"From the Bay to the Blue Ridge"
From the Garden to the Party By Melinda Myers Make every meal a special event by bringing the garden to the table. Serve your favorite dishes made from homegrown ingredients. Then allow guests to add their own herbal seasonings right from the garden or container. Start by growing the ingredients for your favorite recipes and […]
By Jimmy Deaton Save Those Seeds!! You can save vegetable seeds from your garden produce to plant next year. Seed saving involves selecting suitable plants from which to save seed, harvesting seeds at the right time, and storing them properly over the winter. Plant selection Tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas are good choices for […]
By Jimmy Deaton Now that the growing season is underway, an abundance of life begins to spring up in our garden: seedlings take root and begin branching out, showing signs of their future production. But with new growth and life, comes the chance of pests finding their way into your garden. Some folks never have […]
By Jimmy Deaton Do you throw your garlic bulbs out once they start to sprout? What about your potatoes when they get a little wrinkly? How about ginger root that sits out on the counter too long? Well, you could be getting a lot more value out of your produce than you may realize! Many […]
By Jimmy Deaton aka Farmer D This month I want to focus on what is without a doubt the most popular veggie grown in most gardens, and that is tomatoes. They are probably the most widely used and versatile vegetable around. From sandwiches to salads, pasta sauce or tomato juice, the pickled green tomatoes […]
How to Grow a Shamrock! In the spirit of the month of March and one of the Old Town Crier’s favorite celebration days – St. Patrick’s Day – we thought you would like to know the secret to growing these lucky plants! Stories have it that shamrocks won’t grow any place other than in Irish […]
By Jimmy Deaton One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to make the garden even more pollinator friendly and for good reason. Just recently, the bumble bee was listed as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain federal protection. This breaks my heart because […]
By Jimmy Deaton Here we are just a few short weeks away from being visited by ol’ Saint Nick and we are decorating the inside of the house to celebrate the festive season. There are many plants that are sold during the holidays to enhance the festive decor while entertaining. I plan on touching […]
Growing Citrus Indoors It seems every year we get the shipment of limes and Meyers lemons into the garden center and folks go into a buying frenzy. And you know what? They have every right to do so. There is nothing like a fresh picked lime or lemon to use in food preparation or making […]
By Farmer D Rootless Wonders Tillandsia Bromeliads, also known as “Air” plants, or the lesser known name “Sky” plant, are the rootless wonders of the plant world. Some of the species do have roots, but these are used primarily to anchor the plants in place. Air plants take up moisture and their nutritional needs […]
