The Magic of Mulching

Mulching is almost as important as adding compost when it comes to fostering healthy soil. As B. Dean McGraw at the Texas Agricultural Extension Service explains, “A well-mulched garden can yield 50 percent more than an unmulched garden the same size. Space rows closer as there is little or no need to cultivate the soil. Plant food is more available in cooler soil, and the extra soil moisture increases plant growth and yields.”

Another quote from the Virginia Cooperative Extension explains why this is so: “Mulches conserve soil moisture, allowing you to water less often; keep down weeds; reduce erosion; keep plant roots cool; provide winter protection; and make your yard more attractive.”

The kind of mulch you’ll want to put down this time of year is winter mulch. Organic is best, because it will decompose and disperse organic matter throughout your soil. This will increase the nutrients and level of bioactivity, and will improve drainage in clay soils.

Many people use wood chips, sawdust, fresh manure, grass cuttings, and even gravel as mulch, but these are not ideal. Gravel adds no organic matter to the soil and doesn’t decompose; wood chips sometimes contain seeds that can sprout and cause problems, and if not aged correctly, they can be too acidic and even toxic. Sawdust also often contains weed seeds that sprout, plus it tends to cake together. Fresh manure and grass cuttings can burn plants as they decompose.

That’s why we recommend the following four mulch materials:

• Straw. Straw is inexpensive, keeps the weeds out, holds in moisture, and will protect your plants from the cold. Be sure to get straw and not hay, as hay usually contains a lot of weed seeds. Dig the straw under after your fall or winter harvest.

• Bark. These mulches contain either shredded bark or bark chunks and are usually made from the by-products of pine, cypress, or hardwood logs. They will neither blow away nor get compacted. Plus they look nice and are readily available.

• Pine needles. Pine needles look nice, resist compactation, are easy to work with, and are readily available—perhaps even right under your own pine trees.

• Newspaper. Many people apply three layers of newspaper, either as sheets or shredded, as an undermulch upon which they lay one of the mulches listed above. Newspaper alone will blow away, not to mention leach nitrogen from the soil, but applied in this way, it will keep down weeds and give plants an extra layer of protection from the cold. Turn it under after your harvest.

You’ll want to spread mulch made from bark, pine needles or shredded leaves or newspaper to a depth of two to four inches, while straw needs to be applied to a depth of six to eight inches. Don’t pile mulch around the base of trees or shrubs, and leave the area around the base of plants bare or mulched at a depth of less than one inch. For more pointers and instruction about mulching, consult this pamphlet written by the plant scientist quoted earlier, B. Dean McGraw.

In closing, let’s reflect on the fact that caring for “the good earth” has been a keynote of Western civilization for millennia. From the Biblical command to be “stewards of the land,” right up to the words of Kentucky’s farmer-sage Wendell Berry who describes soil as “the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all,” this is a subject that will continue to be of concern to our children, grandchildren, and for many generations to come. Let’s do our best to leave them all a rich, fertile legacy.

Happy Gardening from all of us at Garden Harvest Supply!

Note: This is the last in a 3-part series. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2.

Soil Composition

Soil composition is the mixture of silt, clay, sand, and organic matter found in your soil. It’s important to know what the mix is within your garden because it will affect the type and amount of fertilizer you use, how well your soil drains, how well it holds what you plant in it, and how likely it is to wash away in heavy rains or blow away in high winds. Finally, soil composition indicates how alive your soil is—and the more alive it is, the better it is for growing things!

Hollywood should make a movie with people shrunk down to the size of microorganisms and then placed into some rich soil. Viewers would then see that every square inch contains billions of bacteria and fungi, as well as worms, insects, spiders, and other many other critters. The presence of such biological activity is good news: it means that the soil is fully capable of supporting and nurturing whatever plants are placed into it. But this kind of biological activity only occurs if there are good amounts of water, air, and organic material in the soil.

We’re not talking about watering here—you can pour water on a rock for days and no water will get in. We’re talking about how porous the soil is, and that depends on the size of the particles that make it up.

Sandy soil allows for water and oxygen to penetrate easily because sand particles are large. However, water drains away too quickly, taking with it any fertilizer you may apply. In this case, the fertilizer you apply—and the money you spend on it—goes right down the drain!  On the positive side, it holds plenty of oxygen, plant roots have no problem traveling through it, and it’s easy to dig.

Clay soil presents the opposite problem: because clay particles are so small, they make it hard for oxygen to get in, and whatever water gets in will have a hard time getting out, resulting in poor drainage. This type of soil is difficult for plant roots—as well as spades and hoes—to penetrate.  But don’t despair: this type of soil is generally richer in nutrients than other types of soil, so once you break it up, you won’t need to fertilize as much.

Silt predominating in your soil is good news; such soil is ideal for gardening because silt particles are medium sized and usually result in good soil drainage and aeration.  All you have to do is make sure your silty soil contains ample organic matter.

Soil Wash Test

The soil wash is an easy test you can perform that will tell you the approximate proportion of sand, clay, and silt in your soil. Of course, you can pay a lot of money for a laboratory to perform a professional analysis, but for most gardeners this rough-and-ready test will tell you everything you need to know.

Take a half-gallon jar (a Mason jar will work or any large rounded jar) and put half a cup of soil into it. Then fill the jar halfway with water. Shake it for 30 seconds and then let it settle. Repeat three times.  Then let the jar sit for three days.

The thickness of the layers indicates the proportions of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. As R.C. Harris explains, “With each mixing, more and more coarse particles will drift to the bottom and more and more clay particles will drift to the top, with silt settling out between them. Some of the clay particles may not settle out for several days with this garden soil test: they are so fine they form a colloidal solution in water.”

