Tips for Hardy Gardeners

Eat a banana.

Chop up the peel into smallish pieces.

Put the pieces in some warm water and let them sit for a couple of hours.

Congratulations!  You've just made an organic fertilizer for your house plants that Tom Kasper says they'll almost immediately find ... a-peel-ing.

Clean up/clean out your garden at the end of the season or leave it?

Planning ahead for next year's fresh produce from your garden, and surveying the tidy rows of canned fruits, vegetables, salsas, pestos, jams and jellies can be one of the most satisfying ends to the summer.

Haley Diem was a little embarrassed this past weekend.

The One Vegetable, One Community coordinator (it's a new position this year at the Duluth Community Garden Program) had just covered every flat surface of her kitchen with home-grown produce and had only one thing left before she began her annual salsa-making operation: getting some canning jars.

Long story short, Diem returned home sans jars and had to start dumping out condiments and Mason-jar vases in order to start canning.

Someday, Tom Kasper wants to find a grant that will help him build small gardens for folks who couldn't afford it otherwise.

September is perfect for spending time in the garden.  The temperatures are lovely, the harvest is busting out all over, and it's great to find a comfortable place to sit (in or near your plot), appreciate what you've accomplished and plan a little for how you could garden for yourself - and others - next year.

Fall-based gardening?  Now?  It's the middle of August!

Luckily, a couple of the things you might consider doing in the garden are all about sharing: dividing irises, for example (if they haven't been blooming, or taking a page from Tom Kasper's book and dropping off 90 pounds of produce at the Damiano Center!

Gardening is not only a wonderful activity that can be enjoyed along or at a social distance ... it turns out so is garden appreciation.

The Western Garden Tour is going on on Saturday, August 8 and a garden tour benefitting CHUM is slated for next Tuesday.

You can contact CHUM for more information.