15 May
2011
15 May
'11
11:07 p.m.
Hi All,
I've really been enjoying hearing from all the gardeners over the past few
days, and am definitely interested in all the dialogue about tours and
cooperative gardens. I moved into my house on Brighton Rd. almost 3 years
ago and started a vegetable garden in my front yard 2 years ago. I started
with two raised beds and just keep adding onto it. Since the tornado took
out a tree in my front yard, I'll likely keep expanding. I love growing in
the cooler seasons and have grown kale and parsnips over the winter, and now
am finishing my peas and broccoli, and waiting on my carrots. I try to
maintain a lot of variety and focus on things I'll actually eat or have a
hard time finding in the stores. I don't use any pesticides or chemicals
and try to water with rain water when possible.
In response to the message about growing potatoes, I started last year from
a package from Lowe's, and had really great blue potatoes with very little
effort. I planted them directly in a bed dug into my lawn and amended with
some compost, and then threw some straw on top occasionally. Waited until
after the vines died and started harvesting. This year, I have six
different varieties, Caribe, yukon gold, a couple reds and a blue variety.
I planted them in February and March and the new potatoes are ready now. I
think the hardest thing is finding decent seed potatoes. I ordered mine
from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds last winter. They also have a few varieties at
Logan's. I don't think its a good idea to use potatoes from the grocery
stores as they are prone to disease. Also, if you mound dirt or mulch
around the plants as they grow, you'll get a better yield. If anyone has
had success with a fall or winter crop of potatoes, or saving seed potatoes,
I'd love to hear about it.
Ann Marie
632 Brighton
On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 7:30 PM, <gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org> wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Organic at home? (Jennifer Woody)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 19:30:03 -0400
From: Jennifer Woody <jennifer.e.woody(a)gmail.com>
Subject: [Gardening] Organic at home?
To: gardening(a)eastraleigh.org
Message-ID: <BANLkTimcDue8xwGfkhJFOdO2+AvPyJOjHA(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hi everyone,
I have a question: what constitutes an organic home garden? There are many
rules for commercial growers to become "certified organic." I predominately
use seeds that are labeled organic, and I don't use any pesticides or any
other types of garden chemicals and only organic fertilizers...is that all
there is to having an organic garden?
Thanks,
Jennifer
704 Penn Rd
On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 6:36 PM, <gardening-request(a)eastraleigh.org>
wrote:
for
to
are
I
that
even
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or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Gardening digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Introductions? (Ginger Deason)
2. Growing taters (Vanessa Van Horn)
3. Re: Gardening Digest, Vol 1, Issue 11 (Timberley Valentine)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 15 May 2011 12:56:02 -0400
From: Ginger Deason <gdeason(a)gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Gardening] Introductions?
To: Gardening <gardening(a)eastraleigh.org>
Message-ID: <BANLkTinwYt88SJyU38wgAtkDsCxaPF-zEg(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hey Everyone!
I agree, this is a great thread! And a great listserv!
My name is Ginger Deason and my husband and I have lived in East Raleigh
for
almost two years (but were gone for 1.5 yr in the middle - we just came
back!). I have had a backyard garden of some form for about five years,
but
gardened a LOT with my dad when I was growing up
in rural Alabama. For
years
I have worked in some form or fashion in outreach and education
associated
with sustainable agriculture or forestry and
community gardening, so I
have
a lot of "book knowledge" and courses
behind me, although I often still
feel
like a novice! There's always something to learn!
I am a perpetual student of John Jeavons' Biointensive
Gardening<http://www.growbiointensive.org/>and still have quite a way
to go since we were gone last year, which would
have been the third year into my garden. I kinda had to start all over
this
year, but it's not been too hard. My focus
right now is on diversified
veggies, mainly ones that I know we will eat all of. I plan on getting
some
fruit trees, but that might be a year or so down
the road. The tornado
has
given us a lot more sun in the back yard so I
also plan on expanding my
garden, also down the road. And adding some chickens (also down the
road!).
The bike tour idea is a great one! I'd be into that! And I was the one
who
suggested an East Raleigh Urban Garden tour and a
couple of people have
emailed me (gdeason(a)gmail.com) to say they were interested in helping
plan.
If you are interested and haven't emailed me yet, please do!
Have a great day!
Ginger
2319 Stevens
PS: I LOVE birds too and am trying my best to make my yard as bird
friendly
as possible. We have a nest of baby bluebirds in
a box that's close
enough
to the deck to hear! They're awesome and will
probably fledge around
Memorial Day weekend, so come on over if you want to see some babies
blues!
PPS: The Center for Environmental Farming Systems
(CEFS<http://www.cefs.ncsu.edu/>)
has many courses on gardening/farming/animal husbandry throughout the
year.
They're located in Goldsboro, so it's a
hike, but check out their
calendar
if you're interested and maybe if people ever
want to attend a course we
could carpool. Most courses are cheap to free and there's one on On-Farm
Habitat for Ecosystem Services (May 25) which may or may not be
appropriate
for smaller-scale urban gardens, but I might look
into it. And it's free!
