Rick Bayless, Chicago Chef, Faces White House Challenge - NYTimes.com

Rick Bayless, Chicago Chef, Faces White House Challenge - NYTimes.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Easy Way to Plant Grass Seed

The Easy Way to Plant Grass Seed -- Repetitive Overseeding technique developed by David Chinery of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County.

Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Chives – Tasty, Colorful and Reliable - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Chives – Tasty, Colorful and Reliable - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

In my garden now… - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

In my garden now… - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Marsh marigold in bloom - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Marsh marigold in bloom - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Small Space Garden in an Earth Box - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Small Space Garden in an Earth Box - Gardening - timesunion.com - Albany NY

Gardening Blog on the Times Union

I have just started a new gardening blog with the Albany Times Union which is at www.timesunion.com/gardening/
I am sharing the blog with other gardeners so take a look and let me know what you think.
If I can work out the technology I will post my TU blogs here, too.

Beautiful Easy Organic Gardens: Hudson Valley Seed Library

Beautiful Easy Organic Gardens: Hudson Valley Seed Library

Hudson Valley Seed Library

Hudson Valley Seed Library is a small home grown seed company that features New York heirloom and home garden varieties that do well in the Northeast. Some of the seeds are available nowhere else including Hank's X-tra Special Baking Bean from Ghent, NY. Their online catalogue contains more than 100 varieties. I met their founder Ken Greene at his booth at the Capital District Flower show last Friday after I gave a speech there. Not only do they have a wonderful selection of seeds, they have the most beautiful seed packet art I have ever seen. I bought packets of Spotted Trout Lettuce, Costata Romanesca Zucchini and New Yorker Tomato.

Preventing Garden Pests and Predators

Preventing Garden Pests and Predators links and information from my presentation at the Northeast Organic farming Association of New York (NOFA) conference on 24January2010.

Critters

Deer - best prevention: dogs, eight foot high fencing, electric fencing, hunting where legal, deer-resistant plants, repellent sprays made from egg solids, ammonium soaps and blood.
Deer Proof Gardens
Mohonk Mountain House Plant Recommendations for Deer Infested Gardens
Reducing Deer Damage to Home Gardens and Landscape Plants

Rabbits - best prevention: dogs, destroy habitat, two foot high chicken wire fence buried six inches underground, hunting where legal, repellent sprays, traps by DEC guidelines.

Woodchucks - best prevention: dogs, hunting where legal, four foot high chicken wire fence buried 12" underground, electric fence, no EPA approved repellents.

Plant Pesticides

Best way to prevent diseases on plants is to grow disease-resistant varieties.

Resource Guide for Organic Insect and Disease Management from the New York State Agriculture Experiment Station

Bt Bacillus thuringiensis - a naturally occurring bacteria in spray or powder form used to control caterpillars and larva on plants.

Neem - plant derived botanical pesticide in spray form to kill larva and insects.

Insecticidal Soaps - potassium salts of fatty acids used to kill soft bodied insects like mites.

Horticultural Oils - petroleum or vegetable-based oils used to smother insects and diseases.

Best way to prevent diseases on plants is to grow disease-resistant varieties.

Bicarbonate -- potassium and sodium fungicide used to control powdery milder. Mix once ounce of baking soda with one gallon of water to control powdery mildew on roses.

Copper - mineral fungicide used to control diseases on plants.

Good luck out there!

Tulip Bulbs Unplanted

Tulip bulbs left unplanted are always a question for a lot of people. What can I do with them? Well, I have joined the club this year because I waited too long to plant a bag of Darwin hybrids. If the soil is not frozen you can plant them right now. I am hoping there will be one more day for this but don't count on it.
I am going to force my tulip bulbs. Which means I am going to plant them in pots, cover them with potting soil, water them and let them sleep in a cold room for 12 weeks. Then I will bring them out of hibernation and let them grow. this will put them into bloom in early April, which isn't too bad. they will look lovely as indoor potted plants.

Late Blight Tomato Solutions

The New York Times had an article recently that noted that commercial tomato growers in the Northeast face massive economic losses this year because of the damage caused by late blight, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine. It seems the best solution to this problem is to grow tomato plants that are resistant to late blight. It turns out that there are some newer varieties that appear to resist late blight. Next year try to grow from seed the following varieties: Legend, Ferline, Juliet, Santa and Fantasio. Starting your own tomato seeds indoors is easy and fun to do, especially if you have kids. Otherwise, try to interest your local growers to start some plants for you.