When you take a look at the jar after a few days have passed, you will get a rough idea as to what general type of soil you have, based on whether there’s mostly sand at the bottom, clay at the top, or silt floating around. If the results are not clear, R.C. Harris provides more detailed instructions, as does Paula Lovegren. A big thanks to George Weigel for providing us the mason jar photo!

Improving Your Soil

The short answer is that whether you’re dealing with sandy soil or clay soil, the remedy is the same: add compost.  One of our previous newsletters, A Rind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: The GHS Scoop on Composting, will tell you everything you need to know. And if you don’t want to make your own compost, we sell 32 qt. bags of BioMax 3-in-1 Garden Mix, a fine product that combines sea-based compost with black earth and Canadian sphagnum peat moss.

One thing not to do is add sand to clay soil or add clay to sandy soil. It would seem like this would be the easiest solution but due to the varying pH and magnetic charge of the particles, they might end up binding together, causing your soil to be as hard as a rock. Anyway, clay likes to bind to itself, and this alone can cause problems.

If your soil is too high in clay, the best thing to do (in addition to adding organic matter) is to add gypsum to help break it up.  If you have problems with drainage and this doesn’t fix them, you might need to dig a trench or take other more extensive actions.

If your soil is compacted because it is high in clay (or for some other reason such as a bulldozer going over it too many times), aeration will help a great deal. This can be done either by renting a machine called a core aerator or by hiring a lawn or landscape company to aerate it for you. For more information about aeration, read this article from the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

If your soil is too sandy, it will need lots of compost. However, compost alone isn’t enough; you’ll also need to introduce an earth-based matrix. As mentioned, clay isn’t a good choice, but Premier’s BioMax 3-in-1 Garden Mix would be ideal in this case, because it contains black earth as well as sea-based compost and Canadian sphagnum peat moss.

Finally, keep in mind that improving the composition of your soil will take time. It’s something that you have to work at, year after year, but you will see results, even early in the process. The closer your soil gets to being rich and fertile loam, the more productive your garden will be.

Caring for the Good Earth

We hope this newsletter will help you to better care for your soil through understanding its composition. Please join us again for Part 3, coming in two weeks, in which we will explain some additional measures such as mulching and double digging that will help you get your soil into tip-top shape. Did you miss Part 1, read it here.

Until then, happy gardening from all of us at Garden Harvest Supply!

However, experienced gardeners prefer to test in the fall because they can fertilize their soil based on the test results, and then, whatever they add to the soil will have time to “set” over the winter. By testing in the fall and then fertilizing based on the results, your garden will be in the best possible shape when the spring growing season rolls around.

There are two tests that are important to do annually: a pH test to determine whether your soil is alkaline or acid and to what degree, and a nutritive test to evaluate how rich your soil is in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N, P, and K). We’ll talk first about the pH test, because it’s the most important.

pH Testing

Plants grow best within a specific pH range. Most plants like slightly acidic soil; others need a greater degree of acidity, and some prefer alkaline soil. What this means in a practical sense is that when you give your plants the right pH, they will best be able to absorb nutrients in the soil. The right pH will also make your plants less susceptible to plant diseases and fungi.

Many of our soil test kits come with a chart that tells you exactly what pH different plants need, or you can consult a chart on the Internet or find one in a gardening book.

Once you have your pH results, you can then amend your soil accordingly. Adding lime is the usual way to make your soil less acidic. Wood ashes mixed into soil will also help to lessen its acidity. Just be sure to use ashes from untreated wood, and keep them dry until you apply them.

Add sulfur, aluminum sulfate, or gypsum to make soil more acidic. Organic soil amendments such as sphagnum peat moss, oak leaves, coffee grounds, and well-composted sawdust also help to make soil more acidic.

Some fertilizers have an acidifying effect, enabling you to take care of your plants’ nutritive needs while lowering the pH a little. Look for a fertilizer designed for acid-loving plants such as Espoma’s legendary Holly Tone.

Keep in mind, though, that it can take several years to change the fundamental pH of your soil. You don’t want to go too fast: no more than 1 pH degree per year. And you’ll want to test each year, until you see that your soil has really settled into being the pH that you want it to be.

Nutritive Test

You’ll also want to do an annual nutritive test to determine how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N, P, and K) are present in your soil.

If you live near a Cooperative Extension, give them a call: they can do soil testing that will test for other nutrients also, for no more than ten dollars, and carry out the analysis using equipment that is too costly even for most farmers. They also have the expertise to interpret the test results, and can advise you as to how to best address whatever issues show up in them.

That said, do-it-yourself soil testing is more economical than ever. In fact, you can get a Rapitest Model 1609CS containing 4 pH and 2 NPK tests for only $5.25. Though not as accurate as the professional tests, the do-it-yourself tests are more convenient and certainly work well enough to get a valid estimate.

Another advantage of the do-it-yourself tests is that they make it easy to retest after you’ve added fertilizer or other amendments. The Rapitest Electronic Soil Tester, Model 1860 does both NPK and pH in less than a minute, and you can stick it in different spots around your garden to customize your amendment strategy. A week or two after amending your soil, take a stroll around to the same spots to see if the NPK and pH levels are where you want them.

One of our previous newsletters, Choosing a Fertilizer,  will help you determine which fertilizer is best for your needs. But don’t wait ’til spring…. seize the season!

In Part Two of the GHS Guide to Soil and Soil Testing, coming up in two weeks, we’ll tell you about two simple tests you can do yourself at no cost that will yield valuable information about the composition of your soil. And we’ll talk about what to do if your soil is lacking in organic matter, doesn’t drain well, contains too much clay, is highly compacted, or has other problems related to its composition.

