“Garlic takes little garden space - Daily Oklahoman” plus 4 more |
- Garlic takes little garden space - Daily Oklahoman
- Sea Foam: Garden club brings out Beaufort's beauty - Island Packet Online
- At home in their gardens - Toledo Blade
- A thing for tomatoes - Minneapolis Star Tribune
- Colorful home and garden of French painter Claude Monet radiate warmth ... - Memphis Commercial Appeal
| Garlic takes little garden space - Daily Oklahoman Posted: 18 Oct 2009 09:52 PM PDT Q: Is the time right for planting garlic? A: As we move into October, many of our warm-season vegetables finally succumb to the lower night temperatures. And while it is hard to say goodbye to those fresh tomatoes, we do have a new crop to look forward to. So, pull out those withered plants and till up the soil, because now is the time to plant garlic for early summer harvest. Garlic or Allium sativum, is a relative of the onion and is one of those crops that has been grown for thousands of years, originating in central Asia. Though we only usually see one or two types of garlic at the supermarket, there is actually quite a range of varieties. Oklahoma State University Factsheet HLA-6032, "Vegetable Varieties for the Home Garden in Oklahoma," lists a number of varieties that will perform well in Oklahoma. You can also talk with growers at your local farmers market to find out what varieties do well in your region. Heavy clay soils can cause misshapen bulbs. It is a good idea to mix in compost to lighten the soil. Garlic also does well with a lot of organic matter mixed into the soil, so be generous. Good drainage is also important for garlic production. Dig trenches 3 to 4 inches deep and in rows spaced a foot apart. Garlic really does not take up a great deal of space, so it makes a wonderful addition to any garden. If you don't have a lot of space in your garden, plant garlic among your herbs or perennials. The plant's tall slender leaves will look like they belong just about anywhere. A garlic bulb is made up of a number of smaller sections called cloves. When planting garlic, separate the bulb into individual cloves, and each will produce a new plant. Set the cloves 4 inches apart in the rows. Only use cloves that appear healthy and fresh. Cloves have a top and bottom. Place the clove with the pointed end up and the flat tip down, which is the same orientation in which they are arranged in the bulb. Take the time to ensure that each bulb remains in the upright position as you fill the soil in around it. This will keep the necks of the bulbs straight. Cover your cloves to a depth of 2 inches and keep them moist but not too wet. Overwatering can lead to poor bulb development and mold problems. Cloves will establish roots throughout fall and be ready for growth when warm temperatures arrive in spring. For more information on fall gardening, read OSU Factsheet HLA-6009, "Fall Gardening." Bill Geer is director of the Oklahoma County Extension Service. His column addresses frequently asked horticulture questions. For more information, call 713-1125.Share with a friend
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| Sea Foam: Garden club brings out Beaufort's beauty - Island Packet Online Posted: 18 Oct 2009 08:55 PM PDT Beaufort Garden Club Milestones1934 Community Christmas door and outdoor porch lights contest. The first "public interest" competition became a popular tradition that lasted more than 30 years. 1935 Beautification of Gardens Corner triangle. This was the garden club's first civic beautification project at the junction of U.S. 17 and U.S.21. First azaleas planted. This was the beginning of the club's "azalea fad," with azaleas being planted throughout the community. First flower show. Beaufortonians eagerly awaited the event held at the Community Club on Carteret Street. The event served as the blueprint for many shows throughout the decades. 1936 Arbor Day. The first spading ceremony was observed with the planting of an Acacia tree in Danner Park in The Point. During the past 75 years, garden club members have planted more than 1,000 trees and shrubs in our community. 1939 Bulb and camellia displays. The club's nationally recognized shows became so successful that exhibitors and visitors came to Beaufort annually to participate. Coveted silver pieces were awarded. Junior garden clubs. Junior clubs were organized to educate youth about gardening, conservation and wildlife. Publication of a tourist brochure. The club sponsored Beaufort's first brochure for visitors, promoting its rich history and natural beauty. 