There are several opportunities for gardeners to improve their landscape this week at little to no cost: On November 1, visit supermarkets for free straw.  Our closest grocery uses straw bales to display pumpkins and then gives them away after Halloween.  We use straw to protect our strawberries from frost/thaw heaving, to mix in garden beds, and for chicken run bedding. Word on the street (aka twitter) is that the Columbus Habitat for Humanity ReStore [...]

We cook with garlic almost every day.  Did you know that garlic is simple to grow and so delicious when picked right from your yard?  It is! The hardest part of growing garlic is that you must plan ahead.  Garlic needs to be planted in the fall, overwintered in the ground, and then harvested in mid summer. To grow garlic, first you need a space in the garden.  Garlic only needs to be spaced about [...]

Tonight, two of Lil’s friends came over for dinner.  They could have chosen to play in her playhouse, ride bikes, pretend with her thousands of animal toys, but no.  It was digging in the empty garden bed that captured their attention. The plastic shovels held little interest for the little one.  He wanted our sharp pointed trowel and then this rake: When it was time to go inside for the night, they were covered in [...]

Many people put their garden beds to rest after the tomatoes have ripened, but that need not be the case.  Now is the time to plan and prepare for fall vegetable garden plantings, also called succession planting.  It’s a great time to start gardening even if you’ve never grown food for yourself! If you want to enjoy fresh vegetables from your garden through the fall, start with preparing your soil. For beds used in the [...]