While you are out enjoying the amazing spring weather hitting most of the Midwest this weekend be sure to think of gardening in your own space. It doesn’t matter if you have a big space or small space to garden Romaine lettuce is one the easiest veggies to grow this time of year. You can find starter plants of lettuce at most garden centers or I would encourage you to try growing them from seed. I’ve had the best results from Territorial Seed Company Romaine Mix in my garden and greenhouse where I grow lettuce year-round.
In the top image on this blog post I’ve mixed romaine lettuce I grew from seed, Gerbera Daisy from my friends at Costa Farms and Pansies from a local IGC. I love mixing it up because this is what gardening is to me!
Have fun and try growing something to bring to your dinner table this season!
Today in Texas I had the job of photography and videoing the installation of the Miracle-Gro® Gro Your Own™ grand prize, a dream edible garden makeover.. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day in the south with clear skies, raised beds being put in and healthy plants being planted for a community new to gardening.
Debbie in Her New Community Garden
The winner of the garden giveaway by Miracle -Gro® was Debbie of Dallas Texas. Debbie told me that she use to be a school teacher in Rhode Island but had a serious back injury while dealing with some back issues. She currently lives in a beautiful gated community in Texas and was excited to win the garden sweepstakes so she could get her community involved with gardening. In this contest Debbie won a trip to America’s Test Kitchen Studio and a dream edible garden by Miracle Gro. How Cool is that?!
The Really cool thing about this garden is it is in the middle of a very ‘grassy’ gated community filled with many who are new to gardening. Now the people in Debbie’s community can enjoy growing their own herbs, veggies and more right in their own backyards together
My Interview with Debbie
Check out America’s Test Kitchenthat airs on PBS. For more information about this project follow #MGFirstBite on Twitter.
Spring is here and it is time to get in the garden. I’m down in Dallas, Texas tomorrow sharing on-location via live stream a community garden filled with veggies and blooms being installed. This garden was part of a contest put on by the T.V. Show America’s Test Kitchen and Miracle Gro. The really cool thing about this garden is it is being put in for the community to enjoy in a location that didn’t have a garden. Just think of the people being inspired by this garden. I’m looking forward to snapping photos and sharing video from this event.
When I’m live streaming from the event it will appear in this box above. IF you can’t view this please click here. Be sure to follow along at #MGfirstbite on Twitter as well.
I hope to visit a garden center as well as a local garden during my stay in Dallas the next few days. I will share what our southern garden friends are growing this time of year during this time.
At the age of 12 years old if you would have asked me if I liked strawberries my answer would have been a quick to change the subject NO. My history with the berry started in my preteen days when my parents had recently moved to the ‘country’ and decided they were going to be farmers. Clearly in their minds it wasn’t the 100,000 acre feed a nation farmer but rather like the movement we call hobby farming today. My parents grown from seed garden was in the full sun backyard home on our 2 acre lot located off of a Michigan dirt road. I love the state of Michigan but the ugly cloud of my parents strawberry garden is always there raining on my happy memories. You see, my parents planted berries in this huge garden as newbies and sent their four older children ( which included me) out to weed it. Sad to say, I wasn’t listening when my parents shared what was the actual berry plant and I ‘weeded’ a few of them. After experience the ‘wrath of my Father’ I was not a big fan of berries not to mention anything to do with growing your own food.
This is the only image I have from a mobile tweet share of my healthy strawberry patch 2011.
As I grew up and found myself growing into a garden that fit my adult life you can imaging my excitement to have my own space to try growing strawberries. After talking to a few of the local growers I had decided on the June berry variety. Click over to my post to see the amazing harvest I was enjoying with my family until the ’2011 berry plant massacre’ . Last summer after my husband finished off his sprayer mix of pesticides in his orchard area in my strawberry patch I couldn’t even walk past my strawberry patch without tearing up.
