It’s What You Do With What You’ve Got

It’s not just what you’re given
But what you do with what you’ve got

            -Si Kahn

Many of us labor under the false notion that in order to grow a successful vegetable garden, we must have a large backyard – or even a large front yard. Those who don’t possess one many times often believe that they cannot grow any kind of garden. Well, I’m here to tell you that that is not so. One can grow a garden anywhere as long as one has access to a growing medium (soil, potting mixes, hydroponic chemicals, etc.), water, and light.

Have you been given (or purchased) a home with a small backyard? If so, you can build a raised bed or two, fill it with a commercially bagged potting mix (or mix one up yourself), and grow your vegetables there. If you use techniques such as square foot gardening, vertical gardening, succession planting, etc. you can maximize the yield you get out of that raised bed. You may even get a larger yield than your arrogant brother-in-law with his big backyard!

Do you have a deck, balcony, or patio? You can purchase containers, fill them with growing media, and grow your vegetables there. I once saw a video of someone who was growing a variety of vegetables and herbs in planters, bottles hung upside down, etc. on the balcony of his downtown Manhattan apartment. And I, myself, grow vegetables in grow bags and self-watering planters on the patio of my townhouse.

Do you have an outside wall that isn’t doing anything? You can set up hanging wall planters and grow your vegetables there. And how about your roof? You may even be able to grow something there. And as a last resort, you might even be able to use Other People’s Space (OPS). Perhaps you may have a friend or family member with a large backyard who might be willing to let you set up a garden on part of it. Sound farfetched? Well, I, myself, make use of OPS. My friend and musical partner Jean and her husband Dan have let me grow a garden in their backyard for years. So it can be done. The whole point is that, like in the words of Si Kahn’s wonderful song, it’s not what you’ve been given in terms of space that determines whether or not you can grow a garden and how successful it can be. It’s what you do with that space you’ve got. With a little creativity, you can turn a brick wall into a bountiful source of fresh fruits and vegetables for you and your family.

Goals Not Resolutions

2021 has officially passed into history and 2022 now begins. Now is the time we all make bold resolutions about all of the wonderful things we’re going to be, do, and acquire. Then three months later (or sooner) we put them aside to be forgotten. Then, come December 31st, we remember those broken resolutions, hate ourselves for not executing them, and vow to do better next year. Then we make a new set of resolutions — which we once again break like fine china in the hands of a klutz.

Let’s face it. Bold behavior-changing declarations rarely are realized as planned. Human beings simply do not turn on a dime and become new people with all bad habits replaced by good ones. In addition, the mundane aspects of life (e.g. family, career, chores, etc.) all seem to take precedence. In the end our bold resolutions simply crumble to dust.

Rather than setting resolutions, may I suggest that you set goals instead? Statements of what you want to accomplish, when you expect to accomplish it, and a plan for how you’re going to do it are far more effective than brash statements of instant behavior change. And goals can also be somewhat flexible. If you are following your carefully thought-out plan and you still don’t quite accomplish what you set out to do by your deadline, then you are perfectly free to review, re-assess, and decide to either extend the deadline or drop the goal entirely.

Goals can be both short and long term. The beginning of a new year is a perfect time to look over your life, take pride in what you’ve already accomplished, decide what you would like to do in three months, six months, one year, five years, and ten years, and develop sound plans for achieving them. So ditch the resolutions and go for the goals instead. You’ll find that you’ll be making much more progress this way than with a vague declaration.

Clean It Up

As the end of gardening season approaches, our gardens will, no doubt, be strewn with dead plants, bent or broken supports, and other assorted bric-a-brac. It’s late in the year, and as far as you’re concerned, you are done with gardening for the season. As for the debris? “Ahh, I’ll clean it up in the spring,” you say.

Bad move. Leaving a garden full of junk is a poor practice – one that will hinder your future efforts to have a healthy garden full of high-yielding vegetable plants. Leaving a garden full of weeds, damaged trellises, dead plants, and God knows what else is like sending out an invitation for all the vermin and pests to come spend the winter in your garden – and never leave.

