Organic Gardening

OUR MAY 2020 VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Our May Program


GDOGC May Monthly Speaker “Virtual” Meeting
C.A. Hiscock – I’ve Moved to Texas, Now What?!
 
Important Note: While the Audelia Library re-opens on May 1, new State rules allow only for greatly reduced Library and Auditorium attendance. And social distancing and face masks continue to be the safety protocol.
So, for your health and well-being, the May Speaker Meeting will again be “virtual” and in a similar format to last month’s.

Emails have gone out to all members with a PDF of the C.A. Hissock's presentation.

 
                                                                   
If you’re used to gardening elsewhere…you’ve discovered gardening is different in North Texas!
 
Dallas Master Gardener and Master Naturalist, CA Hiscock, will help us solve for the unique challenges of gardening in North Texas. She’ll address the soil, mulching, watering, weeds, pruning, maintenance, and plant selection – all from the point of view of gardeners new to North Texas. And at the same time, provide helpful information to even seasoned DFW gardeners.
 
CA spent her first four and a half decades in New Jersey, the Garden State. She was surrounded by people growing flowers and vegetables, and spent her time outside in gardens, and on farms and in forests. When she moved to Texas in 1995, she was surprised to find how hard it was to get plants to grow in black clay soil. Master Gardener training was the beginning of learning how to cope with Texas conditions. To further her studies, she took classes at Richland Community College (when there was still a horticulture department) resulting in an associate degree in Ornamental Horticulture.
 
She enjoys working-not too hard- in her own garden and has also spent the last few years establishing and maintaining butterfly and bee habitat on the grounds of her church on Belt Line Road, in Richardson.  She has volunteered at the State Fair in Texas Discovery Gardens for almost twenty years.

SEED STARTING TIPS FROM HIGH MOWING SEEDS

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

high mowing organic seeds owler 20160302 095203 original

HIgh Mowing Organic Seeds started with a vision that we still hold today:

it is our goal to leverage the power of seed to transform our world.

OUR HISTORY

High Mowing Organic Seeds began in 1996 with just 28 varieties, many of which originated in founder Tom Stearns’ backyard. Since then, our company has grown exponentially, and what started as a one-man operation is now a thriving business making available to home gardeners and commercial growers over 600 heirloom, open-pollinated and hybrid varieties of vegetable, fruit, herb and flower seed. True to our roots, High Mowing Organic Seeds continues to source many of the varieties we sell directly from independent, passionate organic seed farmers, including from the 40 acre working farm owned and operated by Tom Stearns here in northern Vermont.

Click this link to see a video from High Mowing Seeds with great advice for having success when starting your seeds: 

 SEED STARTING TIPS

GDOGC SEED AND PLANT EXCHANGE 2019

Saturday, July 20, 2019
Believe it our not it's time to start saving those seeds for the GDOGC October 2019 Seed and Plant Exchange.
Here's a link with some guidelines for taking on that task:
https://www.planetnatural.com/seed-saving/
 
(All images courtesy Jacki Brewer)
gomphrena  Strawberry Fields Gomphrena
 
Beebalm  Bee Balm
 
Hesperaloe  Hesperaloe
 
Penstemmon  Penstemmon
 
basil  Basil
 
Echinacea Purple  Echinacea - Purple Cone Flower
 
Morning glory  GrandPa Otts purple morning glory

KEYHOLE GARDENING

Wednesday, May 08, 2019

This description is from Wikipedia:

A keyhole garden is a wide circular raised garden with a keyhole-shaped indentation on one side. The indentation allows gardeners to add uncooked vegetable scraps, greywater, and manure into a composting basket that sits in the center of the bed. In this way, composting materials can be added to the basket throughout the growing season to provide nutrients for the plants. The upper layer of soil is hilled up against the center basket so the soil slopes gently down from the center to the sides. Most keyhole gardens rise about one meter above the ground and have walls made of stone. The stone wall not only gives the garden its form, but helps trap moisture within the bed. Keyhole gardens originated in Lesotho and are well adapted to dry arid lands and deserts. In Africa they are positioned close to the kitchen and used to raise leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, and spinach; herbs; and root crops such as onions, garlic, carrots, and beets. Keyhole gardens are ideal for intensive planting, a technique in which plants are placed close together to maximize production. Plants with wide reaching root systems such as tomatoes and zucchini may not perform well in a keyhole garden.

keyhole

In this video a wire fencing is used as the surround.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYsbSBEEMeI

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