View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The Oregonian/2010Goodbye, mystery meat and mushy peas. Today’s Portland Public Schools students enjoy lunch items such as chicken nuggets made with white meat and whole-grain breading, watermelon, roasted carrots and black bean and corn salad. The milk is low-fat.Oct. 17 is Take Your Parents to Lunch Day, meant to “celebrate what’s great about school lunch — and learn how we can all work together to make it even better,” according to the event’s website. Sponsors include MyHealthySchool.com, Stonyfield Organic, Whole Kids Foundation (the charitable arm of Whole Foods Market) and Kiwi parenting magazine.

The event comes on the heels of new U.S. Department of Agriculture school meal regulations that are being implemented this school year — the first significant changes to school meals in 15 years, according to the department. The new regulations include offering both fruits and vegetables every school day, increasing whole-grain offerings, offering only fat-free or low-fat milk and reducing saturated fats, trans fats and sodium.

Some Oregon school lunch programs take extra steps. In Portland Public Schools, for example, students cannot get food on an a la carte basis but must buy complete meals, Shannon Stember, assistant director of nutrition services, said in an email.

Not all students eat school lunch, of course, and a sack lunch from home isn’t automatically a healthy lunch. In 2010, a British study of 1,300 sack lunches concluded that only1 percent of them would meet the standards set for school lunches. In 2011, a U.S. study found that nearly 99 percent of 705 sack lunches tested contained perishables that were not kept cool enough to be safely consumed.

The Omamas asked community members involved in school lunch to weigh in on the subject and to offer tips for improving school food.

View full sizeAbernethy Elementary SchoolNicole HoffmannNicole Hoffmann
Chef and garden educator
Abernethy Elementary School, Southeast Portland

The Abernethy Kitchen strives to serve nutrient-rich, local, handmade food for school breakfast and lunch as the demonstration kitchen for Portland Public Schools’ Nutrition Services. We embrace districtwide initiatives spun out of years of work at Abernethy, both in the kitchen and as part of our integrated Garden of Wonders program, which includes garden class as a pullout class much like music or PE. These initiatives include the Harvest of the Month program and extensive local procurement of produce and minimally processed, locally produced items like a vegetarian Three Bean Chili from Truitt Brothers in Salem.

Our students are adventurous, mindful, healthful eaters who get excited about Brussels sprouts and kale and take recipes home to make with their families. Parents often email me that their child asked for asparagus for their birthday dinner or that they chose Brussels sprouts at the supermarket. Smart food choices are especially reflected in the lunches of our upper-grade kids, who heap salads on over half of their lunch trays to complete their meal.

We engage the community by sending home salad dressing and roasted vegetable recipes. Roasted vegetables are always a hit. When we serve roasted broccoli or cauliflower, the kids eat four times as much as when we serve them raw. Lightly dressing vegetables or beans (garbanzos are a favorite here) with an herb and lemon vinaigrette is a nice change of pace.

We host cooking and gardening camps in the summer and find that if kids participate in growing, harvesting and cooking food, they become much more adventurous eaters. In fact, camp favorites include sushi, Indian curries with chutneys, and Mexican, including homemade tortillas, arepas (corn cakes) and a variety of salsas.

View full sizeCourtesy of Megan KempleMegan KempleMegan Kemple
Farm to School Program Director, Willamette Farm and Food Coalition
Oregon State Lead, National Farm to School Network

Farm to School and school garden programs are great ways to engage kids in fun, hands-on activities that help educate them about where their food comes from and how it’s grown while inspiring them to make healthy food choices.

Farm to School programs include activities such as farm field trips, cooking with food from local farms, tasting tables, school garden sessions and the incorporation of local food into school meals and snacks. There are successful Farm to School programs throughout Oregon: farmtoschool.org/or/programs.htm.

Oregon is fortunate to have a Farm to School/School Garden Coordinator within the Oregon Department of Education and a Farm to School Program Manager within the Oregon Department of Agriculture. And Oregon’s Farm to School and School Garden Network actively support farm to school initiatives and policy action, and include state agencies, food service directors, farmers, teachers, parents, school gardeners and community-based organizations. There are over 170 members in communities throughout Oregon.

