Category: Outdoors

Big plans for Market Days

Find live performances, family fun and shopping in downtown Concord

By Delaney Beaudoin

Market Days Festival is returning for its 48th year this weekend in downtown Concord. Located right on Main Street, the festival will run from Thursday, June 23, through Saturday, June 25, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day. At no cost to attend, the festival has events scheduled for the entire family, making it an ideal and affordable way to spend a summer weekend.

This year, the festival will feature more than 160 vendors setting up tents and booths along Main Street, along with three outdoor stages of live music each day, kid-friendly activities including yoga and bounce houses, a dog-friendly park and three beer gardens. Vendors include local retail stores, restaurants and cafes, nonprofit organizations and local service providers.

Originally known as Old Fashioned Market Days, the festival was started as a way for merchants to clear out their old inventory and make room for the new season. Jessica Martin, Executive Director of the nonprofit Intown Concord, responsible for planning the festival, noted the important role that the Market Days Festival has played in the community of Concord throughout its duration.

“It’s just grown and just became this tradition. It’s kind of taken on a life of its own as far as a community event goes, I think it does a lot for bringing people downtown. We really try to focus on making it accessible for everyone,” Martin said.

In addition to playing a large role in building Concord’s community, the festival acts as an important event for the city’s arts scene. Each of the festival’s three stages will feature a wide array of live music performances throughout each day. Most notably, the nationally known band Vertical Horizon is set to perform on the main stage on Saturday, June 25, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. This performance, born from a collaboration between the festival and the Capitol Center for the Arts, is, according to Executive Director Salvatore Prizio, the first time the pair has hosted such a high-profile artist.

“This is our proof of concept. And if it works really well this year, we’ll come back next year,” he said. “We’re going to mix things up and we’re going to try new things with it and just kind of keep the audience happy and entertained. I want everybody to have a good time.”

The Concord Arts Market will also be set up at the festival, on Pleasant Street each day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. More than 30 artists and artisans will be selling their handmade work. Some of the items available to purchase include fine art paintings, jewelry, photography, handmade soaps and pottery.

“I think it’s an opportunity to bring in a wider audience that we don’t always have, or that we’re not always able to tap into for our regular market,” said Christa Zuber, producer of the Concord Arts Market. According to Zuber, the arts market, which previously operated on a weekly basis, has transitioned to monthly in recent years.

“We found that switching it to monthly from weekly … kind of gives it a little more of an event status. A little more urgency for people to come on the day that it’s there … like if you don’t come, and you’re going to miss it,” she said.

Market Days Festival
Here are some of the events planned at this weekend’s festival.

Clueless (PG-13, 1995) film screening
Where: Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St., Concord
When: Friday, June 24, dusk
Red River Theatres will also hold its Music, Movie & Poster sale during Market Days.

Headliner: Vertical Horizon Performance
Where: The Main Stage (South Main Street, Concord)
When: Saturday, June 25, from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

KidZone presented by Vertical Entertainment
Where: Statehouse lawn
When: June 23 through June 25, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Meet the Instruments and Students
Where: City Hall Plaza
When: Saturday, 1:30 to 2:45 p.m.

Storytime Under the Tree
Where: State House Lawn
When: All three days, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Blossom Yoga
Where: State House Lawn
When: Thursday, June 23, and Friday, June 24, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Comedy and Juggling with Jason Tardy
Where: City Hall Plaza
When: Saturday, June 25, noon and 3 p.m.

Music & Movement with Miss Heather
Where: City Hall Plaza
When: All three days, 10 a.m.

Zumba for the Whole Family
Where: City Hall Plaza
When: Friday, June 24, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Doggy Splash Pad
Where: By the Statehouse
When: June 23 through June 25, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Concord Pilates
Where: Statehouse Lawn
When: June 23 through June 25, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Boy Scouts Mobile Base Camp
Where: City Plaza
When: Saturday, June 25, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Concord Arts Market
Where: Pleasant Street
When: June 23 through June 25, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Visit: marketdaysfestival.com

Featured photo: Courtesy of Intown Concord.

