Starting A Vegetable Garden
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner, growing your own vegetables is a rewarding experience. It requires some time, space, and attention, but it’s not as hard as you might think.
When you’re starting out, pick your varities wisely and plant in zones to maximize harvests. Also, consider growing vining plants that can be trained up and mixing sun-loving and shade-tolerant veggies.
Kentucky gardeners have a new tool available in Apple and Google Play app stores to assist with planting, sowing and harvesting decisions for their home garden.
SOW — A Planting Companion is a free app based on University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension’s publication ID-128 Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky.
The app also incorporates information for Alabama and North Carolina and other areas in U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zones 6a-9a.
Kentucky is primarily in zone 6b, with a few areas in 6a or 7a.
After downloading the app, enter your state and county to get customized plant information based on your hardiness zone. You can always change the information later in the settings menu.
The app has three main sections: My Garden, Journal and Library.
The library currently has information and photos of about 36 popular home garden vegetables. You may sort the vegetables alphabetically, by harvest date or by planting date.
Clicking on a vegetable in the library will open information about that vegetable, including estimated days to harvest, expected yield, plant spacing, planting depth, soil pH range and average number of plants per person you need to include for a good harvest.
After you harvest a crop, you can record the yield in the Journal section as well as the any other information you may need to help plan next year’s garden.
Extension office offering class about natural dyes
Did you know you can dye fabrics using materials found in your kitchen and landscape?
The Madison County Horticulture Agent will introduce the basics of how to use natural materials to dye fabrics, eggs and paper.
The name of this class is “To Dye For” and will be held on Thursday, April 27, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Madison County Extension Office.
If you have questions or would like to attend the class, please call the Madison County Extension Office at 859-623-4072.
Source: richmondregister.com