Here are some simple first steps to develop a Farm to School program: Assess where you’d like to be, such as procurement of local foods to be served in school. Form a team and collaborate. Establish one or two attainable goals, such as identifying menu items that you would like to transition to local products.

If you are interested in implementing or supporting farm to school activities in your child’s school or school district, there are resources to help you get started. You can visit farmtoschool.org and/or contact me at mkemple@lanefood.org or 541-344-4329.

View full sizeKaiser PermanenteMolly HaynesMolly Haynes

Manager, Community Health Initiatives, Kaiser Permanente
Registered dietitian and mom

School meals offer students fruits, vegetables, protein, grains and milk, with strict limits on saturated fat and portion size. They are designed to get kids following the same healthy eating tips that are part of the dietary guidelines for people of all ages. Here are some highlights:
Make half your plate fruits and vegetables: Include high-nutrient green/red/orange vegetables, not just starchy vegetables like potatoes.
Make half your grains whole grains: Portland Public Schools uses mostly 100 percent whole wheat buns/rolls and brown rice.
Choose low-fat and nonfat dairy: This helps limit saturated fat.

Parents can help their kids make wise choices in the lunch line by reviewing the school menu and encouraging kids to try new foods. We also encourage parents to join their child in the cafeteria for a lunch date once in a while.

School meals are a critical program in addressing food insecurity. About half of the students in Oregon qualify to receive free or reduced-priced meals. This provides vulnerable children with a healthy meal and frees up resources for their families to meet other important needs. Research shows that school meals are nutritionally superior to most lunches sent from home due to having more fruits and vegetables. Many schools now have salad bars where kids have unlimited access to fruits and vegetables.

View full sizeCourtesy of Sarah MathenySarah MathenySarah Matheny
Vegan blogger, peasandthankyou.com
Author, “Peas Thank You” vegan cookbook
Keizer mom

I am a lunch packer — every day. I like to make sure my kiddos are getting nutritious food that they like but that also gives them a special boost in the middle of their school day. Don’t misconstrue this daily packing as being something I look forward to. But packing lunches is like a Band-Aid — you’ve got to just pull it right off. This means as soon as I empty the lunchbox for one day, I fill it right back up.

I like to balance a main dish (which is often, but not always, a sandwich) with a fruit (my girls love berries or unsweetened applesauce with a dash of cinnamon), a vegetable (carrot sticks and baby tomatoes are favorites), something salty (like whole-grain pretzels or rice cakes) and a sweet treat (homemade snack bars or a square of chocolate). Sometimes we go totally off the beaten path, with one of my recipe creations. We don’t do juice boxes or milk cartons — my kids each picked out a special water bottle at the beginning of the year and that keeps them happy with water every day. You can save money and give your kids healthy options if you just limit the snack packs and other processed foods.

View full sizeCourtesy of Marci HartsonOwen HartsonOwen Hartson
Sixth-grader, North Clackamas School District

The reason I like hot lunch is that you get to have options. It also lightens up your backpack when you don’t have to pack your lunch. I like the salad bar and sandwich bar. You get to choose what you put on your own sandwich.

I also like the tater tots and the pizza. The reason is that the pizza is really cheesy and the tater tots taste really good in ketchup.

I have a few suggestions about how to make hot lunch better. A few of the foods that I like that aren’t on the menu are steak and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You can also add some more types of pizza and add some more things to add on to the sandwich bar like cucumbers and pickles. Another thing is that you could add berries and more fruits like pears and peaches to the salad bar.

Resources

Oregon Farm to School: Network of 53 Oregon schools that participate in programs matching farmers with school cafeterias. 541-344-4329.

Oregon Action for Healthy Kids: State chapter of the national nonprofit Action for Healthy Kids, which fights childhood obesity by helping schools become healthier places. The website includes a nutrition education page with numerous informational links.

TrayTalk.org: Website run by the School Nutrition Association, a national, nonprofit professional organization

– Amy Wang; on Twitter
The Omamas: omamas@oregonian.com; on Twitter; on Facebook

October is the month for several important gardening chores. Here’s a rundown:

Clean garden beds in preparation for winter. Many insects and diseases winter-over in fallen debris. Prune diseased leaves from roses, camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas. But leave leaf litter under oaks, pine and junipers, since the leaf duff helps protect the roots.

