Nice Curb Appeal For Your Home With Some Early Spring Gardening

March may find you sighing with impatience as you watch yet another snowfall cover your barren container boxes, but it's one of the most important months for gardeners.

Tool cleanup
If you didn't do so in the fall, it's time to give your lawn mower and other tools some tough love.
Get ahead of the spring crowds by dropping off your lawn mower now to have the oil changed, bolts tightened and blades sharpened.  Remove soil from your tools' metal parts using sandpaper or a hose.

Lawn doctoring
The green, green grass of home doesn't get that way by accident, and March is a perfect time to assess your lawn's health.  Pluck a 4- to 5-inch square from your yard to see what's going on down there.  Fertilize your lawn now or start a new lawn using seeds or sod.

Weeding
There's always the battle of the weeds. The only way to win that fight is to keep at it. Nip weeds at the bud — literally, for if they're allowed to flower and go to seed, you could be looking at several years' worth of uninvited guests: Some weeds shed 10,000 seeds at a pop. 

Preparing soil
Once your soil has had a chance to thaw and lose some of its winter moisture, you'll want to prep it for planting.  Remove mulch over the course of several days, exposing the soil gradually.  Till or spade soil six to 12 inches deep.  Mix in compost, peat moss and fertilizer for plants or vegetables. For vegetable gardens, include processed or well-rotted manure in the mix (using fresh manure in the spring may burn or damage your plants).  Rake the soil level to smooth out low spots; pockets of water can make the soil cool, which slows plant growth.

Vegetables
Start planning your vegetable garden, keeping in mind the following guidelines.  Choose neighboring vegetables carefully and you may as much as double your vegetable harvest. Onions, for example, are no friend to peas and beans but make good bedmates for tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce and beets.  Later in the month (in most zones) you can seed or set out hardier vegetables, such as chard and Brussels sprouts.

Slug control

As tender shoots start to poke up in the spring, they make a beggar's banquet for slugs. Plan your counterattack before young plants become young nubs.  As with much garden damage control, natural methods are growing in popularity. One simple approach is to sprinkle slugs with salt, which causes them to dry up.  Slugs are attracted to stale beer, which you can leave in a shallow dish or bowl; slugs will enter and drown.  If you use a commercial slug bait, read the label carefully to be sure it won't endanger children, pets or birds.

Fun for kids
Kids love to help with simple growing projects or to have plants of their own to watch and care for, especially if growth is rapid (remember those pint-size attention spans).  Kids love watching plants grow from seeds. Beans, peas and parsley all grow quickly in pots, and seeds can be set in fun shapes or kids' initials.

For the birds
Find out who's likely to fly over for a visit in the next month or two, and target bird treats and feeder types for their individual tastes.  Most bird species will go for either oil-type sunflower seeds or white millet (offered separately), but sunflower-seed munchers tend to prefer elevated feeders with perches, while millet lovers usually prefer ground or large platform feeders.

You can pick your friends and you can pick your fruit...but can you pick your friends fruit?

As community gardeners harvest their season's bounty, thieves are brazenly carting off tomatoes, plums, peppers and cucumbers by the bagful from plots others have lovingly tended. When fruits and vegetables are at their peak, gardeners are often inundated with more than they can eat, and many are happy to share — at least with those who ask.

Neighborhood Fruit, based in San Francisco, was created to help people find and share fruit. It provides a way for those facing a too-abundant harvest to share the wealth. It also provides tips on where to find fruit growing in public places that is free for the taking, though the rules vary city by city. It even has a mobile phone application and a video on fruit-gathering etiquette. With the real-estate crisis has come a new type of urban foraging: taking fruit and vegetables planted by the previous owners of foreclosed homes, figuring that the lenders won't care. The goal of the urban-foraging movement is to collect food and vegetables that would otherwise be wasted and share the produce with people who will appreciate it, whether it's the foragers themselves or a food bank. Defining just what constitutes a public place has led to arguments. In most municipalities, while the land between the sidewalk and the street is yours to mow, it technically does not belong to you.  That means your neighbors can harvest the fruit, it's still polite for them to ask before hauling off bags of fruit from in front of someone else's home.  Don't bother complaining to the city: You may lose the tree entirely. Most cities prohibit fruit trees in the parking strips or swales because of the mess they create.