Certain insect pests can survive the winter all cozily nestled up in the debris you refused to clean up. Did you have a problem with cabbageworms? Guess what? They’ll be plaguing your next year’s crop of cabbage thanks to the winter home you provide for them. Did cucumber beetles chew up a good portion of last year’s cucumber crop? Well, don’t expect winter weather to be their last hurrah, not as long as they have some nice dead plants for them to stay warm in. And were you and your tomato plants blessed by some of those fat green tomato hornworms? Don’t shed any tears for them; they’ll spend the winter as pupae all snug and warm in a pile of dead tomato plants. Then come spring, the moth will emerge and lay eggs on your tomato plants. Hello tomato hornworms! Goodbye tomatoes!

But it doesn’t have to be this way as long as you follow this simple three-word instruction – clean it up! Gather up the spent plants and dead weeds, and either toss them out or put them in your compost pile (as long as the plants weren’t infested with disease). Removing this garden junk leaves the pests with nowhere to hide, run, or overwinter. This will help reduce the odds that next year’s vegetable crops will be overrun with plant-devouring larvae or adult insects. Insects can be a severe problem in your garden. Don’t carry the problem into next year by giving these insects shelter over the winter so they can come back next year and render all your hard work in vain. Clean up your garden now, and give those insect pests the boot!

Corona Can’t Touch This

Back in 1990, rapper M.C. Hammer released a tune entitled “U Can’t Touch This.” Now M.C. Hammer was referring to the idea that “U” couldn’t “touch” — come close to him — to match his talent and ability in music, lyrics, rhyme, and dance. But if I may, I’d like to extrapolate this to our current world situation. A seemingly unstoppable bundle of ribonucleic acid wrapped in a protein coat is spreading death and destruction throughout the human population. The grim tally has left many of us survivors terrified and wondering if we’ll be the next victim of this modern-day black plague.

But take heart. As terrible as this virus is, and as much as it’s taken away our freedom of movement, human contact, and overall sense of safety, there are some things that, to this virus we can boldly say, “u can’t touch this.”

COVID-19 can’t touch the love we feel for our spouses, partners, family, and friends. The fact that we can’t make contact with them right now doesn’t diminish the love we feel for them, and our ability to demonstrate that love. If we can’t hug and kiss them, we can still talk to them via Zoom or the good old-fashioned telephone. We can write e-mails and texts, or even good old-fashioned pen and ink letters. We can visit them at their residences and talk to them from six feet away or through glass windows. Togetherness may be hindered, but our ability to express love is never halted.

COVID-19 can’t touch our creativity. We may be stuck indoors and unable to work a regular job, dine at restaurants, or attend public events. But if you open your newspaper, turn on your television, or browse the internet, you’ll see all kinds of stories about people creating new forms of stay-at-home-entertainment, online concerts, virtual graduations, and other ways of bringing us amusement and diversion. I’ll bet my whole garden harvest double or nothing that by the time this is all over, new inventions and businesses will have been formed, all stimulated by the needs that this virus has created. They always have been, and I expect they will be again.

COVID-19 can’t touch our human spirit, generosity, and resilience. It’s a cold hard fact that this virus has laid us low. People are getting sick and dying from it, and we still don’t know all the effect that may show up later in the survivors. But every day, you hear about people banding together to deliver food and other necessities to those in need. Groups of people are organizing parades to wish shut-in children a happy birthday. Businesses and other organizations are busy sewing masks to give away to those who need them. Scientists all over the world are working together night and day to find a treatment and/or a vaccine for this terrible disease. And while there are still news stories about selfish politicians and other individuals who place a higher value on coin-of-the-realm than on human lives, there are also plenty of examples (that you don’t always see on the nightly news) of those that want to serve and help their fellow man. “Look for the helpers,” television personality Fred Rogers once said. “There will always be helpers.”

Lastly, COVID-19 can’t touch the human ability to reach out to a higher power. Whatever your religious faith; whatever deity you pray to; whatever higher power you turn to when the well of your human efforts has run dry, nothing – not the virus, not a poor economy, not selfish politicians, not anything can ever come between us and the higher power we turn to.

There is no doubt that the virus has knocked us down. But it has not, nor will it ever knock us out. It may take several months, or even a year or two, but in the end the human race, with its love, creativity, human spirit, generosity, resilience, and ability to tap into a higher power, will eventually triumph.

Oh, and one more thing. When the events of the world seem overwhelming, turn to your garden. Plant a new one or cultivate an existing one. There is nothing like being out in nature to lighten the load of world events. Audrey Hepburn once said, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” There will always be a brighter tomorrow, no matter what things may look like today. And few things can brighten a tomorrow (and a today) like a well-cultivated garden.

