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GARDENING TIPS: If you didn’t get around to cleaning your gardening tools before putting them up this winter, do so now at the beginning of the season. Look them over and give them a good cleaning. Sharpen the business edges of shovels and hoes. Sand down wooden handles and then rub them down with linseed oil. Here’s one way to keep trowels, shovels, and other tools from getting rusty: Fill a 5-gallon bucket with sand almost to the top and then sprinkle some motor oil over the top. Stick the sharp ends of your tools in there when they’re not in use and they won’t get all rusty. Build garden boxes
Gardens for Everyone will be building garden boxes for the elderly residents of The Whitted School senior living facility (200 E Umstead St/1210 Sawyer St) on Wednesday, May 12. The plan is to build four of them, two of which will be disability-accessible tabletop boxes. If you have some carpentry skills and can help as a volunteer, click here to sign up and to choose either the 9:30am to noon or the 1 to 3pm shift.
Slice 325 garden at CAARE
Food and nutrition nonprofit Slice 325 is hosting two Weedin’ and Cleanin’ Workdays at CAARE (214 Broadway St) on Saturday, April 18, 10:30am–1pm and Sunday, April 19, 10:30am–3pm. Volunteers are needed to help tidy up the SLICE 325 Garden by picking up litter, pulling/digging out weeds, and planting edible plant starts (both fruits and vegetables). Social distancing will be practiced and snacks will be provided.
Ashe Street Community Garden kickoff
The Durham Community Land Trustees, the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, SEEDS, and Urban Community Agrinomics will cohost the Ashe Street Community Garden Kickoff at 2504 Ashe St on Saturday, April 17, 9am–1pm. Volunteers, especially from East Durham, are encouraged to help prepare the garden—registration will be held from 8:30 to 9am, the planting areas will be prepped from 9 to 11am, and vegetables and pollinator plants will be put into the ground from 11am to 1pm. Participants will be invited to become community garden members, will receive native-plant kits, goody bags, and snacks. Click here to register, and write to info@dclt.org for more info.
Tips on growing peas
In this video, the Durham Cooperative Extension’s Food and Consumer Science Agent Cheralyn Berry gives helpful tips on growing peas in your home or community garden.
Free community garden ebook
The North Carolina Cooperative Extension has published a 12-page ebook called Eat Smart, Move More: Growing Communities Through Gardens. Click here to read this free publication online, and if you find it useful, you can download it for later reading.
Sarah P Duke Gardens
Duke Gardens now offers demonstrations and classes as online events; click here to register (even for the free events):
Triangle Orchid Society
The Triangle Orchid Society’s next Virtual Meeting will be held on Monday, April 12, 7:30pm. Show off your treasured orchids or just relax and talk about them and get/share growing and blooming tips. Visit the TOS Facebook page for more info.
Count the birds
Audubon North Carolina will host NC Bird Atlas 101: How to Get Started on Tuesday, March 16, 7–8pm. If you’re interested in taking part in the North Carolina Bird Atlas community-science survey, attend and learn what you can do to participate. NC Bird Atlas partners include the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC State University, NC Natural Heritage Program, Audubon North Carolina, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Catawba College. Click here to register for this free online event.
The Weekend Gardener
WPTF’s Weekend Gardener radio show has been on the air since 1985 and is a wonderful 3-hour exploration of flower and lawn care, soil improvement and pest control ideas, and much more. It airs every Saturday, 8–11am, on 680am AND 98.5fm. If you were too busy to listen, you can always click here and listen to past shows.
NC State’s ‘Extension Gardener’
Here’s the Winter 2020 edition of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s online publication, “Extension Gardener”:
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