On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 9:41 AM, Ryan Parker <
kennethryanparker(a)gmail.com
wrote:
Fellow garden geeks,
I live on Drew St., which is in the area commonly referred to as "the
other
> side of Mordecai" in local CAC meetings. I have lived in this house 7
> years and have planted many shrubs and flowers around on our one tenth
of
an
are
acre. I also have a dedicated vegetable garden
that is subdivided into
five
> semi-raised beds and a compost bin. Three of the beds are 4'x4', two > 4'x6' and the compost bin is also
4'x4'. This year's crop features the
> following:
>
> (4) Jalapeno Peppers
> (4) Sweet Banana Peppers
> (4) Better Boy Tomatoes
> (4) Sweet Basil
> (10) Bush Bean
> (4) Cantaloupe
> (4) Burpless Cucumber
>
> All plants came from the farmer's market in either 4 or 6 packs and
were
planted
the weekend of Earth Day (as per tradition) except for 6 bush
bean
plants which I planted this week. All beds are
separated with a rock
path
> made of small smooth river jack gravel. This area of the yard I refer as
patio
the "South Garden." The perimeter of
this section has ligustrum
japonicum
> shrubs for a privette (non-native) and an abelia. The edge of our is
> home to three varities of knock out roses (red, pink and yellow) that
are
in
cypress
their second year and now in full bloom.
The front facade of the house (or the "North Garden") has a Kleim's
Hearty
> gardenia, Pink Snowball azalea, a shrubby yew pine, and a leland (which I
am considering up rooting and replacing with a japanese maple,
so
> *free leland cypress with a one year in-ground rooting system is up for
> grabs*.
>
> Although I try to keep the garden organic, I can see when the plants nutrient
poor and I can readily correct their shortcomings with Miracle
Grow's 10-35-10 or fish emulsion 5-1-1. When plants are in the final
stages
> of their fruit producing cycle I use only fish emulsion. The only time > use 7 dust or a pesticide is when I see the
evil horned tomato worms
> devouring my plants. I also use a supplement that prevents blossom
rot.
I keep a garden journal so I can see the progress of certain plants and
get
a handle on watering cyles. Plus it's also
great to see how the garden
has
> evolved.
>
> I hope that we can plan a floating party sometime during the summer > would allow us to tour each other's
garden's and show off our hard
work.
Thanks
Ryan
On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 8:30 AM, Hope Rollins <hrollins1(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi Sarah Jessica and others,
>
> Good to see you on the list serve. Sounds like you have some great
ideas.
>>
>> I live in Oakwood. I have several raised beds. Had poor luck with >> tomatoes last year. Frequently,
something got to them before I was
able
> to
> >> bring them in.
> >>
> >> However, I am having great luck with lavender, herbs, knockout roses,
> and
> >> perennials. Also, I have pond with 2 koi, 2 gold fish and recent
> >> purchased
> >> 3 bullfrog fish. I am looking forward to hearing about everyone's
> >> successes
> >> and frustrations in the garden.
> >>
> >> Hope Rollins
> >> 326 Oakwood Ave.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: gardening-bounces(a)eastraleigh.org
> >> [mailto:gardening-bounces@eastraleigh.org] On Behalf Of SJF
> >> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 12:09 AM
> >> To: Gardening
> >> Subject: Re: [Gardening] Introductions?
> >>
> >> Hey gang!
> >>
> >> I am new to North Carolina gardening. I had a big garden in my
> >> parents' backyard about 15 years ago where I grew lilacs, roses,
> >> lilies (Asiatic type and hemerocallis) and penstemon and Jacob's
> >> ladder, among other things. I'm really surprised I can remember
> >> everything I had growing back there! Well, here I am, still a renter
> >> 15 years later and I can't put off gardening until I buy a home.
> >>
> >> This year I'm working on creating some front perennial beds. I am
> >> also thinking about starting a veggie garden out back using straw
> >> bales to create a raised bed (and to give the baby vegetables a bit of
> >> a buffer from my three rowdy dogs). I'm late to that particular game
> >> so I'll probably head to the farmer's market for some starter
plants.
> >>
> >> I prefer to use organic gardening methods, I'm beginning to think even
> >> a nuclear-type toxin could not eliminate the poison ivy that is
> >> winding its way around the pine tree in my backyard. I didn't have
> >> many problems in NJ with pests or disease -- there is a reason they
> >> call that place the garden state - and I am keeping my fingers crossed
> >> that the dirt here is also kind to me. I try to swap plants when I
> >> can (I might have some spare irises soon) and to choose species that
> >> spread rather than specimens that are higher maintenance. I have a
> >> baby compost pile that I hope to get some good use out of this summer,
> >> so your composting tips are most welcome. I have lots to learn and
> >> hope to soon have lots to share as well!
> >>
> >> Sarah Jessica ("SJ")
> >> 213 Dennis
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Gardening mailing list
> >> Gardening(a)eastraleigh.org
> >> http://www.eastraleigh.org/mailman/listinfo/gardening
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Gardening mailing list
> >> Gardening(a)eastraleigh.org
> >> http://www.eastraleigh.org/mailman/listinfo/gardening
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Gardening mailing list
> > Gardening(a)eastraleigh.org
> > http://www.eastraleigh.org/mailman/listinfo/gardening
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and
> the last fish has been caught, will we realize that we cannot eat money.
> ~ 19th century Cree saying
>
> Hasta que el ?ltimo ?rbol sea cortado, hasta que el ?ltimo r?o sea
> contaminado, hasta que el ?ltimo pescado sea atrapado; solo entonces nos
> daremos cuenta que el dinero no se puede comer.
> ~ profecia Indios Cree
>