Until then, happy growing from Garden Harvest Supply!

In this newsletter we’ll discuss ways to extend the growing season, starting with a review of fall planting and continuing with to how to cover and protect your plants in cold weather. Finally we’ll discuss measures that serious gardeners take to ensure year-long harvests, such as the use of cold frames and greenhouses.

Late Season Planting

The simplest way to extend the growing season is to plant a second round of vegetable plants in late summer or early fall. Fall is an easier time to plant than spring: the critters and weeds decrease, there’s less need to irrigate, and there are no heat waves to drive you indoors, panting.

There’s also less prep work involved; consult our Guide to Fall Vegetable Planting for the details, but basically what you need to do is clear out the old debris and amend the soil.

In choosing what to plant, most gardeners like a mix of plants with varying degrees of hardiness. Tender and very tender plants need to mature before the first frost or else they’ll be damaged.  Semi-hardy plants can weather a frost or two, and hardy plants can weather repeated frosts.

To plant tender and very tender plants, you have to find out what date they need to be planted by in order to mature before the first frost.  First find their growing times by looking at the product details section of the GHS web pages that describe them. Then find the approximate first frost date by looking at the Frost Chart at the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Count backwards from the first frost date to determine your deadline for getting those plants into the ground.

With semi-hardy vegetables, you don’t need to be concerned about the first frost date but you’ll want them to mature before repeated frosts occur. Again, compare the growing times with the first frost date, and make your selection based on what will be ready soon after that first frost.

When planting hardy veggies, you don’t need to worry about the cold weather at all. Just get them in the ground and mark on your calendar when they’ll be ready to harvest.

Help Them Make It Through the Night

When temperatures drop, most plants need to be covered. Coverings also help them grow faster in the colder weather. Some gardeners simply throw old bed sheets or towels over their less hardy plants when the nightly news predicts a cold snap. To improve on this method, support such materials with stakes or wire. Individual plants can be protected with buckets or gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut out. Put them on in the afternoon while it’s still relatively warm and remove them in the morning after temperatures have risen again. Root crops can be covered with a thick layer of hay, straw, dry leaves, or pine needles.

We sell several products that have been engineered to provide optimal cold-weather protection. The most popular is the Wall O’ Water Plant Protector, which is like a plant-sized teepee whose insulating walls can be filled up with water. The Wall O’ Water absorbs heat during the day and releases it during the night, keeping your plants comfy on chilly nights. In fact, it will protect them down to 16°F!

For larger plants as well as sensitive shrubs, our Plant Protector Bags are great at keeping in the heat while still allowing for air circulation. Simply bag the plants when they are at risk, and remove as soon as the danger is past. The Fleece Frost Protection Bags offer even more of a defense against cold, maintaining your plants down to 20F. And for even larger plants, shrubs, and seedlings, use the 8’x 6’ Harvest Guard Plant Protection Bag with an adjustable closure for a custom fit.

If you have many plants to protect, Haxnicks Easy Tunnel Row Cover is the way to grow. It offers shelter to an entire row, forming a barrier that retains humidity and warmth, while protecting against frosts and harsh weather. Made of polyethylene supported by galvanized steel hoops, you’ll get years of use out of it, and the hoops can be stacked against each other for easy storage.

Cold Frames

A more solid way to protect your plants is by building a cold frame, which is like a mini greenhouse. You can get instructions on how to build and use cold frames from the extensions of Cornell University, the University of Missouri and Ohio State University. There are also do-it-yourself videos available on YouTube.

If you want to save time and don’t want to search for materials, we sell a Cold Frame Mini-Greenhouse kit that is easily assembled and provides more than 5 sq. feet of growing space. Constructed of durable, UV-protected panels, the adjustable polycarbonate roof provides maximum light, adequate ventilation, UV protection, and easy access. It’s on sale for $49.99 until September 15, with free shipping.

Its older brother is also on sale: the Cold Frame Double Mini-Greenhouse, which is the same design but twice the size. Measuring 41” x 41” x 21”, it provides ample space to grow and protect at least 10 sq. feet of veggies. It’s $89.99 until Sept. 15, also with free shipping.

Greenhouses

Serious gardeners will want to build or buy a greenhouse sooner or later. Actually, sooner is better, because you’ll get so much benefit from a greenhouse that whenever you get one, you’ll wish you had gotten it sooner!

Naturally, building a greenhouse is more involved than building a cold frame. If you’re up for a project of this size, instructions and plans are available from West Virginia University Extension as well as from North Carolina State University Extension.

If you’d rather get a greenhouse kit, be sure that the kit itself isn’t too difficult to assemble. As we said in 2009, the last time we had a greenhouse sale, “The gardening blogosphere resounds with little yelps of frustration from people whose jubilant smile turned to a grimace worthy of a gremlin as they realized—after bolting and unbolting, starting and stopping, moving forward and backtracking—that ‘the instructions are rubbish.’”

To spare our customers this kind of frustration, we sell only Snap & Grow Greenhouse kits made by Poly-Tex, a family-run business located in Castle Rock, MN. What we like about their greenhouses is that the parts snap together with SmartLock™ Connectors, a unique system that makes Snap & Grow kits the quickest and simplest on the market.

The other great benefit is that you’re not limited to the greenhouse you started with—you can expand it whenever you desire, thanks again to those SmartLock™ Connectors. What’s more, Poly-Tex produces a full range of accessories: automatic vent openers, shade kits, even plant hangers.

As with many of the best greenhouses, the greenhouse panels are made of polycarbonate, a polymer that is as clear as glass but offers 100% UV protection and is virtually unbreakable. The heavy-duty frame is molded out of corrosion-resistant aluminum, and the kit includes an innovative split-style door and window, both of which come pre-assembled, right down to the attached weather stripping.

