROTECT — Slugs and snails are active all year long because of our mild coastal weather. Use an organic slug bait on a regular basis, especially winter and early spring. Cover young spring-planted starts with a row cover to protect from green spotted cucumber beetle.

TIME YOUR CROPS FOR CONTINUED HARVEST — Consider the following time table:

April-May: Plant beets, carrots, greens, green beans, shallots and herbs.

May-July: Plant green beans, summer squashes, greens and herbs.

August-October: Plant carrots, beets, leeks, greens and garlic.

October-December: Plant broccoli, Asian greens, shallots, leeks, kale and salad greens.

December-January: Still possible to plant broccoli, kale, Asian greens, but the weather is chilly and wet. Growth slows way down. Vegetables planted at this time will not grow much, but really take off come March.

February-March: Plant Asian greens, broccoli, carrots, leeks, shallots, lettuces and greens.

Remember: Time your crops, and feed the soil at each planting. Have on hand row cover to protect plants from hard freeze in late winter and pests in spring.

——

Terry Kramer is a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. If you have a question you’d like answered in this column, email it to style@times-standard.com and put “Question For Terry Kramer” in the subject line, or write to Terry Kramer/Lifestyle, Times-Standard, P.O. Box 3580, Eureka, CA, 95502.

The Bay Village Green Team hosted its Spring Green Garden Show at the Bay Village Community Garden from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 18.

The garden is at the corner of Wolf and Forestview roads.

A steady stream of attendees arrived on foot, bicycle and car throughout the day.

“It’s great,” organizer Warren Remein said of the turnout. “This is far beyond our wildest dreams. I hope to do this again.”

Various community organizations had booths and displays. Members of the Community Garden and the Bay Village Green Team were available to talk about their organizations. The Lake Erie Nature Science Center brought out animals for viewing. Refreshments were available, and various participants offered ideas to make gardens and homes more environmentally friendly.

Educational presentations were held throughout the day. Topics included small plot gardening, backyard composting, urban beekeeping and “green” landscaping.

Craft specialists provided crafts and games for children and adults, including information about making crafts from recycled materials.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health, which is participating in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, discussed the importance of soil and water conservation.

A silent auction offered a chance to go home with various “green” products and services. Proceeds benefited the Bay Village Green Team.

Volunteers with the Village Project, which provides meals to local cancer patients and their families, offered information on the group’s services and sold hand-painted vases made from old jars and filled with flowers as a fundraiser. It already distributes the vases with meals to its clients, garden coordinator Sherri Reilly said. The Village Project grows some of its own vegetables and flowers in the Community Garden.

Additional information about the Community Garden and the Green Team is available online at bayvillagegreenteam.com/garden.

See more Bay Village news at cleveland.com/bay-village.

216-986-6068

Twitter: @bgeiselman

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