Holiday Open House with Santa- Saturday November 26th-.
This day is Small Business Saturday. Support local small businesses when doing your Christmas shopping today. Healthy small business means healthy communities. Bring the kids and your pet and have the whole family’s photo taken with Santa. He will be here from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
There will be refreshments, wreath and bow making demonstrations. Bring a canned or boxed food item for donation to the food pantry and be entered in a drawing for a gorgeous handmade and decorated holiday wreath worth $75.00. Wear your favorite “ugly” holiday sweater and receive a complimentary bud vase filled with colorful seasonal flowers.
With every holiday plant sold this weekend we will donate 10% to The Rescue Mission. Help us beat our donation from last year, shop early and enjoy your holiday plants longer. Don’t forget the Christmas tree. Click here for our fantastic $5.00 off coupon on any Christmas tree valued at $40.00 or more. Remember our Christmas trees are the freshest and nicest in town!
Bring a little bit of nature indoors with a cool terrarium.
They are low-maintenance and beautiful. They are great for offices, homes and class-rooms. See our "events" page for listing of future classes to build your own, or stop-in to pick up a ready-made terrarium today. Groups are welcome to schedule a terrarium building workshop
Going Organic is a way of life.
A new set of catch phrases has emerged with the recent movement toward “green” living. It is now hip to be “Going Green”. Environmental sustainability, recycling, reusing, and reducing are the words of the day. With luck, this time it will stick. These ideas are not new. I am sure some of us remember that American Indian shedding tears on the banks of a polluted waterway? That old public service commercial, urging us not to pollute, rings truer today than ever.
In the gardening world the big deal is going organic. In this modern day filled with fungicides, herbicides and insecticides organics seem like a complicated and new fangled idea. On the contrary, prior to the dawning of DDT, organics were the only way to garden. It is still possible to find a person today who could speak firsthand about an ancient way of life, where recycling meant using the horse manure in the vegetable garden. It was a time when good crop management practices kept garden pests at a minimum. Chickens in the garden fed on tomato hornworms and cabbage loopers. Nothing was wasted. Even egg shells and coffee grounds were reused as compost.
Organic principles are a way of life. Here are a few tips to get you started.
Start a compost pile. There are many different ways to compost, there is one to suit every kind of gardener. Even if you don’t garden, your compost might be a valuable gift to a neighbor or family member. Compost is a valuable and important source of fertilizer and soil amendment.
Walk your yard and garden every day. Take a few minutes each day to do an inspection. Many pest and disease problems can be nipped in the bud without pesticides if they are identified early. Get down at plant level and pay attention. It’s good for both you and your plants.
Learn the difference between good bugs and bad bugs. It is never a good idea to just kill every bug you see. You could be wiping out a predatory insect that is working on your side. Know your enemy; you will be a more effective general.
Choose your plants and their placement wisely. Perhaps the simplest idea yet is to put the right plant in the right place. Gardening and landscaping with plants suitable for your conditions will prevent a great deal of problems. Try working with Mother Nature, not against her.
Think about children and pets. Don’t apply anything to your yard, lawn, or garden that you wouldn’t want your kids or pets to come in contact with. Carefully weigh your priorities and look for less toxic solutions to your yard and garden needs. There is almost always a cleaner, greener, healthier way.
Lisa Ballantyne
Owner-Ballantyne Gardens
Horticulturist
Member-Garden Writers Association
Past President-CNY Nursery and Landscape Association
Master Gardener