We’re currently running a sale, our first in two years, on all our Snap & Grow Greenhouse kits, plus the extension kits. You will find great deals, such as the 22% discount we’re offering on the Multi-line Silver 6’ x 8’ Hobby Greenhouse, which normally sells for $599, but is currently priced at $469.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a greenhouse, we know you’ll love the advantages of Snap & Grow, and we hope you’ll carefully consider each of the five models we offer, and perhaps give us a call at 1-888-907-4769 to discuss which one would best meet your needs. Just think: you can keep gardening all winter, and have as much space as you want to do it in!

Always More to Grow and Know

To learn more about extending the growing season, there is one book we particularly recommend: Four Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables From Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. This book has gotten rave reviews from beginning gardeners and veterans alike. It gathers together a wealth of information and presents it in a really fun and interesting way. The authors’ enthusiasm for gardening really shines through as well, and you might find your own gardening spark rekindled as you “hang out” with the authors by reading this refreshing and informative book.

That’s all for now. Happy Growing from all of us at Garden Harvest Supply!

Butterflies like to feed on the nectar of these and other flowering plants. But if you want to make your acrobatic friends’ happiness complete, also provide them with host plants such as asclepias (milkweek), dill, parsley, and fennel.  These are plants on which the butterflies can lay their eggs and that will nourish the resulting larvae.

Making Your Garden Butterfly Friendly

There are a lot of resources on the Internet to help you plan a butterfly-friendly garden, but one site really makes it easy: Gardens With Wings. All you do is type in your ZIP Code and you’ll see photos of the different kinds of butterflies that pass through your area. You choose those butterflies you are interested in attracting, and the site will generate a list of the best nectar and host plants to do the job.

One additional step you’ll want to take is to determine which plants on that list are native to your region. Using native plants is important because, as the National Wildlife Federation explains, “many butterflies and native flowering plants have co-evolved over time and depend on each other for survival and reproduction.” You can easily find a list of plants native to your state by visiting the Plant Native site. The ideal plants for your butterfly garden will be those that appear on both the Gardens With Wings list and the Plant Native list.

We carry nearly all the nectar and host plants that will show up on these lists, no matter where you live.  We’re proud of this, not only because we have a larger inventory than any other plant-seller online, but because the butterflies really need these plants, especially the host plants.

The Plight of the Butterfly

Over the last fifty years, the butterfly population has dramatically decreased because of habitat loss and our flittering friends are having a tough time.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently lists more than a dozen butterfly species as endangered or threatened. What’s more, all species have been decreasing, mostly because the host plants they depend on have often been cut down or paved over.

Consider the exquisite Monarch: the only plant it will lay its eggs on is asclepias (milkweed). This plant is native to nearly all of the U.S., is hardy from Zones 3 – 9, and used to be found all over the place. Yet, today it is difficult for Monarchs to find, and their numbers have dropped to dangerously low levels. If you plant asclepias in a region through which the Monarchs pass, you’ll be providing them with a nursery!

You might like to grow dill, parsley, and fennel for culinary reasons, but did you know that Black Swallowtail butterflies need them as a place to lay their eggs? By including these plants in your garden, you’ll be helping the Black Swallowtails to be more plentiful.

Creating a Safe Butterfly Environment

One thing to understand before you start planting is that butterflies and pesticides do not mix. Butterflies are very sensitive creatures and even natural pesticides and herbicides can cause problems and even kill the eggs they’ve laid on the host plants you’ve provided. Instead, when it comes to both the nectar and host plants, use the old-fashioned method of picking pests off by hand. You can also release ladybugs to go after the pests for you. That is what they do at the Smithsonian, and it will work for you, too.

But be sure you don’t squish the larvae, thinking it’s an infestation of something pesky. To be sure you know what butterflies look like at every stage of their development, watch this beautiful slideshow produced by the University of North Carolina School of Education.

Perfecting Your Butterfly Garden

Provide the butterflies with opportunities to bask in the sun by placing a few flat stones around the garden. As for water, just keep your garden irrigated: the butterflies will use any tiny puddles as watering holes.  If you live in a windy area, position your butterfly-attracting plants along a hedge, fence, or wall. And, again, be sure there is no pesticide or herbicide residue around the area where the butterflies are going to be eating and laying their eggs.

Expanding Your Knowledge

As with everything else concerning gardening, there’s always more to learn. To view a comprehensive list of plants that attract butterflies, try Gardening for Butterflies, from Iowa State University. How to Make Butterfly Gardens from the University of Kentucky also contains a good list and a lot of helpful information. For a nice video introduction to the subject of attracting butterflies, check out this short video by P. Allen Smith.

If You Plant It, They Will Come

We wish you much success in attracting butterflies to your garden, and please don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of information in this newsletter. All you need to do to get started is to plant some butterfly-attracting plants in a sunny place and use non-chemical methods of pest control. Enjoy yourself, and know that your butterfly friends will appreciate your efforts.

But canned meat isn’t just for survivalists: it’s for anyone who runs out of beef, chicken, turkey or pork and doesn’t have time to rush to the supermarket. It’s for busy people who wants the convenience of a heat and serve meal. It’s for the chef who wants to prepare a gourmet dish without all the prep work. It’s for people who want to solve the problem of their overstuffed fridge or freezer, and save energy in the bargain. It’s also for campers, boaters, RV owners, and anyone who will be away from the usual sources of sustenance for a while.

