Bakery - Gifts - Garden Supplies - Plants - Map & Directions - Antiques - Events - Specials - Home
|
Home grown food is the freshest! Unlike store produce, backyard vegetables and fruits are picked at their peak of ripeness. The longest distance they have to travel is measured in feet to the kitchen, not miles across the country! This means that they taste better than anything you can buy. Anyone who has plucked a ripe, sun-warmed tomato or crisp sugar snap pea and promptly eaten it while standing in the garden knows what taste really is. The freshest vegetables are also the most nutritious. They are picked ripe with their full complement of vitamins. Home grown food is also the safest. These days, everyone is alert to the various issues in the production of food. While enormous strides have been made in regulating and minimizing the use of pesticide products in domestic food production, there is still concern about residues on store bought produce. Unlike commercially grown vegetables that are raised in a monoculture, backyard vegetables benefit from the presence of a diversity of plants on the property which host beneficial insects. When there is a problem, the gardener can choose from a wide range of remedies — cultural, mechanical, and biological — to deal with weeds, insects and critters to minimize or avoid the use of pesticides. Modern Vegtables for Modern Life Home grown food is convenient. These days this is no small issue. The availability of fresh vegetables and fruits just outside the back door offers a whole different way to use and serve food. A constant supply of fresh, nutritious food simplifies modern life where mealtimes are frenzied events squeezed in among conflicting family schedules. The introduction of new plant hybrids supports the trends in contemporary life where the emphasis is on saving time and eating healthy. Fresh vegetables in the yard reduces both time consuming trips to the supermarket and meal preparation time. No need to spend time removing peas from their pods, thanks to sugar snap peas that have edible pods and taste delicious raw or lightly steamed. Neither is there a need to cook tender young carrots, peas, corn, peppers, summer squashes and other crops from the garden at all. Unlike the old days when grandma had to seriously overcook string beans so that the "strings" would be tender, modern green beans have no strings. Already tender, they are delicious raw or heated briefly in a little water in the microwave oven. Homegrown vegetables, then, provide quick meals, and food featuring maximum fiber and nutrition. Home grown food offers the most diversity of color, sizes and shapes as well as convenience. Gardeners can choose from a huge number of vegetable varieties featuring interesting colors, shapes and sizes never available at stores. There are little bite-sized peppers that are ready for dips and salads in no time at all. Small softball-sized cabbages are perfect for today's smaller families, eliminating waste and saving preparation time. "Grape" sized tomatoes that literally burst with flavor are perfect for bag lunches. Tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, eggplants, Swiss chard and even corn are now available in a rainbow of colors. There are yellow watermelons, striped beets, purple beans, pink eggplants, purple asparagus and blue potatoes in the garden, but not necessarily on store shelves. Vegetable gardeners can choose from several different kinds of parsley, basil, mint and oregano. Home grown food offers variety. Why just eat only purple eggplant when you can dine on white, black, deep pink, green or purple and white striped eggplant grown in your garden? Red, white and blue potatoes from your garden can provide a patriotic 4th of July salad. The possibilities are endless — and fun! Home grown food offers fun for children. Unusual vegetable shapes, colors and sizes are appealing to children, and many of these specialty vegetables are only available in seed. Children can have fun growing white pumpkins, orange watermelon, UFO shaped summer squash, blue potatoes, golden beets, violet radishes or round yellow cucumbers. They will likely even want to taste the vegetables they have grown in their own garden. Home grown food offers edible table centerpieces. Purple, green, red, yellow and orange sweet bell peppers make a beautiful, easy, edible table arrangement when placed in a pretty basket. Ornamental peppers in casual terra cotta pots or in elegant crystal also make a striking arrangement.For a patriotic theme, try a large brandy snifter of red, white and purple radishes. For fragrance, you can't beat a container full of sweet smelling basils and parsleys. Mesclun: A Case in Point Nothing represents the way modern vegetable garden crops suit modern life like the wonderful lettuce seed mixtures called "mesclun" that are available now. From the Provencial region of France, the idea of planting and then harvesting many types of greens mixed together has been enthusiastically adopted in this country. Fancy restaurants feature mesclun on their menus, and grocery stores sell it for around $8.99 a pound! These assortments of greens are appreciated for their sophisticated mixture of flavors, textures and colors, their wholesome taste, and their ease of preparation. Gardeners have discovered that they are wonderfully easy (and economical) to grow, as well. Mesclun has all the virtues of home grown food. It yields for a long period of time, it does not need cooking and it is nutritious, beautiful, sophisticated and delicious. Commercially packaged seed assortments typically feature plants with a variety of colors, flavors, and textures such as peppery mustard greens, bittersweet chicory, tender butterhead, arugula, crunchy romaine, mache, endive, cress, anise tasting chervil and, perhaps some parsley. Gardeners can make their own custom mesclun by mixing the seeds of several types of lettuces and other greens to suit family tastes. Outdoor Decorating A very popular trend this year is outdoor decorating. Gardeners and sun-lovers are enhancing patios, porches, pool sides and flower beds with sundials, stepping stones, garden flags, decorative garden stakes and adding other creative touches that make their yards uniquely theirs. Ashcombe proudly offers these items and many other gardening accents in their Garden Supplies department. Along with the newest 'fads', Ashcombe also carries classical mahogany furniture for indoor decorating. These styles, taken from the Victorian period, are sure to enhance any home. From antiques to bird houses, Ashcombe's Garden Supplies department has something for everyone!
