Holland: In glass horticulture planned expansions equal plans to stop

The percentage of glasshouse horticulturists with expansion plans is just about the same with 8.8% as those with plans to stop, namely 8.9%. The glasshouse vegetable sector is more positive than the average with 11% having plans to extend. This according to GlastuinbouwScanner Nederland 2011 of AgriDirect.

In the total group of glasshouse horticulturists the percentage of those with plans to extend or succession decreased by 9.5% in 2010 to 8.8% in 2011. The percentage of 'stoppers' increased in the same period from 8.4% to 8.9%. The same trends apply to companies with 2 HA or more of glass, although here the percentage of expansion plans is higher and the percentages regarding plans to stop much lower than the average in the sector.

Of the growers of vegetables under glass 11% have in the short term plans to enlarge the company or to arrange for succession. This is much higher than the average of the sector. Also the percentage of 'stoppers' in this group is one percent lower than in the total of the glasshouse horticultural sector. Growers of one-year garden and flowerbed plants are least positive, only 5.5% want to expand, 9.8% wants to stop or slow down in the short term.

Source: AgriDirect

Video on how to Build a Cold Frame

Video from Gardenfork.tv on how to build a cold frame to get a head start on starting seedlings or extending a growing season.

Kansas: Class to offer tips on fall vegetable gardens

With the beginning of August comes the time to start your fall vegetable garden. Fall vegetable gardens can actually be more productive than spring gardens. Come to Room 8 in the Multi-Purpose Events Center from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 20 to learn more about your fall vegetable garden. This class is free. A few of the topics we will cover are location of your garden, soil preparation, weed control, insects, diseases, what to plant, mulching, watering and composting. If you have ever thought about starting a fall garden or already have one and are interested in learning more, this will be a great class for you. Call 716-8610 to register.

Missouri: Get free six-week training to teach Eating from the Garden curriculum

Classes are coming up for nutrition and gardening enthusiasts who want to teach the Eating from the Garden curriculum at local schools and community centers.

The free six-week training sessions will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on:

• Aug. 12 and Aug. 19 at the MU Extension Center at Pioneer Community College, 2700 E. 18th St.
• Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 at Kansas City Community Gardens, 6917 Kensington Ave.
• Sept. 9 and Sept. 16 at the MU Extension Center, 1106 W. Main St., Blue Springs

Volunteers will receive university training in nutrition, food safety, food preparation, fruit and vegetable production, use of natural fertilizers, pest control and other practical gardening skills.

Once trained, the volunteers teach lessons in nutrition, plant science, hands-on gardening and environmental awareness to encourage fourth and fifth grade children to eat more fruits and vegetables. They also help community groups establish fruit and vegetable gardens.

To apply, contact Molly Fusselman, MU Extension horticulture educator, at fusselmanm@missouri.edu or 816-252-5051.

A growing trend: backyard gardening

Ed Davis for The Flint Journal reports on the growing trend of backyard gards as a means to save money on grocery bills or to gain a sense of community. Regardless of the reason, backyard gardening is on the rise. His article further cites examples of many who have converted more of their backyard space to gardens. Besides backyards, neighorhoods are getting involve with community garders that include churches and schools. Read complete article from the Flint Journal site>

Hot Weather Vegetables

Jane Gates of the SF Examiner covers the range of vegetables suitable for hot growing seasons and reinforces the concept of matching the appropriate vegetables with your weather conditions to maximize the odds of growing a successful vegetable garden. Her article suggests a list of excellent vegetables to grow where summers are hot – or have mixed weather – that include peppers, corn, squash, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, beans of all sorts, garlic, eggplant and more. Read more at the Examiner site.

(Photo: by Jane Gates)

A growth opportunity

By KIM PALMER
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

At 5 p.m. on a recent Tuesday, when many workers were heading home, employees at one downtown Minneapolis public relations firm capped off their workday by getting their hands dirty in a Delano, Minn., farm field. Together, they picked beans and beets, pulled weeds and hoed the pumpkin patch at the organic vegetable garden sponsored by their employer, Haberman & Associates.

"It's an experiment," said co-founder and CEO Fred Haberman, who hatched the idea earlier this year with business partner Liz Morris Otto, who hosts the garden at her hobby farm.

Read more>

Reaping from high value vegetables

By OTUSHABIRE TIBYANGYE

Ruth Nashaba has grown vegetables for 15 years. This has been on a small scale, using basic methods and poor seeds until the intervention of the district agricultural department.

In 1992, Nashaba and her village mates formed a group, Kyabaiba Abamwe Women Group in Nyabikungu Parish Rwampara, to escape poverty by pooling resources together and using proceeds from their small gardens of vegetables. However the income was not sufficient because of poor farming methods. “We were using poor seedlings and poor farming methods of draining the wetland without adding manure to the soils.

Whenever it rained, we would lose some of our crops because of cultivating in the middle of the wetland until the intervention of extension workers,” she recalls. They were taught how to use the wetland sustainably by using the periphery of the wetland. They were also taught the use of the existing rivulets to irrigate their crops using watering cans and taking water to their gardens without draining the water away.

Nashaba and her group proved good students and have started reaping big from their plots of land using high value seeds provided by the project. “We have been given high yield seeds of carrots, egg plants, tomatoes, green pepper, cauliflower and radish among others which have done very well in the first harvest,” she says.

