From our Garden to Yours

February 18, 2010   

Not only is it time for veggie gardens, but it is also time to start bringing those flower gardens back to life. We are on the hunt for the hardiest color we can find, including strawflower (pictured), gaillardia and english wallflower. Come out to the nursery and see what's blooming now.

Happy Gardening,
Kim, Joey and Mark

In This Issue
Veggie Gardening

Upcoming Events

 

Vegetable Gardening

It's crunch time! Or at least it's time to get your veggie gardens started so that you can harvest fresh, crunchy vegetables this season. For the nitty gritty on how to grow your own vegetables, come out to our workshop this Saturday at 10am. To tantalize your taste buds, check out these veggies that you can start planting this time of year.

Collard Greens - Delicious, especially cooked with a little ham hock and molasses, collards are a cool-season vegetable, but are also the most heat tolerant of all the greens. Plant seeds or young plants now to extend your greens harvest into the early summer. Greens are a great crop, because you can harvest the mature leaves and allow the young ones to keep growing, for a long harvest period. Don't forget to try mustard and turnip greens too.



Radishes, Carrots & Beets - Add a little color to your salads with these crunchy root vegetables. If you are gardening with your kids and grandkids, radishes are fun because they are really easy to grow and the seeds germinate very quickly (often within a week). All of these veggies are cool-season crops, so sow seeds now for harvest before summer. 

Beans - A wide variety of beans can be grown in our area, and are a fun crop for early summer. From bush beans to pole beans, lima beans to black-eyed peas (cowpeas) there are lots of different types to choose from. For pole beans, you should build a small trellis structure to allow them to climb up, but you can also plant beans with corn and allow them to twine up the corn stalks, talk about making your garden efficient!



Melons - A fresh, juicy melon on a hot, summer day. Yummy! Plant watermelon and cantaloupe seeds now and watch these vining plants produce enormous melons. It's amazing what good soil, a little water, fertilizer and sunlight can do!




Tomatoes - are everyone's favorite. They are a warm season crop, and with all of the cold we've had, it's probably best to plant a little later this year. If you want to plant now, try some heirloom seeds, such as Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifter. They'll be some of the best tasting tomatoes you've ever had.

There are so many vegetables that you can plant, that it gets hard to choose which ones to plant. Make sure to plan your garden before you start planting to maximize the space, without overcrowding plants. In no time at all you'll have a table full of fresh vegetables, straight from your garden.

Upcoming Events
 

Workshop: Spring Vegetable Gardening
Saturday, February 20th at 10:00 am

Healthier, tastier vegetables are easy to grow, and in this workshop, you'll get all the information you need to get your vegetable garden going this spring. Also included is an Earthbox demo, showing you how to grow veggies, even with limited space.

Workshop: Vegetable Gardening II
Saturday, February 27th at 10:00 am

If you've attended our veggie workshops before then you already know how to grow healthy, happy vegetables. But if you've ever wanted to dig a little deeper into vegetable gardening, then this workshop is for you. We'll discuss organic gardening, composting, natural pest control and other vegetable gardening issues that will give your garden the best harvests ever this year.

Workshop: Hardy Landscaping
Saturday, March 6th at 10:00 am

Looking to freshen up your landscaping after winter? Look no further. We'll show you all of the hardy alternatives that you can use to make your garden beautiful all year long.

Kerby's Turns 30
Friday - Sunday, March 19 - 21

It's hard to believe that this year will be Kerby's 30th birthday. We're celebrating with a weekend-long birthday bash on the boardwalk. More information will be posted soon.

Workshop: Tropical Fruit Trees
Saturday, March 27th at 10:00 am

Juicy and delicious, there is nothing like picking fruit from a tree you've grown and eating it on the spot. Whether you like mangos or jakfruit, kiwi or papaya, or nance and custard apple, there is a fruit to fit every taste. After the workshop, you'll be able to sample some of the delicious fruits that can be grown in our area.

Hours
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Sunday,  9:00am - 4:00pm