Someone once said that buying canned meat is like buying batteries. Sure, the electricity out of the wall is cheaper, but batteries serve so many useful functions that most of us find the cost of “canned electricity” totally worth it.  The thing about canned meat, though, is that it actually might wind up being cheaper than fresh meat when you factor in the cost of gas, fuel, and electricity.  And, amazingly, canned meat lasts even longer than batteries!

The Grabill Farms canned meat that we sell is guaranteed for five years, but has been known to last at least twice that and still retain its original flavor and texture. So let us tell you a little about this fine company and their products.

Grabill Farms: Canned Meat Perfection

Grabill Farms is a family owned operation that prepares, cooks, and cans their meat in a USDA-inspected facility in Grabill, Indiana. The beef is chuck tender cut; the pork is cushion cut; the chicken is half dark meat and half-light; the turkey is entirely from the breast and thigh.

The Grabill Farms products that we carry are chicken chunks, beef chunks, turkey chunks, pork chunks, and ground beef. All are boneless, low-salt, low-fat, free of preservatives, and cooked in their own natural juices. They come in either 13 oz. or 27 oz. sizes. If you buy them by the 12-pack, you’ll get an additional savings of up to 17%.

Add Dehydrated Veggies and You’re Ready for Anything

While you’re stocking up on canned meat, you might want to pick up some dehydrated veggies as well. Then if you’re housebound for any length of time, you’ll be all ready to cook up some tasty meals. These dehydrated veggies come in bags of 3 lbs. or larger and, like the canned meat that we sell, they have a very long shelf life.  They all rehydrate after two minutes in boiling water.

We offer veggie flakes that contain potato carrot, red and green bell pepper, and celery. They rehydrate after two minutes in boiling water. We also have dehydrated soup greens that contain carrots, onion, red bell pepper, celery, green bell pepper, tomato, and spinach.

If you just want a particular vegetable, we offer individual bags of dehydrated carrots, double diced tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes halves, sweet green bell peppers, sweet red bell peppers, and a red and green sweet bell pepper combo. Last but not least, we have dehydrated spicy jalapeno pepper chips on sale this month for 30% off. And, to repeat, if you order a case of canned meat, we’ll give you an additional savings of up to 17% off our already very competitive prices.

We hope this newsletter has convinced you that quality canned meat is a good way of keeping you and your family well-nourished whatever the weather. And perhaps its opened the eyes of some of you that canned meat isn’t necessarily the same as luncheon meat.

Just as there used to be only Maxwell House and Folgers on the shelf in the grocery, and Budweiser and Miller used to chill out together in the refrigerated beer section, the canned meat industry used to consist mostly of SPAM—not the junk in your email in-box, but tinned pork formed into a solid block. Now even SPAM comes in nine varieties and quality canned meats such as those made by Grabill Farms have become available. It’s a great time to start using and enjoying canned meat!

Cooking with Canned Meat

To introduce you to the pleasures and convenience of quality canned meat, here are a couple of recipes that come to us courtesy of allrecipes.com. Enjoy!

Boyfriend Bait Beef Strogonoff

Yield: 3 servings

Prep time: 15 min. Cook time: 15 min.

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin, well-trimmed, meat cut bite-sized pieces (about 1-inch square)
2. 4 tablespoons butter
3. 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
4. 2 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
5. 2 cups canned beef broth
6. 3 teaspoons cornstarch
7. 1 cup sour cream
8. 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Over medium high heat, gently cook beef tenderloin in 2 tablespoons of butter for about 2 minutes, until just seared on all sides. You will still be able to see red. Remove from pan and set aside in a rimmed dish or baking sheet so that you collect the juices.
2. Return the pan to medium-high heat and cook the shallots and mushrooms in remaining butter until soft and wilted, about 5 minutes. Mix cornstarch into cold beef broth, whisk to blend. Pour into pan, and stir together with shallots and mushrooms until thickened, two or three minutes.
3. Add sour cream and mustard, stir to blend. Add beef and juices from dish; stir over medium just till warmed through. Salt to taste. Serve over noodles or rice.

Nutritional Information per serving: Calories: 747 | Total Fat: 59.2g | Cholesterol: 190mg

Chicken Pasta Salad II

Prep Time: 30 Min Cook Time: 10 Min

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 pound rotini/corkscrew pasta
2. 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
3. 1/2 cup sliced green olives
4. 1 stalk celery, chopped
5. 1/4 cup minced onion
6. 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
7. 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn kernels
8. 1 green bell pepper, chopped
9. 3/4 cup Italian-style salad dressing
10. 1/2 cup mayonnaise
11. 1 cup canned chicken meat – drained and flaked
12. Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and rinse with cool water. Pour into a large dish.
2. Combine mushrooms, olives, celery, onion, cheese, corn and green bell pepper with pasta; mix well.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together dressing and mayonnaise; pour dressing over salad and toss again to coat.
4. Gently mix in flaked chicken; refrigerate for a few hours or serve.

Nutritional Information per serving: Calories: 458 | Total Fat: 33.3g | Cholesterol: 48mg

Yet we all know that ants can be a nuisance. More than a nuisance: they can be a force of destruction, at least from our human point of view. We hope you never have to face anything like the man vs. ants drama recounted in the short story Leiningen versus the Ants. Yet, even a small ant infestation can quickly become serious. Once ants have established a colony on your property, they can be very hard to get rid of without the use of toxic chemicals. Therefore, if you start to notice an ant invasion, it’s important to act quickly.

Ant Bait: The Best Method of Ant Control

When you think ant control, think ant bait. Dusting some ant-killing powder around or spraying some liquid will get rid of some ants but won’t kill enough of them to prevent the colony from regenerating. It might even cause the colony to split so that you then have two colonies to contend with.