1940-45 World War II. Club members aided the war effort through their support of Naval Hospital Beaufort and the USO. At Christmastime the women made holiday favors for the soldiers to give the hospital a festive look. Victory gardens were planted, and members donated 6,600 quarts of jarred produce to the USO. 1954 Beautification of U.S. 21 and landscaping public property. The club raised $800 to purchase 136 palmetto trees, which were planted along U.S. 21 between Beaufort and Burton. 1977 Camp Wildwood. During the past 32 years, the club has awarded more than 50 scholarships to teens interested in attending the conservation camp. 1993 Bluebird houses. Installing, repairing and seasonally cleaning bluebird houses at Pleasant Point and Pigeon Point parks begins. 1995 Garden-A-Day. The annual project has become the club's largest garden tour event. During the first week of June, which is National Garden Week, a different garden is offered each day for touring. 1998 Blue Star Memorial marker. In a ceremony Oct. 12 at Beaufort National Cemetery, the club installed and dedicated the first Blue Star Memorial marker in South Carolina as "a tribute to the armed forces that have defended the United States of America." 2009 National Wildlife Federation. Certification of 100 percent of club members with backyard habitats. Beaufort Garden Club Day. The Beaufort County Council and the City Council proclaim Oct. 23 to be Beaufort Garden Club Day. Thanks to Carol Boone of Lady's Island for sharing the story of the Beaufort Garden Club as it prepares for its 75th anniversary celebration Friday. To tell the story, Boone pored over scrapbooks and other documents, including a brief history of the club written by Peggy Sanders in 2003. 75 years and counting By Carol Boone Like the Phoenix rising ... In 1934, 13 determined Beaufort women, displaying amazing inner strength and foresight during one of the most difficult periods in our nation's history, set their sights on brighter days ahead. In defiance of the reality of the Great Depression that they and their families were struggling to live through, the women were determined to rise above their circumstances. The future -- that was their focus. It was out of this mind-set that the Beaufort Garden Club was founded Oct. 23, 1934. Most of the women were born in the last two decades of the 19th century. Their lives would be turned upside down by a fusion of scientific, industrial and automated discoveries that set the world as they knew it on end. They were swept into a dynamic cultural change that took them from gas light to electric incandescence, silent film to "talkies," horse and buggies to Henry Ford's Model T rolling off assembly lines, telephones, phonographs, radios ... and women's suffrage. Finally in 1920, the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote was ratified and amended to the United States Constitution. Like a shock wave, there was a dramatic awakening and social shift, a new sense of empowerment and direction. It was this prevailing "can do" spirit of the time that has sustained women of the Beaufort Garden Club for the past 75 years. Just as the long taproot nourishes the plant, so has the garden club's long history of civic commitment and service to Beaufort always helped to beautify, educate, conserve and preserve our lovely, historic riverfront community. And, so: "What is the Beaufort Garden Club?" "What do we do?" "What has our 75-year legacy been?" To find the answers, start at home. Begin by looking around the city of Beaufort and you will find us. We are everywhere, if only you know where to search. In small parks alive with many "club-planted" trees, shrubs and colorful flowers; near the Woods Bridge, where a plaque and palmetto trees honor World War II service members; by the random bluebird nesting boxes at Pigeon Point and Pleasant Point; and at Beaufort National Cemetery's Blue Star Memorial marker dedicated "to the armed forces that have defended the United States of America." That is where you will discover us. You quickly will realize where dedicated women of the Beaufort Garden Club left their mark. During the past 75 years, at what might today be unnoticed moments in time, the dedicated women of the Beaufort Garden Club left their indelible fingerprints behind. You might never know their names, or know their faces -- but they were here. It is in the spirit of their good works that they live on. Their annual events include Garden-A-Day, one of Beaufort's favorite garden tours, and spring and fall home tours, where members, in conjunction with other organizations, decorate selected homes that are opened to the public. The club sponsors teenagers attending Camp Wildwood, a conservation summer camp, and supports Teaching Kate, which provides an environmental resource program for teens. These events are just a sampling of the many civic activities that benefit adults and youth alike in our Beaufort community. You might never see us, but we have been here serving you. All these successful programs didn't just happen. Ideas were conceived, sleeves were rolled up and the Beaufort Garden Club members went to work. These women didn't merely talk about doing something, they actually did something. They made a difference. Since 1934, this "can do" club tradition has been shaking things up in Beaufort in a positive way. