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What Is My Local Extension Service?

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What Is My Local Extension Service?

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. When it comes to finding gardening solutions specific to your area, most experts will direct you something called your local extension service. What exactly, you may ask, is your local extension service? The Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (or CREES) is a national educational network funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Each state has an extension at its land grant university and often has other regional offices. Cooperative extension services study and provide information on everything affecting agriculture and related businesses in their immediate area. Pennsylvania s apple country, for instance, depends on the honeybee for pollination. The local extension is researching ways to combat the recent decimation of the honeybee population in an effort to save this $40 billion industry. CREES is also actively involved in biosecurity, developing new and better ways to protect the security of our food and water supply from toxins and diseases. Their studies help manage our forests, cut the costs of organic farming and educate children and adults about nutrition and the environment. Because it s local, your extension service and its web site are often better sources for information than any general garden manual. Find out how to fight pests, feed your soil, get rid of invasive plants and protect your trees from disease. If you know which plants work best where you live, you can garden greener and spend less time at it. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

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Cold Frames

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. Gardening doesn t have to be just a summertime activity, even in colder climates. Spend a weekend building a cold frame this spring and you can get started earlier and grow later into the fall. Cold frames have been used for centuries to start cold-tolerant plants in the early spring, harden off seedlings before transplanting, shelter tender perennials and even overwinter plants and cuttings. A cold frame is just a box set over the garden with a transparent roof to trap the Sun s heat and the Earth s moisture. Hot beds go one step further with electric cables or a bed of manure just below grade to heat things up. But in most climates, a cold frame s 5- to 10-degree difference and protection from wind and frost is all you need to start your garden weeks earlier. The ideal size for a cold frame is 3 by at least 6 feet, about 12 inches deep along the front sloping to 18 inches at the back. You can use 1x12-inch pressure-treated lumber nailed or screwed or try prefabricated corners for easy dismantling and storage. For the cover, old windows work great, but a panel of Plexiglas , fiberglass or even a double layer of plastic sheeting on a frame will also work. Even easier, check out your favorite gardening catalog for a ready-made model. Orient your cold frame toward the South or Southwest, near the house so you can water it easily and monitor the temperature inside. Spring and fall plants do best at about 60 degrees; summer plants at 75 degrees or below. Plants will wither if they get too hot, though, so once the outdoor temperature goes above 40 degrees, prop the lid open about 6 inches. When the temperature reaches a consistent 50 degrees or above you can remove the lid altogether during the sunny hours and replace it on those chilly spring nights. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

Garden Journal

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. Whether you re fighting cabin fever this winter by planning next season s garden or just looking for a good housewarming gift, a garden journal is a great tool. Find a binder you like, add section dividers and fill it with graph paper for garden diagrams, pockets for plant labels and receipts, album pages for garden photos and plenty of sheets for notes. Make up a checklist of the things you need to do each spring to clean up and prepare as well as a summer maintenance schedule. Research recommended plants for your area on your local extension service s web site and save magazine articles and clippings in a special section. There s nothing more frustrating in the garden than repeating your mistakes year after year! Keep three years worth of notes about what new plants you added, what did well, what died, what you added to the soil and what you did to get rid of those aphids. With a good garden plan and your notes and photos from last year, you can avoid doing extra work and buying things you don t need. And you can share your journal with an expert to get more specific advice. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

Planning a Greener Garden

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. The old adage, what goes around comes around is especially true in your garden. Because plants aren t the only things living there, your garden should be a friendly place for children, pets and you. Blanketing it with petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers is not only toxic, it kills the friendly insects, bacteria and fungus that are essential to a healthy garden. Fortunately, there are a lot of great natural options, like iron phosphate pellets for slugs, citrus oil-based weed killer and Pyola spray for pest insects. Products like these use naturally occurring chemicals to solve common garden problems, and they re worth a closer look. Probably the best thing you can do for your garden is to add organic material to the soil with compost. Unlike chemical additives, nutrients in compost are available to plants as they need them, making it very difficult to use too much. What you plant is even more important than how you plant it. If it s native to your area, it ll probably do better in your garden and require far less water, fertilizer and hassle than something exotic. Rather than coddling a vast expanse of lawn, design areas with mulch, low groundcover plants or even a rock garden. You ll use far fewer chemicals that can leach into the soil and the water supply, and you won t have to work as hard all season! Another way to be green in the garden is to use non-polluting garden tools. Instead of cranking out exhaust with the rototiller or tractor, pick up a shovel or a hand mower and save yourself a trip to the gym. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

Planning Your Garden

With proper planning, a garden should get better every year; the key is to organize your design ideas in advance. Make a sketch of your lot, using different colors for sunny and shady areas. Then think about one section at a time: the view from your windows... your soil and weather conditions... a coherent color scheme. And keep track of this years plan in a garden diary, to use next year.