IRON – The St. Louis County Extension Office’s Spring Gardening Extravaganza will be held at two St. Louis County locations on Saturday, Apr. 20: Hermantown High School from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. and the Clinton Community Center in Iron from 1 – 5 p.m. The cost of the program is $30 which includes program fee, reference materials for all sessions, coffee and refreshments.

Straw Bale Gardening will be the keynote presentation by Joel Karsten who grew up on a Minnesota farm and has received national recognition for this gardening technique. In addition, the program includes other new techniques for small space gardening such as lasagna gardening and using containers and raised beds. Bob Olen, St. Louis County horticulturist and educator will present materials on growing specialty crops such as asparagus and squash, along with a gardening season outlook.

The program also features University of Minnesota Master Gardeners from St. Louis County with displays and presentations on amazing succulents and bee friendly lawns and landscapes.

For more information and a brochure call St. Louis County Extension in Duluth at 218- 733-2870; Virginia office at 218-749-7120; or visit the web site www.stlouiscountymn.gov/ ext and click Garden and Lawn.

This program was developed in partnership with St. Louis County Extension, University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardeners in St. Louis County and Hermantown/ Proctor Community Education.

Published 3 Apr 2013 12:30


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• BREAKING NEWS: Caravans move onto site next to Jennett’s Park pub

RESIDENTS are invited to a ‘Vegetable Take and Grow’ event on Saturday.

The event, organised by Warfield Parish Council, will be held at Whitegrove Youth and Community Centre, next to Tesco Warfield, from 10.30am-noon.

Visitors will get the chance to take home free vegetable and herb seeds, seek advice on sowing and swap tips with other keen growers.

Refreshments and activities for children will also be available.

For more information, call the council on 01344 457777 or email clerk@warfieldparishcouncil.org.uk

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GREEN-FINGERED centenarian Ralph Hoare is taking to Twitter to share his horticultural tips.

The 104-year-old from Longlevens still enjoys his passion for growing vegetables and cultivating his 200 rose bushes.

1. ​

   Ralph Hoare, 104, with his great-granddaughter

2. ​

   Ralph as a baby with his mother

3. ​

   Ralph Hoare, 104, in his garden in Longlevens

Age certainly hasn’t held him back but he allows for his weak knees by using a hoe for weeding and a grabbing tool for picking up items from the ground. 

He also secures the help of his great-grandchildren, aged six and four, who he says are already proficient in deadheading his roses.

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Mr Hoare took up gardening in 1914 when he was himself aged six and has now decided to share almost a century of experience with the Twitter generation.

The former bank worker and RAF veteran – who cites gardening as the key to his long life – will answer questions posted with the hashtag #askralph.

Mr Hoare was identified as the UK’s oldest active gardener by retailer Furniture Village, which led a hunt for an expert to respond to the nation’s horticultural questions.

Mr Hoare said: “I have just sent off my order for my annuals.

“The seed potatoes are sprouting in the spare bedroom and I am waiting for some dry weather for the onion sets.

“The thought of my garden in bloom gives me the willpower to continue through the winter. Gardening keeps me on the move and my mind active.”

Born in Plymouth in 1908, Mr Hoare grew up in Devon where he remembers his earliest gardening experience of growing Japanese anemones.

He has kept the garden at his Longlevens home himself since the death of his wife Dorothy in 2007.

“She used to do all the weeding and I did the planting, pruning and digging,” he said.

The couple, married in 1940 at St John’s Church in Taunton, Somerset, had two children and Mr Hoare is now grandfather to six and great-grandfather to a further six children.

He said: “Now that my knees are not so good, I have to garden standing up and by asking other people to do things for me.”

Members of the public can put questions to Mr Hoare via the official Furniture Village Twitter account (@OfficialFV).

The Ag Guy

Posted: Monday, April 1, 2013 9:09 am
|


Updated: 12:23 pm, Mon Apr 1, 2013.

Gardening tips for April

By Ryan Sproul

Grove Sun – Delaware County Journal

Well we sure have got some nice rains over the last several days and hope this warmer weather is here to stay. It seems like everything is greening up and even some trees are trying to bud out. This month is planting time for our gardens and for this month’s column; I wanted to share some horticulture tips for April. Please let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me at 918-253-4332. Have a good week!!!

Fruit and Nut

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A green-fingered centenarian said to be Britain’s oldest gardener is taking to Twitter to share his horticultural tips. Ralph Hoare from Gloucestershire still enjoys his passion for growing vegetables and cultivating flowers at the age of 104.