My June Berry Plants in April 2012
My solution to the pesticide ( name of ) that had basically fried that beautiful green in the image I feature above was to pull out all the remaining green on the surface of this area and begin washing the area with hopes of saving a few plants. I begin mixing in bunny compost and fresh soil but didn’t expect to get any crop from this area in 2011. After my husband spent the entire summer feeling really bad about what he had done to my beautiful strawberry patch we don’t bring up the subject. It is now a given for him to not come any where near my portions of our yard with his remedies of growing things.
Strawberry Top Dressing Mix
Last night I finished up the weeding in the strawberry patch and added a compost mix I put together using what I have at home that is all natural. The mixture in was basically a 1/2 wheel barrow of bunny compost that had sat for a few months, 1/4 wheel barrow full of soil from one of my raised beds and 1/4 wheel barrow of all natural ( organic) peat moss that I use in my seed starting mix. I carefully worked this wheel barrow mixture in between the plants in the patch.
Berry Patch with Pine Needle Mulching
The next thing I did was rake up some pine needles from under one of our larger trees near the garden to lay in between the plants. I figure this will help hold moisture ( if we get any rain!) and also help keep the weeds out of the bed for minimal weeding chores.
Generous Sprinkle of Deer Away Mix
The last step before putting the wheel barrow away was to sprinkle a good helping of this Messina Animal Stop product on the bed. It smells really nice so I’m not sure how this will keep the deer from nibbling on my plants but I will for sure keep you posted on if this works.
My Strawberry Patch 2012
After all my hard work this afternoon I’m hoping this will guarantee a harvest later in the grow season because I really love being able to prepare a few jars of jam and mouth watering recipes with the berries I grow myself!
I was inspired to share this post on Friday to contribute to my friend Glenda’s Fertilize Friday. Be sure to stop over to her site at check out all the wonderful flowers her friends are sharing on this day.
While in Philadelphia the first of April for the #PF3 ( Philadelphia Farm and Food Festival) I met with some inspiring foodies. Nothing better then food peeps who enjoy growing with they are going to fix up for their families dinner table if you ask me! One of the attendees of this event was the folks from Winter Sun Farms. Whoever thought of bringing this amazing corn and green bean salad as the sample to be served to those attending the event is BRILLIANT! The corn was like the ray of sunshine featured in their logo on the right of this paragraph. I can’t wait to make up this recipe for my family with the fresh corn and green beans I will be growing in my garden this summer.
Find out more about the Philly Farm and Food Fest and all the awesome things Subaru USA does for the gardening industry by Clicking HERE for full coverage from the event.
I was working all day at the #PF3 taking photographs and networking the event that I forgot to take a lunch break. It was hard to decline when asked if I’d like to try a sample of the salad featured above. If you’d like to try the recipe click over to the Winter Sun Farms Website for the PDF print out. You are gonna want to prepare this for the next cook-out event with your family and friends.
What is Winter Sun Farms all about ? They are local food advocates who passionately believe in eating real food, produced closer to home. Find out more at their website.
Spring has sprung super early in most of the Midwest gardens this year due to unseasonable warm temperatures. It has been exciting to see all the green that isn’t usually present in my typical spring photography shares from my garden. Today to contribute to the Fertilize Friday blogger event that takes place every week at my friend Glenda’s site - TootsieTime.com Ive shared the image above. I’m excited to see the deep colors coming from that peonies tree in my greenhouse landscaping. I purchased that perennial while visiting with my friend Danielle in Seattle. She had taken me to some amazing Seattle garden centers while I was in town for the 2011 North West Flower and Garden Show. If you’d like to see more of my Ohio Spring Garden please click over to my photo album slide show I’ve uploaded to my website at BGgarden.com/Ohio Spring Garden.
I’m not sure what that white plant is blooming just below the peonies tree so if you can help me out by leaving a comment or tweeting to me at BGgarden on Twitter that would be AWESOME!
Shares with my Iphone : Road Trip in Dallas
While in Philadelphia the first of April for the 