The way ant baiting works is you present the ants with poisoned food that they take home and share with all their comrades as well as their queen(s). You use a slow-acting poison mixed with something yummy that the whole colony will want to feast on repeatedly. In a matter of a week or two you have gotten rid of every single ant.

You can put together ant bait at home, but it’s a bit tricky because you need the right proportion of yum to poison. Too much poison and the ants that eat it will die before they carry it back to the colony. Too little simply won’t be effective.

Ants also vary what they eat depending on what time of the year it is and even depending on what they have already eaten. Unlike humans, they somehow know enough to eat a balanced diet: if they’ve been feasting on peanut butter for a while and a piece of fruit becomes available, they will switch over to the fruit—and vice-versa.

The first step then, if you want to create your own ant bait, is to put out swatches of several different foods that could potentially be mixed with poison and see which ones the ants are most attracted to. Then take the preferred food and mix it with diatomaceous earth.

DE is lethal to ants but entirely non-toxic to humans and pets when used according to the directions. The exact ratio of bait to DE is hard to say because it depends on the food you’re using. But a good start would be to mix it 50/50 with confectionary sugar and place a teaspoon or so in some key areas. Before you put out the bait, though, try to cut off the ants’ other food sources. The idea is to get them to concentrate on the bait.

Boric acid or borax powder can be substituted for diatomaceous earth (start with one part boric acid or borax to ten parts sugar) but these substances are slightly toxic to people and pets.  And, of course, there are highly toxic pesticides that can be used against ants, but we like to avoid these, both because of the risk of accidental poisoning, and to protect the environment.

Terro to the Rescue

For those who prefer the convenience of ant bait that is premixed and ready to go, we carry an excellent Borax-based family of products made by Terro. Testimonials abound for Terro all over the Internet, such as this one by blogger J.D. Roth, which 166 people have commented on, nearly all of them confirming his praise of its effectiveness.

Terro bait stations come in both indoor and outdoor versions, and are exceptionally safe because pets and kids can’t get into them. Terro liquid can be used as the ant poison that you mix with the bait of your choice, but it is being marketed for use on wood-loving carpenter ants: you spray it on woodwork, joists, baseboards, and into any cracks and crevices where they are congregating.

Extra-Tough Ants

This brings up the issue of some extra-tough ant species, namely carpenter ants, fire ants, and Argentine ants. To determine if you have any of these extra-tough species, view this page on the Orkin Exterminators website.

As stated above, carpenter ants can be controlled by spraying with a borax or boric acid–based solution, and also by dusting diatomaceous earth around. By the way, to learn more about the wonders of DE, check out our earlier newsletter on natural pest control.

Fire ants can sometimes be taken care of by using the ant bait tactics described above, but it might be necessary to flood their colony with an insecticide. The safest one we have found is Monterey Garden Insect Spray with Spinosad, which has been approved by the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Board). One or two applications should take care of your fire ant problem, especially if combined with some strategically placed baits as discussed earlier.

Argentine ants have particularly large colonies, sometimes numbering in the millions, with multiple queens. Nevertheless they will succumb to the ant baits described earlier made with DE, boric acid or borax. You will just have to use more of them, so if you’re ordering Terro, stock up!

The Water Cure

Finally, we’d like to tell you about a simple way to kill ants that, according to the University of Florida Extension, works 20% to 60% of the time: you boil at least three gallons of water and pour it slowly into the mound. For best result, the UF Extension recommends this be done, “on sunny, cool mornings when the majority of ants and brood are closer to the surface of the mound,” and explains that “a mound may need several treatments to reach and kill the queen and brood.”

You can try this as a stand-alone method, but we believe it is best used as an additional measure to increase your chance of success. The thing you have to watch out for, of course, is the boiling water: please be careful! Note also, that boiling water will probably kill nearby plants if it makes contact with them.

Knowledge Is Power When It Comes to Getting Rid of Ants

There’s more to say about killing ants with ant baits and by pouring insecticide and/or boiling water into their colonies—but we’ll stop here. To learn more about ant baits we recommend this fine article from the University of Florida Extension titled Ant Trails: A Key to Management with Baits. For controlling carpenter ants in your home, consult this pamphlet from Utah State University Cooperative Extension. For dealing with fire ants, the Alabama Cooperative Extension has a number of articles and streaming videos online. And for controlling Argentine ants, read this article, also from the Alabama Cooperative Extension. For more information about using diatomaceous earth to kill ants, check out this forum at the GardenWeb.

Ants are very persistent creatures—perhaps that’s why they’ve been around since before the dinosaurs. But if you are also persistent and follow the advice given in this newsletter, we’re confident your ant problem will become a thing of the past. Not that you might not have to go through the same routine again in a year or two, but we’ll cross that mound when we come to it.

Indeed, according to the EPA, 26% of municipal solid waste is stuff that could have been turned into fertilizer, had it been composted. In this newsletter, we’ll give beginners some advice on getting started composting, and offer hardcore composters some hot tips. In fact, we’ll start right now with this bit of folk wisdom: “A good compost pile should get hot enough to poach an egg, but not so hot it would cook a lobster.”

Types of Compost Systems

The simplest thing to do is to start a compost pile, and the best place to start it is on a partially sunny, well-drained, level spot. The next step up from that is to make a compost bin from some old pallets. If you’re handy with lumber, you might try something more elaborate, like a fellow who posted a video on YouTube that had a compost tumbler made out of a fifty-five gallon metal drum.

You can also buy a professionally designed composting tumbler. We also have two units, The Worm Hive and The Worm Box, that concentrate on generating highly nutritious worm castings using kitchen scraps as worm food.

