Jun 30, 2015 | Blog, Flowers, Summer
Hosting a patriotic party over the coming weeks? Don’t forget to spruce up your front porch or backyard patio with 
some planters or containers. A spirited planter or two will add to the festive look!
In the summer heat, remember that planters dry out fast, so to help retain moisture, add several handfuls of compost or peat to the potting mix. Place plants from tallest to shortest in pre-moistened soil. Flowers you may wish to include in your planter include Shasta daisies, Red zinnia, ‘Techno Blue’ lobelia, ‘Watermelon’ sun coleus, ‘Supercascade White’ petunia, and ‘New Wonder’ fanflowers.
Feeling crafty? Purchase some buckets that are red, white and blue; add drainage holes to the buckets; and then fill 
with potting soil and flowers. Don’t have a green thumb? Simply purchase mini American flags and place them among your own planters and throughout your flowerbeds. Whichever route you go, get the kids involved, too – make it a family project. Talk about what it means to celebrate July 4th!
And remember…there are lots of patriotic gardening ideas on Pinterest! Go get inspired!
May 30, 2015 | Blog, Spring, Summer
Oh, so sweet…your five-year-old just picked you a large, beautiful bouquet…of dandelions! It’s time to eliminate 
them for good.
When dandelions are blooming, mow them often to prevent the yellow blossoms from maturing into seeds. Prefer more manual labor? Dig them out! A “dandelion digger” is a specialized yard tool that removes a wide variety of weeds, including their roots, with little soil disturbance. Getting rid of the root and all is definitely one way to eliminate them for good.
There are some other non-conventional, methods worth trying, too. To control dandelions in much smaller, concentrated areas, try pouring boiling water over them. You can also smother them with a variety of objects including black plastic (weighted down), grass clippings, compost, or bark mulch for a nicer look. Lastly, a 5% concentration of vinegar (similar to household vinegar), is an effective weed killer against annual and perennial weeds such as dandelions, foxtail, velvetleaf, smooth pigweed and thistle. (And it won’t pollute the soil.)
Probably the most effective organic weed and feed is corn gluten meal. (This is a by-product of milling corn, primarily used in farm animal feeds and dog food.) This yellow, powdery substance can also be used as a “pre-emergent” weed control for lawns. For dandelion prevention, it should be applied to your lawn about 4 – 6 weeks before weeds germinate. If you’ve missed this window of opportunity; don’t worry. Not all weeds sprout at the same time, so try applying the corn gluten meal a few times during the growing season.
Aug 8, 2014 | Blog, Gardens, Summer
Love a nutritious, fresh salad? Consider growing a salad garden next season. It doesn’t require a lot of space – a small 4′ x 4′ 
or 4′ x 8′ raised bed is plenty of room to grow a great salad garden! In just a few easy steps, you can be on your way to having your own salad garden. Given the fall season is rapidly approaching, you can use the winter months to spend a little time researching and planning for your spring plant.
One of the best things about having a backyard garden is that you have the flexibility of growing what you enjoy eating the most. You can also control exactly how the vegetables are grown; maintaining a strictly organic environment if that is important to you.
Helpful resources in setting up your salad garden design can be found at www.GrowVeg.com. (You can give it a try for a 30-day free trial.) GrowVeg is simple to use and easily creates vegetable garden plans and lists. For example, using the planning tool, you can get all of this in a four foot square salad garden— one cucumber plant, one tomato plant, one bell pepper or other pepper plant, two lettuce plants, two baby spinach plants, one arugula plant, five Radishes, and three onions. That’s quite an assortment of fresh options and enough to provide a good amount of healthy ingredients!
The end result is worth the effort. Sure, you can run to the grocery store to purchase all of the items you need for a dinner salad, but by investing some time and patience, you can grow it all at home for a fraction of the cost.
Sep 20, 2013 | Blog, Fall, Mulch News, Spring, Summer
In an ideal world, every garden plot naturally would have deep, rich soil. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. When
establishing a new garden, or revitalizing an old one, you are pretty likely to run into sub-par soil (see our previous blog on soil testing to learn how to check up on the health of your soil).
If you’re not happy with your soil, what are the options? Short of scraping the top foot off your garden and replacing your entire plot’s soil, the best option is to add amendments to your existing soil. If you’ve had your soil tested, you will have a pretty good idea where to start.
As a general rule, in clay-rich soil, amendments break up the dense clay, add porosity and water permeability (which also improves drainage), and allows greater rooting depth. On the other side of the coin, if your soil is sandy, soil amendments increase its ability to hold nutrients and retain water.
Soil amendments fall into two broad categories, organic and inorganic. Organic amendments include peat moss, Sweet Peet, wood chips (often available free from your municipality, along with humus), compost, lawn clippings, straw, wood ash, and anything else that comes from something that was once alive. Inorganic amendments include gravel, sand, recycled rubber chunks, vermiculite, and perlite.
Not all amendments are recommended for all applications. For example, if your soil pH is already high, wood ash will only contribute to a high pH. Similarly, adding sand to soil with high clay content will essentially produce cement.
When using organic materials, it’s generally best to ensure they are composted first, with the exception of peat products. Uncomposted wood, for example, takes far longer to break down than other organic matter, ties up nitrogen as it decomposes, and can interfere with water movement. Similarly, uncomposted manure can carry dangerous pathogens.
Inorganic amendments should be applied sparingly, as once you mix them into your soil, they are there permanently. Organic materials will eventually decompose, but putting in too much gravel or sand into your soil is not something that will go away with time.
If you need help deciding what amendment will work best for your soil, talk to the experts at Three-Z. We’ll also help you determine how much ammendment your soil needs. In general, healthy soil should be about 5% organic material, and contain the correct inorganic materials to ensure easy movement of water and roots.
