About.com Organic Gardening

Reader Question: Fall-Planted Garlic is Sprouting

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:51:37 +0000

A reader from Minneapolis emailed me:

"Hi Colleen. I planted hardneck garlic in October, following the instructions provided by the company I ordered the garlic from. I checked the other day, and it is producing green sprouts already. I thought nothing would happen until spring. Is this going to mess up my garlic harvest next year?"

The warm fall we've seen throughout much of the U.S. and Canada has resulted in more than a few late season surprises. One of them is that the garlic we planted in mid October or so is sending up green growth when it is supposed to be focusing on building a robust root system.

The good news is that this is common when we have warm autumn weather, and that it won't cause any harm to your garlic harvest. The growth will stop once it gets cold again. Once you get a good hard freeze, add a few inches of mulch, such as leaves or grass clippings, to the area for a bit of added protection, and you'll be all set. Growth will resume in the spring, and you can harvest and eat the scapes (green stalks) in mid-spring.

Thanks for the great question!

Reader Question: Fall-Planted Garlic is Sprouting originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 08:51:37.

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Composting Pizza Boxes

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:59:59 +0000

Earlier today on Twitter, I was following a discussion about an interesting article that explained the difficulties in recycling pizza boxes. Even though they are made of corrugated cardboard, which is definitely recyclable, the inevitable grease stains are a no-no. The article mentioned that you can rip off the clean parts and recycle those. My response:

"Compost it!"

The person responded that they thought that the grease on the box would be bad for the compost. The amount of residual grease on a corrugated pizza box is not going to cause any problems in your compost pile. At the most, it could attract rodents or stray dogs, who will smell the pizza-ey goodness and want to investigate. If you're concerned about this, just bury the greasy part of the box about a foot deep in your compost pile, and you shouldn't have a problem. Tear or cut the box into smaller pieces first so they'll break down faster.

The grease really isn't a problem. I wouldn't recommend putting tons of greasy food and paper in the pile, but the occasional shredded or torn pizza box is nothing to worry about. And if you'd rather not compost your used pizza box, you can flatten it out and use it to smother weeds or grass elsewhere in your garden.

Composting Pizza Boxes originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 20:59:59.

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Poll: What Do You Want to Learn?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:53:29 +0000

I want to thank everyone who participated in my earlier poll about which vegetables you'd like to learn to grow. That was immensely helpful in my planning for the next few months of writing articles at About Organic Gardening. In the same vein, I'd like to ask you one more question: What do you want to learn more about? Please take the poll, and if there's an option you want to learn about that wasn't included in the poll, please tell me about it in the comments. Thanks so much for your feedback!

Poll: What Do You Want to Learn? originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 20:53:29.

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Twitter for Gardeners

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:30:41 +0000

It took a while for me to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. I sneered at what I assumed was a bunch of people telling the world what they had for lunch. I wondered, how much can you really say in 140 characters?

And then I started tweeting. And what I learned is that the value of your Twitter experience is all about who you follow. The first people I sought out on Twitter were garden bloggers I knew who were tweeting, then my fellow About.com guides, and other garden writers. It's been a great experience. I love being able to see what everyone else is doing, and if you have a question, asking it on Twitter is almost guaranteed to elicit a helpful response. The recent addition of Twitter lists makes it even easier to find people to follow. With all of this in mind, may I suggest a few really good Twitter lists for gardeners to follow?

And, if you're so inclined, you can also follow yours truly on Twitter here. Do you Tweet? Share your Twitter name in the comments!

Twitter for Gardeners originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 09:30:41.

