Savvygardener.com

Click Here For The Sweet Onion Nursery & Garden Center!

 
Visit Our Website
Previous Issues
Buyer's Guide  
Tell A Friend  

Bookstore  
Magazines 
Gardening Catalogs

Site Search
Contact Us
Submit A Tip

Feature Articles

~ When to Start
Seeds Indoors
~ Seed Starting Indoors
~ Vegetable Garden Calendar
~ Seed Starting Tomatoes

~

Shrub Pruning Calendar
~ Pruning Clematis 
~ Summer-Flowering Bulb Care
~ Drought-Tolerant Flowers for KC
~ Preparing for a Soil Test
~ Changing the pH of Your Soil
~ Growing Herbs
~ All About Composting
~ Worm Composting
~ When to Harvest Vegetables
~ Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
~ Cold Frames & Hot Beds
~ When to Divide Perennials
~ Dividing Spring Blooming Perennials
~ Forcing Bulbs Indoors
~ More...

Rose Tips
What's Hot... 
Turf Tips...
Winter Wisdom

SavvyChat
~ On-Line Gardening Forum

Books We Love
Great Products
Web Resources
Event Calendar

Local Sponsors

~ Earl May
~ The Kelly Gallery
~ Missouri Organic Recycling
~ The Sweet Onion

National Sponsors

Subscribe
Unsubscribe 
Address Change
Tell A Friend

Privacy Pledge

 

 

 

Click Here for Great Soil and Compost!

 

 

 

 

Click Here for The Kelly Gallery!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 4, 2001

Sharing, Caring, Gardening...
A couple of weeks ago Savvygardener Nancy Yuelkenbeck forwarded an email to me that really made me stop and think.  It was a story was titled Blossie, excerpted from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Home Delivery and told of a man and his wife in Portland Oregon who build gardens for the disabled and less fortunate.  In this particular story, Blossie, a woman who has recently lost both legs to diabetes, requests a garden so that she can start to maintain a healthier diet.  She also believes that having a garden will allow her the opportunity to get outside more.  To make a long (and wonderful) story short Blossie gets her garden and a new lease on life.  She calls a few of her friends from down the street who live in a housing project and invites them to share in her new garden.  The garden adds a new dimension to all of their lives.  They now meet regularly at Blossie's house to weed, take care of, and reap the rewards of the garden.  This garden has brought together women who needed each other. What a powerful story! 

I think we should all challenge ourselves more to reach out to those less fortunate.  What a difference we can make in someone's life.  Build a garden for someone or better yet, offer to help them till up the ground and plant some seeds.  It is well proven that gardening helps the mind, body and soul.  After reading the story of Blossie there is no doubt in my mind. 

April showers are here and May flowers are on the way.  I am still waiting anxiously for my daffodils to bloom.  I have seen several in bloom around town so I know that mine are not far behind.  Be careful to not work the ground when it is too wet.  You could be setting yourself up for problems down the road.  Hopefully we will get a chance to dry out this weekend with warmer temps.  Doesn't the spring air smell great?

~ Shelly  

The Rich Life...
Compost can be your garden's best friend.  Full of organic matter, rich in nutrients it's no wonder compost is often referred to as black gold.  For large quantities of compost Savvygardeners can always call on bulk soil providers like Missouri Organic Recycling.  But for an ongoing supply of compost for daily gardening activities any gardeners worth their scratch will be making their own.  If you haven't started already or just want to learn how to do it a little better take time to read All About Composting in our Features section.

Are You A Good Host?
Sometimes gardening is a lot like hosting a party.  Plants, like party guests, need to be steered toward others that will enjoy their company.  The practice of companion planting, growing vegetables in proximity to helpful plants, has become quite popular over the years.  Here are some of our favorite matchmaker tips:

Vegetable Group With Keep Distance From
Tomatoes Carrots, peppers, basil, marigold Mature dill, kohlrabi, potatoes
Beans Carrots, cucumber, pea, potatoes, radish, marigold, nasturtium, rosemary Garlic, onion, shallots, fennel, gladiolus
Peas Radish, carrots, cucumbers, celery, turnip Garlic, onion, gladiolus
Carrots Beans, radish, tomatoes, peppers, onion, sage Dill, celery
Cucumbers Corn, tomatoes, cabbage, radishes, dill, nasturtium Aromatic herbs, potatoes

For more on this fun and useful topic check out "Carrots Love Tomatoes" at Amazon.com

The Great Divide...
Dividing perennials is important for the garden and the soul.  The garden benefits because many perennials become overcrowded and need to be thinned out once in a while.  The gardener's soul benefits because it provides an opportunity to share our garden treasures with other gardeners who will go on to expand their beauty.  

Don't divide the wrong plants!  Before you start take a look at our handy guide When to Divide Perennials in our Features section.

 

Tell A Friend About Savvygardener.com!
We've Made It So Easy.
Click Here Now!

 

Contain Yourself...
Most of us grow at least a few flowers or herbs in pots - they look great and expand the garden onto decks and porches.  Well, have you ever thought of growing some vegetables this way?  It may sound unconventional at first but container vegetable gardening is perfect for people who have small plots, don't have sunny gardens, or just want to try something different.  Here are some varieties of popular vegetables that are well suited for containers:

  • Tomatoes - Patio, Pixie, Small Fry, Tiny Tim, and Tom Boy
  • Carrots - Little Finger, Lady Finger, Short 'n Sweet, and Tiny Sweet
  • Beets - Burpee Golden, Detroit Dark Red, Gladiator, Little Ball, and Ruby Queen
  • Peas - Little Marvel, Mighty Midget, and Tiny Tim
  • Cucumbers - Bush Champion, Cherokee, Challenger, Patio Pick, and Pot Luck

As always, follow the planting and care instructions provided with your seeds or plants.  Keep in mind that container vegetables will need to be watered more often than those in a traditional garden.   Containers just dry out faster.  Check the soil at least once a day especially when the weather gets warmer.

Farewell Frost?
These bursts of warm weather can sure put a spell on a winter weary gardener.  It's all to easy to convince oneself that the cold is behind us and it's time to get planting.  After all our last frost date is only two weeks away right?  Well... Yes and no.  You see, even though the Kansas City metro has an official "frost free" date around April 15 that doesn't mean that the frosts are over.  It means there is still a 50% chance of frost on this date - not the best odds when your plants are on the line.  We are a bit conservative here at Savvygardener.com and as a rule don't plant any tender plants outdoors until the first full weekend in May. 

What's Hot On The Hotline...
It's easy to tell that spring has arrived by the calls on the hotline.  From lawns to pruning to preparing the garden for growing your questions are answered in this week's What's Hot on the Hotline... 

Zoysia Zzzz's...
If you have a zoysia lawn it is still dormant and you should not be applying any fertilizer to it.  Any fertilizer added now will just feed the weeds and they're overfed as it is.  Be patient.  You should be able to fertilize your zoysia lawn in about six weeks.

Finally...
"Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.  You are always living three, or indeed six, months hence.  I believe that people entirely devoid of imagination never can be really good gardeners.  To be content with the present, and not striving about the future, is fatal."

~ Alice Morse Earle, 1851-1911, Author

 

 

Click Here for Earl May Garden Centers

© 1999-2000 Savvygardener.com, Inc. All rights reserved.  If you wish to copy, transmit, or otherwise duplicate any of the material from our website please ask us first.  Thank you.o