Featured Article: Advice for Getting Summer Bulbs in the Ground

With above freezing temperatures during the day for about a week, we're really getting ready for Spring. Stores are agreeing with us and starting to stock their garden centers for all of the eager gardeners. If you've ever wondered how people get their summer bulbs in the ground, today's featured article is sure to help.

HGTV Gardens goes into great details about how to get your summer bulbs going. Now is the time, so don't delay! Read the article today and then run out to get yourself some bulbs to plant!

Read the article here

Our Top 12 Tomato Recipes

Summer is slowly creeping into fall, and with that we're getting the last of our tomato plants (hopefully grown with compost so you get the best tomatoes). However, there is no need to worry, there are plenty of great tomato recipes that also store well for the winter! Here are our top 12 tomato recipes, and a few of them you could easily save to get your tomato fix later on!

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This Chilled Tomato Soup with Cilantro-Yogurt Swirl looks delicious. You have to make it the day before you plan on serving it, as it needs to be chilled, but as long as you plan for it, this soup is a great healthy summer supper.

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Here is the staple I'm sure you expected to be first on the list. This Roasted Tomato Sauce would go great with pasta or any other dish that calls for tomato sauce.

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 This Tomato-Basil Crab Bisque combines a lot of seasonal favorites, and so it can be made with all fresh ingredients this time of year. This would be tasty for the cooler summer nights we've been having lately.

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Garlic-Basil Grilled Chicken with Caprese Salsa is a great dish for summer, using the great weather as an excuse to grill and the fresh produce to create a great dish.

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Imagine a BLT on Fresh Tomato Bread. Sounds delicious, right? Well now you can make homemade tomato bread whenever the craving strikes. This recipe calls for tomato sauce and tomatos, but you could easily use the tomato sauce recipe we have below if you want to make sure it's all fresh.

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This Avocado, Tomato and Mango Salsa is a fun twist on traditional salsa and is great for the summer. Make it for your next dinner party and it's sure to please, just plan to chill it for 30 minutes before serving.

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Broiled Mahi-Mahi with Parsleyed Tomatoes is sure to be a family favorite after you try it once. If your family includes seafood lovers, this dish is sure to please.

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Just looking at this Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart is enough to make your mouth water. with leaks and herbs in season as well, this is sure to be a great fresh produce recipe to add to your collection!

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This Tomato-Basil Pizza is sure to please any pizza lover and it'd be very easy to personalize with your own favorite toppings.

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 This Linguine in Fresh Tomato Sauce with Garlic-Basil Toast is sure to make everyone happy. Just looking at it is sure to make your stomach growl.

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No list of tomato recipes would be complete without at least one Bruschetta recipe. This Double Tomato Bruschetta is sure to please any tomato lover and will make a great hor d'oeuvres for your next gathering.

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This recipe does require an ice-cream maker, but it is well worth it. This Tomato-Watermelon Sorbet is surprisingly delicious, although we would recommend reading the reviews and altering the recipe slightly to include less tomato juice(approximately 1 cup rather than 3).

Do you have any favorite tomato recipes? Let us know by posting them in the comments section!

Photo Friday

Happy friday everyone! Our photo this friday comes from a composting workshop that some of our employees attended this week. Here is one employee working on his compost pile!

This week was also Ragbrai and we're well into fair season, did you snap any great pictures while out and about this week? Post a link in the comments!

Photo Friday

It's friday again, which means it's time for a new photo! This week's photo comes from nearby Webster City.

Did any of you snap a great shot today? Be sure to comment with a link to it! Have a great weekend. 

5 Tips for starting an Urban Garden

While we mostly deal with people who have whole farms to plant, with today's urbanization it is important to realize that urban gardening and growing is possible too. Whether you're in an apartment or your house is just inside of a city, it is still possible to grow your own fresh produce. However, starting a urban garden can be somewhat daunting, so we've assembled the top five tips for starting an urban garden.

1) Evaluate your gardening space: Do you get sun exposure? Is there access to a sufficient water supply? Is there heavy traffic nearby? All of these factors can lead to success or failure in urban gardening and so it is crucial that you scope out what sort of space you'll be working with and plant accordingly. If you don't get much sun pick plants that thrive in the shade, if you don't have a hose nearby only plan enough to water with your watering can, and try to plant far away from traffic as it can cause wind and pollution that are harmful to plants.

2) Find plants that work for your space limitations: One of the big factors in urban gardening is pot or plot, how much space do you have? If you only have enough room for potted plants, make sure your plan accordingly and get plants that can flourish in pots. Some vegetables and herbs do well in pots, but some need the space to spread. Make sure you know whether yours can thrive or if it needs a bigger space.

3) Evaluate your skills and your time commitment: If you are new to gardening, perhaps it's better to go with a low maintenance, easy to grow plant. There are lists all over the web about easy things to grow as a beginner, even vegetables. If you're a gardening pro, but you don't have a ton of time to garden a lower maintenance plant is probably for you as well.

4) Know your plants before you start: Some plants like to dry between waterings, while others need constant watering to survive. Determining what your plant needs in the way of water and sun can lead to a thriving garden.

5) Make sure your landlord/city is okay with it first: creating your own garden is a great plan, but if your upset landlord kicks you out because of your green habit then it isn't something you should be doing. Make sure that your landlord and your city is okay with it, and check if you need a permit to grow in your city.