It’s not too late to start some less common veggies

Artichokes, tomatillos and other plants that still have time to thrive

It’s not too late to plant some more things in the vegetable garden. It’s only June, and there is still time. Here are some tips for some less commonly planted veggies — for growing and/or using. It’s way too late to start most things from seed, but you can sometimes buy started plants at a good local greenhouse or garden center.

Artichokes: These are big plants, so you need a 2-foot-wide square in good, rich, moist soil in full sun. You will get one good-sized “choke” on the top of the plant, and a few more as side shoots. Grow them because the foliage and chokes are beautiful, even if not much food. They are nice in the flower garden, too.

Brussels sprouts: I get many emails complaining that the little green globes that we eat never get big. But that’s easy to fix: On Labor Day weekend, go to the garden with a sharp knife. Then, as the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland said, “Off with their heads!” That’s right; slice off the top 4 inches or so of the plant and it will plump up the sprouts and stop putting all its energy into getting taller. They are incredibly frost-hardy, so you can harvest as late as Christmas if you wish.

Cauliflower: These guys are fussy. If they get too cold, too hot, too wet or too dry they will only produce a ”button” of a head. But if you’re lucky, you’ll get a mouth-watering delight. And they come in purple, too! But cooked, the purple turns gray — so use them in a salad where the purple will amaze your guests.

Celeriac: These are root crops related to celery but easier to grow. My home-grown celery was always stringy and attracted slugs, so I stopped growing it. But celeriac is easy — if you have soil that stays moist. I usually start seeds indoors in March but forgot this year, so I just bought some plants in a four-pack at my local nursery. Harvest late in fall to let them get as big as possible.

Kale: A favorite of the Birkenstock crew it should be grown by everyone. Why? It’s a green vegetable that is easy to grow and, unlike lettuce or spinach, it freezes well. I blanch it, and freeze it in zipper bags to use in soups, stews and smoothies all winter. Your garden center may still have seedlings, but you could start some by direct seeding in the ground for a fall crop. Each plant needs about 16 inches of space, so if starting from seed, plant several seeds in a group at that spacing, and then thin out all but one after they germinate.

Kohlrabi: These are in the cabbage/broccoli family but are an above-ground root (actually an enlarged stem). The leaves pop out of the purple or light green above-ground sphere. Some should be harvested at the size of baseballs; others are still perfect when the size of a duckpin bowling ball. The seed packet will tell you which you have. They taste a bit like broccoli and can be used raw in salads or cooked in a stir-fry or soup. Some, like “Gigante,” will store for six months in a cool cellar or fridge. These grow fast, so you can plant seeds now.

Parsnips: I usually plant by seed around June 15 because they won’t germinate in cold soil. Seeds are good for only one year, so share the seed packet with your neighbor. We “older folks” love parsnips. Parsnips grow like carrots but get bigger. I leave them in the ground all winter and harvest them first thing in the spring. I steam them and serve them with butter and (real) maple syrup (of course).

Pole beans: Unlike bush beans, they keep on producing all summer if you keep on picking them. “Kentucky Wonder” is the classic, but the tastiest I’ve eaten in “Kwintus,” which is still good when picked big. Kwintus seeds are hard to find, but they are available from Fedco Seeds.

Rutabagas: Why do people never raise their hand when I ask a group, “Other than me, who has grown these gems?”? I admit, it’s an old-fashioned vegetable, one our grandparents grew. But it’s easy to start from seed, it’s tasty and it produces a lot of food. Use it just like potatoes in a stew. Its advantage is that it won’t crumble and fall apart after reheating the stew a few times. And potato beetles aren’t a problem. Just thin them to 4 inches apart and you will get roots bigger than any of your potatoes. Start by seed now.

Swiss chard: Swiss chard is actually the same species as beets, but has been selected for big leaves, not big roots. Plant by seed (or plants if you can find them) now. Bedrock Gardens in Lee, N.H. (one of New England’s quiet gems) used purple-leafed ones in their garden last year (or was that a purple-leafed beet?). “Bright Lights” Swiss chard offers stems in red, purple, yellow, orange and green. Plant them in the flower garden, eat them raw or steamed.

Tomatillos: These are used in Mexican dishes and can be grown here. But you need two plants to get proper pollination. I didn’t know that and only planted one the first time I tried it. It made fruit capsules, but with nothing inside! Look for plants at your local greenhouse.

