Join us on Earth Day 2012!

Join us April 21st 11am- 3pm for Earth Day 2012! We will be at Peck Farm Park in Geneva, IL. Let us help you grow your own food! Come see our raised bed gardens! Grow your own mushrooms! and More!

Our Premium Organic Potting Soil has just Arrived!

"Remember, The Secret is in the Soil!!!!!"

*OMRI Certified

*Non-GMO

*PRO-BIOTIC™

*Beneficial microbes

*Endo and ecto micorrhizae

*Makes your Soil Alive!

Stop by the shop today and load up!

Kitchen Composting & Worm Castings Now available in our online store

Worm Castings 1lb bags- perfect for house plants! $1.99 each

Kitchen Composter

$ 19.99 USD This high quality compost caddy is sturdy, yet lightweight and has a tight fitting lid. Caddy features an activated charcoal filter in the lid to neutralize odors. Filters last up to four months. Made in England. 8.5"L x 6.5"W x 14"H. 1.5 lbs recycled plastic To purchase go to ThePUREGardener.com

Garlic & Composting- It's Not Rocket Science!

Craig and I have two compost bins and a handy kitchen composter that we use to collect our kitchen scraps. We just planted our garlic and shallots. We added excellent compost from our bins and now need to cover with straw.
Everything you need for the above projects is available for purchase at The PURE Gardener.

Paul Newman & Father Dom

Paul Newman & Father Dom

The above photo is of Father Dom and Paul Newman.

Father Dom volunteers at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. There Fr. Dom met Paul Newman (founder) and the two became friends . As you know Paul Newman has his own range of good stuff Newmans Own and so he offered Fr. Dom help with the marketing.

Originally Fr. Dom wanted to see if they could bring it under the Newmans Own brand, but the marketing people said…we dont want to mix food and compost. Fr. Dom thought that was the end of that until he got a call from the Manager of Newman’s Own who had received a fax from Paul Newman. He warned Fr. Dom that it was bit rude…..Fr. Dom told him that he had probably heard it all before and to go ahead - it said, ‘Dear Tom, Help Fr. Dom with his shit, Paul’. Classic.

So the similarity between Fr. Dom’s packaging and Newmans Own…no coincidence.

Geneva Film Festival & Geneva Green Market Garbage Movie

A good Sized Audience

We just returned from watching the Garbage Movie presented by the Geneva Green Market and the Geneva Film Festival. It was shown outside at River Park along the Fox River in downtown Geneva, Il.- a few blocks from our house. The seating was stadium style and the seats were large river stones and lawn chairs. Very nice, cool night. The movie was humorous, I would recommend it. However, I was unaware of the stripping of the mountains in West Virginia. Quite alarming.

Karen Stark- Founder of Geneva Green Market-
serving free coffee

The Screen

Garrison & Jess

Candle Light Dinner

Connie (Inglenook Pantry) & Karen's daughter selling cookies, apple cobbler, & rootbeer floats

Craig & Me waiting for the film to begin.

Mr. Green Thumb

Mr. Green Thumb, originally uploaded by The PURE Gardener.

He's A Great Sales Man!

Mr. Green Thumb

Mr. Green Thumb, originally uploaded by The PURE Gardener.

Create a Certified Backyard or Frontyard Wildlife Habitat

Quite a few years back I took the steps to have our home gardens certified as a wildlife habitat. I felt that it was a good thing to do to raise awareness to my neighbors, friends and family about what we put into and onto our urban environments and how it effects all the wildlife around us. Including the birds, butterflies, and so on.

The National Wildlife Federation has made it much easier for those of us want to take action to help nature around us. All one needs to do is log onto their website and complete an application by answering a few questions. The requirements are as follows.

All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas:

• Food Sources. For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
• Water Sources. For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
• Places for Cover. For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse
• Places to Raise Young. For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
• Sustainable Gardening. For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

Click on the link below and Join the thousands of wildlife enthusiasts across the country who have been recognized for creating havens for neighborhood wildlife in their very own yards. These individuals have provided the essential elements for healthy and sustainable wildlife habitats and have earned the distinction of being part of National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program.

Click on link below

Certify Your Habitat Let's get Started!

Meet the Queen!

Meet Mary, the Queen of Compost & Recycling (among other things) ! Most of you already know Mary. She has been with the Geneva Greenhouse forever and with The PURE Gardener since day one. She was the president of the Geneva Garden Club until she recently passed along the gavel. Mary does a fair amount of our custom containers for Spring, Fall and Christmas. Mary is very passionate about composting and recycling. She even composts her used Kleenex! She planted a lasagna garden a few years back and is quite knowledgeable on the subject. She does well with us common folk and anyone that knows her can't help but smile when they think of her! If you have any composting or recycling questions that you would like Queen Mary to answer, please post and she will get back to you!

Composting

Red Worms for Composting

Red earthworms for composting are now available at The PURE Gardener- ask cashier for more information. They can be added to your kitchen composter, vermi-composter, or your outside composter ( provided that the composter is put in the shade and not allowed to go over 80 degrees.. They also can be added directly to your garden ( but they will not over winter).
Earthworms eat and burrow twenty-four hours a day! All of this tunneling aerates the soil (getting oxygen to the roots), allows for easier root growth, and improves water retention. They are a natural tie in for cold composting. Earthworms help keep the soil loose. Mother Nature doesn't own a spade! Earthworms consume ordinary soil and cast it back with more nutrients available to plants. These "castings" release their nutrients slowly and do not leach out with watering. Read below for directions.

EARTHWORMS

NUTRITION:

These earthworms will eat the soil in your garden and cast it back with 5 times more nitrogen, 1.5 times more calcium, 3 times more magnesium, 7 times more phosphates, 11 times more potash and 40% more humus.

Plant nutrients from earthworms (odorless castings) retain moisture, don’t leach out with watering and are released slowly instead of in one large dose. Worm castings feed plants for weeks, even months. They will neutralize acid or alkaline excess and they don’t use up organic carbons, as chemicals often do.

Looks like Mother Nature knows what she’s doing!

AERATION:

On their endless journey through your garden (worms don’t sleep), earthworms leave behind a vast network of nutrition-lined tunnels which are valuable air spaces. This gets oxygen to the roots and allows the roots more room to grow. The castings-rich soil will hold more water so there’s much less run-off. Hard packing is impossible -- Mother Nature does not own a spade.

All Plant life benefits enormously from nutrition and aeration by earthworms. Production goes up. Color is better. Fruits and vegetables taste better. Susceptibility to disease goes down. Best of all, you get more pleasure from your gardening and your garden.

DIRECTIONS:

Garden Areas: Dig 6 inch diameter, 1 foot deep holes several feet apart though out the garden. Fill with water and let drain. Put one or two handfuls of worms in each hole, fill loosely with soil and compost (cuttings, table scraps, etc.) This will give the worms a quick meal. Water the area and apply mulch if possible over and around the holes. Keep the area watered.

Tree and Shrub Treatment: Dig several 6 inch diameter, 1 foot deep holes around the drip line of the tree’s branches. Continue as above.

Compost Pile: Place worms on the bottom of 4 inches of loose soil. Keep damp as you continue to add decaying organic material. Red worms need betweedn40-80 degrees to survive.

For best results, add some organic material and shredded newspaper along with the worms to get them feeding. You may use moist corn meal, coffee grounds, table scraps, grass clippings, or other organic material.

Vericomposter Video w/ TerraCycle

This is the video that was referred to in the ASK CRAIG & Annette section...