Add a mulch layer to existing garden beds to provided needed nutrients for next year’s crops. However, don’t practice wall-to-wall mulching; it’s important to leave areas of exposed native soil for ground-nesting bees.

Trim perennials such as salvias, penstemons, yarrow and buddleia (butterfly bush) to between half to one-third their existing size to stimulate new growth in the spring.

Harvest persimmons by cutting, rather than pulling, the fruit to avoid damaging the tree. Harvest Fuyu persimmons when firm and crisp; wait to harvest the Hachiya variety until fruit is soft.

Chill tulip bulbs now (place them in the refrigerator, not the freezer) so they will be ready for planting before the first frost. These bulbs need about six to eight weeks of chilling time before planting. But avoid storing your bulbs near apples, since apples emit ethylene gas, which will cause the bulbs to sprout prematurely.

Sow native wildflowers. Poppies, clarkias, lupines and blue-eyed Marys are easy to start from seed. Planting just before the winter rains

start will prevent the need for watering.

(For our complete list of October gardening tips, go to www.mastergardeners.org/tips/october.html.)

What to plant now

Local nurseries should have a good supply of most of the following for transplanting: arugula, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, chives, fava beans, garlic, kale, lettuce, mustard, onions, parsley, peas, potatoes, spinach and Swiss chard.

October also is the time for the following seeds: arugula, fava beans, garlic, kale, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and spinach.

(To find a list of cool-season vegetables that do well in Santa Clara County, go to http://mastergardeners.org/picks/cool.html or call the hotline.)

The Santa Clara County Master Gardener Program is a University of California Cooperative Extension volunteer organization dedicated to providing research-based gardening information to home gardeners. Have a question for Rebecca Jepsen and the other Master Gardeners? Call the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener hotline in San Jose at 408-282-3105 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Visit the Master Gardeners website at www.mastergardeners.org.

Description:

Midi-Pyrenees Feature : October Gardening in South West France

In his second article on gardening in South West France, Gary McArthur gives some gardening tips and ideas of what gardening jobs need to be done during October.  Future articles will appear on the first Monday of each month, giving tips and advice for the coming few weeks.

It is now an excellent time to plant bulbs in the garden, which could be planted along with some low growing hardy annual seeds for extra spring colour.

 

October Garden in South West France

Due to the diverse climate here in the South West, it is difficult to give any sure advice on Dahlias and Cannas (and Gladioli), but after the first hard frost, these plants will need attention.  Once frosted and brown they should be lifted and dried, (turned upside down for a week or so in a dark barn or shed), then stored somewhere dark, cool, dry and frost free for the winter. 

 

Alternatively they can be left in the ground (provided it never gets waterlogged) and buried in a deep layer of mulch or compost.  I have a bed of Canna musifolia, a tall 2-3m variety which now cover over 3 metres of ground so would be impossible to dig up.  Each year, I bury all of them with a cubic metre of compost which really seems to help root development and keeps them producing several hundred flowers a year.  Dahlias are perhaps the most at risk of frost damage.  They do after all come from Mexico (first introduced by the way because of their edible roots, not the flowers).

 

Continue to clean herbaceous plants and mulch the ground well.  Although our soils are quite fertile, mulching will supply valuable bacteria which will in turn allow the plants to feed.

 

It is now the very start of the tree and shrub planting season.  After the recent light rains, the soil is easier to work, and by planting before the winter, plants have a chance of getting roots established, before the long hot summer.

 

It’s the best time of year to start work on Compost heaps.  Old heaps can be turned, and new heaps sited and constructed. Most of us have so much garden waste that a compost heap becomes a real asset for both a convenient site to dump all the leaf litter and dead foliage but of course primarily to create dark usable compost. It is difficult to sum up construction of a heap in a few lines but remember first and foremost that compost only works with lots of air, water and nitrogen. Therefore old pallets or an open wood construction would be better.  If it doesn’t rain it is advisable to water the heap regularly.  Adding a nitrogen rich fertiliser will help the process, as well as peeing on the heap regularly, (this will create more bacteria creating compost faster).  Provided there are no large tree branches the compost can be ready for use in one or two months.