Delight Your Senses with
TASTE AND...enjoy summer fruits and vegetables of the season in our farm kitchen! SEE
TOUCH
SMELL
HEAR Bring it all together with our creative display on garden parties and entertaining in the gift area! SPECIAL PROGRAMS...
At 11:00am, join Master Gardener, Mike Larkin for a stroll through our beautiful gardens, as he features many of your favorite flowers and gives useful tips for your gardens at home. At 1:00pm, Karen Olson will present a program on 'Color In The Garden.' Color is the gardener's most potent weapon. This program discusses the basics of color theory and how to use these concepts to choose plant combinations for your garden. You will learn how to exploit color contrasts, harmonies, multicolor combinations and color echoes so that you can create a garden with your own personalized color signature. Pre-registration required for both classes.
on Saturday, August 11th, 2001 for our annual Herb Fest!
Dividing An Ornamental Grass Ornamental grasses are different in so many ways from other border plants. They are dynamic, dramatic, easy to grow, and come in a range of shapes and forms. Grasses need regular splitting and replanting, some more frequently than others. Look for tell-tale signs of congested, weak stems, a sudden decline in flowering, and dying out in the middle. You might also want to consider dividing the clump if it has outgrown its position. Spring and early summer is the time to do this, when grasses are actively growing. At any other time, you run the risk of causing too much stress, after which recovery may be slow or may not even happen.
1. PREPARE THE GROUND AT THE NEW SITE On the whole, ornamental grasses are not fussy growers. Thorough ground preparation, however, is essential for good results when establishing newly split clumps. Begin by digging out any existing perennial weeds. Then mix in plenty or organic matter to a depth of 14 inches, covering an area five times the size of the grass to be planted. Blue-leaved fescues, helictotrichons, and a handful of others such as Stipa tenuissima don't need rich living, so cut down on the amount of compost used for them. In heavier clay soils, add coarse horticultural grit. (Horticultural grit is fine gravel, ranging from a sixteenth to an eight of an inch in size. It is sold cheaply in feed stores as poultry grit). The grit will last in your soil forever and will break up the clay, making cultivation much easier. Aim for a good friable end product that will allow easy root penetration and encourage good growth. Supplementing with an inorganic fertilizer is not necessary. 2. CUT BACK THE TOP For the majority of grasses cutting the plant back to reduce the leaf area will lessen the stress on the plant during the splitting process and make way for fresh growth. Do this with sharp loppers or hedge trimmers, as close to the ground as you can, and without leaving any sharp snags. The exceptions, however, are evergreen (or semievergreen) varieties, like Helictotrichon sempervirens and Stipa gigantea. Their leaves should only be cut down by half, since taking off all the leaves would set the plants back too much. 
