Garden

Commonwealth Cancer Center is planting the seed for a new project that involves community organizations collaborating to provide inspiration for local cancer patients. Among the groups already participating are students from Woodlawn Elementary School. The serenity garden, which will be called Garden of Hope, likely will take the form of an English-style garden, said Director of Communications Amy Wise. It will have trails and stepping stones and will provide patients who are receiving treatment “something enjoyable and inspirational to view,” said Wise.

If you're hoping, like I am, for another “Indian Summer,” we'll probably be disappointed. Fall gardening projects must go on even if the warmest days are past. There are still spring and summer blooming bulbs to plant and flower beds that should be readied for winter. The bad news is that you will probably be wearing heavier jackets and boots to do it. The good news is that bulbs are now on sale! Bulbs really do better going into the ground right after nightly temperatures drop to freezing.

You may be delighted to put gardening behind you for the season, but fall is the time to manage and prevent disease in next year's garden. Summer crops may still be standing, even after being killed by heavy frosts and cold temperatures. At this time, you can take preemptive measures to help ensure a successful and bountiful garden next season. Cleaning things up in the fall can help cut back on disease in the following harvest season. Many pathogens responsible for diseases commonly seen in home gardens can overwinter or survive between crops on equipment and plant residue.

The nights are getting chillier. The sun is setting earlier and in an entirely different spot over Little Traverse Bay. In the garden, the stargazers and rich wine-colored lilies are a defiant blaze of color against the larger and larger patches of deadheaded green. For some gardeners, the adjustment to fall is a sad and wistful time. I have always seen a fierce and desperate beauty in that turning season. Those late bloomers of every species are finally coming into their own. Lush mounds of mums lift their buds to the sun, preparing to burst into glorious flower.

I've just come from the garden where I picked green beans, corn, green peppers, squash and cabbage. I pulled some carrots and graveled some potatoes to go on the beans. It is a pleasure to go to the garden and pick my own dinner. I am having guests for the evening meal, so the side table is adorned with a basket of tomatoes, green peppers, cukes and squash. The dining table centerpiece is a simple vase of zinnias, also from the garden. My menu is fresh green beans with potatoes and carrots, buttered corn, cole slaw, squash casserole, a platter of sliced tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers, all grown in my own garden.

A Danville woman was arrested over the weekend for allegedly growing marijuana plants in her back yard. Elise Rivera, 26, of 628 Highfield Road was charged Saturday with one count of cultivating more than five marijuana plants and one count of possession of marijuana. Assistant Chief Tom Bustle spotted several plants growing in a garden behind the home. When he and Sgt. Todd Davis spoke to Rivera, she allegedly admitted that the plants belonged to her. Rivera was taken to Boyle County Detention Center where she later was released on a $4,000 bond.

If you learn by doing, Jiggs Judd would have a Ph.D in gardening. For 52 years now, Judd has planted meticulous rows up and down the same "big acre" plot beside the Green River. The onions were first in the ground this year, followed by the cabbage and broccoli. The corn, beans, 'maters and the rest will follow in their time. Come August, there will be bounty enough to feed all of Middleburg and half of Yosemite. And that's usually what Judd does, because there's always more than his wife Billie could ever can. "The people enjoy my garden as much as I do," says Judd, 81. "I gave corn to 80 people last year.

As Fred Steffen knelt to pull some weeds, the soft gurgle of water from the fountain took the edge off the oppressive heat. Standing up and brushing off his pants leg, he glanced around the garden at Jessamine County Hospice, an oasis of green that seemed to muffle the sounds of traffic and the outside world. Although Steffen has only been a volunteer gardener for the past three weeks, his touch is already visible in the garden. "I planted these butterfly bushes," he said, examining one of the plant's vivid purple flowers.

Linda Smith has heard that roses won't grow in Boyle County, but the warning did not stop her from turning a swimming pool into a colorful rose garden. The brilliantly-colored roses are in full bloom after much planning and pampering. The plants were put in the ground in April with the help of Smith's gardener, Lucien Camel. "This year we're learning so much," Smith said as she picks Japanese beetles from the prickly bushes. "We've had a time with Japanese beetles. We've collected our share this summer," she said.

City Commissioner Kenny Book grew this unusually shaped cucumber in his garden at 474 Ritz Court.