Support Capital District Community Gardens

Any Klein of the Capital District Community Gardens wants all of you to support her Veggie Mobile:

Capital District Community Gardens’ Veggie Mobile has been selected as one of ten finalists in a worldwide competition called “Designing for Better Health” sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Ashoka’s Changemakers.

Internet ballots will decide the three highest vote-getters by May 28^th and winners will receive a $5,000 cash award and international recognition for their project. This is a tremendous opportunity for our organization, our mobile market – The Veggie Mobile, and for New York’s Capital Region!

Now we need your help. Please use this link to vote for our program and share this link with your personal networks (email, facebook, myspace, blogs, etc.). If everyone we know gets in touch with everyone they know we will win this award.

Every vote will make a difference - thanks for helping to spread the word! Please vote by May 28^th.

http://www.changemakers.net/designingforbetterhealth/

More info on Capital District Community Gardens and The Veggie Mobile www.cdcg.org

Community Garden Awards

Two Coves Community Garden in Queens, NY wins NATURE HILLS NURSERY GREEN AMERICA AWARD

Three community gardening projects from across the United States have been honored with 2009 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards. Honored with the Grand Prize Award of $2,500 in plants was Bridging The Gap, a nonprofit environmental organization in the Kansas City area that is beautifying a vacant lot in the Ivanhoe Neighborhood. The lot has already been cleared of litter and debris, and volunteers are ready to begin creating the garden which will serve as a green space for the neighborhood complete with play areas for children and rest areas for adults.

Chosen for the First Place Award of $1,500 in plants was Two Coves Community Garden in Astoria (Queens), New York. Two Coves Community Garden is a newly established oasis in western Queens that provides fresh produce to residents of a neighborhood that has been described as “a food desert.” Honored with the Second Place Award of $1,000 in plants was Homewood Heights Community Garden in Austin, Texas. Homewood Heights is a one-year-old community garden that has sprouted from a reclaimed urban lot that was used for many years as a dump for construction debris.

Winners of the 2009 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards were chosen from over 200 applications submitted by community groups, nonprofit organizations, and gardening programs from across the USA. Nature Hills Nursery, an Omaha-based website-only retailer that sells trees, shrubs, perennials and other plants, created the Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards as a way to give back to the communities and people who have contributed to the success of the company. For more information, visit www.naturehills.com.

Tree Planting Tips

Planting your tree too deeply is the number one reason why your tree will die in anywhere from two to five years. Often times the label on the tree will tell you to plant the tree at the same depth as it was in the container. Well, there are a lot of trees that don't come in a container. They come wrapped in a burlap bag. My radio partner Fred Breglia, the arborist at the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, NY made this point so many times on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, that I think I can say it in my sleep. Here is how to successfully plant that expensive tree you just bought at the nursery:
1. Dig a hole that is approximately the same size as the root ball of your tree. Maybe just a little bit wider, but no deeper.
2. Remove all the wire mesh and burlap surrounding the tree.
3. Look for the spot on your tree where the roots begin to flair out from the trunk. Remove any dirt that gets in your way. You must see that flair.
4. Place the tree in the whole so that the spot where the roots flair out is an inch or two above soil level. The tree is likely to settle deeper into the hole over time, so plant it an inch or two above soil level to compensate for settling.
5. Fill the hole with dirt making sure you can still see the place where the roots flair out from the trunk.
6. Water the tree at soil level at least once or twice a month for the first year or two.
Fred says he has seen many, many trees die because they were planted too deeply, but he has never seen a tree die because it was planted too shallowly. I used this technique on all my trees and shrubs that I planted last year and they all survived a fairly severe winter. Thanks, Fred.

Composted Leaves for Vegetable Garden

Question: Sandy in Berlin, NY asks:
Last fall I put a thick layer of leaf mulch on my vegetable and annual flower garden. The leaves came mostly from our maple trees and they were run through the lawn mower blades then through a leaf blower/sucker blades, so the resulting mulch was quite well chopped up. My question is, do I have to remove it now, as in rake it off, or
should I simply move it away to plant the vegetables or should I work it into the soil? My husband thinks that if I work it into the soil then the roots of plants won't have a sturdy enough matrix to grow upright and will fall over. What do you think?

