I grew up gardening at Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, OR. Today, my husband Keane, and I operate this family owned mail order seed company and herb nursery. I am the co-author of McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container, a complete guide to creating and growing edible gardens in containers. This blog explores the relationship between gardening and food. I do a fair amount of public speaking on garden related topics and sometimes start my talk by saying this is for gardeners who eat, so it is with The Gardener’s Pantry. Happy gardening.
Rose Marie Nichols McGee
Hello, my name is Mike Hamper and I live in NE corner of Ohio. I have been doing Organic Gardening for well over 30 years now and have often used hay ahd straw bales as multch around my plants. I also let them weather a year if possible before placing the slices around the plants . This makes a wonderful weed bearrier and moisture holding , clean walking and clean harvesting of vegs..also a protective mantal for earth worms to come to the surface underneath the multch and do what they do best …creat soil….which each year improvs the organic composition of my soil…I have not ever thought of the idea your are suggesting and Love It….I will be using this method this year for some upclose to the house bale lots….I have used hay and straw for the walls of my hot beds in the spring with sucess also, laying old wooden storm windows over the bales. Usually I have put some soil about 8 inches deep inside. What a great resource the bales are……thanks for the idea……Mike Hamper
Dear Rosemary,
I went to a presentation you gave at a symposium at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA a couple months ago. I love your book on containers — it even has a good index, which I really appreciate, besides the excellent content and the generally nice production of the book.
In any case, I am writing because I would like your permission to forward an e-newsletter I just wrote. It’s called “Winter Garden Report” and it covers ecological gardening topics, etc. — all short items and very easy to scan/peruse. I’ve gotten good feedback on it so far. I am an aspiring garden writer — I wrote two articles for the San Francisco Chronicle this past summer (one is on weather-based irrigation controllers, the other is on what I call “self-seeding kitchen gardens.”
So, I just wanted to know if it would be alright for me to send it to you, and if so, if I might have your email address.
Best regards,
Jillian Steinberger
Rose Marie, I am copying this information http://nicholsgardennursery.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/gmo-beet-roots-busted/
and putting it on my blog with a reference back to your blog. We really need to keep this information in the spotlight. Thank you for posting this information.