Unfortunately, adding amendments takes a bit of work. They must be thoroughly mixed into the soil to work properly. In existing beds with plants, this means breaking the soil up 3-4 inches deep around the plants with a garden fork or rake. Add your amendment, then rake it completely into the soil, raking first in one direction then in the other. An empty bed is a little easier, as it can be rototilled both to break up the soil and to blend in the amendments after you have spread them. In boh cases, you must thoroughly water the bed once you’re done.
Investing a bit of work into adding amendments can have a big payoff in a more lush garden, and improved soil for years to come. As always, if you have any questions, or need any help, come talk to the experts at Three-Z Supply.
Jun 17, 2013 | Blog, Spring, Summer
There has been an explosion of community gardens in America, popping up behind churches, schools, in parks, next to city 
halls, and even on corporate campuses. As the name suggests, these are gardens that are shared by many users. Most often, the garden is a plot of land that is broken up into multiple gardens, each of which is maintained by an individual. In the United states, gardens are generally between 10’x10’ and 20’x20’.
There is a strong tradition of community gardens in urban areas, often involving vacant lots that have been cleared and turned into gardens. Many times, these are developed without official permission, and can be in danger of being removed if the land is sold or otherwise reclaimed. More and more, we are seeing these gardens in suburban areas, where public or private landowners offer unused land for gardens. Cities will often turn part of a park or the grounds of a city building (a school, for example) into a community garden. Likewise, companies with large campuses offer gardens to employees and the surrounding community. The community benefits from the gardens, while the owner benefits by no longer having to maintain the land.
The organization of community gardens varies widely, from anarchy to strict rules. Some gardens are impromptu and open to all on a first-come, first-served model with no leadership. Others have locked gates and years-long waiting lists for plots, especially in more affluent urban areas where land is at a premium. Most gardens are somewhere in-between, with formal (though almost always volunteer) leadership, and a sign-up process for plots. Many are run by churches or other non-profits who oversee the gardens and will charge a small fee for shared expenses, such as water, fencing, and administration, each year.
Community gardens offer many benefits, with a few drawbacks. For apartment-dwellers and those without room for gardens on their property, the advantages are obvious, but some choose a community garden even when they have room for one in their backyard. There is a sense of camaraderie in a community garden, and the expertise of other gardeners can be invaluable, especially to those just learning. A community garden can be an excellent way to get into gardening, since the plots are almost always well-established and are unlikely to require extensive conditioning for a successful growing season. Gardeners often share their tools, especially specialty tools that are rarely used, a benefit for beginners and veterans alike. It’s also a lot easier to trade some of an over-abundant zucchini crop for some of another gardener’s tomatoes when you’re gardening side-by-side.
This does not mean there are no disadvantages. Your plot will likely be open to the public and will not be under your direct control. This can lead to a “tragedy of the commons” where visitors or fellow gardeners do not respect your property, although this is a rare thing. It can also be a pain to have to haul all of your gardening supplies to the community garden, instead of just pulling them out of your garage or shed. Some less-established gardens will lack water, making gardeners dependent on rain or whatever water they can haul to the site or catch in a rain barrel. Most of these are minor concerns when compared to the benefits, and are generally easily overcome.
If you’re interested in participating in a community garden, odds are there’s one near you. The American Community Gardening Association (http://www.communitygarden.org) is an excellent resource and even has a community garden finder on its website (http://acga.localharvest.org/), which lists 200 community gardens in Ohio.
May 19, 2013 | Blog, Summer
Since ancient times, farmers have taken up the call to war, often fighting with the very tools they use to work the land. In World War I and especially World War II, young American men answered the call of duty in great numbers, along with healthy young men in every industry. The massive worldwide mobilization for war led to a food production crisis in the US and Europe.
Those left on the US home front were feeling squeezed on both sides. The most productive agricultural workers (young men) were heading off to war and needed to be fed thousands of miles away, while hungry civilians worked unprecedented hours to produce war materials. This led to fears of price spikes for agricultural goods that would make it more expensive for Uncle Sam to keep servicemen fed. This fear, combined with a general sense of the importance of thrift and self-reliance that supported the war effort, the Victory Garden took off in popularity.
Put simply, a Victory Garden was a way for civilians to help the war effort by producing their own vegetables to lessen the burden on the formal agricultural system and help it stay focused on feeding the troops. Americans were encouraged to plant vegetables in their gardens and yards, on abandoned lots, in parks, and even at the White House. Victory Gardens became a key focus of the home front propaganda machine, and were a challenge readily taken on by the American people. By some accounts, 40% of America’s vegetables were produced in Victory Gardens by 1944. This success was supported by the US Department of Agriculture, who produced volumes of educational materials on planting, growing, and canning food from the garden.
What does all of this have to do with today? Once again, we are seeing sharp rises in global food prices, and many of us are feeling uneasy about exactly where our food comes from. This has led to an explosion in the popularity of backyard vegetable gardens, and even in raising small animals like chickens. The “victory” in today’s Victory Garden may be a more personal one, but the underlying concept is the same: thrift, self-reliance, and productive use of the land.
Planting a Victory Garden is fun and can be as simple or complex as you like. An apartment dweller can grow hearty vegetables like tomatoes and peppers in a container on a patio. A small garden can also feature other popular vegetables like squash and beans. There’s nothing stopping someone with even a modest garden plot from undertaking a full traditional agricultural calendar, with multiple plantings and harvests, starting with leafy greens in the spring and ending with a fall harvest of pumpkins and root vegetables. You are only limited by your imagination and willingness to get your hands dirty.
