horticulture

Buying young plants from a greenhouse is a nice shortcut for home gardeners, but with the right selection, proper preparation and a little patience you can successfully start your garden from seeds. And there is a far greater variety of fruit, vegetable and flower seeds available locally and online than the plants you can typically find at your garden center.

One of the best ways to get through the cold, gray days of winter is to think about spring. That comes easier for gardeners, who spend January and February planning and preparing their gardens, buying seeds, cleaning and sharpening tools and taking horticulture classes.

The weather was perfect for being outdoors this weekend, it made even raking leaves enjoyable. Which is a good thing, because getting those leaves off your lawn is just one of the many chores to be done before the cold temperatures set in.

While some local gardeners are disappointed in their late-summer harvest, others are gathering more fruit and vegetables than their families can eat. No one likes to see that food go to waste, so if you've already supplied neighbors and friends with all the tomatoes they can use and you can't bring yourself to make one more loaf of zucchini bread, consider preserving your produce for use all through this winter.

Mid-summer is a busy time in the garden, crops planted this spring are ready for harvest and gardeners are putting in vegetables they will be able to enjoy this fall. 

If you are a serious gardener, would like to dress-up your yard or make better use of the space you have available, winter is the perfect time to do some research, take some classes and put your landscape plans together so you're ready to start planting this spring.

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden will present its fifth annual Native Plant Symposium on November 12. 

More people are growing their own fruits, vegetables and herbs to provide their families with a steady supply of fresh foods. But some backyard gardeners often find they have an over-abundance of produce. And many of them are discovering the value of small market gardening as an extra source of income, or even as a career.

The third annual Great Tree Summit will take place Saturday, February 13, at the Cincinnati Zoo. The summit is presented by Taking Root, the campaign to restore our region’s tree canopy with a goal of planting two million trees by 2020. 

  After the strange weather we had this summer, it has been a beautiful fall, so far, prompting even people who don’t like yard work to get outside, rake leaves or work in their gardens. But there is plenty to do now to make the most of the nice weather we have left before the temperatures drop, and prepare our yards and gardens for winter. 

Native plants, those adapted to our local climate and soil conditions, don’t require the fertilizers, pesticides, water or maintenance of non-native plants. And they provide nectar, pollen, and seeds that serve as food for native butterflies, insects, birds and other animals. 

  Next Thursday, August 28, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden presents its fourth-annual Plant Trials Day, where the zoo shares the results of its testing program. Learn about the best new plants most suitable for our area, and hear presentations by horticulture experts on a variety of gardening topics, perennials, miniature trees, selecting the best plant materials and more. Here to give us a preview of Plant Trials Day are the Director of Horticulture at the Cincinnati Zoo, Steve Foltz, and zoo horticulturist Scott Beuerlein.

  It has been a long, long winter, and many of us can’t wait to get out and get our yards and gardens in shape. Campbell County Horticultural Extension Agent David Koester and Peter Huttinger, neighborhood garden coordinator with the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati, share tips and advice on what to do now to give your yard and garden a solid start for the growing season.

Our friends at the Cincinnati Zoo aren’t only into protecting and preserving animals; they are also into doing the same thing for plants. In this week’s Focus on Technology, Ann Thompson reports on efforts to save endangered plant species by using test tube reproduction.