National Garden Tour Ideas!

If you are into gardens, and like to travel, you might especially enjoy this post. Here are some gardens that have been featured on some of the gardening shows I TiVo:

http://www.dunawaygardens.com/home.html Dunaway Gardens is owned by a couple who bought the Kudzu covered lands and completely restored and renovated the lands. It is gorgeous. Tons of people seem to get married there, but the only neat photos I could find are from the older version of the garden.

http://www.meijergardens.org/ The Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan looks amazing. Great place for kids. Great place to see art. Beautiful grounds...I am definitely going to visit someday!

http://www.callawaygardens.com/ Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia, seems to have something for everyone-golf, gardens, spa, resort, nature, etc.

http://www.longwoodgardens.org/default.html Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania have "1,050 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows, over 11,000 types of plants, more fountains than any other garden in the US, educational and visitor programming, and over 400 performances a year."

Garden Tour

In order to better plan the Sycamore Hills Community Garden, we went on a garden tour today to check out what has been done in other gardens. Here are some images:

Sycamore Hills Park (5540 Rockport Blvd): the most likely site for our community garden.

Weinland Park/Godman Guild (303 East Sixth Avenue, 43201): a community garden that incorporates art, signage, water collection, tool shed, different kinds of raised beds, compost piles, flowers and veggies, community and individual plots, and teens.

Next door Weinland Garden Club.

Krumm Park (854 Alton Avenue, 43219): a community garden in a city park.
Garden of Freedom and New Freedom (Mound and Carpenter, 43205) and Garden of Communion (Bryden and Ohio): three gardens are part of the Four Seasons City Farms project and have been active for a number of years; they provide interesting examples of structure, design, and layout.
Christ the King (2777 E. Livingston Ave, 43209-3039): beautiful church based community garden that supplies their food pantry. Beds are clearly defined and made of different materials, the fence and signage are nice, and flowers are incorporated into the border.

Great Business Idea!

I found this video on Groovy Green. This is an amazing business idea:

It seems that they rent unused land from homeowners to grow the food for their CSA, but the idea of being paid to set up and support local community gardens and household food gardens is a great idea, too. People usually enjoy picking the food, but they might not know how or want to spend the time building the soil, supporting the new growth, treating problems, etc. It might be really fun and quite lucrative to travel around the city supporting gardens this way; especially because food prices are so high and people seem to be turning as a whole towards doing-it-yourself and getting-back-to-basics.

Honey Taste Test

I took a honey taste test here at home and I discovered that there is a HUGE difference in the way honey tastes depending on where the bees collected their pollen.

I used honey from the desert in SW USA and Northern Mexico, Orange Blossoms-distributed by Deer Creek in London, OH, and Clover from PA. If you have bees and/or you enjoy honey, you should try it at home!

I always see bees on my garlic, and onions, I wonder if that makes a difference in the taste?!

Price Check!

Sheesh.

I just bought some groceries and K-roger and I was suprised by their cost, especially since these were all things I have grown (or attempted to grow) in my garden this summer. I will be doing another price check during the spring and summer next year to see how the prices compare.

acorn squash 1.60

beets (3) 2.79

bell pepper 1.69

cucumber 1.00

spinach 3.99

arugula 3.99

sweet potatoes (2) 2.58

Obama and the Farm Bill

OBAMA AND BIDEN: TACKLING DOMESTIC HUNGER

"We've got rising food prices here in the United States. My top priority is making sure that people are able to get enough to eat." Senator Obama [Meet The Press, 5/4/08]

When he was a child, Barack Obama’s mother briefly received food stamps to put food on the table when she needed help. As a result, Barack Obama understands firsthand that federal nutrition and food assistance programs play a key role in minimizing the ill-effects of poverty and improving the diets of low-income working families, especially children. Barack Obama will strengthen and expand nutrition assistance programs and commit to ending childhood hunger by 2015.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden recognize that with rising food prices, existing benefits and programs are not enough to provide a healthy meal. Too many of our fellow citizens - over 35.5 million Americans, including 12.6 million children - face a constant struggle against hunger. For that reason, they supported provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill that improved the Food Stamp Program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program/SNAP)and strengthened other nutrition programs, such as increasing funding for emergency food assistance and improving the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in schools with significant numbers of low-income
children.

Improving and expanding federal food assistance and nutrition programs will also be a key component of.....click on the title to read more about our SOON TO BE PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FARM BILL PLAN!

See you next Tuesday!

Potato Tower Yield LOW!

