By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

I have always associated the start of spring not by what is on the calendar but what I plant in the garden.

The planting of fresh spinach, and Bibb lettuce along with green onions has always marked the start of spring on my planting calendar.

But planting the first spring bed requires some tricks of the trade.

Green Onions

These beauties are easy to grow and are a vegetable to start with if you are a beginning vegetable gardener. I have never planted green onions in any area they did not grow.

A loamy soil mixed with compost is perfect. They can also be planted in containers but regardless of where you plant them there does exist a trick of the trade.

This trick goes against Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

I have a dream not like the dream Martin Luther King had about freedom and equality but instead a dream about a potager (French jardin potager) or kitchen garden.

How wonderful it would be to step out into a stylish, well-designed kitchen garden and pick my groceries for the day along with fresh flowers.

How great does that sound?

If this is your dream too, do not dither and feel it cannot be done. This type of garden while not designed like our American gardens with plants in rows like soldiers going to battle is easier and produces more in variety in the same amount of space.

Kitchen gardens are placed near Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Nothing beats the smell of Thanksgiving turkey with woody tones of sage gracing my kitchen air.

Sage is a newcomer to the culinary world but not to the horticulture environment.

It was valued as a medicine and food preservative and did not enter the kitchen setting until the 17th century.

This herb also received the spotlight when it was named the Herb of the Year in 2001. But what is sage?

Sage is part of the mint family but does not have the habit of taking over a garden. It is considered a woody perennial shrub that fits into any style landscape or container garden. Sage has many faces that Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

One of my favorite pizza places also houses a microbrewery that makes the best beer.

While I love the atmosphere that the restaurant oozes and the shiny beer equipment catches my eye I decided this year that would make my own beer.

I would even take it to the point to grow my own hops on my very own urban farm of 1/5 acre.

Hops can grow anywhere in the United States and can be found in mass growing in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. The hop plant (Humulus lupulus) is a very fast growing plant that requires lots of sunlight and nutrients to support this explosive growth. This explosive growth occurs in only 4 months and can be seen by the normal 30-foot long vines or bines.

Hops are perennials that Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Just the other day I was talking to a woman in the grocery store about her garden.

She was describing to me some gardening problems she was having.

Tomato hornworms, bottom rot, and stink bugs were just a few of the problems she was having in her garden.

But what really concerned me was a question she asked me when we were talking about manure.

I told her how to prepare her garden for next year and offered some suggestions of things she needed to look for in the future for the garden. One of the things was manure.

I told her she needed to make sure the cow manure she was using was not “green.” She looked at me and asked was it really “green” because what she was using was brown not “green” so it was o.k. To my surprise s Read the rest of this entry »