Stay Green This Winter

We had a great year in the gardens this year, and we hope you enjoyed growing this year too.  While sometimes winter seems like a great time to take a break from gardening, we encourage you to stay green this winter by doing the following:

Read Up:

The students helped pick Cabbage Worms off kale and arugula so that they wouldn’t eat all the leaves!

Do you remember some of the problems you encountered this growing season?  Now is the time to look up those issues and get a better grasp on how to prevent them this upcoming year.

One of our biggest pest at the State Road School Garden was the cabbage worm.  These caterpillars, although cute and green, did pose a problem for getting maximum yield from our garden. We thought that looking into these pests could help other gardeners prevent them from overtaking their own gardens.

Read more.

Green Gifts:

Looking for something to give yourself or others this season that doesn’t involve clutter?  Here are some of our recommendations:

Experiences:  Give an experience instead of a physical gift.   For adults, a MOSES conference entry, Seed Saving class or  Growing Power Workshop can be extremely helpful.  For children, our recommendation (of course!) is to agree to send them to a Grow La Crosse Farm Camp next summer.

Seed Starts: Agree to get a friend or family member vegetable and herb starts at the Grow La Crosse plant sale this upcoming May.  All proceeds help connect children to healthy food and nature.  Or, give a gift certificate for fruit trees, nut and other landscaping trees from somewhere like StarkBro’s.

Compost:

Do you compost or vermicompost?  If not, it is always a good time to start.  Composting not only saves millions of pounds from going into landfills, but it also creates great soil for your garden, house plants, and landscape.  Did you know in some areas, composting is required?

Here are some Composting Tips.