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This integrated pest management (IPM) chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook familiarizes readers with a systematic approach to managing insect and animal garden pests in an environmentally responsible manner.
This publication provides information about planning and maintaining a home vegetable garden. Topics include site selection, soil preparation, and pest and disease management.
This Plants Grown in Containers chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook teaches gardeners about selecting appropriate plants and containers, and their maintenance. Both indoor houseplants and outdoor container gardening are covered.
This Wildlife Chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook teaches readers to recognize the value of wildlife in the landscape and how to create a suitable back yard wildlife habitat. It also examines wildlife challenges and strategies discouraging pest, game, non-game, and federally protected migratory bird species.
In central North Carolina almost any type of vegetable or fruit can be grown successfully provided you choose appropriate varieties and plant at the right time. This publication covers climate, season and potential pests that all affect the selection of what and when to plant. Also included is a planting chart and calendar.
This publication covers the keys to a successful community garden of individual plots including forming a strong planning team, choosing a safe site accessible to the target audience with sunlight and water, organizing a simple transparent system for management and designing and installing the garden. Appendices offer a sample layout, sample by-laws, sample budgets and a list of resources.
This Landscape Design Chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook discusses the principles design as well as guiding readers through the steps to create an environmentally friendly landscape design.
In eastern North Carolina, almost any type of vegetable or fruit can be successfully grown provided you choose appropriate varieties and plant at the right time. This publication covers climate, season, and potential pests that all affect the selection of what and when to plant. Includes a planting chart and calendar.
This woody ornamentals chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook reviews the types of vines, shrubs, and trees as well as proper landscape design, plant selection, planting, staking, and pruning practices. It also reviews common insect and disease problems of woody ornamentals.
This publication tells gardeners why they should test their soil, how to obtain a soil test and interpret the results and how to use the soil test to improve their soils.
This weeds chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook discusses weed life cycles, how to properly identify weeds, and how to manage them using an integrated pest management approach.
This series of publications provides information about how to grow, harvest, and prepare a variety of fruits and vegetables from your garden. Each publication features recipes, recommended uses, nutrition information, and more.
This organic gardening chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook provides systematic approach to fertilization, soil, and pest management that views a garden as a working ecosystem.
This publication discusses how floods can affect food gardens. In it, you'll find recommendations for preparing your garden before a flood, precautions to take after the storm, and how to safely clean up and replant after floodwaters recede.
Flowers have traditionally been used in many types of cooking: European, Asian, East Indian, Victorian English, and Middle Eastern. Early American settlers also used flowers as food. Today, there is a renewed interest in edible flowers for their taste, color, and fragrance. Many herbal flowers have the same flavor as their leaves, though others, such as chamomile and lavender blossoms, have a subtler flavor.
In western North Carolina, almost any type of vegetable or fruit can be successfully grown provided you choose appropriate varieties and plant at the right time. This publication covers climate, season, and potential pests that all affect the selection of what and when to plant. Includes a planting chart and calendar.
Esta publicación proporciona información sobre la planificación y el mantenimiento de un huerto casero. Los temas incluyen la selección del sitio, la preparación del suelo y el manejo de plagas y enfermedades.
This appendix from the Extension Gardener Handbook describes the value of garden journaling and different strategies a gardener may use to start one.
Gardens bring communities together. Not only are community gardens a good way to get more fresh fruits and vegetables in our diets, they also allow us to be active outdoors and build a strong community.
This publication, chapter 8 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, discusses soil management in community food gardens.
This series of publications provides information about how to grow, harvest, and prepare a variety of fruits and vegetables from your garden. Each publication features recipes, recommended uses, nutrition information, and more.
Asparagus has been considered a garden delicacy since Roman times. Any home gardener can grow and enjoy this spring vegetable. Asparagus is a perennial. If you plant and manage properly it will produce for 15 years or more. Since this crop will occupy the land for many years you should select and prepare the asparagus bed carefully -- location, soil type, soil fertility, size and age of crowns and correct planting are important.
This series of publications provides information about how to grow, harvest, and prepare a variety of fruits and vegetables from your garden. Each publication features recipes, recommended uses, nutrition information, and more.
Community gardens have been part of the American landscape since the mid-1700s. Today, community gardens continue to make positive contributions in neighborhoods across North Carolina. Winner of an American Society for Horticultural Science, Extension Division, 2017 Educational Materials Award, Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook is a practical guide to community gardening. Based on experience and research, it is packed with best practices, tested strategies, and useful checklists. The guide covers every step in the community gardening process, from starting a new garden to sustainable long-term garden management and policy. Whether you are new to community gardening or a seasoned veteran, Collard Greens and Common Ground will help your community garden flourish.
In this publication you will find ideas to get you started growing your own edibles. Included are simple designs and potential settings for a single container, a small group of containers and a larger grouping of containers. The benefits and challenges of various planting options will also be explored.
This publication provides strategies for managing soil and compost contamination from persistent broadleaf herbicides by answering frequently asked questions related to plant symptoms, herbicides and their usage, and prevention.
This publication alerts prospective gardeners to some of the most common contaminants in urban soils, such as lead and other toxic metals, solvents, pesticides and total petroleum hydrocarbons. This will help minimize potential risks to gardeners and to those who consume garden produce. The document includes information regarding site characterization, common contaminants, soil testing, interpretation of results and strategies for reducing exposure risks.
This publication discusses ways that gardeners can protect water quality and avoid runoff and soil erosion.