Other jobs in the garden

 

• Pumpkins and squashes will soon need cutting and storing. Try to cut leaving a stork and a few centimetres of foliage as this will help stop them rotting. Store on wood above the ground in a cool, dark, dry place.
• Herbs can be cut and bunches simply tied and hung up in the kitchen to dry.
• Lawns should be cut and after a week fed for the winter. If you are really keen its a good time to tine the lawn either with a fork or a small machine.
• Tender plants should be cut back and brought in for the winter.
• Peas, spinach and radish can be sown in the vegetable garden.

 

 

If you have any gardening questions for Gary, then feel free to post them in our gardening forum

 

 

Gary McArthur

Gary has a HND in Amenity Horticulture, a BSc (honours) Degree in Landscape Management and over 30 years of practical experience in the Horticultural trade. 

 

Gary owns and runs Kingdom Vegetal garden centre with his wife Nikki

 

For all your gardening needs, visit Kingdom Vegetal in Boulogne sur Gesse or take a look at the Kingdom Vegetal information page.

 

 

 

 

 

Like this story? Why not use our RSS feed and receive updates as soon as they are posted? Or join us as a member and receive a monthly newsletter.

 

Check out Guide2MidiPyrenees for Property in Midi-Pyrenees, Events, News, Classifieds, Places to Stay, Midi-Pyrenees Attractions and Business Directory.

 

 

              

 

Apparently what was apparent to many scientists and researchers back in 2008 is becoming more apparent — or not.

Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder has been raising hackles and eyebrows for the better part of the last decade. Colony Collapse, characterized by the sudden disappearance of most of the adult bees in a colony, began making real headlines around 2006. And not long after, one particular class of pesticides — neonicotinoids — became a prime suspect.

George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week: Prime Time to Fix the Lawn
Early fall is the absolute best time of year to patch bare spots in the lawn and to overseed those thin spots that took a beating in summer’s heat. George Weigel shows you how to make those repairs in this week’s garden tip of the week video.
Video By: Christine Baker, The Patriot-News
Watch video

October is the perfect time to repair and re-seed a thin or dead lawn, but it takes a little more work than seeding alone to get the most out of your lawn in the spring.

George Weigel outlines simple steps to get the most out of your lawn seeding work and what types of seed could be right for you in his latest Garden Tip of the Week video.

For more garden tips, check out the links below.

• How do I keep mosquitoes out of a new water garden?
• Is it too late to prune azaleas?
• How do I keep herbs from dying after trimming?
• Can I cut back a straggly lilac to make it look fuller?
• Check out more gardening tips and tricks »

Look for George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week each Thursday. George Weigel is the garden writer for the Patriot-News and also owner of a garden-consulting business for do-it-yourselfers, garden-tour host, frequent garden speaker, Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist and certified gardening nut.

Dig in get growing

5 easy ways to landscape this fall

View full sizeMums are an ideal choice to brighten containers or flowerbeds in fall.Fall is an excellent time of the year to garden because the climate is favorable for plants (and the gardener). Salter offers the following suggestions for getting started.

1. Color your yard.

If you want instant color, mums are a great choice. They offer an easy pop of color in an urn or in flowerbeds.
Make sure to buy locally grown mums that will last through the season. The best mums for this area become available in mid-September and last until Thanksgiving. Mums sold in August and early September are likely to perish due to the region’s excessive heat.
While mums are available in shades of white, maroon, orange, yellow, lavender and pink, other plants may be used as colorful accents. A few include dianthus, cabbage, kale and a variety of mustards.

2. Stock your kitchen.

Fall is a favorable time to plant vegetables along the Gulf Coast. Try cabbage, collards, cauliflower, celery, Brussels sprouts, turnips, spinach and onion sets, which flourish in our autumn weather.
This is also the best time of year to plant fruit trees such as pears, plums, apples, peach, blueberries and figs.

3. Launch your landscape.

Cooler weather and regular rainfall make autumn ideal for planting trees, shrubs and many perennials in our area. Before you start, have a game plan of how much you would like to spend.
Consider whether you want to do the construction yourself or hire a landscape design professional. Then plan your project in stages. Start with the larger plants, such as trees and shrubs, then work your way down to small shrubs, perennials and grasses. Finally, add in bulbs, annuals or border plants.