One of my favorite outdoor activities is working in my own vegetable garden. I was very fortunate to grow up as the son of a vegetable farmer. As part of that experience I was heavily involved in my family's gardening operation. I still have many memories of family moments with my mom, dad and sister. That experience taught me that gardening is a great family activity. Of course the garden was a bit larger than the traditional small backyard garden but, I have often thought about what others were missing out on. Many people today do not know where their food comes from, or what it takes to produce the food that they purchase.

Appreciating what you learn at the knees of your parents isn't always evident until years later. One of the things we - my sister and brothers - were told about as we were growing up was our ancestry. Mother and Daddy tried to instill in us a proper love and appreciation for our ancestors. This didn't seem to work on anybody but my sister. Certainly, it didn't work on me. I haven't always been interested in family history. As a matter of fact, now I quite frequently lament I didn't pay enough attention when aunts, uncles, grandparents and such visited.

Is it harder to be perfect or imperfect? A safe answer might lie in the conclusion that it is much harder to be imperfect. To live with imperfection extracts a daily toll and accumulates a growing indebtedness that can never be paid. Those who strive for perfected living are hard on themselves. Whatever is undertaken is never good enough. They are tormented and are led to quiet desperation with their inability to have everything they touch be seen as perfected idealism. Haunted by the consistent evaluation of the “failed” work, these idealists often fall into despondency,  judge themselves as frauds and wonder if people think of them as such.

You don't need to wait for warm weather to start your vegetable garden. Several types of vegetables can be started as early as March. Radishes, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, onions and many more vegetables are all quite frost tolerant, and you can seed or transplant them in the garden from mid March to early April.  If you want to get an even earlier start, you could try covering an area with clear plastic film to create a mini greenhouse where plants will thrive. To try this season-extending technique, first work up the soil for your plot and stretch some black plastic over the area for a couple of weeks.

With a cold wind gusting Monday afternoon, dozens of people gathered for a ceremony on a bit of land, that, for now, is a dirt lot. But it won't be just dirt for long. The groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of a new community garden at Asbury Theological Seminary. The garden will serve as a classroom as well as a place for Asbury students, faculty and staff to grow food, Jo Brossius, spokesperson for the seminary, said. Timothy Tennent, president of the seminary, presided over the ceremony.

“I'm gonna write a book,” my friend, Glen Sandusky, announced to me when I saw him Sunday morning in the church office. Glen was grinning from ear to ear, a sure signal he was up to something. “What are you going to write about?” I played along. “I'm gonna write about how my preacher kept his garden going in January!” Then snickering to the audience gathered around him, he proudly proclaimed, “No one told him you can't keep a garden alive in the dead of winter, so he just did it!

The Capital Area Master Gardener program is taking applications for a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded to a student majoring in horticulture, plant pathology, landscape design, botany, forestry, entomology, environmental concerns, urban planning, land management, agronomy or allied subjects. To be eligible, applicant must have graduated or resided for five years in the following counties: Anderson, Boyle, Franklin, Mercer or Woodford; must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with permanent resident ID; enrolled as a full-time student in a Kentucky university with an accredited program; have a minimum, cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale; and must be a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or graduate student.

WILMORE - Asbury Theological Seminary has been awarded a two-year $18,000 grant by the Dora Tes Basileas Foundation to establish a community garden on its Kentucky campus. Slated to begin in the spring, the raised bed community garden will feature 10-15 large common plots surrounded by 25 smaller individual plots that will be tended by members of the seminary community, including students, faculty and staff. The community garden is an initiative of the Office of Global Community Formation, under the leadership of Dr. Marilyn Elliott, vice president for spiritual formation.

You may be delighted to put gardening behind you for the season, but fall is the time to manage and prevent disease in next year's garden. Summer crops may still be standing, even after being killed by heavy frosts and cold temperatures. At this time, you can take preemptive measures to help ensure a successful and bountiful garden next season. Cleaning things up in the fall can help cut back on disease in the following harvest season. Many pathogens responsible for diseases commonly seen in home gardens can overwinter or survive between crops on equipment and plant residue.

If you're hoping, like I am, for another “Indian Summer,” we'll probably be disappointed. Fall gardening projects must go on even if the warmest days are past. There are still spring and summer blooming bulbs to plant and flower beds that should be readied for winter. The bad news is that you will probably be wearing heavier jackets and boots to do it. The good news is that bulbs are now on sale! Bulbs really do better going into the ground right after nightly temperatures drop to freezing.