Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

February 2023 Food Literacy Podcast

Orrin Williams Season 3 Episode 2

Well, spring is on the mind of many people here in the northern hemisphere, especially here in Chicago. This particular episode is devoted to getting our home veggie gardeners off to a rousing start by planning for the upcoming gardening season. While the audio portion is great the show notes will be full of information and resources to kick off the season.

Let us kick off the 2023 gardening season! We are going to focus this episode on planning your gardening season. I hope you have had the opportunity to get into the seed catalogs and start buying your seeds or supplement your seed collection if you are a seed saver. If not it is not too late.

Keywords, vegetable seed companies, organic vegetable garden seeds, flower seeds. pollinator seeds, etc. There are many seed companies to choose from, explore your options and look for seed companies in your region as they may specialize in seeds adapted to your region. I will not offer specific seed company recommendations here but if you contact me at orrin@cutchicago.org I am happy to discuss seed companies based on what you may want to grow.

Seed starting if you have the interest, space and are so inclined may begin about now. See the following: Almanac Seed Starting 101 or The Spruce How to Start Seeds Indoors. You are not limited to these sites, just search keywords such as indoor seed starting, indoor vegetable seed starts, etc. More importantly, you must base your seed-starting activities around the last frost date here in Chicago (or wherever you live).  Search for frost dates in your area by zip code.

Include in your garden planning flowers and herbs,  for attracting pollinators and/or companion planting that may assist in deterring pests as well as other benefits.

Other things to prepare for our soil temperature will be really important when transplanting seedlings or sowing seeds directly. Check out the temperature chart and unless you have season extension capacity you will see that you probably want to wait until April to get started. Do not forget sunlight when doing your plan we will get into more detail in future episodes.

Before we run out of space here I have a couple of food-related articles to share with you. Lifestyle and Alzheimer's and reading bioengineered or GMO food labels.

More on gardening and food literacy next month including information about soil.

orrin@cutchicago.org

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the OCEAN-HP, or the CPHP. The material and information presented here are for general information purposes only. While the podcast is designed to promote the development of healthy communities through food literacy, we offer no health advice and encourage our listeners to seek guidance from the healthcare providers of their choice.

People on this episode