If you follow all of these tips you'll be on your way to your own urban garden!

Gardening Inspiration

In this day and age it's becoming increasingly hard to have enough room to garden everything you would like, especially in urban areas. It's due to this trend that a new gardening fashion has arose, vertical gardening. If you've been on Pinterest, there are tons of tutorials for how to make your own. Some are fairly simple:

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While others can be fairly complex:

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We found a few that are inspiring us to try out vertical gardening on our own, so we thought we'd share them with you as well! Enjoy our top 10 Pinterest Vertical Gardens!

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We love this one because it's simple, and you can recycle old coffee tins or other old cans in the process! We also think this one would be easy to do at home.

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This one is cute and could easily work both as an interior and exterior garden, if you wanted to add a little green to your sitting room. 

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This one is more inspiration than an easy how-to, but we love the look of making your plant life decorative, and we think these plants will definitely be getting enough light and rain!

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This pin leads to a DIY for this vertical garden, which was much simpler than we thought it would be! It also looks like a framed work of art, and we love that it almost becomes a decorative piece as well as a garden. 

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This is similar to the last one, but with a bit of asymmetrical flair. While there isn't a tutorial, we imagine that you could make it the same way as the previous vertical garden, just arrange the planters differently.

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Another vertical garden made of recycled materials! Recycle mason jars and old pieces of wood, from a pallet or otherwise, to make this fun little herb garden! 

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Whoa. That's about all we can say for this building turned mountain.

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What can we say, we're a sucker for Vertical gardens that recycle. And this one has a creative twist, as it doesn't climb up a wall, but rather hangs down, like planters only more space efficient!

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We love this trellis style vertical garden for a bit of a different, but classic, flair. 

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We're going to finish with an awe inspiring piece by one of the most famous vertical garden designers, Patrick Blanc. This pin links to an article with a bunch of pictures of his vertical gardens, you should definitely check them out for some inspiration.

If you want to follow us on Pinterest feel free, here's our profile. 

Photo Friday!

This week's photo comes from our backyard- no really, it's taken right behind the corporate offices! What a relaxing view!

Has anyone else got a great view captured from right outside their window? Share the links with us if you have! 

Summer DIY: Creating a nature-friendly bug repellant

It's summer time, which means we're all spending a lot more time outdoors. It also means that bugs are out in full force. The problem with commercial bug sprays is that most are made up of harmful chemicals. Making your own eco-friendly, homemade bug spray is easy, and you'll have your choice of ingredients!

The first thing you need to know about making your own bug spray is that most bugs have an aversion to many natural things. Heres a quick cheat sheet as to what certain pests dislike:

• Mosquitoes- Cinnamon Oil, Castor Oil, Lemon Eucalyptus/Eucalyptus Oil, Citronella Oil, Peppermint Oil, Lemongrass Oil
• Ticks and Lice- Lemon Eucalyptus/Eucalyptus Oil, Rose Geranium Oil
• Biting Flies- Citronella Oil
• Fleas- Orange Oil
• Stinging Insects- Lavender Oil

There are a lot of other natural oils that repel insects, but these are a few of the most effective ones.

You can also choose one of the following as a base for your natural repellant:

• Olive Oil
• Sunflower Oil
• Cooking Oil 
• Witch Hazel
• Alcohol

Be careful using the cooking oils if you are going to be in direct sunlight. Many have found the Witch Hazel to work the best as a base. 

Once you choose your ingredients, mix 10-25 drops of the essential oil(s) of your choice with 2 tbsp of your base liquid. Feel free to make a double batch or larger if you need more spray than this. Then put this mixture in a spray bottle of your choice, and voila! Homemade, nature-friendly bug repellant! 

Photo Friday

Today instead of a normal blog post we decided we'd have a little fun since it's friday. This photo was taken Wednesday at our Eddyville location, and we love how peaceful it looks. Did you take any great outdoors pictures this week? If so, comment with the link!

Growing Season in full swing!

It's officially June which means that it's time to pull out that green thumb and get started working in that garden! Have some plants that just aren't looking up to snuff? Compost can help you get the most out of your summer gardening. Here's a quick list of 5 ways that compost can help your garden this summer.

1) Compost helps your soil retain water. This means that your soil has more water to feed your plants and help them develop healthy roots! Healthy roots are key to healthy plant growth, wether you're planting tomatoes or daisies.

2) Compost fights against soil contaminants for your plants. Since it's so absorbent it keeps harmful pesticides and chemicals in your soil from reaching your plants. It also works to degrade these contaminants over time.

3) Compost also helps out the critters in the soil that help your plants. Adding compost to your garden feeds organic matter to micro and macro organisms that will then feed beneficial nutrients to your plants. It also attracts earthworms, who in turn also help your soil. This is just one more thing that makes your plants healthier and your garden more bountiful.

4)If you're in an area with more clay based soil, compost will do wonders! Plants that have never been able to survive due to lack of moisture will thrive. Compost works itself into the clay sediment and helps to release water throughout it, without over saturating your soil and not allowing it drain or under saturating it and letting it grow hard and unable to aerate.

5) Composting is completely natural. That means that you're not introducing chemicals to your plants, as you would with pesticides and some fertilizers. Compost is a natural, organic product. It actually helps your soil in the long run, rather than temporarily fixing a problem, but then causing greater problems in the long run.

We hope your gardens flourish this summer, and we know that with the help of compost they definitely will!