Spring Garden Tips
New Year's Resolution Garden

The holidays are filled with lots of delicious foods and sweets. But now is the time to resolve to grow your own vegetables and eat healthier in the New Year.

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mgm_audio_288_new_years_resolutionGather everyone you cook and eat with for a planning session – all ages are invited. Get out your recipes, garden catalogues, crayons, paper, and scissors.

Make a list of all your favorite fruits and vegetables and those you tend to use most often. Then pick a few fun or colorful vegetables you would like to try. Narrow down the list to vegetables that will grow in your area and fit your available space.

Consider growing those plants that are most productive and cost effective for the space needed.

Once the length of your list matches your gardening space it is time to draw up a plan. Adults and older children may want to draw a garden to scale, while the younger gardeners may prefer to create a collage from pictures.

A bit more information: Old garden catalogues and gardening magazines are a great way to create a virtual garden. Kids can use pictures to design their own garden while you can use the pictures to help create attractive plant combinations.

 

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Check Stored Seeds for Viability

Don’t discard those left over seeds from last season. When properly stored, many seeds can last for years, saving you money when you plan and plant this year’s garden.

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Dealing with Small Seeds

Carrots, lettuce, begonia and other small seeds can be difficult to plant at the proper spacing. Reduce wasting seeds and time spent thinning seedlings.

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Failed Corn and Bean Plantings

Early planting and unseasonably cool wet springs can cause bean and corn seeds to fail to sprout or fully develop. These seeds either rotted or were damaged by corn seed maggot.

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Garden Journal

Make this the year you finally start and keep a gardening journal. Keeping records of your successes, failures, pest problems and weather will help you grow a healthy, beautiful and productive garden in a more eco-friendly manner.

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Gardening with Your Neighbor - Shared Gardens

Get rid of the fence dividing you and your neighbors’ yard. Instead create a beautiful garden you both can enjoy.

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Gather Ideas and Fresh Produce from the Farmers Market

Didn’t get that garden planted this year? Or maybe you didn’t plant enough for your families needs. Don’t worry, you can still have fresh from the garden flavor and be kind to the environment.

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Get Outdoors and Improve Your Family's Health

June 12th is National Get Outdoors Day. So gather the family and head out to the garden.

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Give 'em Room to Grow - Thinning Vegetables

A tangle of carrots, ill-formed beets, and non-existent radish roots mean it’s time to add thinning to your gardening list.

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Grow a Nutritious Garden in a Pot

Add a bit of nutrition to your diet and landscape. Grow a container full of nutritious vegetables for your patio, deck or balcony.

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Grow Calcium Rich Vegetables

Keep a fresh supply of bone-building calcium growing in your garden all season long.

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Grow Parsley for You and the Butterflies to Enjoy

Parsley is not just a garnish for your meals. This Vitamin rich herb is a great addition to your garden and recipes.

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Grow Your Own and Save

Reduce your grocery bill this summer by growing a few of your favorite vegetables. And the good news, you don’t need much space to produce enough fresh vegetables for you and your family to enjoy.

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Grow Your Own Favorite Recipe

Picture this - Your guest reaches over and plucks a sprig of mint from a planter to add to their iced tea or Mojito. Nothing beats the fresh-from-the-garden flavor or fun of ingredients right from your own garden.

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Grow Your Own Nutritional Detoxifier - Asparagus

Many of us are looking for ways to rid our body of toxins, while improving our eating habits. Asparagus is nature’s own detoxifier and one of the most nutritionally balanced vegetables.

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Grow Your Own Soybeans

Add a bit of fiber to your garden and diet. Consider growing edible soybeans in this year’s garden.

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Growing Onions

Make homegrown onions part of your diet. Their flavor is guaranteed to add zest to your meals and their health benefits include lowering the risk of many cancers.

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Growing Potatoes

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Growing Your Own Healthy Snack

Grow a few healthy snacks for you and your family to enjoy. Carrots have the crunch of chips and crackers without the fat and calories.