The Old Gray Seeds They Ain’t What They Used to Be

Now is the time to start thinking about your vegetable garden. The seed catalogs have been gracing your mailbox and you’ve had a chance to see all the colorful varieties of fruits and vegetables that are competing with each other for your attention and your dollars. But wait! You’ve forgotten something. What about all those seeds left over from last year or earlier that have just been setting around your house doing nothing. Maybe there’s still life in them?

Whether or not those old seeds are still viable will depend on the seed and just how long they’ve been hanging around, unplanted, on your shelf. Seeds are not a forever thing. Sooner or later they all lose viability and become nothing but dead specks of what might have been. Some seeds can be stored for several years and will still be viable. Others will fail to germinate if not planted after a year.

Research on various types of seeds has given us some guidelines as to how long a shelf life different seeds possess. The website of Johnny’s Selected Seeds has a table that lists different sees and how long you can hang onto them before they lose viability. Here is a link to that table –

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-JSSSharedLibrary/default/dw913ac4d0/assets/information/seed-storage-guide.pdf

Another way to check the viability of your old seeds is to run a germination test. The following information come from North Carolina State University Extension.

Seed Viability Test

What You Will Need

Ten seeds of each type being tested
Paper towels
Water
Sealable plastic bags
A permanent marker

Moisten a sheet of paper towel. It shouldn’t be dripping wet, just uniformly damp. If your paper towel falls apart when it gets wet, use 2 sheets, one on top of the other.

1. Place the 10 seeds in a row along the damp towel.
2. Roll or fold the paper towel around the seeds.
3. Place the paper towel into the plastic bag and seal it. Write the date on the plastic bag, so there’s no guess work involved. If you are testing more than one type of seed, also label the bag with the seed type and variety.
4. Place the plastic bag somewhere warm, about 70 degrees F. A sunny window sill or on top of the refrigerator should work.
5. Check daily, to be sure the paper towel does not dry out. It shouldn’t because it is seal, but if it get very warm, you may need to re-moisten the towel with a spray bottle.
6. After about 7 days, start checking for germination by unrolling the paper towel. You may even be able to see sprouting through the rolled towel. Very often the roots will grow right through it.
7. Check your seed packet for average germination times for your particular seed, but generally 7 – 10 days should be enough time for the test.
8. After 10 days, unroll the paper towel and count how many seeds have sprouted. This will give you the percentage germination you can expect from the remaining seeds in the packet. If only 3 sprouted, it is a 30% germination rate. Seven would be a 70% germination rate. Nine would be a 90% germination rate, and so on.

Realistically, if less than 70% of your test seed germinated you would be better off starting with fresh seed. If 70 – 90% germinated, the seed should be fine to use, but you should sow it a little thicker than you normally would. If 100% germinated – lucky you, your seed is viable and you’re ready to plant.

You don’t have to waste the seeds that germinated. They can be planted. Don’t let them dry out and handle them very carefully, so that you don’t break the roots or growing tip. It’s often easiest to just cut the paper towel between seeds and plant the seed, towel and all. If the root has grown through the towel, it is almost impossible to separate them without breaking the root. The paper towel will rot quickly enough and in the meantime, it will help hold water near the roots.

Source: North Carolina State County Extension Service — https://richmond.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SeedViabilityTest.pdf?fwd=no

There Is A New Book Coming Out, And Your Friendly Neighborhood Garden Troubadour Will Be Featured in One of the Chapters!

I’m happy to announce that a new book will soon be released, and I will be featured in one of the chapters. The book is entitled Mature Preneurs Talk – How To Have A Productive, Energized, Creative Life After 50. In this book, author Diana Todd-Banks interviewed a select group of people from all around the world who have created “a life after 50” where they are feeling younger, more vibrant and active, healthier, more mentally alert, and happier. They are also helping and showing others how to achieve the same, and your friendly neighborhood Garden Troubadour will be featured in a chapter of the book.

For anyone who has ever reached a point in their lives where they feel they need to make a change, this book is definitely for you! It will be released at in early October, and be available online, plus in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Australia to name just a few areas in the world.