Thank you, John Lenat (1888 to 1967), my maternal grandfather. You not only taught me how to make a good compost pile, you taught me the joy of eating fresh vegetables only minutes after picking them. I am eternally grateful.

Featured photo: Kohlrabi. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Just plane fun

Aviation Museum to host annual fly-in barbecue

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

Along with the smoked chicken and pulled pork, something truly special is coming to Nashua for Father’s Day weekend: two fully functional World War II veteran airplanes. One of the historic planes will be selling 15- and 30-minute flights to enthusiasts.

Vintage plane owners will glide down the runway and greet families at Nashua Airport on Saturday, June 18, for the Aviation Museum’s annual fly-in barbecue.

A 10-seater Catalina, named “The Flying Turtle,” is being flown in from Aurora, Illinois, and attendees will be able to take a flight in it.

The Catalina served in the European theater of the war and was part of a squadron of planes that took out more than five German U-Boats. After the war, the plane worked as an airliner in Canada before being renovated into a luxurious air yacht, which was featured in Time magazine. The aircraft was refurbished with brand-new engines and parts to keep it safe for passengers in the 1980s.

“It’s pretty much the best [Catalina] around,” said Jeff Rapsis, the Aviation Museum’s executive director (and Hippo’s associate publisher). “Very few are still airworthy and this one was restored to a pristine condition.”

Historic Air Tours, the organization that maintains and operates The Flying Turtle, will sell 15- and 30-minute flights from noon to 2 p.m., for $250 and $350 per person respectively.

“Dad doesn’t need another necktie, but he could always use a ride in a World War II flying boat,” Rapsis said. “What dad wouldn’t want a ride in a Catalina?”

Jason Owen, a volunteer with Historic Air Tours, said the current owner of The Flying Turtle, John O’Connor, who purchased the Catalina in 2020, decided he wanted to share the history of this renovated wartime plane with as many people as he could.

“It’s really a piece of history,” Owen said. “It tells its own unique story of being a World War II vet, an airliner in Canada, and a luxury air yacht in the ’50s.”

The second plane on display, a PT-23 plane, a two-seater bird with an open cockpit that will be flown in from Texas, was used as a training aircraft for wartime pilots who had finished their studies in the classroom, before they could fly a bomber or fast fighter, said Rapsis.

“You have to start at the basics,” Rapsis said. “You [had] to work your way up.”

Thousands of these training planes were made during the war, but Rapsis said it’s rare to see any left because “[they] weren’t designed to last.” Attendees will be able to look inside the cockpit of the PT-23, but it won’t be giving flights.

“The main point of the event is to give families a chance to get close to aviation and up close to pilots and planes and aircrafts,” Rapsis said. “[At] this event you can … talk to the pilots and see the airport up close. We hope it helps spur interest in airplanes in young kids so there will be a next generation.”

Interested participants can also experience what world-renowned air show pilot Rob Holland, a Nashua native, encountered during a six-minute choreographed flight with a virtual reality headset.

“It’s not too often you get a chance to see what it’s like to be in aerobatics,” Rapsis said.

The museum will serve a barbecue buffet at noon, which will include smoked chicken, pulled pork, bowls of baked beans, mixed green salads, pasta, sweet desserts, and soft drinks.

“Our mission at the museum is to get kids excited about aviation so they’ll be tomorrow’s pilots, engineers, and aviators,” Rapsis said.

Aviation Museum fly-in barbecue
When: Saturday, June 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Nashua Jet Aviation, Nashua Airport, 83 Perimeter Road
Tickets: $30 adults; $25 museum members; $10 ages 6 to 12; free for kids 5 and under. Can be purchased at tinyurl.com/2s4jemw6 or by calling 669-4877. Flights on The Flying Turtle will cost $350 for a 30-minute flight and $250 for a 15-minute flight per person.
More info: www.aviationmuseumofnh.org

Featured photo: A young visitor gets a chance to see aircraft up close and personal at Nashua Airport during a prior Fly-In BBQ. Photo courtesy of the Aviation Museum.