The keeper of around 200 rose bushes said he compensates for his weak knees by using a hoe for weeding and a grabbing tool for picking up items from the ground. He also has the help of his great-grandchildren, aged six and four, who he says are already proficient in deadheading his roses.

Hoare took up gardening in 1914 when he himself was six and has now decided to share almost a century of experience with the Twitter generation. The former bank worker and RAF veteran, who cites gardening as the key to his long life, will answer questions posted with the hashtag #askralph over the coming months, in between tending to his garden and planning for his 105th birthday party in July.

Hoare said: “I have just sent off my order for my annuals.

“The seed potatoes are sprouting in the spare bedroom and I am waiting for some dry weather for the onion sets.

“The thought of my garden in bloom gives me the willpower to continue through the winter.

“Gardening keeps me on the move and my mind active.”

In my previous blog post, I shared the insights of Shenandoah Kepler on the lifelong beauty of gardening and gardens. Shenandoah, who in her late 60s writes the blog Fleeting Architecture, continues with practical advice on gardening with age — the timetable, the tools and more.

Why is gardening a year-round enterprise?

Gardening is my passion and, since I retired, it is my life. I know many other gardeners who share my passion and enthusiasm. Thinking about the next growing season is a year-round project. We wait for the seed catalogues that start arriving in January. We start seeds under lights in February. We plant peas and lettuce in March. We plant more seeds that will withstand occasional frosts in April. We put out tomatoes and melon seeds in mid to late May. And so on.

Perennial gardening never ends, either. I keep a notebook with what works (grows well), where and when it is at its peak in flowering, etc. We divide perennials in the early fall, plant divisions, order new plants via mail-order year round and shop nurseries the same. We move stuff that doesn’t work to see if they work somewhere else (before we ditch them altogether).

Then there is the constant weeding, mulching, trimming, composting.

We have had to modify the year-round effort since we started going to Florida (from Maryland) for three months each winter. We now go to the nurseries for annual packs for planting, rather than starting our own seeds, as soon as we get back in April. We go into the garden to start weeding as soon as we get back and sometimes have to call in help to get on top of the weeds since our recent winters have been so mild. We mulch as soon as we get back. Down in Florida, we garden all the time we are there.

How have you adapted your own gardens and gardening practices as you have gotten older?

• Hardscaping first: paving paths, widening paths, getting rid of steps
• Hiring out stuff that was keeping us from what we wanted to do in the garden
• Planning for aging — for example, shifting from perennials to bushes, naturalizing borders to reduce pruning, weeding and general upkeep
• Shifting from high-maintenance to low-maintenance plants, planting and maintenance in general
• Shifting discretionary funds from eating out and taking an occasional cruise to help with yard maintenance

What new things did making those changes open up for you?

• Time to blog about gardening and begin discussions with other suburbanite gardeners (additional socializing)
• Time to keep a better diary about what is working and what is not (organizing, planning, implementing)
• Time to meditate in the gardens and to just enjoy them both

What are your top three recommendations on garden layout for older gardeners?

1. Plan and implement for the future, even just one year in advance, taking notes on what is getting harder to do, less enjoyable to do and what you can do about reducing those things — not just the garden layout but its maintenance.
2. If just getting around is the issue, bring everything closer to you. I started a huge bowl of herbs on the back stoop outside my kitchen and it was a godsend for cooking and maintenance.
3. As I have mentioned earlier, how to get around your garden and how to garden (raised beds for example) are extremely important. Avoiding mistakes in the first place is a long- and short-term priority (see my blog for two posts on this subject).

What are your recommendations for tools for older gardeners?

There just aren’t enough older gardener friendly tools quite yet. There are some wonderful hand diggers, etc. But hand pruners need to be made easier for the arthritic. Ratchet pruners could be made easier to use. I still have to ask my husband to come in with his comparatively greater strength to do what is still light pruning, but the tools are not there for me yet.

Another set of tools are the motorized ones. More and more gasoline-motored tools (too heavy, too hard to start) are becoming easier with electric starts and alternative electric-powered tools, but they still aren’t there yet. And don’t get me started on the lack of garden vehicles for a gardener. There are tractors, zero-turn mowers and all-terrain vehicles, but none are built low enough to the ground for easy entry and very few can take attached motorized dump-and-carry carts to get around with tools, soil, compost, mulch and plants. It’s on my wish list.

Thank you, Shenandoah. Garden-tool manufacturers, take note!