Here is the press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                             CONTACT: Mark Lyons
                                                                                    mark@greenthumbatyourservice.com

DATE: September 21, 2019

 

Over 50 Mature Preneurs Show How To Have A
Productive, Energised Creative Life
or
Over 50’s Positively Changing The Face of Ageing

 

Palatine, Illinois, USA, September 20, 2019
The over 50’s are the largest demographic in marketing history, millions of baby boomers live in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Retirement is looming, yet for many they think their future looks gloomy but there is an emerging bright side to discover.

Often referred to by the younger generations and themselves as “the Over 50s,” this group of people, are facing challenges of a type, and on a scale, not experienced by their parents and grandparents.

Living longer than ever has them thinking “What do I do next?” “I’m not ready to retire!” “How can I make sure our finances will last?” and “How do I stay positive and healthy?”

To help these Baby Boomers and over 60’s plus, answer these questions, Mark Lyons, a.k.a. “The Garden Troubadour, Palatine, Illinois, USA was asked to join a select group of Over 50s by Diana Todd-Banks, an Entrepreneur & Int’l Best Selling Author, to provide insights and answers.

Each member of the group has created “a life after 50” where they are feeling younger, more vibrant and active, healthier, more mentally alert, and happier. They are also helping and showing others how to achieve the same.

Ms Todd-Banks invited Mature Preneurs from around the world to participate in the book ‘Mature Preneurs Talk – How To Have A Productive, Energized, Creative Life After 50.’  These contributors come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Many now live a life very different from what they envisaged before they turned 50.

But what have they done to achieve this?

How they reached this point of life energy makes fascinating reading, as does listening to their interviews on the podcast by the same name. All have been guests on Mature Preneurs Talk podcast to talk about their story and message.

Professor of Entrepreneurship Roxanne Zolin, who has written the Foreword for the book recognises their achievements, and says, “You may be asking, what does positive ageing have to do with entrepreneurship in general and Mature Preneurs in particular?”

Professor Zolin answers, “For some this may seem a natural connection, but I hope to interest you in the very deep and meaningful connection between starting a new enterprise after the age of about 50 and reaping the benefits of positive ageing.”

Importantly the contributors in this book write about topics important to them and significant for the mid life group, and at the end of each chapter are contact details for readers to connect and learn more.

For many over 50’s who feel at a loss in life, or who have lost jobs, pets or partners, this book Mature Preneurs Talk will reignite your enthusiasm for life and encourage you to take the path which these creative entrepreneurs have travelled.

Mark Lyons worked in the corporate world for many years in a wide variety of careers in a cornucopia of industries. But it took a career crisis to finally convince him to forever turn his back on full time corporate employment and strike out on his own. Combining his love of gardening, cheese making, and mushroom growing along with his skills as an entertainer, Mark founded Green Thumb at Your Service, a business whose mission is to inspire people to become independently healthy by coaching them on how to grow their own food. Through one-on-one consulting, hands-on classes, and group presentations, Mark teaches people how to grow their own vegetables, make their own cheese, and grow their own mushrooms. Mark is also a musical entertainer who performs at folk festivals, children’s parties, assisted living centers, and farmers markets. It is this combination of music and gardening which led Mark to brand himself as “The Garden Troubadour.”

Mature Preneurs Talk – How To Have A Productive, Energized, Creative Life After 50,’ will be released at in early October, and be available online, plus in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Australia to name just a few areas in the world.

To listen to Mature Preneurs Talk podcast go to http://maturepreneurstalk.com and select any podcast platform.

One final quote by Diana Todd-Banks from Mature Preneurs Talk Book:

“We all have the opportunity to create our own key to longevity and more and more research is showing this is happening today opening new ways of thinking and with that comes new potential ventures ones that perhaps haven’t existed before. That’s the exciting part! This is why it’s time to let your subconscious take subtle action.”

For media interviews, and to learn more about Mark Lyons go to:

Website:  http://www.greenthumbatyourservice.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/GreenThumbAtYourService
Google:  http://www.google.com/profiles/marklyons64
Blog: https://thegardentroubadour.wordpress.com/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/gardntroubadour
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garden_troubadour/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/markllyons

 To contact Diana Todd-Banks, the Producer of Mature Preneurs Talk – How To Have A Productive, Energized, Creative Life,’ go to https://dianatoddbanks.com or diana@dianatoddbanks.com – 3X Int’l Best Selling Author & Author of 7 other books.