4. Add sizzle to small spaces.

If you have a small yard or patio, try container gardening. You can plant flowers, herbs and veggies. Or install a small fountain or koi pond to create your own private oasis.

5. Incorporate yard art.

Whether it’s a personalized design, a seasonal scene or the Stars and Stripes, a flag is a great addition to a flowerbed. Concrete yard art – such as a lion, elephant, or bird – will also add character to your landscape.

The calendar has rolled around to October. The temperatures are getting cooler and soon it will be time to start putting our gardens to bed for the winter.

I know that some of you are relatively new gardeners. You may not have given much thought to the need to clean up your gardens before winter sets in. However, cleaning up is an important part of gardening. Cleaning up your planters is necessary too. Let me tell you why.

It was the summer of fungus diseases for many gardeners. The first few days of June brought rain and fog. This constant exposure to moisture on the leaves of plants created an ideal environment for plant diseases. Fungus diseases plagued gardeners all through the summer. The diseased leaves developed spores, which are the “eggs” of fungus diseases.

The spores will spend the winter on plant debris that is left in the garden or in your planters. In the spring, when new growth begins in your gardens, or shortly after you plant, spring rain or the watering, will cause the spores to splash up onto the new growth. The spores start to grow, and you are off and running with new fungus diseases.

Leaving any plant debris in the garden or failing to clean out those containers is an open invitation for fungus diseases to take root over the winter.

If you have a compost pile that will heat up enough to destroy the spores, you can put diseased plant material in it. However, since many compost piles do not get hot enough, it is always best to get rid of the diseased materials. I know that this goes against much of the solid waste disposal requirements, but when it comes to diseased plants, I think it is the best option.

If you have enough land that is away from your gardens, you could always dig a hole and bury the diseased material. Either way, don’t let it sit in your gardens or remain in your planters.

Some of you with large vegetable gardens may wish to rototill this fall. It might be tempting to till in all the dead plants. After all, this is similar to burying the plants. This is not a good idea. The spores will live in the soil and they will be there in the spring to infect your plants. Get rid of them.

Plant debris can become a home for wintering insects. In the fall, many of those insects will lay eggs, and come the spring, the eggs hatch and a new generation of insects will have arrived in your garden. This fall when you are raking up the leaves to take to the leaf dump, add your plant debris and send those diseases on their way.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

—

Tim Lamprey is the owner of Harbor Garden Center on Route 1 in Salisbury. His website is www.Harborgardens.com. Do you have questions for Tim? Send them to ndn@newburyportnews.com, and he will answer them in upcoming columns.

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CORPUS CHRISTI —
Divide spring-flowering perennials such as irises, Shasta daisies, gaillardias, cannas, day lilies, violets, liriope and ajuga. Reset divisions into well prepared soil with generous amounts of organic material worked into the top 8 to 10 inches.

Pat Botkin

GARDEN TALKS AT GILL: Gill Landscape Nursery, 2810 Airline Road, will host the fall 2012 garden talks beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday: growing and using herbs with Mary Dunford; Oct. 6: 10 a.m., organic gardening with Andy Chidester; Oct. 13:10 a.m., container gardening with Merlien Wilder. Information: 992-9674.

PLANT SALE: Aransas/San Patricio Master Gardeners will have a fall plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the AM AgriLife Extension Service, 892 Airport Road, Rockport. Information: 361-790-0103.

WINTER VEGETABLES: Carol Krank will discuss “Winter Vegetables” at 2 p.m. Sunday at Turner’s Gardenland, 6503 S. Padre Island Drive. Free. Information: 991-9002.

ORCHID SOCIETY: South Texas Orchid Society meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greely Drive. Weyman Bussey will discuss “Showy Mexican Orchid Species: Where They Come From and Grow.” Free. Information: 361-364-3425.

CACTI/SUCCULENT: Coastal Bend Cacti Succulent Society meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greely Drive. Johnny Smolik will discuss the proper soil mixture for growing cactuses and other succulents. Free. Information: 361-592-1538.