Read more>

Program cultivates self-esteem along with produce

By SARA EDMONDS
SKAGIT VALLEY HERALD

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. -- What started out as a simple survey of what would make life better for residents of La Casa San Jose apartments, turned into a youth program focusing on education and gardening. "Parents said they wanted a safe place where their kids could get help with their homework and have some recreational opportunities," said Leah VanderStoep, resident services coordinator for the Archdiocesan Housing Authority, which operates the 50-unit property for farm workers and their families. VanderStoep's survey led to a summer program that has blossomed - and with it a half-acre vegetable garden tended by the adult residents and their children, all of whom are Latino. Not only are the children gaining knowledge in gardening, the vegetables they plant are picked and taken home to be eaten. Read more>

Let garden center leftovers feed your landscape

By Rhonda Stansberry

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Need some color? Throw a couple of potted geraniums in the cart.
Have a puny pot of petunias on the porch? Pick up a pot of those new Supertunias as replacemets. It’s that time in the growing season when discounted plants create a new frenzy of garden shopping. By mid-July, many garden centers are taking stock, lowering prices and selling off one-season annuals, often called bedding plants, that will die with the first frost. Some shops practically give away vegetable plants. And depending on the store, you might find discounts on perennials, roses, woody shrubs and trees. Various discounts could be found at most area garden shops last week. Read more>

Push edible plants for productivity

Posted by The Oregonian

July 16, 2009 05:27AM

There's a twist on the cut-and-come-again method that is usually used with greens. When carefully cut (not too low) greens can be harvested four or five times instead of once.

The twist -- pruning back a plant whose older edible parts look dry -- has advantages. First, you extend harvest. The pruning causes a flush of new edibles.

Second, this new growth not only is more tender, it also looks better on your plate and in your garden.

Read more:

Herbicide damage appearing in Montana's vegetable and bedding plants

BOZEMAN -- Montanans are reporting signs of herbicide damage to vegetable and some flower plants. Montana State University's Schutter Diagnostic Lab has received numerous reports in recent weeks of a condition that causes leaves on affected tomato, other vegetable, and flower plants to curl tightly to form "fiddleheads." Read more:
Herbicide damage appearing in Montana's vegetable and bedding plants Source: montana.edu

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Vegetable gardens can pay off in many ways | clintonnews.com | The Clinton News

When Nick Thompson was growing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, he preferred his backyard garden to playing on the beach. Thompson loved the process of planting seeds in the Coast's sandy soil, tending them through the hot summer, watching them grow and then harvesting the rewards in the form of plump tomatoes, shiny green peppers and colorful yellow squash. Read more:
Vegetable gardens can pay off in many ways clintonnews.com The Clinton News Source: clintonnews.com

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Growing own produce gains popularity | PoughkeepsieJournal.com | Poughkeepsie Journal

Even people who a year ago didn't know a raised bed from a hole in the ground are getting into the idea of growing their own food, echoing a movement popularized in 1943 by then-first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Whether it is for financial reasons, environmental or food safety concerns or simply because they like fresh, tasty food, residents are turning their lawns into a 2009 version of the Victory Garden. Many of them also plan to share the produce with the less fortunate. Read more:
Growing own produce gains popularity PoughkeepsieJournal.com Poughkeepsie Journal Source: poughkeepsiejournal.com

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JournalLive - Taste - News & Features - Window on world of vegetable growing

URBANITES across the region are being challenged to transform their window sills into tasty vegetable gardens as part of a new National Trust (NT) initiative.

Read more:
JournalLive - Taste - News & Features - Window on world of vegetable growing

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Pinch your tomatoes for better fruit production

Tomatoes, though off to a slow start with this year's cool weather, can run rampant in any garden. If they are not guided, tomatoes can spend a lot of their time growing roots, stems and leaves, but not fruit. This is why we stake our tomatoes - keeping them upright prevents them from flopping. Anywhere stems touch the ground, new roots will form. Any time a plant's energy is spent on forming roots (or anything other than flowers and fruit), that energy is diverted from creating what you really grow the plant for. Read more:
Pinch your tomatoes for better fruit production Source: examiner.com

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Trial and error can help garden provide information - Las Vegas Sun

When horticultural scientists want to determine which plants among many will meet a particular need — cultural survival, flower color, fruit taste, or vegetable nutritional content, among other qualities — they often perform what are called "variety trials." These are usually carefully controlled studies that weigh the benefits and drawbacks of different plants grown under identical conditions. Read more:
Trial and error can help garden provide information - Las Vegas Sun Source: lasvegassun.com

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Dyersburg State Gazette: Story: Farmer's Market 'Ask the Experts' begins this Saturday

Thursday, July 9, 2009 The Master Gardeners will join the Main Street Farmers Market this Saturday to offer advice and recommendations for backyard gardeners in the area. Master Gardeners members are scheduled to help at the Northwest Tennessee Horticulture and Garden Expo at Dyer County High School on July 18, but plan on manning a booth at the Farmer's Market on Saturdays throughout the season. The table will also offer flowers, shrubs, trees and vegetable plants at the table, with funds benefiting the non-profit group's activities in the community.
Dyersburg State Gazette: Story: Farmer's Market 'Ask the Experts' begins this Saturday Source: stategazette.com

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NZ: 2009 HortNZ board election results

NZ: 2009 HortNZ board election results
Andrew Fenton and Brian Gargiulo have been re-elected to the Board of Horticulture New Zealand, the organisation that represents the country’s 7,000 commercial fruit, vegetable, berryfruit and olive growers.

Read more:
NZ: 2009 HortNZ board election results

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Secrets of Watering - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com

Watering a vegetable garden, I figured, couldn't be much harder. There is the tricky matter of attaching the hose to a bold new technology called a "sprinkler." I may be an early adapter, but I managed. Read more:
Secrets of Watering - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com Source: topics.blogs.nytimes.com

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