3. SPLIT THE CLUMP Splitting can be back breaking work, since some grasses have very tough roots and clumps. It can be done several ways, depending on how tough the clump is. Miscanthus floridulus and M. sacchariflorus, two of the toughest, are easiest dealt with if you dig them up, knock the excess soil off the roots and saw them in half, using an old handsaw. Most other grasses are simply split by sticking two garden forks in the clump, back to back and levering the forks apart, tearing the clump in two. A sharp spade will also do the trick, but can be clumsy. Smaller pieces can be torn apart with the aid of hand forks and trowels. 4. REPLANT Replant only the strongest and healthiest pieces, which are inevitably those from the outside of the clump. Of these, pick the most decent-size pieces, since the smaller ones will take longer to recover. Dig a hole, remembering to fit the hole to the plant, and not the plant to the hole. Then place the clump in the hole, just one inch below the surface of the soil, making sure that the clump is upright. Half-fill the hole with soil, firming in with your fingertips, and empty an entire bucket of water into the hole. This action not only waters the plant, but also forces the finer soil particles into closer contact with the plant's roots, getting rid of air pockets which could easily dry them out. Firm the soil in with your fingertips and water again. Finish off by raking out your footprints. As the clump ages, it will need splitting and replanting to rejuvenate it. Watch for the tell-tell signs, mentioned at the beginning of this article. Ashcombe Garden Tours Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses and Rohrer Bus Service are teaming up to present a few wonderful garden tours in the surrounding areas. For 2001, we are joining Rohrer on several of their scheduled tours, but hope to originate some of our own for 2002. Join Rohrer Bus and host Karen Olson - Ashcombe's Perennial Manager, on Tuesday June 19th for an enchanting trip to the New York Botanical Gardens. The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will be the first guided tour, followed by a garden highlights tour of the garden grounds and rock and native plant gardens. Tour fee is $89.00 and pre-registration is required. On Wednesday, June 27th, Kathy McAfee - Ashcombe's Nursery Manager, will host a trip to the Morris Arboretum & Garden Railway in Fort Washington, PA.
Enjoy touring the Deschler-Morrit House, the Cliveden, Morris Arboretum,
and the Garden Railway, with 34 historic buildings in the area including
Independence Hall and Betsy Ross. Karen Olson will host another tour on Thursday, August 30th to Chanticleer & Bartram Gardens in Philadelphia, PA.
Bartram Gardens is the oldest surviving botanical garden in America. You will also visit Shofuso, a 17th century shoin style Japanese garden, the Main Line and Chaticleer. Ashcombe's Herb Promotions Director, Linda Fortney will host a tour on September 5th to the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm in Kutztown, PA.
Tour the country's leader in Regenerative Organic Farming and Gardening.
Then depart for Leesport Farmers Market. Please call Rohrer Bus Service at 1-800-735-2400 to register for these tours. 
Strawberries!
FREEZING STRAWBERRIES
STRAWBERRY JAM Combine all ingredients except sugar in large kettle. Bring to a rolling boil. Add sugar, place over high heat, bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir and skim for 5 minutes (1 tsp. butter, stirred into jam just before removing from heat eliminates skimming.) Ladle into 6 half pint containers.
FROZEN STRAWBERRY SALAD Heat marshmallows and juice over very low heat and stir until marshmallows are half melted. Remove from heat and stir until marshmallows are very small. Fold in strawberries and pineapple. Beat cream cheese until smooth and fold in mayonnaise, add to marshmallow mixture. Fold in cream, which has been whipped stiff. Turn into lightly buttered tray and freeze. Serve on lettuce. In this corner, we carry two lines of exclusive perennials: The Blooms of Bressingham and Sunny Border Gold. Both offer exceptional new plants.
STRAWBERRY MOUSSE Wash and hull berries; sprinkle with sugar and let stand 1 hour. Mash and rub through a sieve; add gelatin, which has been soaked in cold water and then dissolved in the hot water. Set in a pan of ice water and stir until it begins to thicken; fold in whipped cream. Pour into mold and chill until firm.
FLUFFY STRAWBERRY PIE Prepare gelatin according to package directions. Refrigerate until partially set. Place in large mixing bowl and beat on high speed until fluffy. Fold in the sliced strawberries. Pour into shell. Serve with whipped cream.
Message From the President Summer means fresh produce, flowering annuals and perennials. Here at Ashcombe, our display gardens are filled with magnificent colors and textures all season long! If you haven't walked through our gardens in recent years, you may want to ... siginificant changes have taken place! We are continually striving to design our gardens with plants of interest to our customers. We use ideas you can copy at home, such as our bird, butterfly and hummingbird gardens. (We even have free garden plans to help you get started!) Our gardens usually peak from July to August as the annuals mature and summer perennials start to show off. Of course, many of the plants you see in our gardens will be available as 6-inch annuals and perennials in different size pots. Our objective is to make your garden a beautiful showplace and we'll do all we can to help you accomplish this. Thank you for your continued interest in Ashcombe. We do appreciate it! --Glenn M. Gross
Previous Newsletters:
|
