Greenhouse Seminar

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to let you know of a free seminar that's coming up.  Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse is putting on a Greenhouse Building seminar.  Here are the details:

"Greenhouses Made Simple"
presented by Master Gardener Gerald Frimann
Where: Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse, 4400 W Crawford St., Denison, Texas
When: Wednesday Oct 26th
Time: 2pm - 3pm

If you have any interest in building your own greenhouse, this might be just the talk for you.  Here is a link to their web page for more information:   http://www.sweetwaterfarmplants.com/

 Hope to see you there!

Tim Gamble: How To Make a Forest Garden, part two

Tim Gamble: How To Make a Forest Garden, part two: This is the second part of a three part essay on how to get started in forest gardening (read part one by clicking here ). For those unfami...

Tim Gamble: How To Make a Forest Garden, part one

Tim Gamble: How To Make a Forest Garden, part one: Forest gardening is a type of permaculture in which trees and other plants are grown for food, fuel, fiber, medicine and other resources in...

Tim Gamble: Introduction To Forest Gardening

I just stumbled onto Tim's blog, which covers many topics, including gardening, homesteading, and prepping. He wrote a three part series on forest gardening that I just love. It does a fantastic job of describing how to build a food forest. Rather than retread ground that he has already covered, I'll post his series here, and blog myself about building a food forest specifically in Texoma at a future date. Dig around Tim's blog if you have time. There's lots more to read!

Tim Gamble: Introduction To Forest Gardening: Since the beginning of mankind, various groups of people have purposely maintained forests and woodland areas, benefiting from the food, fue...

Video - Seed Saving Tips

Marjory Wildcraft of Backyard Food Productions brings us a short video of tips on saving and storing seeds.

Goldenrod

“One gardener’s lifelong enemy is another’s lifesaving herb, and another’s treasured border plant”.    This quote came from Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs and was told in association with Goldenrod.  Goldenrod grows wild on our property and I think it’s great!  It is lovely to look at and attracts bees and wasps to the garden.  This is one of the reasons that it makes a good companion plant.  Another reason is that it repels some pests.  Whether you like it or not, you likely will have to decide what to do about it because it is native to Texas and according to some, does best in poor soil.  No wonder it thrives here!  

It is a beautiful flower and dries well, so it is a nice addition to dried flower arrangements.  It can be used to make varying shades of yellow dye and makes a tasty tea.  As a matter of fact, some people claim that after the Boston Tea Party, tea for drinking became scarce.  Liberty Tea, made from the ever abundant goldenrod was a common replacement and became so popular that is was exported to China. 

To the medicinal herbalist, the goldenrod has a long history or uses in North America, Europe and China.  It has been used as astringents, diuretics and diaphoretics, as well as for sore throats, bladder and kidney infections, headaches, flu and even flatulence.   Whether or not any of these things truly works or not, I don’t know but it does seem that no serious illnesses have been associated with the plant. 

If you want another piece of fun trivia about goldenrod, according to the Wikipedia article on the subject, Henry Ford gave Thomas Edison a Model T whose tires were made of rubber from the goldenrod plant.  How about that!

Enough of the history lesson - whether you think it’s a weed or a welcome addition to your flower bed, goldenrod is here to stay in NE Texas.   It has a long history associated with it, and maybe I’ve given you something to think about the next time you see a field of goldenrod waving in the breeze.   If you don’t have any growing wild around your place and would like to add some, you can either hit up one of your friends with an ample supply or find it at a local nursery.  

Until next time, happy gardening!

No Dig Sandwich Garden Beds

Janet from New Zealand has a great video on creating what she calls a sandwich garden in a raised bed (reminds me of lasagna gardening).  It includes suggestions on what you can use to build a garden bed into.  It's easier than you think, and you can even do this on a balcony or fire escape.  Janet has a great collection of videos at her You Tube channel, greenurbanliving.  Please check her out!

If you're wondering why on earth I'd post something like this in the fall, when many people are done gardening for the year, then I'll tell you.  If you're living in Texoma, or in any part of the country that boasts a long growing season, then you've still got time to grow a few things.  Cool weather crops like lettuces, cabbages, and peas usually grow beautifully and quickly for us at this time of year.  Also these grow direct from seed, so they're easy.  You can put together a quick bed, and sow it with a variety of these quickies for a harvest now, while all the lovely layers you laid in process down for a nice, fertile garden bed come spring.
If you're not able to put a bed like this together now, then note that Janet has a few bags of dried leaves making up a few layers.  You can gather up bagsful of fall leaves now if you like, and store them for use later.  My only advice on that would be to have a care where you store the bags, so the wind and rain don't stomp the leaves to bits.  If the leaves do get stomped to bits, well heck, use them anyway.  Oh, and keep them in a dry spot, or they'll turn into something unspeakable!