Chef Schwab's Grill Tips For Memorial Day Weekend

I'm sure a lot of you out there were something else before you became an agent. Well i was a chef  for over ten years and along the way havemastered my craft. So here are some of my tips for grilling over the holiday weekend! Memorial Day is considered the "official" jumpstart to summer. It marks the end and the beginning of many rituals. Students count down the minutes until school is out for the summer. Public pools open for the season. Boots are kicked off in search of sandals and flip flops. But most importantly, it's the start of grilling season! Let's go back to the basics so your evenings filled with charcoal and wafts of smoke give you the moistest, tenderest, most delicious food yet.

• Preheat your grill: No matter what your poison is, charcoal or gas, always preheat the grill to the highest heat possible. This burns off the cheese or teriyaki sauce leftover from last night's feast. It also opens up the pores on the surface of the grates to prevent tonight's food from sticking.

• Brush your grates: Once the grates are hot, use a grill brush to flake off the burnt bits. These old black pieces will alter the taste of your next meal. No brush on hand? Use a wadded up piece of aluminum foil in the tip of your tongs as a substitute.

• Oil your cuts: Lightly oil any non-marinated cuts of meat or veg. With the pores opened from the preheating, sticking shouldn't be an issue. But just in case, add a small bit of oil to everything going on the grill. It will also give the seasoning something to stick to.

• Direct or indirect heat: Grilling with the lid open is direct heat. Grilling with the lid closed is indirect heat. Most cuts of meat, steak, fish, chicken, kabobs, all are best grilled with direct heat: lid open. Veggie packets and grilled pizzas are best with indirect heat: lid closed. Closing the lid allows food to steam. Your big, juicy t-bone is screaming for the direct heat.
• Grill marks - 10 and 2: To achieve those restaurant quality diamond shaped grill marks, pick an odd shaped spot on the edge of one side of the meat and remember it. Place that spot at 10:00 on the grill. Flip the meat over, leaving the spot at 10:00. Flip back over, moving chosen spot to 2:00. Flip over once again to the last side, placing your chosen spot at 2:00. Moving back and forth from side to side ensures the juices aren't sitting in once position for too long. Timing between flips depends on thickness and choice of meat.
   
• Be patient: Once you've removed your meat from the grill, lightly season one more time and let rest. Loosely cover the meat with a large piece of aluminum foil, don't crimp edges as this causes steaming. Let stand for 10-15 minutes. No peaking! This allows the juices to evenly redistribute throughout the meat.
  Now that you've made it this far, your meat should be juicy, evenly cooked, well seasoned, and have beautiful grill marks. It's time to enjoy!
  
  If you'd like any recipes don't hesitate to ask as i have 1001 recipes stuck in my head :)
  
  
  
   

Increasing your homes value by having a green thumb

Today it's gonna hit close to 70 degrees here in Denver and tonight it's gonna snow!!!!!!! I absolutely love living in a place where the weather changes day to day or even hour to hour. I grew up in southern California where there are no seasons and the same rang true in Hawaii. The tricky part about this weather is when to put winter stuff away (ie shovels, jackets, snow tires) and when to bring out the gardening supplies kiddie pools and fishing poles (although I did ice fish this year but that'll be in another blog). Gardening is one of my favorite spring time activities because there is nothing like planting fruits, vegetables, and herbs to eat throughout spring. Not everyone realizes this but that bountiful garden, flowers, and bushes you maintain year to year bring what we call "curb appeal" to your home So now you ask yourself what is "curb appeal"? Well "curb appeal" is what's gonna make a buyer choose your house to that one down the street that needs a new lawn and has no landscaping. One of the first things a buyer will see is the outside appearance of a home and a well-maintained landscape and manicured lawn is a great first impression. It is much easier said then done maintaining your yard takes a lot of hard work and time but it is very rewarding if done right. Make sure to talk to your local nursery about planting times and plants which are native for your region. Do research on when vegetables need to be planted and harvested for a bountiful harvest. I promise if you put in the time and research it takes to give your home "curb appeal" it'll payoff in the end