Free Republic

The publisher of a book Michelle Obama is writing about her White House produce garden says it will be called "American Grown." Crown Publishers announced Monday that the complete title of the first lady's first book is "American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools and Communities." It is scheduled to be published in April. The book will explore how improving access to healthy, affordable food can influence eating habits for the better and improve public health.

Good morning gardeners. We have had the first frost of Fall this morning in East Central Mississippi. It will warm up into the 70s the next few days and possibly even up to 80s by Tuesday. Not much gardening will be going on for me until next Spring. I hope all your Fall gardens prosper. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels...

I apologize for the vanity posting, but I am at the end of my rope on this. And that leads me to ask this question to the smartest people in the world, the people that read and post articles to the Free Republic website. You cant buy fresh "off the tree" olives anywhere, that I can find, in California. And they are everywhere. I was up in Napa and Sonoma Valley last week, and there are olive trees everywhere. We drove all over the place, to every produce stand we could find. Nobody sells uncured olives. The thing is, I...

I apologize for the vanity posting, but I am at the end of my rope on this. And that leads me to ask this question to the smartest people in the world, the people that read and post articles to the Free Republic website. You cant buy fresh "off the tree" olives anywhere, that I can find, in California. And they are everywhere. I was up in Napa and Sonoma Valley last week, and there are olive trees everywhere. We drove all over the place, to every produce stand we could find. Nobody sells uncured olives. The thing is, I...

Good morning gardeners. The October weather here in East Central Mississippi has been nothing but amazing this past week. We have had a few rainy days that have helped keep my compost pile moist as I am still working on building it up. It is satisfying to see the steam rise from it when I give it a turn on these cool mornings. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of...

EARLY one morning about a month ago, Don Young peeled the floral bedsheets off the giant pumpkins growing in his backyard. Tiptoeing around the jungly vines, he carefully checked for holes. Then, bending his ear down over the nearest gourd, which was as high as his gut and wider than a truck tire, he gave it a solid smack and listened intently, like a doctor with a stethoscope. “This one’s thumping pretty good,” he said with a grin. Mr. Young is one of a number of amateur gardeners whose heart’s desire is to raise a pumpkin bigger than anybody else’s....

Good morning gardeners. Wow the first week of October! The garden has been officially put to rest and my compost pile has been tilled into the garden and is now depleted. It’s going to need a lot of leaves, grass clippings and other plant materials to build it back up for next years garden. The leaves on the trees here in East Central Mississippi have awhile yet before they turn color and start to fall in quantity so I am letting about half of my grass clippings turn brown before adding them to the compost pile and mixing them with...

Good morning gardeners. Fall is in the air here in East Central Mississippi on this last day of September. It has been beautiful weather for cleaning up outside and taking care of the yard. Our daytime temperatures have been in the 70s with an occasional bump up into the 80s and the overnight lows are ranging from the 40s to the 60s. While I am waiting for Spring to arrive I will be occupied by continuing to hone my skills at home brewing. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice...

Good morning gardeners. I am getting a late start posting the thread this morning. Cleaned up my garden plot and will be tilling in some of my compost and wheat straw when the soil dries out a little more. I put a bail of straw around the base of my Fig trees in the hopes the straw will help them through the winter. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of...

The most important factor in determining when to plant a certain type of vegetable in your garden is the “Last Freeze Date” in the spring, and the “First Freeze Date” in the fall for your area. These dates for a given area are based on historical weather data from that area over a 30 year period compiled by the National Climatic Data Center. View the state by state charts...

Good morning gardeners. It has been another beautiful week here in East Central Mississippi we have had moderate daytime temperatures with cool nights. Perfect weather to get out and do some garden and yard clean up. My Fig trees have finished producing and it is time to winterize them with a thick layer of straw. All my of the pears have been picked and either canned or eaten. My vegetable garden is basically through producing except for a few Jalapenos that are still hanging on and still producing large peppers. My Beer brewing experiment is still progressing nicely with 6...

Good morning gardeners. It has been beautiful weather here in East Central Mississippi. We received about 3 inches of rain out of TS Lee on Monday and the daytime highs have been in the mid to high 80s with overnight lows in the 50s. It is 50 right now. This is quite cool for this time of year for us. My garden is basically done for the year. I bottled my first batch of beer yesterday, 30 quarts. Now it is wait for two weeks and maybe up to a couple of months, while it conditions, until it is ready...

Good morning gardeners. I Hope all is well with you, your gardens and your endeavors. To make saving your prized tomato seeds easier than ever try using some Oxy-Clean. Oxy-Clean? Yep the same stuff that Billy Mays pushed in all those TV commercials! Thanks to Freeper “who knows what evil?” for the heads up on this easy to do technique. Here is a link to a web page that describes the procedure - Saving Tomato Seeds Now how easy is that? If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just...

We tend to think of garden design as a relatively new vocation. The truth told by archaeological findings not only lays such thoughts to rest, it tells a tale of a rich and ancient heritage of garden design. One such finding shows a garden of Ninevah, in present-day Iraq, that dates back to 650 BC. There are date palms, trees and shrubs of many types. True, an enemy's severed head is seen hanging from one of the trees, but times were different, or are they? They did like their gardens, however. Our vision of ancient Egyptian temples is one of...

Want some highly-coveted zoo poop? Yes? I sincerely hope you’re a gardener. The Woodland Park Zoo is getting rid of its — err — natural fertilizer during its annual Fall Fecal Fest, and devoted gardeners can apply to take it off their hands. (Oh, gosh. I hope it’s not really on anyone’s hands.) Starting Thursday, the zoo is accepting bids for Zoo Doo and Bedspread, two fertilizer products comprised of what’s left after zoo animals digest their meals.

I have lived in many countries over the years, and have always had a vegetable garden. Not just for cost, as many of the countries I have lived in have had what we considered dirt cheap food, but for the quality. Nothing compares to the taste of veggies fresh from the garden. Recently, some friends told me about the bad drought in Texas. Their gardens are blackened and burnt, with food only coming in, grudgingly, thanks to heavy watering every other day. It immediately took me back to two of the hardest places I have ever tried to raise food....

Good afternoon gardeners. I hope all of you in the path of Irene heed the warnings and please stay safe! Not much gong on garden wise here in East Central Mississippi. I am just waiting to see how a few paste tomatoes do. And while I am waiting I decided to use some of my pears to make preserves. I am using the recipe I posted on last weeks thread, which calls for a little activity and a lot of waiting. I will be doing the final canning step this morning. This recipe may be way to sweet for my...

My aunt has an unusual plant that came up in her garden & needs some help identifying it. It looks like a variety of squash, & I've done a search for images. But nothing I found matches it identically. I thought I'd ask for some FReeper assistance...

Good morning gardeners. Weather has been great here in East Central Mississippi but my garden is basically done for the season. I do have some paste tomatoes coming along just fine and hope they produce before the first frost. They have a good chance to produce because the first frost around here is usually in late October or early November. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with...

Utah compost company aims to make the most out of America's vast supply of leftovers. In a Salt Lake City warehouse, tall mounds of rotten vegetables, coffee grounds, and sawdust are steaming at 160 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not a desert dump yard, just the facilities of EcoScraps, an innovative organic compost company started by three Brigham Young University classmates who dropped out of school to launch their business. With 2011 revenues expected to approach $1.5 million, their risk seems to be paying off. EcoScraps' compost mix, sold by the bag in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado stores, is free of the...