USDA New 2012 Plant Hardiness Zones

USDA 2012 Plant Hardiness Zone Map website

Happy New Year!

A Christmas Break for the Open-Line Garden Show

The Open-Line Garden Show will return to the airwaves on 105.1 Ed-FM on Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 8:00 am.

Glider Flying_Take Off to Landing_Part 1

Glider Flying_Take Off to Landing_Part 2

The Edible Front Yard -- Book Review

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Each gardener has their individual style of gardening, in short we garden to the best of our abilities.  The "Edible Front Yard" by Ivette Soler gives numerous suggestions for the gardener to adapt to their own personal needs.

The idea most prevalent in the "Edible Front Yard" is the old idea of mixed edible plants and non-edibles to add colour, texture and of course functionality to the home garden.  Many plants in the "Edible Front Yard" are not hardy here or our growing season is not long enough.  Here you adapt their function in the garden with suitable plants to mimic them.  eg. growing citrus is not practical on many levels for me, so I use a hardy orange tree in my garden.  You can also winter some tropical effects so I winter a banana tree.  You can also surprise many people as I do with a hardy cactus.  My wife has never like the cactus, so it can stay.  I just have to trim it with a spade to control the size.
 
You should also consider local by-laws and the neighbours before you turn your front yard into edibles.  In my area the city could come in and harvest your front garden right down to the soil.  The neighbours might think I am now unemployed and desperate to have enough to eat.  This is all a good idea as long as you do not go overboard. eg: photo on pg 178.

The growing information is basic but the photographs really tell the story.  Enjoy these photographs especially the best photograph in the book on pg 152 of the lovely Lola.
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Bruce

Sugarsnaps and Strawberries -- Book Review

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Sugar Snaps and Strawberries by Andrea Bellamy is the worst named book I can remember.  With that being said, it is an excellent book for small space gardening.  It illustrates that almost any space can be a productive space. 

Growing food locally has become a trend that all long term gardeners have always known, done and benefited from.  My family has never not known fresh home grown vegetables.  In our case we have reduced what we grow to our favourites, swiss chard, red onions, carrots and lots and lots of many different kinds of tomatoes.

This book recommends seed bombing.  Please be very careful as the land is private property, the police and neighbours are not that knowledgeable, but most importantly what you are seeding can be considered invasive species or not native to the local environment.

The building of raised planters is excellent.  The section on soil gives you all the good basics but I do not use food waste in my composter because it can attract animals.  The section on garden maintenance has all the basic, the vegetable section with instructions on each vegetable is good.

Buy this book if you are a beginning gardener or any gardener who needs help with difficult or unproductive spaces of any size.
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Bruce