Grow your own If you are a Lake County resident and live in a condo or apartment, or just simply don’t have enough room for a garden, rent a garden plot from Lake Metroparks. Parsons Gardens at 37840 Erie Road in Willoughby has 20-by-30-foot plots. There is a $25 charge for the season – a small price for such pleasure. Visitor services specialist Dana Snyder says about 80 percent of the space is used each year. “We had a little increase last year with what I would call the younger crowd,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of requests this year asking for applications.” She says she sees people come back year after year. “We have about a 70 percent return rate,” she said. Snyder says the program is a good opportunity for Lake County residents to garden. “We see a lot of senior citizens who owned property and maybe became apartment or condo dwellers,” she said. “And we have a group of younger people just starting out (in apartments or condos),” she said. The park system will do the initial plowing, which renders the soil plantable. Snyder says it’s better if you also rototill, but renters must do their own tilling. The 7-acre park is open from sunrise to sunset and has a picnic area with grills, a shelter, drinking water and portable restrooms. To reserve a plot, call 440-358-7275. Bluestone Perennials Yours Perennially Bluestone Perennials at 7211 Middle Ridge Road in Madison Township offers a wide selection of perennials, grasses, mums, herbs, ground cover, ornamental shrubs, vines and bulbs. Bluestone has about 1,200 varieties of perennials, more than 5 acres of greenhouses and ships more than 2 million plants each spring. Richard Boonstra opened Bluestone 37 years ago in Mentor as a mail-order nursery. Son Bill Boonstra now owns the family-run business. Bill’s sister Jan Pavlinak runs the help desk. Pavlinak said people are already making their orders for perennials. “We ship all over the continental U.S.,” Pavlinak said. “We start shipping down South the third week in March.” Customers can purchase online or through a free, 80-page catalog printed twice a year. However, Pavlinak says it’s worthwhile to come to the nursery to shop. “We don’t have display gardens, but it’s a different shopping experience here. We have 1,200 varieties of perennials in alphabetical order, laid out on tables,” she said. “That makes it easy to shop. When people come here they often make a combination shopping/winery sort of day of it. And,” she added, “we give a generous discount.” “Perennials are a wonderful investment in the future of your garden,” Pavlinak said. “Although it is true that perennials do not bloom all season like annuals, your perennial garden display is ever changing and evolving. It is a great joy to go out and see what is happening in your garden as some flowers finish and others break forth.” Bluestone’s nursery outlet is open April through mid-June weekdays and Saturday from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Reach them at 800-852-5243 or visit www.bluestoneperennials.com.

Get the Scoop on Gardening in Northeast Ohio
By Laura Freeman

Northeast Ohioans have survived the second snowiest February on record. Before you know it, it will be time to dig in the dirt once more. Jan Pavlinak of Bluestone Perennials in Madison says early spring is the time to assess your existing beds, clean up and plan for the coming season's plantings.

“Perennials need to have dead material removed, shrubs should have winter damage removed, ornamental grasses should be trimmed and general garden debris removed,” she said. “While doing this, it is a great time to rearrange perennials, work the soil in areas that will receive new plantings and dream about the flowers to come.”

Once you’ve done all that, it’s still a waiting game until that last frost. While you’re waiting, here are some places you can go to help quench that dirt-digging desire.

Holden Plant Sale

Learn from the experts

Holden Arboretum offers plenty of classes to help you imitate what they are doing in their own gorgeous gardens. Want to put in a wildflower garden? There's a class for that. Want to plant some colorful shrubs around your home? There's a class for that too. Have a difficult time growing plants in certain areas of your yard? Learn what plants to put in hard-to-grow sites.

The 2010 Plant Sale kicks off National Wildflower Week and will feature Holden-grown wildflower varieties. This year, Holden also is hosting a wood artisan show and sale and "This is Holden," a special exhibit of photos of the grounds taken by Holden's volunteers. There will also be tours offered each day with Holden's experts.

The Plant Sale is a great opportunity to meet and talk with plant vendors as well as master gardener volunteers from The Ohio State University Extension. The master gardeners will demonstrate proper planting, mulching and pruning and are available for consultations. Come armed with gardening issues and problems and master gardeners will be happy to help solve them.

The annual sale is one-stop shopping for trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, herbs and garden accessories. From veggies to flowers, a whole bunch of vendors have what you want for your garden.

Holden checks out each Plant Sale vendor before inviting them to participate.

“We want to make sure their operation is good and they have high-quality produce,” says Peg Weir, manager of special events at Holden Arboretum.

Joe Cluts from Joe’s Tomatoes of Novelty is one of 25 vendors who will be at the sale. A Plant Sale favorite, Cluts is nationally known for his collection of hundreds of varieties of hybrid and heirloom tomatoes for canning, eating, making salsa or anything else you’d like to do with a tomato.

This spring Cluts will have Mexican Sweet Salsas, Snowy Whites, Carmellos, Bloody Butchers, Better Boys, huge Kentucky Beefsteaks, and many more. He sells out quick so be sure to be one of the first in line.

Weir says the other unique thing about coming to Holden for the Plant Sale is that you can see the plants you are considering for purchase in their mature state.

“So if someone wants to see what they look like full-size they can see it somewhere on the arboretum,” she said.

For more information on the Plant Sale or classes, visit www.holdenarb.org.

