Indiana Organic Gardeners Assn. Meeting Today

Hello All!

Today was the first meeting of the year of the Indiana Organic Gardeners Association.  It was a nice meeting, as usual.  It was held at the Greenwood Public Library, which is south of Indy.  These meetings start with a pitch-in meal, which I have not participated in, yet.  I feel like the Cubs on this pitch-in; wait till next meeting.

Anyway, we always start with introductions.  This time we also said where we were getting our seeds from.  Me, I got mine from Nature's Crossroads.  You will see the link on this blog, but the site is not up at the moment.  RAMBLING, AGAIN!  Ok, we learned about organic pesticides from a woman named Laura Karr from KG Acres Farm Featherwerks.  She also spoke about chickens, which isn't my bag.  Baby.

One of the members of IOGA was giving away all of her gardening books.  She is moving away.  It was kind of sad, but I appreciated the books.  They will be used.  I got a nice book about flower for Miss 38th Street.  I hope she likes it!  I also got a wonderful gardening catalog which I intend to use here soon.  I need some seed growing supplies.

Now the best thing to happen at the meeting, which I'm totally psych'd about is a guy I met there who sells worm castings.  Worm pooh, basically.  Michael's his name and he was telling the group about how he used worm castings to start seeds.  He said they germinated quicker and were, on average, healthier plants. I got his info and I'm going to get some worm castings for my seeds!  It is from a site called Sophiaorganic.org.  Can't wait to try this out!  I was telling all this to Miss 38th Street this afternoon.  Then I was listening to myself say that I was psych'd about worm castings?  I can't believe I just said that.  Garden Geek!

I'm drinking wine, by the way.

Thank you for reading.

Good night, and good luck ;)

Happy New Years!

Hello, Again!

My first entry of the new year!  I hope everyone had a great 2011 and will have an even better year this time around.  Welcome back to my garden blog.  I made a few changes to the blog for 2012.  I might make a few more.  I hope everyone will enjoy this year's version.  I also hope I get some more advice, too!  I need all the help I can get.

If you're like me, the garden is already on your mind.  In fact, I got some new garden books for Christmas. Mainly from Miss 38th Street's lovely mother (Kathy, you're a peach!)  I have a lot to read.  Check this out:

 I got "Carrots Love Tomatoes," by Louise Riotte.  I studied some companion gardening from several internet articles last year, but I still wanted this book.  I just like having books handy, you know?

I got "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control," which is a Rodale book.  And it has such a catchy title, huh?   Rodale rocks, so I wanted this book.

Last, but not least, I was given the "Seed to Seed," by Suzanne Ashworth.  This will be a valuable book in the long run, I hope.  I have read a couple segments from it on a website last year.  I liked it.  We gotsta keep it realz.




















I have a lot to read, as you can see.

Now, I've already started on my first garden project.  Last year was the second time I started seeds indoors.  I had mixed results.  I thought the whole experience was great.  Miss 38th Street and I got excited when we came home from work or woke up in the morning to find new sprouts.  Last year, I attempted to start around 50 seedlings or so.  The seed growing set up was a set that I adjusted as I went. It was pretty ugly, but it worked, kinda.

This year, I have taken the next step in my seed growing endeavours.  I have moved the operation to the basement.  My Dad gave me a heavy duty 6ft table last week.  I'm using it as the seed tray table.  But that's not the best part.  Check it:

I installed five sets of grow lights on pulleys!  I have three 4 foot duel lamp fixtures, and two 24 inch duel lamp fixtures.  

I am using tie-line to hang the lights.  I installed 2x4s, plywood, hooks and pulleys.  

I've got five lights that I can adjust as needed.  It's not perfect, but it's a start.  

I still need to run the power to all the fixtures, which I hope to have finished this week.  I am also looking to add some storage to hold all pertinent items to this operation and an oscillating fan.  Possibly a space heater.  I'll have to see the how warm it is down there.  This is really exciting!  It was great when I showed Miss 38th Street.  She was a little stunned at the operation, but was confident in what I was doing.  After looking at this, if anyone has any suggestions.  Please let me know!  

Alright.  That's all I've got for now.  I'm glad you read the blog!  I can't wait till I get some seeds started!

38th Street out.