By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Being a native of Indiana, I have had my fair share of wild paw-paws.

These banana-tasting delights have been a weakness of mine for years but as urban sprawl as spread across Indiana these lovelies are harder to find.

But there is answer to my dilemma and that is to grow my own.

Paw-paws can be obtained through seed catalogs and bought as seedlings or seeds. If the seedlings are large, they can be hard to transplant so I have decided to go with seeds. But when you go with seeds, you cannot just bring them home and plant them.

Instead, the seeds need to be cold stratified for 90 to 120 days. This process can be done in two different ways. The first way is to place them on top of the garden soil in the fall and allow them to over winter. Come summertime, the seeds will begin to germinate.

The second way of performing cold stratification is by Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

I love every thing lemon.

Lemon tea, lemon drops and even lemonade tease my taste buds into a frenzy but as much as I love lemon I also love Thai food.

So this year, I have decided to combine both of my loves and grow some lemongrass.

Throughout my gardening years, I have developed a pretty large collection of herbs but have never had lemongrass. So one day, while I was at one of my favorite seed store, I decided to buy some lemongrass seed. Once I got it home, I begin to read the package and immediately started to plant.

Lemongrass seed is very small and can take up to Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day, I was in one of my favorite stores and you guessed it, it was an old-fashioned feed and seed.

Well, as I was looking through the seeds, tubers, and other types of plant material, I came upon a seed packet that caught my eye.

While I have already spent my garden budget, I just had to have these seeds and while I knew my chances of success were limited, I just had to try.

So to the checkout I went with my little package of sweet gold and that is the stevia plant.

Stevia started from seed has about a 10 percent germination rate but Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

I love the simple things in life and I really like the simplicity of real food.

Nothing beats getting up in the morning and deciding what is going to be for breakfast, lunch, and dinner solely based on what is in the garden not what is on sale at the store.

But before you grab your seed catalog and start ordering asparagus crowns, lets talk about growing it right.

Asparagus is a hardy, perennial vegetable that is grown in a bed. It can be started from seed or crowns. But unless you are a purest, I would recommend using male crowns. This type of crown uses its energy in spear production instead of seed production.

Once you order your crowns, it is time to prepare the bed area. Asparagus likes a well-drained soil that has a neutral pH, which is between 6.5 and 7.5. Asparagus also likes a lot of phosphorus and this can be dealt with through the application of weedless compost.

To begin the asparagus bed process, one must first Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day, I was surfing the Internet and found this new gardening product.

It is not a new tool nor is it a new organic fertilizer but instead a very ingenious way of displaying plant material.

But before I tell you what it is, I would like to say that its simplistic design makes it even more special.

And with a drum roll off water barrels, I would like to introduce the Plantominium.

This product is a wonderful invention that allows a gardener to utilize the vertical plane in a stylish manner. It consists of a long, vertical strip of clear plastic that has seven horizontal strips of plastic going across like floors on a condominium. The Plantominium kit consists of this strip and two hooks with a swivel.

The simple design of this product is what makes it so unique and easy to assemble. Once you get the strip out of the package, the first step is to secure it to the hooks and swivel. This is done by simply folding the top strip upon itself and placing it over the bottom hook. Once this is done, now you are ready to fill in Plantominium.

The Plantominium is designed to hold Read the rest of this entry »