Gardening Goodies
The Gibson County Master Gardener’s hosted a seminar “Once Upon A Garden 2017” on October 21st. Almost 100 people were in attendance as well as local vendors and Master Gardeners. The morning opened with Coletta Kosiba presenting a variety of landscaping ideas. She covered the topics of arbors, swings, fountains and grass pathways. Coletta also demonstrated how to use household items and antiques to revitalize garden space and what plants would be suited for the space, like the Trumpet Vine attracting the humming birds. Fairy houses, which originated in England during the 1800’s have become popular once again. The second Speakers: Colletta Kosiba, Lelia Gentle speaker was and Richard Ritter. Gibson Southern High School’s former Ag teacher, Richard Ritter. After 32 years of teaching Ag and farming, he knows a thing or two about soil. He talked about evaluating the soil so that you know what you’re working with and then what crops grow well in that particular type of soil. For example, in Owensville, where the soil is sandy, okra is a good crop to grow. For other plants, it doesn’t work as well, like sweet corn, that’s a bit more finicky. He then discussed ways to amend the soil that other crops can be grown. Just before lunch, Jeanette Daniels discussed “Backyard Greenhouses”. She has a 24x48 ft. greenhouse in her back yard near Indianapolis. Rosemary Robinson had many This greenhouse is organic varieties of plants for sale.
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Gibson County Master Gardeners Seminar Was a Blooming Good Time Photos & Story Jancey Smith
and heated by water-filled milk jugs. To keep from using pesticides, she makes use of the bug food chain. She moves preying mantis around to certain plants and lets them feast on aphids. Jeanette also uses bait plants to attract certain bugs from the other plants she’s trying to start or winter during cold weather. After lunch and some time looking at the various vendor’s Outhouse for sale goodies, which were extensive and interesting, author, Maggie Oster talked about growing and cooking with herbs. Most herbs are easy to grow and can also be done in pots. However, they are difficult to start from seed - except basil. It’s the real trooper that’s hardy and also useful in cooking. It pairs well with tomatoes. Herbs started out being used for medicinal purposes and this continues today. Many are antioxidants and some specifically help with digestion. The hot new herb that’s said to have medicinal properties is turmeric. It’s from the Herb speaker, ginger family and is said to be an Maggie Oster antioxidants and anti-inflammatory, as well as detoxify the body. The seminar ended on a hot note. Chef Lelia Gentle from Louisville talked about peppers and how to tell if they’re hot. It was simple, if it’s a bell or banana pepper, it sweet. If it not, it’s hot - a chili pepper, in some form or another. There are over 200 types of hot peppers and 80% of the heat are in the seeds and membranes. She went into some details about Hatch, New Mexico and their chilies and customs. Being next to the Rio Grand is perfect pepper conditions so that the small town of Hatch claims to be the chili capital of the world. Lelia also gave a brief history of peppers themselves, being native to North America. Columbus is credited with taking them back to Spain. With this year’s seminar being a success, the Master Gardener’s will look forward to A wealth of peppers. next year’s.
November 2017
Small Town Living