This Youth, Community, and Therapeutic Gardening Chapter from the Extension Gardener Handbook helps volunteers understand how these types of gardens can be sucessful and the steps needed to be an effective mentor.
Proper tree care is an important part of a homeowner's investment. This publication guides consumers through the process of selecting and contracting an arborist. It provides several websites that list certified professionals and it advises what key items should be included in a contract.
Caladiums are grown for their long-lasting, colorful foliage. Color combinations include various shades of red, pink, white, green, and yellow-green, with prominently colored midribs and contrasting margins. There are two basic types of caladium cultivars: fancy- and strap-leaved.
This publication offers a guide to growing edible plants year-round in containers. Includes planting and harvest guides.
This publication provides three examples of edible landscape designs for incorporating edible components into a home landscape. Each design is based on the same 1/4-acre residential suburban plot.
This publication, chapter 4 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, discusses step-by-step methods for designing a new community food garden.
This publication focuses on easy-to-grow, child-friendly, fruits suitable for childcare center gardening. It provides information about what, how, and when to plant. This is part of the Local Foods: Childcare Center Production Gardens series.
This publication, chapter 9 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, focuses on planting strategies and planting times for various crops in food gardens.
Right at your doorstep may be many of the answers to the social, educational, and health challenges faced by children, parents, and teachers in the United States. Tips for encouraging outdoor activities with children are included, along with strategies for setting a standard to be outdoors, care for the environment, and spend time with family.
The appropriate uses of the North Carolina Extension Master Gardener name and emblem are covered in this factsheet.
This chapter of the Farm to Early Care and Education Resource Guide for North Carolina Extension Agents discusses special considerations for early childhood gardening, cooking, and local food programs and provides resources for successful Farm to ECE initiatives.
Strawberries are the perfect fruit for early childcare centers. Their life cycle is short (planted in September and harvested in April) so children can plant, watch the flowers bloom, observe pollinators in action, watch the fruit develop, and enjoy the delicious, nutritious result of their newly acquired gardening skills. Many children are familiar with strawberries and eager to eat the fruit. Easy to grow, they have very few pests or diseases to challenge inexperienced gardeners.
This factsheet is a guide to introducing children to common garden insects in an early childcare setting. It includes age-appropriate activities for childcare providers to engage young children in identifying garden insects at all life stages.
The Gardening Activity Guide is designed to expose young children to seasonal fruit and vegetable gardening in childcare centers. Based on the Preventing Obesity by Design (POD) model, the guide provides a resource for teachers to encourage children’s physical activity and outdoor learning through gardening and related activities.
This resource guide explores how Early Care and Education programs serve families and show potential collaborations for Extension agents; inspires new local collaboration by highlighting successful programs within communities; and encourages cross-program activities to increase program support from Extension across North Carolina.
This publication, chapter 10 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, discusses food safety when growing crops in a community garden, including pesticides, sanitation, and irrigation.
This publication, chapter 11 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, offers information on fundraising, dues, and grants.
This chapter of the Farm to Early Care and Education Resource Guide for North Carolina Extension Agents discusses potential partner organizations.
Effective frost protection methods exist, however, each year, a portion of the state's fruit and vegetable crop is lost to low-temperature damage. This leaflet explains the principles of frosts and freezes and provides information on protection methods.
This publication, chapter 3 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, offers community garden organizers insight on choosing potential sites for a community food garden.
This publication, chapter 7 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, offers users management tips for a community garden, including a seasonal maintenance calendar.
This publication focuses on managing weeds in the Outdoor Learning Environment (OLE) of childcare centers. Included are general strategies to help childcare centers identify and manage weeds in childcare center production gardens.
This publication, chapter 6 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, discusses the organization of the community garden, including roles and responsibilities.
This publication, chapter 13 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, offers strategies for dealing with common gardening problems in a community garden setting.
Early childhood educators can easily engage children in growing, harvesting, and preparing tree fruits that provide numerous opportunities for hands-on learning. Fruit trees add year-round value to childcare outdoor learning environments and provide opportunities for children to follow seasonal changes. In addition, fruit trees help to increase the natural diversity of the spaces and provide pockets of shade. While growing fruit trees can be a very rewarding process, proper planning, preparation, and care of the trees takes time and is essential for success.
While children are having fun growing, harvesting, and eating delicious, nutritious, fresh fruits and vegetables they also become stewards of the environment and develop healthy life skills. Muscadine grapes, a native North Carolina treasure, are easy to grow and bursting with flavor and nutrients. This publication provides information on how to grow muscadines in childcare center production gardens.
This publication, chapter 1 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, offers an introduction to and overview of community gardening.
This publication, chapter 2 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, guides readers through several initial steps in starting a community garden.
This publication, chapter 5 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Garden Handbook, offers a step-by-step guide for preparing a new garden site.
In addition to their delicious fruit, blueberries also provide year-round interest in the garden. Bell-shaped white flowers are popular with native bees in the spring, the fruit is beautiful and nutritious in the summer, and the fall leaves are gorgeous. Best of all, blueberries are relatively easy to grow.
This publication, chapter 12 of Collard Greens and Common Ground: A North Carolina Community Food Gardening Handbook, offers advice for community gardeners to expand their involvement in the larger community.
This chapter of the Farm to Early Care and Education Resource Guide for North Carolina Extension Agents discusses how to ensure Farm to ECE programs are welcoming to all.
This chapter of the Farm to Early Care and Education Resource Guide for North Carolina Extension Agents discusses the roles and benefits of farm to ECE programs.