How many potatoes do you count in this photo? If you counted 12, you are correct.

12 potatoes is the yield I got from my potato tower!!!!

Sadly, this is not a joke, nor a humble underestimate of my success. I pulled up my tower today giddy with anticipation. As the dirt escaped from the bottom, I envisioned pounds and pounds of potatoes covering my feet. I kept thinking, any moment now...any moment now..

...but that moment never came! IT NEVER CAME!

I was actually so sure of my future success that over the past few weeks I have been researching potato storage methods, new recipes, etc. Why did I do this? Because I knew that no ordinary human could actually consume the number of potatoes I created.

All of this mental anguish...not necessary. The potato tower gave me 12 potatoes. SO why did the tower not live up to its promise? 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 square feet? Ha! My plants were vigorous all summer. I didn't water then very often because it didn't need it. The soil I added was compost, peat moss, and potting mix. I had to constantly keep adding more dirt and boards to the potato tower. The plants died at the end of the season as normal. I did wait a while to harvest, but I don't think that caused any problems. So I have no solutions. I don't know what went wrong. The only thing I can think of is that there were not enough flowers or flowering action going on.

I just don't know!

Hippeastrum

When I think of winter, growing Amaryllis bulbs is one of the traditions in our family that I truly look forward to. The bulbs are giant and seem to instantly sprout, giving an impressive bloom. It is also a great activity for kids to teach about bulbs and offers almost immediate gratification. They are lovely as gifts and for me create a sense of tropical in the midst of our Ohio Winters. I LOVE AMARYLLIS BULBS! I found this site that details the bulbs history....

Amaryllis: elegant, sensual, and mysterious. A tender tropical plant, the amaryllis bursts into magisterial flower from an oversized bulb.

The virtues of amaryllis are many. To begin with, it is easy to grow. No coddling the first year is necessary, and it does not demand a faux winter in the refrigerator, as do crocus, hyacinth, and tulip. When you purchase your dynamo bulb, whether from the local garden center or from a mail-order nursery, it contains all the resources, energy, and determination to flower-almost no matter what you do. The bulb farm will have pushed, or "forced," your bulb into a state of readiness. The flower bud already resides inside its round belly. All you have to do is give it light and a little water; it is cued to perform.

No wonder, then, that this illustrious bulb has had a remarkable, if sometimes elusive, history....read more... http://www.gardenguides.com/books/amaryllisexc.asp

The Greener Grocer keeping it fresh year round...

The Greener Grocer Weekly Fresh Market Bag

In the summer of 2008, The Greener Grocer, located in the historic North Market and owned by Local Matters, launched our “Urban Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)”, a program that offered a weekly bag of fresh, nutritious produce purchased from local farms. Many of our original participants expressed gratitude about how this program helped propel them back into the kitchen, allowed them to be more connected to the source of their food and created either a new or renewed appreciation of cooking and gathering!

To build upon this success, and to provide an “uninterrupted” service to our guests, The Greener Grocer is creating a new and expanded version of this program that we are calling our “Weekly Fresh Market Bag”. Under this new program, we will offer a summer and winter sign-up opportunity, with each season operating for 26 weeks. During the summer season, we will offer only fresh, seasonal produce from local farms. In the winter season, we will offer local produce when we can and supplement these offerings with organic produce, seasonal citrus and other fruits as well as local, dried beans, locally milled flour and perhaps even some cheese or Snowville Creamery Milk! (Vegan Option is Available)

Our goal is to provide delicious, local and/or seasonal items each week on a year-round basis and provide a one-stop shopping opportunity for you!

The cost of a share for each of the seasons will be $780.00/person/per season which translates to only $30 per week! The Winter season will run from mid-November through the end of March and the Summer season will continue from the end of March until mid-November. For each season, you will have the option of paying in full or utilizing the following payment plan:
• $180 due by the first day of the new season followed by four equal, quarterly payments of $150 each (you can join at any point in a season and pay a “prorated” amount for the remainder of that season)

Currently there are 2 sites where you can pick up your weekly GG Weekly Market Bag:
• Clintonville-Beechwold Resource Center
• The Greener Grocer at the North Market

The Greener Grocer can deliver to your work site if 10 or more employees sign up!

We will continue to donate two bags of fresh produce to the Clintonville-Beechwold Resource Center for every ten bags sold at retail.

Our new season begins on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 and will run through Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Please call 614.223.1512 or stop by The Greener Grocer at the historic North Market to get more information or to sign up!