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of what the Beaufort Garden Club stands for, and have a deeper appreciation of our tradition, civic agenda and the many activities that are promoted for the common good of our community. So keep looking. You never know when or where you will find a Beaufort Garden Club member doing her thing, which is trying to contribute in some small way to making life in Beaufort a little more beautiful for everyone. The Beaufort Gazette appreciates all written and photographic submissions from readers. 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| At home in their gardens - Toledo Blade Posted: 18 Oct 2009 08:55 PM PDT There's more living space outside of the Albrights' snug home than inside. Purchased at auction and extensively renovated, the cottage has one bedroom and a cozy family room that had been a garage. Nestled at the edge of Maumee State Forest, their favorite living areas are outside the house. Five themed garden "rooms" are defined by green picket fencing, and a freestanding pole barn is a play pen for retirees Barbara and Gene Albright. Their seven acres are just across the Lucas County line in Henry County's Liberty Center. The Albrights both grew up in the country. In the early 1970s, they built on 15 wooded acres in Monclova and raised a daughter and son before Mr. Albright found this place in 1995. "Ugh. Ick," was Mrs. Albright's initial reaction when she first laid eyes on the outdated little 50-year-old house on a slab. But as creative do-it-yourselfers then in their 50s, they were up to the challenge of a rural beautification project. The kitchen wears three shades of white on woodwork, walls, and ceilings. "They're just different enough that it doesn't look hospital white," says Mrs. Albright. Cupboards and a nifty 1930s Hoosier cabinet are a sage green. Serving as a work island is a slab of birch on an old store display case with sliding glass doors. Adjacent to the kitchen is a dining table and a seating area with a couch and chair clad in tailored slipcovers she changes out in fall and spring. The steps of an open stairway to the second floor are a slightly deeper sage. A white hand railing — simple two-by-fours — was retained to emphasize the rustic feel. On permanent exhibit in the stairwell are 25 framed needlepoint pieces, many bearing antique-style designs she's stitched and framed. The gardens After a year of getting the house squared away, Mrs. Albright was ready to play in the dirt, and having been a woods-dweller, was eager to carve up patches that got full sun. On this tabula rasa she designed a cottage garden, 48-by-100-feet, bordered by the picket fence, "just enough to separate the rooms," and dug out weedy grass one shovel full at a time. "I'm sort of an English garden person. They're [the gardens] very neat. They don't use a lot of trim, and the edges are spaded in a trench." It's a garden that sings all year. "I really have good bones," she says, referring to semi-permanent vertical lines: six-foot-tall triangular tudor trellises, arches, a pergola, trees and shrubs, pebble paths, and a cedar-sided potting shed with salvaged French doors. Starting at dawn and continuing until mosquitoes attack — about 2 or 3 p.m. — she plants, weeds, trims, and tends. Hummingbirds graze her pink hat. She's counted 43 types of birds visiting the many home-crafted bird houses, and seen the hummingbird moth. Three dogs and a cat meander. "I just love to make things grow. I love the way it looks, and what it produces." An herb garden bears an abundance of lavender that flourishes in this sandy soil (to get a second bloom, dead head to the bottom of the stem during the growing season, she advises, but don't cut it back in the fall). There are thymes, ornamental oregano, yarrow, basil, sages, acanthus, baby's breath, anise hissop, summer savory, bergamot, and lemon and bee balm. A circular celestial garden was established in 1999, behind