Answer:
Maple leaves as finely ground and partially composted as you describe will make an excellent addition to the organic content of your garden. This is especially true in a vegetable or annual flower garden where tilling is often an annual task. I would suggest tilling them in with a power tiller if possible to a depth of four to six inches. As these leaves continue to decompose, they will add organic matter to your garden which will attract beneficial microorganisms, help retain moisture and air and improve your soil. Maple leaves tend to be a little acidic, so later in the summer, you might want to get a soil pH test done to make sure your soil is in the 6.5 to 7.0 pH vicinity.

Garden FAQ: Wild and Backyard Raspberries

Question:
We are planning to plant backyard red & black raspberries and some wild black raspberries which grow around our rural home. Will the plants mix up from cross pollination and will wild berries planted in same areas diminish the domestic varieties fruit size or flavor.

Answer:

Wild raspberries and should be kept 300 to 600 feet away from your new backyard red and black raspberries. Not because they might cross pollinate, but because wild berries can be a source of Verticillium or other virus diseases. It would be better to not plant the raspberry plants in the same area where tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant have been grown for the same reason. Raspberries are self-fertile, but studies have shown that cross-pollination with other backyard raspberries does increase fruit yield.

Dutchman's Breeches Wildflower in Bloom

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) is a dainty but rugged wildflower that blooms in March and April from Maine to Missouri. Here it is in bloom in my Delmar, NY garden in Patriot's Day, 2009. I've lived here for six years and I've never seen it in bloom before. My neighbor did cut down a couple tree branches last year. Maybe that gave it just the right amount of sunlight to get blooming. Dutchman's Breeches grows four to eight inches tall, likes dappled sunlight in woodlands with fertile and moist but not wet soil. I am going to transplant a couple of these to a more visible part of my garden. It is legal for me to do this because the plants are on my property. But it is illegal in New York to dig up and transplant native wildflowers on property not your own. Dicentra cucullaria is related to D. spectabilis, better known as perennial bleeding heart. Both of them are wonderful perennial plants for the woodland garden.

Perennial Herbs

Chives, thyme, oregano, sage, lavender, parsley, tarragon and other perennial herbs can be planted this weekend here in eastern New York, Western New England and the Hudson Valley. It is still too cold to plant basil dill, cilantro and other tender annuals. Buy these as potted plants at your favorite lawn and garden center of farmer's market. Plant them in well-drained ordinary soil in full sun. These plants don't like too much in the way of fertilizer so just add some compost or mulch around them as the season progresses. Water them at least once a week. You can start harvesting after three weeks.

Garden Events Calendar in Our Region

Project Budbreak is an interesting way for you as gardeners to get involved with learning about the effects of climate change on native plants in our area. It is a project of the Sustainable Initiatives Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station Cornell University.

Phantom Gardener in Rhinebeck, NY is offering free workshops this spring on shrubs, starting a garden journal, bloom sequence, deer resistant perennials and more.

The Master Gardeners of Putnam County (call 845-278-6738) announce their Spring Gardening School, a One-Day University on all things gardening April 18. All are invited to join this annual event, which includes classes and a presentation with digital images by Duncan Brine., principal landscape designer of Horticultural Design, Inc. The New York Times, Horticulture Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, and other publications have featured Brine’s work. His speech, “Structuring Nature: Whole Property Landscape Design,” focuses on his six-acre garden in Pawling, NY.

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County’s Master Gardeners in their award winning Xeriscape Garden at the SUNY Ulster Campus in Stone Ridge on Thursday, May 14, to learn the nitty-gritty of dividing perennials and ornamental grasses. The workshop will be from 9:00am to 12:00pm. There is a fee of $5 to participate. You will gain hands-on experience on when to divide, what to do and what not to do when it comes to dividing plants. Participants will work in small groups guided by Master Gardeners and leave with some prize divisions from the Xeriscape Garden. Please bring pots or bags to put your divisions into, gardening gloves and tools such as pitch forks, spades and trowels are also recommended to bring along. For more information call Dona Crawford, Master Gardener Coordinator at 845-340-3990.

The Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, MA has classes upcoming on composting, raising chickens and taking garden tours.

If you have any garden announcements to make, send them along to me at lsombke@beautifuleasygardens.com