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Compost Your Pumpkins!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:36:41 +0000

So, Halloween is over, even though the candy remains and the jack-o-lanterns are beginning to slump on the porch, looking like they're nodding off while on duty. You say you were going to throw them away? Forget putting them on the curb -- jack-o-lanterns are great additions to your compost pile. The main thing to remember about composting your jack-o-lanterns is that it's best to chop them up a bit, and then cover them with a nice, thick layer of straw or leaves so that they'll break down over the winter, and also so they don't attract rodent pests to your pile. In all honesty, though, the squirrels seem to enjoy my pumpkins more before Halloween, when I want to keep them nice and free of rodent bite marks, than after. It's almost a guarantee that after October 31st, my resident squirrels have gone from craving pumpkin to jonesing for tulip bulbs. Or maybe my squirrels are just messing with me... But, I digress. My point is: compost those pumpkins! They decompose very quickly and add a bit of "green" matter to the pile during a time of year when "browns" are in abundance. Do you compost your jack-o-lanterns?

Compost Your Pumpkins! originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 21:36:41.

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"The Botany of Desire" on PBS

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:40:20 +0000

Did any of you happen to catch "The Botany of Desire" on PBS last night? I had the DVR set, and happily, the kids were (mostly) asleep so I was able to watch more than I thought I'd be able to. While I kind of zoned out during some parts of it (not much interest on my part about growing a certain weed (ahem) but still impressed at the ingenuity of the growers of said weed) I did enjoy the segments about the apple and the potato.

What I appreciated most of all, from a gardener's standpoint, is that Pollan makes a strong case that we are part of nature, not standing apart from it. That as much as we may believe we have a modicum of control over the natural world, it has just as much control over us. It's a viewpoint I've believed in since I started gardening as a teenager, and I think it's one that most die-hard gardeners have. As much as we may try to control what happens in our garden, nature will do its own thing. We can try to restrict where the Nigella grows, but it's almost a guarantee that it will pop up somewhere totally different, and usually in a spot that does more for the plant's own self-preservation than it does for the aesthetics of our garden. Such is life in the garden.

Besides the overarching theme of "plants doing what they can to survive," I was happy to see Pollan make the point again and again about the danger of monocultures. There was also quite a bit of discussion about GMOs, especially in the segment about potatoes. I was very, very happy to see that the documentary profiled an organic potato farmer who was doing everything right and succeeding amid the conventional farms he was surrounded by.

If you weren't able to watch "The Botany of Desire" last night, it will be re-broadcast several times in the upcoming week or so on most PBS stations. Check the website for information about the show, as well as the broadcast schedule.

Did you watch "The Botany of Desire?" Have you read the book? Thoughts and opinions, please!

"The Botany of Desire" on PBS originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 06:40:20.

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Poll: What Vegetables Do You Want to Learn to Grow?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:52:38 +0000

I'm putting together my editorial calendar for November, and, rather than just writing about the topics I find interesting, I want to hear from you! There will be a few polls this week so I can gauge your interest in a variety of topics. Today, I'm wondering which vegetables you want to learn to grow organically. Please take the poll, and if I haven't included a vegetable that you're interested in, please tell me about it in the comments. I appreciate your input!

Poll: What Vegetables Do You Want to Learn to Grow? originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 09:52:38.

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Using Autumn Leaves in the Garden

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:41:12 +0000

It is my favorite time of year, which may be a surprise, considering how much I love my garden. And while it's bittersweet, putting most of my garden to bed is a lovely experience when it can be done in cool, crisp weather with hundreds of flame-colored leaves drifting down around me.

There is, of course, a more practical reason for my love of fall. All of those leaves go to work in my garden, improving my soil. I have six large shade trees on my lot, and I still find myself stealing my neighbor's leaves off of the curb. It's a sickness, I tell you....

Anyway. There are five main ways I use leaves in my garden:
1. Shred them with a lawn mower (or a chipper/shredder, if you've got it) and use them to mulch garden beds after the ground freezes.

2. Shred them and dig them into your garden beds. They'll break down over the winter, and your soil will have received a nice dose of organic matter.

3. Make a lasagna bed!

4. Keep a bag or a few buckets of them, and set them aside to add to your compost pile throughout the winter. Anytime you add food scraps or other "green" stuff to the compost pile, throw some leaves in there, too.

