Grow

Now that fall is here and winter is closing in, it’s easy to assume that it’s time to put your gardening tools into hibernation and forget about your garden until next spring. But, in actuality fall is an essential time to prepare your garden so that you can ensure a successful growing season next spring. Jim is busy planting cover crops to prepare for winter (more on that next week), but here are a few tips you can use in your own garden.

The basics of composting are simple. Most people know they can compost fruit and vegetable peels, leaves, and grass clippings. But what about that tea bag you used this morning? Or the fur that collects in the brush when you groom your cat?

The following list is meant to get you thinking about your compost possibilities. Not every item on the list is for everyone, and that’s fine. Imagine how much trash we could prevent from going into the landfills if each of us just decided to compost a few more things. Here are 75 ideas to get you started.

You've been weeding until your back hurts all summer, but your job isn't over yet. Before the frost sets in there is plenty to do in your garden to keep it healthy and beautiful, and set it up for the spring.

Every area of the US is different. In Vermont you'll want to take precautions to protect young plants from the freezing cold, whereas in Santa Barbara that won't be as much as a concern. Regardless, there are some garden tasks that are important in every climate.

You can see it on a small but growing organic farm on the grounds of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital near Ann Arbor, where tomatoes and herbs are harvested and sold to patients and employees.

You can see it under a canopy on Beaumont Hospital's Royal Oak campus, where workers in scrubs and white coats buy locally grown lettuce, fresh-cut flowers and vegan baked goods.

And you can see it at smaller hospitals, such as Botsford in Farmington Hills, where organic produce is delivered weekly from a Michigan farm to 29 employees through a seasonal program.

ANNE MURPHY says she likes living at the Solaire, a rental building in Battery Park City, because it allows her to feel environmentally “virtuous.”

A truck from Holton Farms of Westminster, Vt., parks outside the Solaire, a green rental in Battery Park City.
 
The 27-story apartment tower, which bills itself as the country’s first green residential high-rise, has a buildingwide air filtration system, generates electricity with solar-energy panels and uses recycled water for toilets.

The program is called Farm to School.  A newly hired sustainable agriculture specialist wants the San Diego Unified School District to get a bigger share of its fruits and vegetables from local and organic farms.  In these days of budget concerns, the specialist didn't cost the school district a dime.

Farm to School Specialist Vanessa Zajfen is picking fresh produce, with grower Robin Taylor, at Suzie's Organic Farm in Imperial Beach.  In a few hours, the fresh organic produce will be served to students.

Humming with the sound of birdsong and trickling water, and the air thick with the heady scent of English cottage garden flowers, the ravishing organic gardens at Highgrove are buzzing with life.

The Georgian Cotswolds estate is home to arguably the best royal gardener in history, Prince Charles, who has lovingly designed and nurtured the 15 acres that surround the house, creating one of the nation's most important contemporary gardens.

The kale plants growing on the roof of the student center at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark are still a few weeks away from being harvested, but campus chef Peter Fischbach already knows what he will do with the vegetables.

Fischbach plans to braise the freshly picked leafy greens with onions and bacon and serve them three floors below to students in NJIT’s dining hall.

Organic Valley, America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation’s leading organic brands, today announced it will launch the Generation Organic 2010 “Who’s Your Farmer?” Tour on October 6, starting at the Organic Valley headquarters in La Farge, Wis., and ending in our nation’s capitol in Washington, D.C. on October 21.