a pair of ornamental iron gates she found at a flea market, and a low wall of sandstone chunks assembled after she took a sledge hammer to old sidewalks Mr. Albright salvaged. Golden and silver thyme surrounds the sundial. Eight pie-shaped beds, edged with brick, are packed with gray and green santolina, hissop, thyme, dwarf sage, and lavender. In 2004, she made the fairy garden emphasizing white flowers: milkweed, rose, hydrangea, echinacea, daylily, balloon flower, foxglove, salvia, daisies, and gaura (whirling butterfly). A large concrete fairy stands sentry. In 2007, she dug the cutting garden and included several raised beds to contain topsoil and to achieve better drainage. The land has a high water table, she says, noting it's part of the Black Swamp. Here are sunflowers, celosia, roses, peonies, cosmos, cleome, the fall-blooming Montauk daisy, and the feathery Sweet Annie she fashions into wreaths and swags. She's crafted bouquets, nosegays, and corsages for three weddings, including for a nephew who thanked her by building a pair of tudor trellises. A short walk away, the pole barn provides his-and-hers workshops. This is where she culls seeds, dries and presses flowers, sews, and frames. With dried lavender she makes sachets, potpourris, and even cookies. Her magnificent work table is a 4-by-4-foot sandstone sidewalk on a sturdy wooden frame, built by Mr. Albright. He does woodwork in the other half of the pole barn, tinkers with vehicles in a garage, and plants a substantial vegetable garden. Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| A thing for tomatoes - Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted: 18 Oct 2009 10:28 PM PDT ALBERT LEA, MINN. - Every year in March, St. John's Lutheran Home resident Larry Kimpell gets a little antsy. Deemed the Tomato King by his fellow residents and staff, Kimpell, 80, starts looking through his seed catalogs, planning what kinds and how many tomato seeds he will purchase, plant and nurture for the year. In mid-April he plants the seeds, keeping them under special lights, misting them with water and putting them next to a fan to build the strength of the stems. Then in May, the seedlings are planted after the danger of frost is gone. "It gives me something to do," Kimpell said. "It keeps me busy. It's a good feeling to get stuff for people to eat, and it's fun looking at it, too." While he lets some tomatoes stay on the vines until they are red, he picks a good number of them while they're still green. Then he stacks them in cardboard boxes, layers them with newspapers and waits until they turn red. The result: a juicy red tomato without blemishes that looks as high-quality as something you'd find in grocery stores. This year, Kimpell, who has lived at St. John's more than six years, planted more than 100 tomato plants -- including varieties of super big boy, big boy, girly girl, beef steak, Roma and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes he has grown have so far produced 6 1/2 buckets (2 1/2 gallon size) of spaghetti sauce to feed the residents, enough tomatoes for the entire second-floor residents to have BLTs, tomatoes for salsa, tomatoes for salads and, of course, some tomatoes just to eat, too. Where did his love of tomatoes begin? Kimpell said that growing up he learned to garden and to cook. He'd have fresh tomatoes through Christmas, he said. Kimpell said residents this year also grew flowers, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, potatoes and sweet corn. Nancy Sather, St. John's garden program director, said residents in each neighborhood -- or wing -- of the nursing home begin the program each spring when they plan what produce they want to grow. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Posted: 17 Oct 2009 10:01 PM PDT  Photos by Ellen Creager/Detroit Free Press Tourists crowd onto a Japanese bridge at painter Claude Monet's home and garden in Giverny, France. The gardens and home reflect the artist's taste, sensibilities, wishes and passions. GIVERNY, France -- I want my house to look like this. I want Claude Monet's luscious yellow dining room. I want his green Japanese bridges. I want his water lilies in bloom. 
Sunflowers and dahlias line a path in the main garden, Clos Normand. Late summer and early fall are the best times to see the vivid splashes of color surrounding the home. There are no guided tours, but it takes less than two hours to see Monet's house and gardens on your own. 
A series of decorative arches cover a profusion of red and orange nasturtiums. The nasturtiums were a gardening mistake that Claude Monet decided he liked. 