Follow Rachel Adelson on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/@stayingpowerbk

In my previous blog post, I shared the insights of Shenandoah Kepler on the lifelong beauty of gardening and gardens. Shenandoah, who in her late 60s writes the blog Fleeting Architecture, continues with practical advice on gardening with age — the timetable, the tools and more.

Why is gardening a year-round enterprise?

Gardening is my passion and, since I retired, it is my life. I know many other gardeners who share my passion and enthusiasm. Thinking about the next growing season is a year-round project. We wait for the seed catalogues that start arriving in January. We start seeds under lights in February. We plant peas and lettuce in March. We plant more seeds that will withstand occasional frosts in April. We put out tomatoes and melon seeds in mid to late May. And so on.

Perennial gardening never ends, either. I keep a notebook with what works (grows well), where and when it is at its peak in flowering, etc. We divide perennials in the early fall, plant divisions, order new plants via mail-order year round and shop nurseries the same. We move stuff that doesn’t work to see if they work somewhere else (before we ditch them altogether).

Then there is the constant weeding, mulching, trimming, composting.

We have had to modify the year-round effort since we started going to Florida (from Maryland) for three months each winter. We now go to the nurseries for annual packs for planting, rather than starting our own seeds, as soon as we get back in April. We go into the garden to start weeding as soon as we get back and sometimes have to call in help to get on top of the weeds since our recent winters have been so mild. We mulch as soon as we get back. Down in Florida, we garden all the time we are there.

How have you adapted your own gardens and gardening practices as you have gotten older?

• Hardscaping first: paving paths, widening paths, getting rid of steps
• Hiring out stuff that was keeping us from what we wanted to do in the garden
• Planning for aging — for example, shifting from perennials to bushes, naturalizing borders to reduce pruning, weeding and general upkeep
• Shifting from high-maintenance to low-maintenance plants, planting and maintenance in general
• Shifting discretionary funds from eating out and taking an occasional cruise to help with yard maintenance

What new things did making those changes open up for you?

• Time to blog about gardening and begin discussions with other suburbanite gardeners (additional socializing)
• Time to keep a better diary about what is working and what is not (organizing, planning, implementing)
• Time to meditate in the gardens and to just enjoy them both

What are your top three recommendations on garden layout for older gardeners?

1. Plan and implement for the future, even just one year in advance, taking notes on what is getting harder to do, less enjoyable to do and what you can do about reducing those things — not just the garden layout but its maintenance.
2. If just getting around is the issue, bring everything closer to you. I started a huge bowl of herbs on the back stoop outside my kitchen and it was a godsend for cooking and maintenance.
3. As I have mentioned earlier, how to get around your garden and how to garden (raised beds for example) are extremely important. Avoiding mistakes in the first place is a long- and short-term priority (see my blog for two posts on this subject).

What are your recommendations for tools for older gardeners?

There just aren’t enough older gardener friendly tools quite yet. There are some wonderful hand diggers, etc. But hand pruners need to be made easier for the arthritic. Ratchet pruners could be made easier to use. I still have to ask my husband to come in with his comparatively greater strength to do what is still light pruning, but the tools are not there for me yet.

Another set of tools are the motorized ones. More and more gasoline-motored tools (too heavy, too hard to start) are becoming easier with electric starts and alternative electric-powered tools, but they still aren’t there yet. And don’t get me started on the lack of garden vehicles for a gardener. There are tractors, zero-turn mowers and all-terrain vehicles, but none are built low enough to the ground for easy entry and very few can take attached motorized dump-and-carry carts to get around with tools, soil, compost, mulch and plants. It’s on my wish list.

Thank you, Shenandoah. Garden-tool manufacturers, take note!

Follow Rachel Adelson on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/@stayingpowerbk

In my previous blog post, I shared the insights of Shenandoah Kepler on the lifelong beauty of gardening and gardens. Shenandoah, who in her late 60s writes the blog Fleeting Architecture, continues with practical advice on gardening with age — the timetable, the tools and more.

Why is gardening a year-round enterprise?

Gardening is my passion and, since I retired, it is my life. I know many other gardeners who share my passion and enthusiasm. Thinking about the next growing season is a year-round project. We wait for the seed catalogues that start arriving in January. We start seeds under lights in February. We plant peas and lettuce in March. We plant more seeds that will withstand occasional frosts in April. We put out tomatoes and melon seeds in mid to late May. And so on.