Pride-packed weekend

Queen City Pride hosts arts-based events to celebrate June as Pride Month

By Delaney Beaudoin

June is pride month, and Queen City Pride, Manchester’s regional pride celebration recently turned nonprofit, is celebrating in style. Following a week of events packed full of DJs, drag and dancing, Queen City Pride has a full itinerary planned for this weekend.

Starting off with Studio 54 at the Currier, an event in collaboration with the Currier Museum of Art and Queen City Pride, on Friday, June 17, from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Currier Museum (150 Ash St, Manchester). The event, which takes inspiration from the “Warhol Screen Tests” exhibit currently on display now through July 24, will occur in the gallery’s space, which according to Corinne Benfield, Director of Membership and Community Partnerships, is something the museum has not done before.

“We’re super excited to be able to offer that to our community and utilize the museum in a different way than we have in the past,” she said. “This mission, our exhibition parties that are after hours and more loosely themed with our exhibitions, are also programmed to be more of a party. That partnership, that relationship with art, brings in a completely different audience and allows for us to open the doors to folks that may have had barriers in the past.”

The event will feature drag performances by the Marvel House of Entertainment and will be MC’ed by drag queen ChiChi Marvel. Guests can expect dancing, disco, a “best-dressed contest,” raffle giveaways, hors d’oeuvres and a full cash bar.

“We’ll have a really interesting atmosphere that is very much a nod to the Studio 54 aesthetic. So definitely bring your dancing shoes. It will be a raucous affair,” Benfield said.

The exhibit displays Andy Warhol’s “screen tests” of several recognizable celebrity figures from the ’70s and the Studio 54 scene including Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Salvador Dali, and Edie Sedgwick. The videos are projected onto the walls of the darkened gallery, creating a hypnotic effect that makes it hard to look away.

“Warhol’s screen tests are a bit eerie in that you’re kind of voyeuristically looking at an intimate moment of the subject and the camera. Because the imagery is very slowed down and very motion-heavy, you get an intimate experience with some of the time’s most prolific artists and celebrities,” Benfield said.

In addition to famous celebrities, the tests feature drag performer Mario Montez and Black supermodel Donyale Luna.

“Andy Warhol is one of the most prolific queer artists in our zeitgeist. He was very much so an advocate for other queer artists and highlighted them in his work and celebrated them in his work. The tie-in with Queen City Pride and June being Pride Month is very strong and one that the museum is so honored to be able to bring attention to and provide a celebratory platform,” Benfield said.

Randall Neilsen, the Art Committee Chair for this year’s Queen City Pride Festival, commented on the collaboration, “There are a lot of elements about Studio 54 and about the fact that they’re debuting this party in the Andy Warhol exhibit that really lends itself to the queer experience. … What we have here is a great opportunity to use Studio 54 to represent the bigger community that we have here in Manchester, especially the queer community. … It’s very exciting to be able to collaborate with them to help put that together,” he said.

woman painting message on wall with colorful paints
Courtesy of Queen City Pride.

Queen City Pride will also be hosting a Pride Parade on Saturday, June 18, from 10 a.m. to noon on Commercial Street in Manchester. Following the parade, there will be a Pride Festival from noon to 6 p.m. Nielsen, who was in charge of coordinating arts events for the festival, noted the large expected turnout for this year’s festival,

“Queen City Pride has become much bigger than it has been in the last couple years. We’re expecting over 5,000 people this year,” he said.

As part of the festival planning, Nielsen helped execute an “artists alley,” a space where more than 25 artists will be showcasing and selling their work.

“[It is] a place for people to come meander and enjoy the arts that we have here in Manchester…. There will be other fun interactive things, like a live painting and some other stuff that some of our artists are putting on,” he said.

The festival will offer events for all ages, including a youth tent that will feature interactive activities being sponsored by FIRST Robotics. Other activities include a beer garden, a food truck area, over 120 local vendors and live entertainment including drag performances.

Queen City Pride is also hosting an after-party following the festival, at 8 p.m. for VIP entrance and 9 p.m. for general admission at the Masonic Temple (1505 Elm St., Manchester). The event will feature live performances, food, drinks and dancing.

Nielsen highlighted Queen City Pride’s recent transition to a nonprofit, saying, “We’re definitely going to be much more involved in the community going forward, especially with organizations like the Currier. … This is really just the start of a lot of fantastic opportunities for us, [both] with them and other organizations going forward.”