It Ain’t Over ‘Til You See the White of the Frost

 

By now, many of you are beginning to see the sun setting on the horizon of your gardening season. You’re beginning to think about (or perhaps have already started) harvesting the last of the fruits and vegetables, throwing away (or composting) the spent plants, enriching your soil with humus and compost, turning it all over and mixing it in, washing and putting away your tools, and calling it a season. And you can do that if you so desire. But gardening does not have to end just yet. There are still vegetables you can plant and get a final harvest before the frost sets in and the snow flies.

Remember the cool season crops you planted in the early spring? Well, guess what? They work equally well in the fall. Lettuce, spinach, brassicas (kale, mustard, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc.), and root crops (parsnip, leek, rutabaga, salsify, etc.) can all be grown in the fall. And should a light frost occur, it will have little or no effect, because these plants can take it. Frost actually improves the flavor of kale and parsnips. In addition, some root crops can be left in the ground over the winter months. So if you have a sudden hankering for parsnip leek soup in mid-February, just go out to the garden, dig up some parsnips and leeks, and brew yourself a feast. Note: please do not announce to your household that you are going out in the garden to take a leek.

Remember, gardening does not have to come to a screeching halt come fall. There’s still some life left in the growing season. Why not make the most of it?

Take A Stand For Gardening And Spread The Word

 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

Why do we garden? Well there’s lots of reasons why – fresh food, exercise, cost, etc. But perhaps the biggest driver of our desire to garden can be summed up in one word – refusal. We refuse to put up with rock-hard, bland-tasting, vitamin- and mineral-depleted fruits and vegetables that are the standard fare at most grocery stores. We refuse to fill our mouths and bellies (and for that matter, those of our children) with pesticide-soaked, herbicide-infused, laboratory-altered produce. And lastly, we refuse to shell out our hard earned money for all of the aforementioned. We want our fruits and vegetables to taste fresh and provide a full complement of natural nutritive factors that our bodies need to survive and thrive. And we don’t want to live in fear that the produce we are putting into our mouths has been doused with cancer-causing chemicals or disease-laden poop fresh from the animal’s butt. When we grow fruits and vegetables ourselves, we know we have absolute control over what goes on it – or more importantly, what doesn’t go on it.

“What’s your point, Mark,” you may be saying to yourself. “I know all this already. I’m a gardener for the very reasons you just mentioned. And so are my family, my friends – heck, I belong to a whole club full of gardeners. You’re preaching to the choir.” And you’re right, I am. But there’s a reason for that. I want to first remind everyone why we do what we do. And then I want you to carry it one step further.

There’s a whole world out there that’s still dining on bland, pesticide-soaked, industrial produce. But we, as dedicated gardeners, can change this. How? By spreading the hobby of gardening among your family, friends, neighbors, and communities. And then by convincing your communities to spread it among other communities.

How can you accomplish this? Well, you can start by the simple act of sharing. Share your excess produce with your extended family, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else you can think of. You’ll be showing them what real food tastes like. After they bite into a fresh, home-grown tomato, it will be hard for them to go back to the bland, store-bought stuff.

Second, convince them to start their own garden. Encourage them to create their own production center for fresh, wholesome, pesticide-free food for their family. And then, just like the 1980’s commercial for Fabregé Organics, have them encourage two friends – then have them encourage two friends, and so on, and so on…

Just think what would happen if we became a nation of gardeners and stopped purchasing all that tasteless, pesticide-laced produce. We could bring all of those industrial producers to their knees by hitting them where it hurts – in the profit zone. Then maybe they’d start growing better fruits and vegetables.

A pipe dream? Probably. But certainly a goal worth aiming for.

One more thing. If you do convince your friends, neighbors, community, etc. to start gardening, and they find that they need some help, well, just tell them to contact your friendly neighborhood Garden Troubadour. Have trowel, will travel!

Insecticides, Piscacides, and Homicides

We all want a successful garden. We all want our vegetable and fruit plants to yield large quantities of wholesome, intact, fresh fruits and vegetables. So when we see insect pests turning our plants, fruits, and vegetables into Swiss cheese, we immediately think of three things – kill, kill, and kill again! We want those intruders dead, and we’re willing to go to any lengths to do this. We’ll go to the nearest big box store and purchase the first bottle of unpronounceable chemicals we find. As long as it promises to kill those garden pests, that’s all we care about.

