States in the mid-Atlantic region, from New York to Washington, D.C., could experience frost over the weekend and colder than normal temperatures through mid-May. New York highs are expected to only reach in the 50s on Saturday, some of the coldest on record for May.
Record cold forecast for the weekend
States in the mid-Atlantic region, from New York to Washington, D.C., could experience frost over the weekend and colder than normal temperatures through mid-May. New York highs are expected to only reach in the 50s on Saturday, some of the coldest on record for May.
Gardening show on the radio
For several years I’ve enjoyed listening to an excellent gardening show
on the radio. It is a nationally syndicated show produced at the Rodale
Institute Radio Studio in Bethlehem, PA. The host is Mike McGrath who is
the former Editor-in-Chief of Organic Gardening magazine. The show is
touted as a “weekly dose of chemical-free horticultural hijinks” and is
full of valuable information on all topics related to growing
things—lawns, ornamental bushes and trees, vegetables, etc. The show
is titled “You Bet Your Garden,” and current as well as past episodes
can be viewed online at wlvt.org.
I just watched Episode 79 where the central question had to do with the
difference between tomato blight and wilt and how to prevent them. The
live show is a call-in where people can ask their own questions, ending
with a focus on the question or topic of the week. McGrath is
knowledgeable, entertaining, and informative. I have learned a ton from
tuning in.
Anne
Mulch for your garden
The WCC will again be providing each gardener with one bale of mulch hay. We should have a delivery within a few weeks if all goes as planned. For those of you who are new to gardening or to the benefits of mulching, I’d like to relate my own introduction to the subject. In the late 1960s, I picked up a book titled How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back (1955) authored by Ruth Stout. Another– Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent (1961),– solidified her reputation as “the mother of mulch” and was among the dozen books she authored promoting the method. Stout was born in 1884 and died at age 96 having spent many years practicing what she preached — a no-till method of gardening that today is recommended by many experts. Stout’s writing is enormously entertaining, informative and practical. She promoted a technique of deep mulching that is labor-saving, soil-improving, water-conserving and permanent, using any vegetable matter that rots! But she was quite insistent that the very best mulching material anyone could use was spoiled hay. (Lucky Us!) She had her critics, of course. As stated in an article about Stout’s methods in homestead.org, “Basic and boiled down to its essence, the Stout method is no till, no dig, no water, no weed, & no composting–but not no work!”
Stout’s mulching method lends itself especially well to small garden plots such as we have in the WCC, eliminating the need for roto-tilling. I noticed that several of Stout’s books have been reprinted and are available for purchase. And of course, there are many more recently published books on the subject. But I have a soft spot in my heart for this eccentric, opinionated lady who even in her 90s could be seen tossing sections of hay bales about her garden.
Submitted by: Anne Kirschmann
Update: Another link to Ruth Stout’s mulching technique: https://www.goveganic.net/article182.html
Mulch for your garden
The WCC will again be providing each gardener with one bale of mulch hay. We should have a delivery within a few weeks if all goes as planned. For those of you who are new to gardening or to the benefits of mulching, I’d like to relate my own introduction to the subject. In the late 1960s, I picked up a book titled How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back (1955) authored by Ruth Stout. Another– Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent (1961),– solidified her reputation as “the mother of mulch” and was among the dozen books she authored promoting the method. Stout was born in 1884 and died at age 96 having spent many years practicing what she preached — a no-till method of gardening that today is recommended by many experts. Stout’s writing is enormously entertaining, informative and practical. She promoted a technique of deep mulching that is labor-saving, soil-improving, water-conserving and permanent, using any vegetable matter that rots! But she was quite insistent that the very best mulching material anyone could use was spoiled hay. (Lucky Us!) She had her critics, of course. As stated in an article about Stout’s methods in homestead.org, “Basic and boiled down to its essence, the Stout method is no till, no dig, no water, no weed, & no composting–but not no work!”
Stout’s mulching method lends itself especially well to small garden plots such as we have in the WCC, eliminating the need for roto-tilling. I noticed that several of Stout’s books have been reprinted and are available for purchase. And of course, there are many more recently published books on the subject. But I have a soft spot in my heart for this eccentric, opinionated lady who even in her 90s could be seen tossing sections of hay bales about her garden.
Submitted by: Anne Kirschmann
2020-04-15 CAS3 Update: Another link to Ruth Stout’s mulching technique: https://www.goveganic.net/article182.html