5. Make leaf mold.

Leaves also work well in your vermicomposting bin, but don't add too many, because they can mat down and create an anaerobic environment for your worms.

Do you hoard your fall leaves? What's your favorite way to use them in the garden?

Using Autumn Leaves in the Garden originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 14:41:12.

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What Gardeners Can Do to Combat Climate Change

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:42:44 +0000

Change begins at home, and for those of us who would rather be in the garden than anywhere else, the garden is a perfect place to wage war on climate change. Here are 5 things you can do in your garden to have a positive impact on the environment:

Grow your own organic food. How we eat has a huge impact on the environment. The way our food is grown and transported is, generally, atrocious. We're so used to eating bland food grown in pesticide-laden fields and then shipped across the country or around the world that we've lost most of our connection to "real food." Grow a window box of mesclun, a few tomato plants in pots on your patio, or a sprawling vegetable garden. No matter what you do, it will have a positive impact on the planet.

Use human power whenever possible. Trade the gas mower for a reel mower and the leaf blower for a rake. You'll reduce the amount of harmful emissions generated by typical landscaping machinery and get good exercise to boot.

Plant a tree. Or, as my Twitter pal, landscape designer Susan Cohan, advises "plant a whole forest of them." Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, shade our homes (so we use less energy cooling our homes in the summer), and provide homes for wildlife (among many other things.)

Compost your food, lawn, and garden waste. Many people think that it's all the same, that organic matter will break down the same whether it's in a landfill or in your compost pile. Not true -- in a landfill, because of the sheer mass and compaction of materials, organic matter breaks down anaerobically, accounting for 34% of all methane emissions produced in the U.S. every year. Compost it instead, and you'll be doing double duty by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and producing something that will improve your soil and allow you to grow healthier plants.

And, finally (though it's fairly obvious that I'd recommend this) garden organically. Eschew the use of synthetic herbicides and pesticides, many of which are derived from petroleum. Take the time to learn about the plants and creatures inhabiting your garden, and find Earth-friendly ways to deal with problems when they arise. The "ease" of spraying an offending weed or insect with a chemical is short-sighted and not nearly as effective as the ads would have us believe, and causes far more harm than good.

Gardeners are powerful. We can shrug our shoulders and decide that issues like climate change are beyond our control, or we can use what we have and run screaming into the fray like Mel Gibson in "Braveheart." Actions beget actions; one small change leads to more and inspires those around us. All it takes is one gardener at a time, deciding to take action and make the world a better place. Is it you?

This is my contribution to Blog Action Day 2009. Check out the Blog Action Day site for other informative posts, as well as my pal Kerry Michaels' (our About.com Container Gardening Guide) great post on the subject.

What Gardeners Can Do to Combat Climate Change originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 12:42:44.

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Expanding My Garden Beds

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:06:15 +0000

Now that the trees are starting to shed their leaves in my neighborhood, I'm just about ready to put the next phase of our garden expansion into action. Because I abhor removing sod, all of my beds now are either raised beds or lasagna gardens. Fall is the perfect time to create a lasagna bed, because there is a wealth of organic matter around at this time of year. I've been stockpiling newspaper for weeks now, and once the leaves start dropping more heavily, I'll use those, along with compost, straw, food scraps, and grass clippings, to create more space to garden.

At this point in my garden's evolution, I have all of my beds in place. The next step is to expand them. This year, I'm focusing on getting rid of more of my front lawn. I did a lot of work on it last year, and I'm loving the changes I've seen. When most people think of lasagna gardening, they naturally think of creating a brand new bed where there was nothing before. But the lasagna method is also excellent for expanding an existing bed. Yes, it will look funny at first, with the edges up to two feet taller than the original part of the bed. But by spring, it will be very close to the level of the existing part of the garden, and you can either rake the excess out to level it or topdress the older part of the bed with a couple inches of compost to bring the level up. It will all work out, and you don't have to dig out a single piece of sod to make it happen.

Expanding My Garden Beds originally appeared on About.com Organic Gardening on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 22:06:15.

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