But before you start spraying that stuff on your plants, please stop, take a deep breath, and think about what you’re about to do. You will be introducing a synthetic substance into the environment that may have long-lasting harmful effects. Furthermore, that stuff may hang around for a long time and multiply those harmful effects. These products not only kill the insects that are eating your plants, but they may also kill or otherwise cause great harm to a whole host of other living creatures.

Meet the rogue’s gallery.

Malathion – Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide used to control leaf-eating insects such as aphids, leafhoppers, and Japanese beetles on flowers, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables. It’s also used for large-scale mosquito control. It is available for home use under the brand names of Ortho MAX Malathion and Spectracide Malathion Insect Spray Concentrate. Malathion is highly toxic to fish and bees and mildly toxic to birds. If ingested, the human body converts malathion to malaoxin, which may be strongly toxic to humans. Malathion may also be carcinogenic.

Carbaryl – Carbaryl is the third most widely-used pesticide for home gardens, commercial agriculture, and forestry and rangeland protection. It is most commonly sold under the name Sevin. Carbaryl is used to control aphids, fire ants, fleas, ticks, spiders and other types of garden pests. The EPA considers Carbaryl “likely to be carcinogenic in humans,” due to laboratory studies showing increased tumors in mice exposed to it. Toxicity is low for fish, birds, and other animals, but high for bees.

Acetamiprid – Acetamiprid is a neonicotinoid used to control sucking-type insects on vegetables, fruits, cotton, and ornamental plants and flowers. While classified as “unlikely to be a human carcinogen,” nevertheless, like Malathion and Carbaryl, it is highly toxic to bees.

Permethrin – Permethrin is a dual use product. Medically, it’s used to treat and prevent head lice and as a treatment for scabies. Permethrin is listed as a “restricted use” substance by the EPA because it is highly toxic to aquatic life. It’s sold commercially as Ortho® Bug-B-Gon MAX® Garden Insect Killer Dust. While it’s not toxic to mammals and birds, it is strongly toxic to cats and fish.

Metaldehyde – Metaldehyde is used to control gastropod pests such as slugs and snails. It is sold commercially as Ortho® Bug-Geta® Plus Snail, Slug & Insect Killer. At 50 ppm, it is considered mildly toxic and a breathing irritant.

It’s important to remember that these products are designed for one purpose only – to kill. And they don’t do a good job in discriminating between the “bad” bugs and the “good” bugs. In addition, they do not break down in the environment very quickly, so they tend to stick around inflicting their toxicity for a long time after initial application. So I recommend going easy with these products, or better yet, don’t use them at all. Doing the latter will help insure that we do not cause undue harm to the world around us.

 

It Themes Like a Good Idea

 

As much as we all love gardening, there are times when it starts to get a little – well, dull. This is especially true when you find yourself planting the same kind of vegetables in the same space in the same patterns. Year after year, you know exactly what to expect. And it’s starting to get a bit boring.

Fortunately, there is a cure for this. It’s called the theme garden. With a theme garden, you choose a particular concept that you want your garden to reflect, and then you fill it with plants that fit that theme. A pizza garden, for example, would contain the plants of vegetables and herbs that you would typically find on a pizza, such as oregano, onions, basil, parsley, and tomatoes. A healing garden would contain herbs that have medicinal uses.

Here are some other ideas for themes around which you can build a garden.

Heirlooms – a garden of open pollinated, non-hybrid fruits and vegetables

Unusually-Colored Vegetables – fruits and vegetable cultivars that have a color that you don’t normally associate with those vegetables. Some examples would be Purple Dragon carrots, Black Krim tomatoes, Lemon cucumbers, Hopi Blue corn, and Rainbow chard.

A Garden of Song – fruits, vegetables, and other plants that show up in song titles. A flower garden of song, for example could include roses (“Rambling Rose”, “Roses of Picardy”); tulips (“Tiptoe Through the Tulips”), buttercups (“Build Me Up Buttercup”), and begonias (“Scarlet Begonias”)

Alphabet Garden – fruits, vegetables, and flowers that begin with each letter of the alphabet. If you have young children, this can be both fun and educational.

Those are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. If you’d like more, then check out the website of the NC State College of Design, https://naturalearning.org/theme-gardens. And with a little brainstorming, I’m certain that you, too, can come up with some interesting garden themes. Then you can take your garden from snore to roar!

Themes. The cure for the common garden.