The Holden Arboretum 2009 Plant Sale
When: May 15-16, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Cost: Members: Free
Nonmembers: Reduced $3 gate admission

Holden is offering the following free, staff-led classes during the Plant Sale.
Wildflower Garden, 1 p.m. May 15 and 16
Add Some Culture to Your Landscape, 2 p.m. May 15
Ornamental Interest Tour, 3 p.m., May 15
Tough Plants for Tough Sites, 2 p.m. May 16
Shrubs for Color Appeal, 3 p.m. May 16

No weeding required

No time for gardening? CSAs, short for Community Supported Agriculture, are like having your own vegetable garden, without any weeding. CSAs are sprouting up all over the place. CSA members, or shareholders, receive a predetermined amount of produce for several weeks during the growing season from June through October, about 20 weeks in Northeast Ohio.

Shareholders pay in advance for a share of the farmers’ crop of fresh, locally grown, certified-organic produce. This practice helps the farmers pay for the seeds, equipment and labor required to get the crops into the ground.

Shares start in early spring with lettuces, green onions, radishes and rhubarb and continue through October with tomatoes and squash. A typical family share is about a bushel of fresh produce each week, and can include organic strawberries and raspberries, as well as conventionally grown blueberries, peaches, plums, apples and pears.

Also available are other farm products such as eggs, cheeses, maple syrup, honey and baked goods, as well as pastured chicken and turkey.

Holden Plant Sale

CSA members simply choose a nearby drop-off point at which to pick up their weekly share. Lake County area drop-off sites are located at Deepwood Center in Mentor, First Church Congregational in Painesville and St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills.

Other sites include Sage’s Orchard in Chardon, Eagle Creek Garden Center in Bainbridge, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, the Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood and Root Café in Lakewood.

Additional drop-off sites are still being added. To get a share of this year’s crop, applications need to be filled out and payment made in full by May 1.

Fundraising opportunities for schools, churches and other groups are available. Groups can set up their own drop-off site and earn $2 a family share by boxing up the produce themselves.

If you are looking for fresh organic produce grown by farmers you know, in a sustainable, certified-organic way, shake the hands that feed you at Geauga Family Farms and put a face on your farmer. From seed-starting to harvest, you'll know who, how, where and when your food was grown and picked.

Once word gets out about a CSA it often sells out. For CSA membership forms or more information on Geauga Family Farms, visit www.GeaugaFamilyFarmsLLC.org or call Laura Dobson at 440-478-9849.

Victory Garden World War II poster

Market Day

Another way to find fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables into your diet is to shop at area farmers markets. One word of caution: not all produce at all farmers markets is grown locally so ask to be sure.

Area farmers markets include:

Lake Metroparks Farmpark, (parking lot) Wednesdays from 3 to 6:30 p.m. through Oct. 27.

City of Painesville, (Job and Family Services parking lot) Thursdays from 2–6 p.m. through Oct. 28.

Mentor’s Old Village Market, (Lawnfield estate) Fridays from 4–8 p.m. through Aug. 20.

Willoughby Outdoor Market, (City Hall parking lot) Saturdays 8 a.m.-noon through Oct. 30.

Fruit of the Vine Farmers Market, (Willow Praise Church parking lot) Saturdays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. from late July through October.
*Vendors, dates and hours are subject to change.

Local yokels

Sustainability. It’s a relatively recent buzz word. The local food movement is a part of the broader sustainability movement. Among the ideas that have sprung from the movement are food policy councils.

Food policy councils have become a popular way to increase sustainable food production, processing, distribution and consumption, enhance the economic, environmental and social health of the community and make positive changes on local and state levels.

Locally, the Lake Local Food Initiative adopted the council model in December 2008 when a group of individuals from Lake and Ashtabula counties came together to promote the local food industry.

Maurine Orndorff from the Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District led the way by inviting a diverse group of people to participate on the council. Many of the members had just attended the Northeast Ohio Food Congress at Hiram College and wanted to share their enthusiasm and expertise to build more locally based, self-reliant, food economies.

“Our members include growers, marketers, college professors, executives and members of the LCSWCD,” Orndorff said. “While promoting local food we also are interested in preserving farmland, increasing food safety and addressing hunger issues.”

The Initiative’s 12 members are working on projects including Farm-to-School, Agritourism and Education. Adding local apples to school districts, promoting farmers' markets and supporting a possible new regional commercial kitchen are a few of their primary projects.

LLFI member Cheryl Hammon said forming a food policy council in this area was only to be expected with Lake and Ashtabula counties’ strong history of agricultural production.

“The area lies adjacent to Lake Erie, has good soil composition and hard-working people,” Hammon said. “The local sustainable food movement has new ideas about how they want their food to be grown, processed and delivered and the Initiative wants to promote this food model while ensuring safe, plentiful food for the health and economics of its people.”

The Initiative’s future projects include an outdoor farm dinner at Debonné Vineyards this September with local food and chefs, and forming a grower’s cooperative.

The current members of the LLFI are Kip Amerin, Mike Byers, Bob Cahen, Bruce Cormack, Laura Dobson, Maggie Fusco, Cheryl Hammon, Larry Klco, Mark Mackovjak, Maurine Orndorff, Mary Peders and Cliff Somerville. Questions regarding the Initiative and its goals can be answered by calling Maurine Orndorff at 440-350-5863 or Cheryl Hammon at 440-474-9885.