GardenSpotlight

Did you know that purchasing your food locally has many benefits, not only to you, but to your community as well?   Here is a short list of the benefits of buying food directly from the farmer: 1.        Produce and other products are much more fresh and nutritious because they have been recently harvested, usually within 24 hours. 2.        It strengthens your local economy. 3.        It benefits the farming family. 4.        It helps provide food to underserved communities. 5.        You learn about how and where your food is raised by getting to know the farmers. That being said, there are many ways you can purchase local food fresh.   One is by going directly to the farm.   The majority of farms in this county are family owned and operated and the growing trend for smaller farms is marketing directly to the consumer, rather than selling wholesale to a broker.   Another is by purchasing a share in a local CSA.   CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is an arrangement where the

Many diseases of plants can be kept at bay with good cultural practices.   Keeping plants healthy actually begins with choosing the right plants for your location.   It also includes proper watering and nutrition and cleaning of plant material and the surrounding areas. When choosing plants for your garden, what type of lighting conditions prevail where you are planting?   Is it shady all day or is it sunny?   Perhaps the area only gets sun in the morning or afternoon for part of the day.   This affects not only the types of plants that will perform well in those conditions, but also how much watering you’ll need to do during the season.   If the area remains wet all the time, it will predispose the plants and soil to disease.   So for a shady garden, you will not need to water as frequently as you would for a sunny location.   It is also important to water in the morning, or at least well enough in advance so that the plants are not wet at nightfall. Fertilizing your plants during t

Last time we talked about starting your spring plants indoors.   If it’s too much for you to consider, or you just don’t have the room, you can always visit your favorite local garden center to purchase plants for your garden in the spring.     You should keep in mind a few points while making your choices. Look for local growers as their plants will adapt more readily to your garden since they are grown here.      There are many retailers who bring plants in for sale from out of the area, usually from areas where they have longer, earlier grower seasons.   Because diseases and insects have specific life cycles, and because the growing season begins earlier in these other locations than here in the North, there is the strong possibility that plants from these regions can transport diseases and/or insects into the Northern zones, before their natural cycle would normally begin in our area.   Such was the case with Late Blight just a short time ago in 2009.   Late blight is a fungus of