Pride-packed weekend

Studio 54 at the Currier
Where: The Currier Museum (150 Ash St, Manchester)
When: Friday, June 17, from 7 to 11 p.m.
Tickets: $50 general admission
Visit: currier.org

Pride Parade
Where: Commercial Street, Manchester
When: Saturday, June 18, 10 a.m. to noon
Visit: queencitypridenh.org

Pride Festival
Where: Arms Park in Manchester
When: Saturday, June 18, noon to 6 p.m.
Visit: queencitypridenh.org

Pride After-Party
Where: Masonic Temple (1505 Elm St., Manchester)
When: Saturday, June 18, 8 p.m. (VIP entrance), 9 p.m. (general admission)
Tickets: $15 general admission, $25 VIP
Visit: queencitypridenh.org

Featured photo: Courtesy of Queen City Pride.

Kiddie Pool 22/06/09

Family fun for the weekend

Trucks and eats

• The Touch-a-Truck and Food Truck Festival in the parking lot of Hopkinton High School (297 Park Ave. in Hopkinton) will feature trucks to check out (fire truck, police cruiser, etc.) and trucks selling eats on Saturday, June 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for kids, with proceeds benefiting the Library of Things at the Hopkinton Public Library. See hopkintonpubliclibraryfoundation.org.

Grow gardeners

• New Hampshire Audubon McLane Center (84 Silk Farm Road in Concord) will hold a “Buds & Blooms: Beginner Botany” program geared toward kids and families, all about native plants and pollinators, on Saturday, June 11, from 10 to 11 a.m. The event is free but register in advance at nhaudubon.org. Head back to the McLane Center the next day, Sunday, June 12, from noon to 4 p.m. for a native plant sale.

Game on!

• Concord Skate Park (15 Loudon Road, Concord) will host its second annual Rumble in the Rubble Skate Jam on Saturday, June 11, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to skating, there will be prizes, raffles, food, music and more. Skaters of all experience levels are welcome. See concordskatepark.com.

• The 78th annual New Hampshire Soap Box Derby race will be held on Sunday, June 12, at 120 Broadway in Dover, with races running from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is free for spectators. Kids ages 7 and older can create a gravity-powered car and race it down a track in hopes of making the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship. See soapboxderby.org/new-hampshire.aspx.

• The next home games of the Nashua Silver Knights (a team in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League) at Holman Stadium (67 Amherst St. in Nashua) are Tuesday, June 14, at 6 p.m. against the New Britain Bees and Thursday, June 16, at 6 p.m. versus the Brockton Rox. See nashuasilverknights.com for tickets.

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats will return to Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester with a game on Tuesday, June 14, at 6:35 p.m., the first of six days of games against the Somerset Patriots. Wednesday, June 15, will feature two games, with the first starting at 5:05 p.m. See nhfishercats.com.

On with the show

• Catch the first of nine movies the Prescott Park Arts Festival has on the schedule for screening in Prescott Park in Portsmouth this summer with the screening of Pixar’s Soul(PG, 2020) on Friday, June 10, at 8:30 p.m., screened in collaboration with the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. A $5 per person donation is suggested to make a reservation (with other options for a table or blanket). See prescottpark.org/events/category/movie or blackheritagetrailnh.org/events.

• Get your little dancers excited about taking some lessons. The Martin School of Dance in Bedford is presenting its recital Toy Story on Sunday, June 12, at the Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com) at 2 p.m. Doors open at 1 p.m. Tickets cost $33; see martinschoolofdance.com for more about the school.

And speaking of kid fare on the Cap Center stage, Blippi the Musical, based on the Blippi educational character that got its start on YouTube (according to Wikipedia), will come to the Cap Center on Friday, June 17, at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. and tickets start at $39.50 plus fees (an extra $50 gets you the photo experience package), according to the Cap Center website.

• The Palace Teen Apprentice Company, which features student actors ages 12 through 18, will present Seussical Jr. at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 668-5588) on Wednesday, June 15, and Thursday, June 16, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $12 to $15.

