Sunday, August 2, 2009

“Home & Garden V Feature Package - Earthtimes” plus 4 more

“Home & Garden V Feature Package - Earthtimes” plus 4 more

Home & Garden V Feature Package - Earthtimes

Posted: 27 Jul 2009 02:02 AM PDT



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Rental Max L.L.C. - WBBM

Posted: 02 Aug 2009 08:25 PM PDT

The CBS Radio Preferred Partners Program is a community designed to connect and grow Chicagoland businesses by leveraging the power and reach of CBS Radio's on-air presence, websites, and events.



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Care for plants during drought - Carroll County Times

Posted: 02 Aug 2009 04:28 PM PDT

In Carroll and surrounding counties, the land is parched. If you're a gardener you can probably tell by looking at your own garden which plants are suffering the most. Individual plants respond to drought in various ways. Plants may slow or restrict their growth, wilt or curl up in response to lack of water. Most newly established plants and trees need about an inch or so of water per week; however, those that are established can get by with somewhat less.

Some plants, such as grass, become dormant after prolonged periods without water. It's nature's way of protecting the grass. The good news is that grass does grow back, so there's no need to water your lawn during a drought.

Here are some recommendations that may help deal with the current conditions:

If you are allowed to water, do so in the morning before 8 a.m. or the early evening when your plants will have the ability to take up water more efficiently than during hotter parts of the day. This will also minimize the amount of water lost by evaporation, saving it for your plants. Water deeply to encourage roots to grow deep, which in turn protects them from drought.

Mulch your plants. Even though it's midsummer, plants still benefit from having the ground around them protected from heat and sunlight, reducing the evaporation of water from the soil. Mulching has the added benefit that by keeping additional moisture in the soil, the surrounding plants have to compete less for water.

Perform "triage" on your garden, and decide what you can live without. For instance, if you have annuals, you may decide to let them fend for themselves without water. This includes vegetables such as tomatoes and zucchini. If you're a plant lover or someone who takes pleasure in watching your garden mature and evolve throughout the summer, this can be a tough decision. Take heart, drought is a natural phenomena letting the plants go is part of this process.

As a last resort, you can reuse "gray" water from your kitchen and bath to water your plants. However, don't apply gray water to edible vegetables, since it does contain salts that could be harmful.

Planning ahead

When you're planning what to do with your garden next year, think about the following strategies.



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Bronx features edible garden - Carroll County Times

Posted: 02 Aug 2009 04:28 PM PDT

Bronx features edible garden

NEW YORK — The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx is opening a new outdoor exhibit called The Edible Garden with programming that includes tastings, tours, demonstrations and celebrity lectures.

The Edible Garden, open June 27-Sept. 13, will be a showcase for edible plants, vegetable-growing techniques and garden design. It will also host presentations from famous guests including Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Lidia Bastianich, and Dan Barber, who recently won the James Beard Award for "2009 Chef of the Year." An audio tour includes narration by Mario Batali and Bette Midler.

Details, including directions from Manhattan by train and car, at www.ny bg.org.

Bon Appetit rates barbecue eateries

NEW YORK — It's barbecue season, and if you don't want to get out the grill and smoke up your yard, here are 10 restaurants recommended for their barbecue by Bon Appetit magazine's July issue.

They are: Stacy's Smokehouse BBQ in Phoenix; Bulldog Barbecue in North Miami; Rolling Bones BBQ in Atlanta; The Joint in New Orleans; Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Fette Sau in Brooklyn; Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, Mass.; Slows Bar BQ in Detroit; The Pit in Raleigh, N.C.; and Martin's Bar-b-que Joint in Nolens-ville, Tenn.

Pet area opens at St. Louis airport

ST. LOUIS — Lambert Airport in St. Louis has opened two outdoor rest areas where traveling animals can spend a few minutes off the leash and play.



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Community garden awaits soil testing - New Haven Register

Posted: 27 Jul 2009 03:57 AM PDT

By Susan Misur, Register Staff

GUILFORD — Everyone has a garden story, resident Terry Cain said, and such tales have provided her with inspiration to start a community agriculture project in town.

"My own story is quite long. I've been gardening since I was a child because my grandparents had a garden," she said.

Cain, along with fellow members of the Guilford Community Garden Committee, is asking town officials to approve a permanent home for the town's second public garden, where residents can grow and share fruits, veggies and flowers.

She proposed to the Board of Selectmen last week starting the garden at Woodruff Farm, though there are concerns about the soil's quality because the town landfill was once located there. It closed in the 1950s.

Contamination studies conducted by the state and town have shown there is some pollution in the soil. The tests were ordered because additional parking may be constructed at the Woodruff Farm property for the train station, First Selectman Carl Balestracci said.

Woodruff Farm is "one very good possibility (for the garden). There's enough land there, and enough land that wasn't landfill. On that property, there used to be greenhouses and gardens, so it's not all landfill," Balestracci said.

Catherine Bradshaw, a Community Garden Committee member, said the fact that the property housed a landfill shouldn't be a problem, but the group will conduct further soil tests 1 to 2 feet below the surface. Plants' roots will only reach down a few feet, she added, and the crops could also be planted in raised beds.

In the meantime, the group is still looking for other plots in town for the garden.

"We already have people saying, 'Can I sign up for a plot?' before we even have a space for the garden," Cain said recently. "Everyone I tell about it tells me stories about their parents' or grandparents' garden and what they grew."

The group's goal is to have a location secured by fall, begin fundraising to cover the $2,000 start-up costs, and have the garden growing on an acre by spring, Bradshaw said.

Five residents decided to initiate the project last spring in hopes of bringing a community garden to the center of town and educating residents about locally grown food. Guilford's only community garden, located at Dudley Farm, is full and has a waiting list.

Cain said there will be about 20 plots at the new garden, and that people can buy and tend for a fee of about $20 to $30 per lot per season.

Woodruff Farm's centralized location is ideal for the project because people can walk to it from the Green and it's easily accessible, Bradshaw said.

A primary focus of the project is providing horticulture education and workshops for children and individuals tending plots at the garden, Bradshaw said.

Town Agricultural Commission Chairman Tom Pinchbeck, owner of the recently reopened Pinchbeck Rose Farm, said the commission is supporting the Community Garden Committee's efforts.

"I think there are some capable hands at the helm there, and it's a matter of finding the right property," he said.

Susan Misur can be reached at 789-5742 or smisur@nhregister.com.



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