ROSE SOCIETY: American Rose Society consulting rosarians will present “Making Beautiful Arrangements with Roses” at the Rose Society meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Garden Senior Center, 5325 Greeley. Free. Information: 853-7554.

GARDEN HABITS: Earl Matthew will discuss “Healthy Garden Habits and Unseen Critters to Know — Microbe Dangers in the Garden” at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 6 at the Aransas AM AgriLife Extension Service, 892 Airport Road, Rockport. Information: 361-790-0103.

HERBS IN SOUTH TEXAS: The seminar “Growing Herbs in South Texas” is from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 6 at the South Texas Botanical Gardens Nature Center, 8545 S. Staples St. Nueces Master Gardener and Turner’s Gardenland certified nursery professional Carol Krank reveals her recommended herb varieties and growing tips for successful herb gardening and harvesting. Cost: $8. Information: 852-2100.

GROWING HERBS: Carol Krank will discuss “Growing Herbs in South Texas” at 2 p.m. Oct. 7 at Turner’s Gardenland, 6503 S. Padre Island Drive. Free. Information: 991-9002.

BAY GARDENS: The Corpus Christi Area Garden Council Inc. will host the fall garden tour, “Gardens Around the Bay” from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 21. Tickets are $10 and are available at Turner’s Gardenland, Gill Landscape Nursery, Green’s and Thing’s and garden club members. Three gardens in Corpus Christi and two in Portland will be featured, plus admission to South Texas Botanical Gardens Nature Center. Information: 991-5375 or bwhitt33@swbell.net

GARDEN CLUB: First Presbyterian Church Garden Club meets at 9:45 a.m. in Kleberg Hall, 430 S. Carancahua St. Meetings are open to members and nonmembers. Oct. 23: Don and Rhoda Poenisch, Native Plant Society, “Easy to Grow Native Plants”; Nov. 27: Carol Krank, Turner’s Gardenland, “Butterfly Gardens”; Jan. 22: Michael Womack, “Best Shade Trees for Corpus Christi”; Feb. 26: Kathy Hubner, Gill’s Nursery, “Plants for Shady Areas”; March 26: Susan Matthews, “Preparing the Easter Cross”; May 28: Induction of officers and salad luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Information: 884-4057.

If you want to speak with a master gardener, contact the help desk at the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Nueces County, by calling 767-5250, or post questions and/or comments at mpotterhort.blogspot.com/.

ASK THE GARDEN PRO

Q: I have some shrubs and a few small trees that have dead branches around the top, but there are still green leaves closer to the main trunk. Should I cut these branches off and can that be done now?

A: Tip dieback is common problem with trees after drought. It is recommended to remove dead branches from trees and shrubs, because dead wood can be a harbor for some wood-feeding insects. It also will provide space for new growth to develop. Just make sure you use sharp lopping pruners to make clean cuts. Don’t just try to break off dead branches.

Shrubs can be cut back some in early fall, especially if you have some dead branches or tall leggy stems. Just be careful not to severely cut back tropical plant like hibiscus and bougainvillea right now. It is better to wait until spring for major pruning on these freeze-sensitive plants.

Michael Womack is a horticulturist and executive director of the South Texas Botanical Gardens Nature Center. Contact him at wmwomack@gmail.com.

George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week: Put Away the Pruners
You might be inclined to do a lot of pruning now since late-season is when plants often look overgrown. Trouble is, fall is the worst time to prune most trees, shrubs and evergreens. Here’s why…
Video by: Christine Baker, The Patriot-News
Watch video

You might be inclined to do a lot of pruning now since late-season is when plants often look overgrown.

Trouble is, fall is the worst time to prune most trees, shrubs and evergreens. George Weigel explains the reasons why this is and what time is right to prune your plants in his latest garden tip of the week video.

For more garden tips, check out the links below.

• How much should I prune obedient plants before moving them?
• Which comes first, the weed control or the grass?
• Any good vines with blue or purple flowers?
• Are SunPatiens a good alternative to regular impatiens?
• Check out more gardening tips and tricks »

Look for George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week each Thursday. George Weigel is the garden writer for the Patriot-News and also owner of a garden-consulting business for do-it-yourselfers, garden-tour host, frequent garden speaker, Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist and certified gardening nut.