Fall brings brilliant color to Monet's home. The Water Garden is blooming with white and pink water lilies, a subject the artist was fond of and enjoyed painting often. Others have said it, but it's true: Visiting Giverny is like walking into a Monet painting. Monet was a master artist of the French Impressionism era, and this village 45 miles northwest of Paris was his home from 1883 until his death in 1926. Giverny is not where Monet did all of his work, but it is where he did his most iconic work -- the water lily paintings. These gardens and this house still reflect the artist's taste, sensibilities, wishes and passions. Personally, I'd recommend visiting in late summer or fall. Why? Some may prefer the dreamy pastel scenes of spring, but fall is when the undiluted brilliant colors are best. Visiting Giverny is an easy day trip from Paris, by train, car or half-day tour bus. The property is run by the Claude Monet Foundation, which did extensive restorations on the home left to it by Monet's son in 1966. The house has been restored to appear as it did when Monet lived there. You can see his airy, enormous original studio. In the dining room, every single thing is painted varying shades of yellow, except for the terra-cotta-colored floor. A separate building that was Monet's second studio is now the gift shop, featuring everything from Monet erasers to coffee-table books. But the heart of Monet's home, as any painting fan knows, is its gardens. The main garden, called Clos Normand, is acres of flowers in front of the house. This time of year, it swoons with color. Sunflowers and dahlias soar to about 15 feet high, with blooms as big as dinner plates. A series of decorative arches cover a crazed profusion of red and orange nasturtiums that creep from their beds and tiptoe across the path. Behind Clos Normand is the water garden. Its curving pond, weeping willows and water lilies look familiar -- of course they do, because you've seen them in Monet's art. Beyond the water garden, a big stand of poplar trees has just been cut down to shed more light onto the garden itself. The goal is to restore that part of the property to what it looked like in Monet's day. There are no guided tours, but it takes less than two hours to see Monet's house and gardens on your own. In 2010, the museum will introduce an audio tour for those who'd like more detail as they wander. One other thing I'd recommend. Before visiting Giverny, stop by the Monet galleries at three Paris museums. The Musee d'Orsay, Musee Marmottan and Musee de l'Orangerie all have major Monet holdings, so you can reacquaint yourself with his work and appreciate Giverny's influence better before you visit. As far as artwork actually on display at Giverny, the Monets are copies, with the originals in museums around the globe. However, Monet's 18th-century Japanese prints are on display in most of the rooms of his house. I counted 45 woodblocks on the dining room walls alone. In a world where artists and musicians often come to sad personal endings despite creating beauty for others, it's nice to see a house that brought joy to the artist while he lived. It still radiates happiness today. I smiled when I saw it. IF YOU GO: When it's open: Monet's home and gardens are open daily from 9:30 to 6 p.m. April 1 to Nov. 1. Entry is 6 euros (about $8.50) for individual visitors who buy tickets when they arrive. Getting there: If you don't have a car, take the train from Paris' St. Lazare station to Vernon. The 45-minute ride is 12 euros (about $17.50). From the train station, take the No. 240 bus another 10 minutes to Giverny, or take a taxi. Tours: Most tourists from Paris take a package tour that covers transport by bus or mini-bus and entry to Monet's home and gardens. The best deal is through France Tourisme. Its 54-euro (about $78) half-day tour includes the mini-bus fee (or bus if a large group) and entrance to the Monet home and gardens. Book in advance or in person at the office, 33 Quai des Grands Augustins near the St. Michel Metro stop (francetourisme.fr). Tips: Bring water; there are no refreshments on site. There are several restaurants just outside, however. No photos are allowed inside the house, but take all the pictures you want of the gardens. Paris museums to visit first: You'll be brilliant at Giverny if first you see the Monet holdings at Musee d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr), Musee Marmottan (marmottan.com), Musee de l'Orangerie (musee-orangerie.fr). For more information: fondation-monet.fr This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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