Thinking and being green in the garden

Buy less plastic, stay away from chemical fertilizers and compost

Do you want to be a better steward of the environment? If so, the first step is to be a gardener: Grow some of your own vegetables and plant some native trees, shrubs and flowers while using no chemicals. But there is even more to think about than what kind of tomatoes to plant, and how many.

First, what should you do with all those black plastic pots that come with the plants? Most recycling facilities do not accept black plastic pots, but some pots are numbered #2 or #5 and can be recycled. A few have no numbers. Plastic pots are made from oil in factories around the world. I imagine that these factories spew and spill a certain amount of chemicals, and create waste and byproducts that are bad for the environment.

My mantra for plastic is this: Refuse, Re-use, Recycle. So how do you refuse to buy plants in plastic pots? Start your own plants. If you save plastic pots and rinse them out, you can reuse them. Some for years. You can also buy peat pots and coir (palm fiber) pots. Some companies, like Gardener’s Supply, sell sturdy flats to use instead of those flimsy six-packs, strong enough to be used many times.

Trees and shrubs are most often sold in big black plastic pots. But they are also sold “balled and burlapped.” Those are usually bigger trees that are dug up and wrapped in burlap after years growing in the ground. Some local nurseries still dig their own plants, and I recommend supporting them. When you plant, be sure to take off any burlap and wires that may be holding the root ball together. And beware of any “fake” burlap made of plastic. Don’t buy it.

For years we have been offering sturdy plastic pots to our local, family-owned garden centers. Most just want them cleaned before you drop them off. I find it easiest to do that right after planting, before the soil bakes on. Reusing pots saves the garden centers money, assuming they have the time to sort and store them. Tell those that do how happy you are with them.

Recycling is really not the answer: Many loads of plastic at the recycling center are contaminated and end up in the landfill or incinerator. Too much dirt, food or items of the wrong number can condemn a whole Dumpster of plastic.

I was pleased to learn that most Home Depot stores now accept all kinds of plastic pots. I went to the one near me in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, and there was a rack outside with the plants just for returned pots. The pots don’t even need to have come from them.

We recently took a big step forward toward being “green.” We bought an electric lawn mower. I’ve read that the EPA estimates that using a lawn mower is 11 times more polluting than driving a new car. One hour of mowing, apparently, is equal to driving 93 miles. Of course, these statistics are not perfect, as they do not indicate what kind of mower or car is being compared. Older, bigger mowers are worse.

We bought a 21-inch, self-propelled battery-powered lawn mower on sale for $500 at our local True Value Hardware store. It has a quick-charge battery charger that takes an hour or less to recharge the 54-volt battery, which is good for an hour of mowing. The mower has plenty of power and is so much quieter than our old gas mower. Our lawn takes more than an hour to mow, but so what? I have plenty of other garden chores to do while the battery recharges. The technology in batteries in electric mowers really has improved just in the last few years.

Being green also means using no chemicals in the garden. That’s an easy one. I don’t use herbicides, insecticides or chemical fertilizers. I don’t want something to kill dandelions or moss, neither of which I consider a problem.

There are perfectly wonderful organic fertilizers that offer so much more than the chemical ones. Instead of just offering three plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), they offer calcium, magnesium and many more nutrients plants use. They do this because they are manufactured using natural ingredients like seaweed, cottonseed meal, ground oyster shells and ground peanut hulls.

Organic fertilizers are also slow-release fertilizers. Pro-Gro, made in Vermont, has about 25 percent soluble nitrogen that is ready right away. The rest is released slowly as microorganisms break it down and make it usable by plants. And it will not damage root hairs the way some of the chemical fertilizers can if too much is applied.

Compost is one of the best things you can add to your soil. It helps sandy soils hold moisture and loosens up heavy clay-based soils. You can buy it by the bag or, better yet, by the truck load. Even though my soil is terrific, I add compost every year. It is not a fertilizer, but it feeds the microorganisms that work with our plants. And if you get a good grade of compost, it will improve the texture of your soil, no matter what it is.

Lastly, speak up. If your suppliers are trying to reduce use of plastic, or are taking it back to reuse it, tell them that is why you are buying from them. If they’re not? Ask them to! Every voice counts. We gardeners should be on the cutting edge of reducing plastic and chemical use.

Featured photo: Electric mowers have improved greatly in the past few years. They are quiet and non-polluting. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

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