TAG: gardening
Winter preparation for your spring garden
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 17, 2021 at 9:00 am
BY ABRA COLE Gardening season is fast approaching. Whether you’re planning your second or first pandemic garden, or if you’ve been gardening for years, the library is here for you! Late winter is an ideal time for garden planning. It may be too early to start seeds in the still-frozen soil, but it’s not too […]
Drought-tolerant yard project: Researching, planning, digging & planting
Posted in Explore and Discover on October 7, 2020 at 6:00 am
By Jane Baker I didn’t mow the front yard all summer. This is just one of the benefits of installing a drought-tolerant landscape, a project I started researching in 2018 and took on in 2019. In creating a new landscape, especially one without grass, I learned a lot about plants, climate, and drainage, but the […]
Tags: drought, drought adapted, drought resistant, drought tolerant, garden, gardening, landscape, nature, xeriscape
Green looks good on you: Digital resources for gardening
Posted in News on March 18, 2020 at 6:00 am
Whether you’re new to gardening or looking to spruce up your spring and summer gardens, you’re bound to find the ideas, information, and help you need with these digital resources. Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center Find creative gardening ideas and how-to instructions for many gardening projects and topics, including these and more from Hob […]
Tags: digital, digital magazines, DIY, do-it-yourself, eBooks, emagazines, Gale, gale courses, garden, gardening, how-tos, inspiration, instructions, magazines, reference, resources
Saving seeds from the garden: Lovage, snap peas, and coriander
Posted in Explore and Discover on July 3, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole Ah, summer. Here you are again, bringing all that sunshine and heat and gardening goodness with you. For most of us gardeners, our seasonal plants have not only been selected by now, but they’re planted and fairly well established in our gardens. Many perennials are blooming, or nearly so. The time has […]
Tags: adults, cilantro, coriander, do-it-yourself, gardening, gardens, herbs, how-to, kids, lovage, parsely, planting, plants, saving seeds, seed, seed library, seeds, snap peas, teens, vegetables
Gifts of experience for less stress and more joy this holiday season
Posted in Explore and Discover on December 11, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole The holiday season is here again! I love the smells of goodies baking in the oven, the peacefulness of the fluffy snow falling outside, and the excited sounds of kids clamoring to get the best spot by the Christmas tree and all the gifts. Usually at our house, that last one is […]
Tags: adults, adventure, books, classes, community, concerts, cooking, crafts, DIY, events, experiences, family gifts, food, games, gardening, gift of experience, gifts, hobbies, holiday gift guide, holiday gifts, holidays, kids, microadventure, microadventures, parents, sporting events, teens, travel, tweens
The art of saving seeds
Posted in Explore and Discover on July 31, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Abra Cole In a remote vault located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, nearly one million seed varieties are stored. The purpose of this immense storage facility is to ensure the genetic future of these seed varieties, should any of the gene banks located around the world suffer catastrophic disaster. One hundred […]
Tags: adults, books, DIY, family, food, garden, gardening, health, hobbies, kale, kale seeds, library hacks, onion seeds, onions, parents, saving seeds, seed library, seed saving, seeds, sunflower seeds, sunflowers, teens, tweens, urban farming
What’s cooking in the mud kitchen?
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers on May 22, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole In the last month, my garden has gone from looking like the dark side of the moon after the zombie apocalypse to a lush green jungle of happiness. Many plants I forgot I had planted last fall have popped up to greet the sun. I already know that I want to plant […]
Tags: books, butterflies, butterfly, butterfly garden, early learning, fairies, fairy, fairy garden, family, gardening, grandparents, hobbies, kids, mud, mud kitchen, outdoor play, outdoors, parents, play, science, teens, young learners
Anticipation and inspiration: Getting ready for spring gardening
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 27, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Abra Cole It’s nearly Go Time, my gardening friends! We’ve almost made it through the winter, through the snow and the ice, through the below-freezing temperatures. We have watched last summer’s plants freeze and die back, disappear under a blanket of snow, and get stomped on (along with other indecencies) by neighborhood cats. We […]
Tags: adults, composting, composting with worms, DIY, events, family, food, garden, gardening, health, hobbies, kids, Master Gardeners, plant sales, plant starter, plant starter exchange, plant starts, pruning, seed libraries, seeds, teens, tweens, urban farming, weeding, worms, youth
Overabundance: What to do when the produce is piling up
Posted in Explore and Discover on September 7, 2017 at 6:00 am
By Susan Goertz This spring, I bought a house with a lovely little backyard. At the time, it was pretty hard to tell what was growing back there—just what looked like lots of promising looking twigs and buds. As spring warmed into summer, my vegetative bounty slowly revealed itself. Every new discovery was a delight […]
Tags: bounty, compost, composting, cookbooks, dehydrating, dehydrating produce, food preservation, garden, gardening, harvest, jerky, pickling, produce, recipe books, recipes, urban farming, vermicompost, vermiculture composting
Sharing your harvest’s bounty at library produce swaps
Posted in Explore and Discover on August 8, 2017 at 6:00 am
by Gwendolyn Haley My eyes are bigger than my freezer and pantry. Every year, I plant a little garden, only to be overwhelmed when everything starts to ripen at once. My family starts to groan and say, “No more… beans, tomatoes, squash” and so on. Each spring, I underestimate just how much produce will come […]
Tags: backyard bounty, bounty, community, food, fruit, garden, gardening, produce, produce swap, vegetables, veggies
