DATE: April 02, 2009

CONTACT: Claiborne Linvill, 864-656-6205
linvill@clemson.edu

WRITER: Claiborne Linvill, 864-656-6205
linvill@clemson.edu


Learn to grow food at home at Garden Fest

CLEMSON — “Garden Fest: Building Community, Growing Vegetables” will provide the beginner or advanced gardener with information, advice and encouragement to start gardening at home. The free event will be 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the South Carolina Botanical Garden Fran Hanson Discovery Center parking area.

Visitors will have an opportunity to buy warm-season vegetable transplants, including heirloom tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, as well as heirloom seeds from plants grown in the Botanical Garden’s Heirloom Vegetable Garden that were collected by retired Clemson University professor David Bradshaw.

Experts and experienced gardeners will teach how to create an attractive vegetable garden that will provide fresh produce all season. From selecting varieties to improving soil to keeping a garden healthy, the experts will share information to make vegetable gardening rewarding and productive.

Home-grown or locally grown vegetables provide a delicious and affordable alternative to supermarket fare. Selected for flavor rather than shipping qualities, home garden and heirloom varieties offer a rainbow of healthy and tasty options.

A CAT bus will be available for free rides from the Littlejohn Community Center and Clemson Community Care to the garden.

Garden Fest is made possible by the South Carolina Botanical Garden, Upstate Locavores, Clemson University Sustainable Agriculture, Clemson University’s Home and Garden Information Center, Students for Environmental Awareness, Together We Can and many others. For more information, visit www.clemson.edu/scbg or call the garden at 864-656-3405.

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South Carolina Botanical Garden
The South Carolina Botanical Garden is located on the Clemson University campus at the intersection of U.S. 76 and Perimeter Road. The garden encompasses 295 acres of display gardens, nature trails, woodlands and streams and is open year-round from dawn to dusk, free of charge. The garden is partially supported by the state of South Carolina via Clemson University, but relies on private funding, memberships and proceeds from educational events to continue operations. Contact the Visitors Center for more information at 864-656-3405 or scbg@clemson.edu or visit www.clemson.edu/scbg.

More home-gardening information
Why not try some easy-to-grow vegetables this year? Good choices of warm-season vegetables include tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, peppers and squash. To get started, read this primer for tips managing a kitchen garden plot, then head to Garden Fest for hands-on demonstrations and more ideas.            

Kitchen garden primer
Start with a good site that’s easy to visit. An ideal site receives six to eight hours of sun, is close to a water source and is close to your home.

Create a manageable layout for permanent beds and start small. Consider raised beds and start small (four by eight feet is a good size) and add additional beds as needed.

  • Keep your soil healthy and fertile by adding amendments and/or using cover crops. Lighten clay soil with lots of organic matter (leaf mulch, compost, mushroom compost, composted manure, etc.) and keep it mulched.
  • Minimize pest and disease problems by planning ahead. Choose disease-resistant varieties, diversify plantings and rotate crops.
  • Plant vegetables that you enjoy and not more than you want to eat or preserve. Choose easy-to-grow vegetables (beans, squash, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, kale and collards, spinach, etc.) and don’t overplant.
  • Extend your vegetable garden with succession planting. Alternate cool- and warm-season vegetables in planting beds, make successive sowing to extend harvesting times, swap out plants and replace them with rapidly growing plants or transplants.

Planting times
The Clemson University Extension Factsheet 1256, “Planning a Garden,” lists planting times for most common vegetables broken down for the Coastal Plain, Midlands and Piedmont areas of South Carolina: www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/gardening/hgic1256.html.

Visit Clemson University’s Home and Garden Information Center for more information about vegetable gardening, including fact sheets about specific vegetables: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/.