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Harvesting and Preserving the Flavor and Nutrients of Root Crops

It’s time to start reaping the benefits of your spring plantings. So break out the garden fork and get busy harvesting.

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Harvesting Onions and Potatoes

Break out the garden fork and get ready to start harvesting onions and potatoes.

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Harvesting Vegetables and Melons

All your hard work and effort is paying off with a bountiful harvest.

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Homegrown Vegetables Add Flavor to Gluten Free Diets

Don’t let going gluten-free get you down. Include some fresh-from-the-garden vegetables to add flavor to your gluten-free meals.

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Hot Peppers

Heat up your meals and improve your health by adding a few hot peppers to your garden and meal plan.

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Kitchen Scrap Gardening

Have a bit of fun and stretch your gardening muscles with kitchen scrap gardening.

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Leap Year - An Extra Day to Garden!

Make the most of this extra day during leap year and do something you enjoy. And for many of us that involves a garden.

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Lettuce, Kale, and Collards - Harvest Tips for Maximum Flavor and Nutrition

Get the most flavor and nutritional value from your garden-fresh vegetables with proper harvesting, storage and preparation.

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Make Gardening a Family Affair

Take advantage of weekends, holidays and school vacations to get the children in your life involved with vegetable gardening.

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New Ways to Include Herbs in Your Landscape

Add a little zip to your garden and meals by planting herbs.

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Ornamental Edible Landscape - Fruit Plants

Round out your meals with some fresh from the garden fruit. It is easier than you think to grow your own apples, plums, and berries.

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Planting a Garden...Double Up for a Bigger Harvest

Double your harvest without increasing your garden space. Try planting short season vegetables like lettuce, radishes and beets between long season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, okra, cabbage, and broccoli. When the short season veggies are ready to harvest, the longer season larger vegetables will need the space.

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Planting a Garden...Jump Start the Growing Season

Don’t let cold soil and late spring frost delay the start to your garden season.

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Planting and Training Cucumbers, Squash and Melons

The soil has finally warmed and it is time to get pumpkins, melons, squash and cucumbers in the ground.

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Preserving and Sharing Your Harvest

Are you like me and always squeeze in that extra tomato plant, another row of beans or that one left over pepper plant? It seemed like a good idea at the time. But now you have more produce than you need.

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Prevent Problems in Your Vegetable Garden

Try a bit of preventative care in this year’s garden. You’ll increase your landscape’s beauty and productivity with less work on your part.

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Recycle Your Christmas Tree

Don’t drag that Christmas tree to the curb. Give it a second life in your landscape.

Cut trees make great windbreaks in the landscape. Strategically place discarded Christmas trees on the windward side of rhododendron, boxwood and other broadleaf evergreens to reduce problems with winter burn.

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Rhubarb

Grow the main ingredient for a classic, delicious, and family favorite – rhubarb pie.

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Saving Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Be a part of history and save money when planting next year’s garden. Collect and save the seeds from your favorite heirloom tomatoes this fall.

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Saving Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Be a part of history and save money when planting next year’s garden. Collect and save the seeds from your favorite heirloom tomatoes this fall.

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Sifting Through Garden Catalogs

Your mailbox and dining room table are overflowing with catalogs filled with pictures of beautiful flowers and scrumptious vegetables. With so many choices it can be a bit overwhelming – I can help.

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Space Saving Vegetable Gardening Tips

Don’t panic if your garden plans are bigger than the available planting space. I have some space saving techniques that can help you get the most out of your landscape.

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The Last of the Tomatoes

Fall has many of us scrambling to protect plants from frost, move tropicals indoors or finish harvesting our vegetables. Be sure you collect a few green tomatoes to ripen indoors.

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Three Sisters Planting Tradition

Try a Native American tradition of planting corn, squash and beans - the three sisters’ method - together in your garden this year.

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