Let’s Talk Vegetable Gardening and Some Other Items

A few times a year, I get the opportunity to speak to a group (garden club, Master Gardener Training, nursery, etc) about gardening – it’s a way to give back to the community for the training I received. This past Saturday, I spoke to a group of about 30 folks at the Meadow View Nursery in Lenoir City, Tn. on a cool, blustery Saturday morning. More and more people seem to be getting interested in growing their own food and it gives me some piece of mind knowing I can do it, plus I really enjoy helping others learn how. Here I am heading for the nursery and wearing the traditional paste-tomato pants I always use for these talks - damn I'm looking old.

The day before I took some shots of our yard as the spring bloomers are hitting their peak – we have continuous spring color from the time the crocuses pop up until the azaleas fade, then the summer items kick in.  The white Azaleas are full and reds are opening, even the BBQ area has a little color.

Also did a little close-up practicing, but still using auto focus.

And finally, it’s strawberry time in Tennessee, which means the pick-your-own farm a few miles up the road is open for business and this is a small part of their total crop. It was a very windy day – notice the white flags in the back.

The early ones are not quite as good as those that come later, but they’re still way better than those available in the store. When she first started doing this, Bev always picked way more than we could eat and many ended up on the compost pile. Now she just picks enough that we’ll eat, knowing that she can just go again when we run out.

Many of these were dipped in chocolate for dessert and they went down very easy.

A CHANGE - I've decided to change my blog a little and rather than just random topics as they come up, I'm going to have at least one day and maybe two devoted to a specific topic as many of you already do.  To start, each Thursday will be be gardening/ landscapping related at least through the fall and I hope to include a how-to in most of them, except since it's now time, I'll post tomato planting Saturday rather than wait a week.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Off And Planting

Larry