What to Compost

Here’s a list of things that you can compost:

• Animal manure
• Cardboard rolls
• Clean paper
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Cotton and wool rags
• Dryer and vacuum cleaner lint
• Eggshells
• Fireplace ashes
• Fruits and vegetables
• Grass clippings
• Hair and fur
• Hay and straw
• Houseplants
• Leaves
• Nut shells
• Shredded newspaper
• Tea bags
• Wood chips and sawdust
• Yard trimmings

What Not to Compost

There is a bit of confusion about this because certain things can be composted, but will generate bad smells and attract rodents and other critters. For these reasons, we come down on the side of those who recommend you keep dairy products out of your compost, along with fats, grease, lards, oils, and any bone and scraps from meat or fish.  Eggshells, however, are an exception: they have no negative impact and will add some much-needed calcium to the mix.

To avoid chemical contamination, don’t add yard trimmings treated with pesticides, or any coal or charcoal ash. And to keep from propagating plant disease, keep any disease-ridden plants out of your compost, along with any leaves or twigs from black walnut trees. Also, don’t add any baby or pet waste to your compost.

You might be surprised to learn though, that it is possible to turn your pet waste into compost via worms. Instructions to make this kind of composter may be found at cityfarmer.org, or you can buy a professionally designed unit such as the Pet Waste Composter and Worm Farm. Not for everyone, but if you want free fertilizer for your ornamental plants, a handy place to dispose of pet waste, and a ready supply of fishing worms, this kind of composting might be for you.

Compost Chores

Once you’ve got your compost system rolling, your compost will need air, sun, and water in order for the microorganisms to do their work of turning the compost into fertilizer.

Aeration is accomplished by some kind of mixing or turning of the compost on a regular basis. This is what’s so great about tumbler compost units, but with a non-movable system you just use a pitchfork or other garden tool to stir up your compost every few days.

Compost should be moist but not wet. If your compost is dryer than a wrung-out sponge, spray some water into it and mix it around. But you don’t want your compost to be soggy, because that will slow down the work of the microorganisms that are busy breaking it down into fertilizer.

Refining Your Technique: Balancing the Browns with the Greens

Once you’ve got the hang of basic composting, you might want to refine your technique by striking a balance between what are known as the  “browns” and the “greens.” Browns are dry and dead materials such as autumn leaves, straw, sawdust, wood chips, and cardboard. Greens are fresh and often green material such as weeds and leaves, as well as kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags.

Greens supply nitrogen while browns supply carbon. Greens provide moisture while browns provide bulk and fiber. The ideal ratio between soft greens and woody browns is two parts green to one part brown. Keep this in mind when throwing materials into your compost, and you’ll get the quickest and best results.

Patience, Patience, Patience…

As with other aspects of gardening, composting requires a certain amount of patience. You can’t be in too much of a hurry to start using it. As someone once quipped, “Compost is best aged a little like a fine wine. I mean, would you want to drink something that was made last Thursday?” You’ll know when your compost is ready to use when it becomes almost black and has a nice earthy smell.  This can take up to a year, but if you have a first-rate system and the right conditions, it might only take a couple of months.

Newsflash: House Composting Program Canceled

Since the time I began this newsletter, I am sorry to report that Committee on House Administration Chairman Dan Lungren has announced that the U.S. House of Representatives is suspending its composting program. If you would like to petition Chairman Dan Lungren to reinstate it, please click here.

Happy Composting from all of us at Garden Harvest Supply!

When you add on the striking beauty of snow, especially when combined with a birdhouse or two to attract cardinals and other birds that look great against a white background, you might just feel a flurry of gratitude when contemplating the white stuff that can be so much fun, and an extra gift when its abundance results in a day off from work or school.

Meanwhile, inside your home your houseplants will thrive if you give them the right winter care. Most important is to water them only when their soil is dry to the touch. It’s also a good idea to dust or wipe off your plants to maximize their light absorption. Besides, they’ll look nicer when you have your New Year’s guests over.

Talking about New Year’s guests, remember that some of the plants you might now have inside need to be kept away from small children and pets. These include Amaryllis, Jerusalem cherry, and Poinsettia. Hang that Mistletoe up high also; it might be fun to smooch under, but you definitely don’t want anyone nibbling on it. For a complete list of toxic house plants, check out Common House Plants Poisonous to People and Pets.

The quiet period between Christmas and New Year is a good time to take stock of your garden as well as your life.  As you make your New Year’s resolutions and think about the year to come, don’t forget your garden. As we’ve said before, nothing dispels the winter doldrums faster than planning one’s spring garden. And you don’t even have to wait to order vegetable plants, as well as strawberry and watermelon plants: we’re already taking preorders and when the plants become available in the spring, yours will be among the first orders to go out.

This month we’re featuring two of the most popular varieties of asparagus: Jersey Supreme and Jersey Knight. These male hybrids each produce green spears with purple bracts. The Supreme emerges a week later than the Knight but offers a greater yield. Both varieties will do well in any hardiness zone, but the Knight might do a bit better in warmer climates.

We ship our asparagus plants in groups of twenty, enough for a good-sized patch. Because the plants are already a year old, the time you have to wait before your first harvest will be that much shorter. Asparagus is one of the most long-lived perennial vegetables, so you can expect quite a return on your investment: once your patch starts producing, you’ll be able to enjoy home grown asparagus for the next fifteen years! And nothing can beat the taste of home grown asparagus, especially when it’s cut and cooked the same day.

Acclaimed novelist Barbara Kingsolver talks about the superiority of fresh asparagus in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver, who started out as a science writer, explains, “The moment the asparagus neck goes under the knife, an internal starting gun fires “Go!” and it begins to decompose, metabolizing its own sugars and trying—because it knows no other plan—to keep growing. It’s best eaten the day it is cut, period…. When transported, even as refrigerated cargo…the sweetness goes starchy.”

