By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day, I was asked to create a garden space based on a children’s book.

I thought and thought about my favorite books as a youth.

Many titles came to mind but none of them really fit into a garden design until . . . A community gardener approached me with a rabbit problem and there it was a classic children’s book Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

This design can be created in a traditional manner by tilling and processing the soil or in a container garden.

To create your own Peter Rabbit Garden, you will first need a few plants, sets and/or seeds. You will need onion sets, carrot seeds, lettuce, cabbage plants, radishes, and parsley. Once you have your plant and/or seeds, the next step is to prepare the planting medium. For this project, I am going to describe how to build a Peter Rabbit Garden in a container.

The container will need to be at least six inches deep Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Growing up on a farm was the best life possible but the world of horticulture and agriculture was limited to what I saw out in the field and the lawn.

I was very accustomed to corn, beans, tomatoes, apples, peaches, plums, persimmons, and varies nut trees but beyond that my world was limited.

My parents’ home was full of plants that seemed to be part of the family.

I knew every common name and who gave the plant. In the guest room was a succulent that came from my Great-Great-Grandmother who came from Germany. Another plant that sat in my parents’ room came from my Great-Grandmother who crossed the plains to make her way to Lexington, Kentucky.

My mother’s collection increased when I enrolled Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day, I was reading an article about how to stretch ones food budget.

The article had suggestions like using coupons, buying BOGOs and such but what really caught my eye was a list of vegetables.

This list was not just a random hit list but instead was a list of vegetables with the highest nutritional value per cost.

As you can imagine, I was in ah. How could we create such a travesty and not value each and every vegetable. But on the same token, when one is on a strict food budget, stretching this budget while providing wholesome meals can be a challenge.

One of the vegetables that were on the food budget hit list was the cucumber. How I thought this was sooooooooo sad. What would salads be like without the crunch of that delicious vegetable? And what would I put in my potato salad or top my hamburgers with? Lastly, what would I use on my “girlie” days when I am giving myself a facial, if I did not grow cucumbers.

So to prove my point that the cucumber is an important vegetable, I plan to demonstrate how easy it is to grow them.

Cucumbers are a warm season vegetable that is started in the garden space. You typically plant two seeds ½ to 1-inch deep Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As a child, I knew when spring had finally arrived.

It was not the site of robins or bluebirds in my area but instead green onions or the planting of green onions.

I knew once my dad got the sets that spring had sprung.

But…… as you can image that is not the end of the story.

While I have never liked green onions, my mother and Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

I learned a long time ago, that preventing a problem is a lot easier then solving a problem and this is very true when it comes to gardening.

Many gardening problems could have been avoided, if only the gardener had stopped and thought about the situation.

One of the easiest things a gardener can do to prevent a problem is to clean the area that you will be working in and when I mean clean, I mean clean.

If you are going to garden in a container, then all the containers, drainage material and hand tools need to be cleaned.

While one may thing that cleaning before you put away the materials in the fall would be a way of saving time, it really is not. When the items are brought back out the next gardening year, they should be cleaned again. The simple reason being is Read the rest of this entry »