Perennial gardening never ends, either. I keep a notebook with what works (grows well), where and when it is at its peak in flowering, etc. We divide perennials in the early fall, plant divisions, order new plants via mail-order year round and shop nurseries the same. We move stuff that doesn’t work to see if they work somewhere else (before we ditch them altogether).

Then there is the constant weeding, mulching, trimming, composting.

We have had to modify the year-round effort since we started going to Florida (from Maryland) for three months each winter. We now go to the nurseries for annual packs for planting, rather than starting our own seeds, as soon as we get back in April. We go into the garden to start weeding as soon as we get back and sometimes have to call in help to get on top of the weeds since our recent winters have been so mild. We mulch as soon as we get back. Down in Florida, we garden all the time we are there.

How have you adapted your own gardens and gardening practices as you have gotten older?

• Hardscaping first: paving paths, widening paths, getting rid of steps
• Hiring out stuff that was keeping us from what we wanted to do in the garden
• Planning for aging — for example, shifting from perennials to bushes, naturalizing borders to reduce pruning, weeding and general upkeep
• Shifting from high-maintenance to low-maintenance plants, planting and maintenance in general
• Shifting discretionary funds from eating out and taking an occasional cruise to help with yard maintenance

What new things did making those changes open up for you?

• Time to blog about gardening and begin discussions with other suburbanite gardeners (additional socializing)
• Time to keep a better diary about what is working and what is not (organizing, planning, implementing)
• Time to meditate in the gardens and to just enjoy them both

What are your top three recommendations on garden layout for older gardeners?

1. Plan and implement for the future, even just one year in advance, taking notes on what is getting harder to do, less enjoyable to do and what you can do about reducing those things — not just the garden layout but its maintenance.
2. If just getting around is the issue, bring everything closer to you. I started a huge bowl of herbs on the back stoop outside my kitchen and it was a godsend for cooking and maintenance.
3. As I have mentioned earlier, how to get around your garden and how to garden (raised beds for example) are extremely important. Avoiding mistakes in the first place is a long- and short-term priority (see my blog for two posts on this subject).

What are your recommendations for tools for older gardeners?

There just aren’t enough older gardener friendly tools quite yet. There are some wonderful hand diggers, etc. But hand pruners need to be made easier for the arthritic. Ratchet pruners could be made easier to use. I still have to ask my husband to come in with his comparatively greater strength to do what is still light pruning, but the tools are not there for me yet.

Another set of tools are the motorized ones. More and more gasoline-motored tools (too heavy, too hard to start) are becoming easier with electric starts and alternative electric-powered tools, but they still aren’t there yet. And don’t get me started on the lack of garden vehicles for a gardener. There are tractors, zero-turn mowers and all-terrain vehicles, but none are built low enough to the ground for easy entry and very few can take attached motorized dump-and-carry carts to get around with tools, soil, compost, mulch and plants. It’s on my wish list.

Thank you, Shenandoah. Garden-tool manufacturers, take note!

Follow Rachel Adelson on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/@stayingpowerbk

View full size

For tomatoes to ripen don’t plant until soil gets warm or use some sort of protection, such as Walls o’ Water.
Kym Pokorny/The Oregonian

 

Edible gardening was the topic of an online chat I did Monday. We covered a lot of ground. Read the whole conversation for lots of info and tips.

Someone asked about whether I think Walls ‘o Water (plastic cones filled with that wrap around the plants) work. I am a fan. They’re relatively cheap (about $10 to $20 for a three-pack) and keep the young tomato plants toasty enough to grow before in-ground tomatoes do.

Here’s why we need them: Gardeners are dead set (me included) to get going on tomatoes as soon as there is a sunny period in spring. But tomatoes need soil to be 60 degrees before they’ll grow. If they’re planted when it is still chilly, the plants will just sit there and get stressed. Stressed plants will never fully recover and be stunted and more susceptible to diseases and pests.

Wall o’ Water and similar products protect young plants down to at least 28 degrees. Some people leave the “teepees” on all season. I don’t. I take mine off once the plant grows up and out of the top. More instructions are included with the Wall o’ Water, which is widely available at garden centers and online.

Audrey, who joined the online conversation, indicated she’s also had luck with Walls o’ Water and she also uses plastic bags wrapped around the tomato cage held on with clothespins.

— Kym Pokorny

 

Posted: Friday, March 29, 2013 11:07 am

Gardening Tips: Different ways to grow your vegetables

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

|
0 comments

With last week’s Square Foot Gardening Symposium still fresh on my brain, I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to grow vegetables other than traditional row gardens.

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