Kingsolver includes an intriguing recipe in her book: Asparagus Morel Bread Pudding. No, I’d never heard of this dish before either—I’d even forgotten that a morel is a kind of mushroom. But Kingsolver assures us that “two things that are impossible to get tired of are asparagus and morels,” apparently even when combined in a pudding. We invite you to try the recipe yourself once the weather warms up and you have fresh asparagus to harvest. Let us know how it turns out.

As we bid farewell to 2010, we’d like to wish you a very Happy New Year. We hope 2011 will be your best year ever, and we look forward to serving you in the months to come.

Here at Garden Harvest Supply we want to make gardening as enjoyable as possible for you by offering the best selection of fall vegetable plants, along with fertilizer, natural pesticides, garden tools and everything else you’ll need to have a bountiful harvest. We know you are gearing up to plant your fall veggies, so this newsletter consists of a step-by-step guide to fall vegetable planting. Though simple enough for a beginner, some veteran gardeners might also find things of value in it.

Soil Testing Is the Way to Grow

The first step to a successful fall harvest is to test your soil. As we mentioned last time, a soil test these days only costs about $1.50, and it’s worth ten times that for these two important reasons:

First, you’ll learn your soil’s pH, information that will enable you to know which crops will do best in it. If the crops you want to plant require a different pH, you’ll be able to immediately amend your soil to create more favorable growing conditions for them.

Second, the soil test will tell you whether your soil needs amendment. If the test indicates that your soil is fertile, you can proceed with confidence. If it reveals a deficiency, you can then choose a fertilizer that will give your soil exactly what it needs.

Since this can sometimes be a complex decision, especially if you have to both provide essential nutrients and also modify the pH of your soil, we have a master gardener on hand who would be happy to advise you. Send her an email describing your situation and Karen will reply with the solution.

Gathering Information

Along with the results of your soil test, you’ll want to gather four additional pieces of information: the ideal pH of the plants you’re interested in, how much time they take to mature, how hardy they are, and the first expected frost date for your area.

These first two items can be found on our website at the bottom of each of our vegetable plant pages. A hardiness chart can be found here, courtesy of the University of Illinois extension. The average frost date for your area can be found at the Farmers’ Almanac site, courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center. You might also want to consider the Climate Zone you’re in and read up on what grows best in it.

Factoring In Hardiness

If your plants are ranked as hardy, they can overwinter, so you hardly need to consider their growing time at all. Semi-hardy plants can withstand a first frost but not repeated frosts, so you have to be sure they will be ready for harvest before the freezing weather really sets in. And with plants that are ranked as tender or very tender, you’ll definitely want to aim for a pre-frost harvest.

Some of the most popular tender and semi-tender crops are beans, cantaloupes, cucumbers, eggplants, okra, peas, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes and watermelons. Hardy and semi-hardy crops include beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, kale, lettuce, onions, and turnips.

It’s best that you plant some from each category in order to extend your harvest into the winter, and to make sure your root cellar will be loaded with a variety of produce that will last until spring.

Preparing the Soil

Once you’ve decided what you are going to plant, order from us online or call us at 888-907-4769. We guarantee that they’ll arrive healthy, and, by the way, we’re proud of the extra care we put into our growing process, such as our use of large pots to ensure healthier root systems. We also sell a wide selection of vegetable seed, which has been certified organic by our friends at MOSA, the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service.

While you’re waiting for your plants or seed to arrive, go out to your vegetable beds and give them a thorough weeding. You’ll also want to remove any old crop residue, as well as plants that have become overgrown. These can all be composted, but any plants that show signs of disease or insect damage must be thrown away.

Wait until your soil is fairly dry—so that a clump of it will crumble easily between your fingers—and then thoroughly till your rows to a depth of at least 6–8 inches. Mix in compost, and if you need to fertilize or modify the pH of your soil, this is the time to add soil amendments, closely following the directions on the package.

If you’re starting new beds, we suggest a convenient spot near your house that receives full sunlight and can easily be watered. The soil should be fertile and drain well so you don’t get puddles after a rain. While good air movement is a plus, avoid windy areas. Also, if the location you choose contains grass, you’ll need to totally remove the old turf because you won’t be able to get rid of it by digging or tilling; the grass sprigs you’ve plowed under will cause you trouble for years to come. So get out all that old grass, and, while you’re at it, remove any stones, as well.

Planting Time

When the mail carrier arrives with your carefully packed GHS order, it’s time for the rubber of your wheelbarrow to hit the rows. If you’re planting from seed, be especially diligent that the soil has been well broken up so as not to form a hard crust over the seeds. In any case, carefully follow the directions that came with your order and remember that your seeds or transplants will need plenty of water, especially during the first two weeks. Depressions or basins around each transplant can be filled as needed with water, or just use a sprinkler.

Seeds as well as roots of plants need to be kept moist but don’t let them remain sopping wet or they will develop root rot and mildew. Once you’ve made it through the critical first two weeks, your seeds will have started to sprout and your plants will have enlarged their root systems so that active growth will begin.

Keep Learning

The more you know about gardening, the more you realize that there is so much more to learn. In our book store you will find a small handpicked selection of what we think are the very best gardening books on the market, including the Winter Harvest Handbook by Eric Coleman and the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Ed Smith. We also have a few books on specialized topics such as natural pest control and companion planting. And for your leisure hours, we recommend Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful book of essays, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

We hope you enjoyed this little guide to fall vegetable growing, and most of all, we hope that your upcoming gardening experiences will leave you wanting to sing the Garden Song, not the Anti-Garden Song. From all of us at Garden Harvest Supply, happy planting!