Gardening Zones

Just in case you don't know your garden hardiness zone:

Taira Lamphere Lanny Lamphere Lan Lamphere Taira Ivins
"The USDA Hardiness Zone Map divides North America into 11 separate zones; each zone is 10°F warmer (or colder) in an average winter than the adjacent zone. If you see a hardiness zone in a catalog or plant description, chances are it refers to the USDA map. To find your USDA Hardiness Zone, enter your zip code or use the map below. Click here for more information about hardiness maps."

http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

Halloween How-To

Okay, it has nothing to do with vegetables or gardening, but Halloween How Tos are awesome. From DIY Network:                   Taira Lamphere Lan Lamphere Lanny Lamphere Taira Ivins

"Chicken wire and gauze come together to create ghoulish ghost figures that can stand on their own or fly from the trees..."

http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/halloween-decoration-how-to-make-human-size-ghosts/index.html

Love This Wiki: Define Vegetable

From Wikipedia:  Taira Lamphere Lanny Lamphere Lan Lamphere Taira Ivins

"A vegetable is an edible plant or part of a plant, but usually excludes seeds and most sweet fruit. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant.

The non-biological definition of a vegetable is largely based on culinary and cultural tradition. Therefore, the application of the word is somewhat arbitrary, based on cultural and/or personal views. For example, some people consider mushrooms to be vegetables even though they are not biologically plants, while others consider them a separate food category; Some cultures group potatoes with cereal products such as noodles or rice, while most English speakers would consider them vegetables.

Some vegetables can be consumed raw, some may be eaten cooked, and some must be cooked in order to be edible. Vegetables are most often cooked in savory or salty dishes. However, a few vegetables can be used in desserts and other sweet dishes, such as pumpkin pie and carrot cake. A number of processed food items available on the market contain vegetable ingredients and can be referred to as "vegetable derived" products. These products may or may not maintain the nutritional integrity of the vegetable used to produce them..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable

Best Forums

Best forum resource for gardening information, how to's and other gardening help:
Taira Lamphere Lan Lamphere Lanny Lamphere Taira Ivins
http://www.gardenweb.com/

Pumpkin Harvesting Time

It's pumpkin harvesting time! Here are a few links to some tips and advice from around the web:

The Weekend Gardener

"To make sure your pumpkins last as long as possible, they must be harvested, cured, and stored properly.

A common mistake is to harvest fruit while it’s still immature, which gives you fruit that can not be successfully stored, giving you poor quality results.

On the other hand, keep in mind that mature fruit that have been removed from the vine are still alive, so proper curing and storage will slow the rate of respiration, and prolong the storage life of the pumpkin...." Taira Lamphere Lanny Lamphere Lan Lamphere Taira Ivins


http://www.weekendgardener.net/blog/2007/08/how-to-harvest-pumpkins-properly.htm

The Old Farmer's Almanac

"Whether you use them for carving or cooking, pumpkins do not disappoint.

Note that pumpkins do require a lot of food and a long growing season (generally from 75 to 100 frost-free days) so you need to plant them by late May in northern locations to early July in extremely southern states.

Do not plant this tender vegetable until all danger of frost has passed and the soil is warmed as the seedlings will be injured or rot. (See the Almanac.com/Gardening page for frost dates.)

That said, pumpkins are easy to maintain if you have the space."
Taira Lamphere Lan Lamphere Lanny Lamphere Taira Ivins
http://www.almanac.com/plant/pumpkins

Winter Gardening

Winter gardening tips from HGTV:

"In lieu of summer's blazing color, many gardeners brace themselves for a winter of gray and brown, if not flat-out white. No matter if your winter is just a little chilly or bone-freezing cold, try these tips to brighten your landscape:

Hardscaping rules. In the Zen-like conditions of winter, elements like the play of light and shadow and the curve of a walkway take on increased importance. Take advantage of this time to scrutinize the design of your landscape."

                                                                                      Taira Lamphere Lan Lamphere
http://www.hgtv.com/topics/winter-gardening/index.html

Greenhouse

Growing season is pretty much over. I'm thinking:

From Wiki:

"A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse) is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings. A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame.

A greenhouse is a structure with different types of covering materials, such as a glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls; it heats up because incoming visible solar radiation (for which the glass is transparent) from the sun is absorbed by plants, soil, and other things inside the building. Air warmed by the heat from hot interior surfaces is retained in the building by the roof and wall. In addition, the warmed structures and plants inside the greenhouse re-radiate some of their thermal energy in the infrared spectrum, to which glass is partly opaque, so some of this energy is also trapped inside the glasshouse. However, this latter process is a minor player compared with the former (convective) process. Thus, the primary heating mechanism of a greenhouse is convection. This can be demonstrated by opening a small window near the roof of a greenhouse: the temperature drops considerably. This principle is the basis of the autovent automatic cooling system. Thus, the glass used for a greenhouse works as a barrier to air flow, and its effect is to trap energy within the greenhouse. The air that is warmed near the ground is prevented from rising indefinitely and flowing away.

Although heat loss due to thermal conduction through the glass and other building materials occurs, net energy (and therefore temperature) increases inside the greenhouse."

                                                                      Taira Lamphere Lan Lamphere