Newsflash

This year i decided to include winter crops in my garden. Dad set aside a corner of the field for my garden, but hasn't disked it yet.. My neighbor was downsizing her garden and decided she would give me her seed germinator! It has three levels and will come in handy this year. I have peas, squash, lettuce, spinach, brusselsprouts, collards, rutabegas, turnips, and brocolli. I am so excited. The tiny sprouts are just peaking out of the soil and spreading their tiny leaves. I cant wait for the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, cantalope, and eggplant that i will grow this summer!

Bethany Brinsfield

Tis the season! Mom got a big box in the mail from Jung Seed Company. It is time to start thinking about the garden a little more. Mom can not wait for the ground to hit 45 degrees to start planting the early spring vegetables. First things to plant are peas, radishes, lettuce, carrots, and onions. In a few more days we'll start seeds in the hot bed South of the house. When the temps stay around 50 degrees or plus we'll start planting sweet corn, potatoes, pumpkin, and squash. I'm excited to get the gardening going and I hope you are too!

Rachel Hammond

Hello from chilly New York! Although I thought that March was going to go out like a lamb, due to the sunshine and warm breezes that I’ve been enjoying in the last week, but on April 1st mother nature decided to play an April Fool’s joke and coat campus with a dusting of snow. Nevertheless, I’ve been enjoying the crocuses, witch hazel, and snowdrops that I walk by on my way to class, as well as the promising shoots of daffodils and tulips. I was actually excited by the snow, because it’s such a change from two weeks ago, when I spent my spring break in Easter Island, where the temperature was in the low 80s every day! I made the trip because I am in a class that is studying the biodiversity and ecology of the island. My plant taxonomy class from last semester was very handy for identifying the tropical plants that I have had little prior experience with. Horticulture is truly able to open doors for you all around the world!

Matthew Bond

CHECK OUT THE NEWSFLASH LINK AS WE NOW HAVE UPDATED EVERYTHING ON THE SITE AND HAVE ADDED A NEW PROJECT HORTICULLTURE ID CONTEST FOR AGES 4-14 AND CHECK OUT THE WELCOME LINK

KEEP CHECKING THE SITE FOR ADDITIONAL ITEMS TO BE ADDED.

In the winter time the agriculture in my area pretty much stops. My intrest in plants does not, though. My gardening skills are applied in the house instead of in the field. There are more potted plants than people at my house. In the living room of my house I have pepperomias, begonias, african violets, dracenas, philodendrons, aloe, peace plants, cacti, Christmas cacti, prayer plants, and crocuses. Everything is green inside even when there is snow on the ground outside. I also learned this cool trick for growing bulbs in the winter. I took a hyacinth, a small glass dish, some small gravel, and water. I potted the hyacinth bulb in the gravel and filled it with water up to the bottom of the bulb. First lots of roots sprouted, and then a green tip emerged. The flower is now blooming and it is very fragrant!

Bethany Brinsfield

The winter Going and Growing has been deleted. These articles will now be at the end of each officer and advisors bio's.

PLEASE WATCH THE WEB SITE FOR TWO NEW PROJECTS COMING UP.

Carole Carney

Hello everyone! I'm glad to be back at school catching up on sleep, but I miss bumping into friends every time I walked down a hallway! To all my northern friends, good luck putting your gardens to bed, and to all my southern friends, I hope you enjoyed the beautiful foliage in Wisconsin!

Matthew Bond

Hello NJHA! I hope everybody has been doing well since our national convention this past October! Just wanted to give you guys a quick update on horticulture here in my part of the Eastern District. Now that harvesting season is underway it is not uncommon to see a parade of harvesting equiptment slowly moving down one of our main 55mph roads. And I dont even live out in the country, this is in a suburb only about an hour from DC in Northern Virginia! I hope you all have been doing great with your horticultural achievements this past month and until next time have fun!

Brooke Bukowski

Since convention in October I have been very busy enjoying my senior year of high school. My local FFA Chapter has kept me busy studying. I was able to travel to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, just a week after becoming an NJHA officer, for an Agricultural Business contest. My most recent contest is Forestry-Judging, where I will be identifying trees; this contest helps me when it comes to NJHA judging. My schools executive committee recently recognized me for my accomplishment as a member of the NJHA and my election into office. My small town newspapers have also recognized my accomplishment following the October convention. I am also looking forward to hearing from the colleges I applied to and preparing for my final winter formal. As we move into a new year I look forward to starting the convention planning process for the 2013 NJHA convention. Have a safe and happy holiday and a bright new year from Indiana.

Rachel Hammond

I am the President of the Envirothon at my school. We organize several enviromental projects through out the year. Renovating the Nature trail behind the school is our most recent project. We have inspected the current trail, but it has not been cared for in the past 12 years. We are in the process of drawing new plans and training the new members to use gardening tools. I think the renovated trail will be amazing.

Bethany Brinsfield

Now that the 2012 NJHA convention is over, which was a great time, and I’m back at home, it’s time to get back into the garden to do some finishing up. I have been picking the last of the pees and cleaning up the dead vines and bushes. I usually put them in piles and when I’m ready, I take them to the burn pile and burn the dead dried out plants. I like to just get rid of some of the brush and the rest I might plow under. A little of what I do from your Western Director.

Rachel Hammond

This is the time of the year when all of us farmers are cleaning up the fields for the year. Once the corn is cut and sold there is still work to be done. Cover crop is a grain, like wheat, that is planted in the fall to hold the soil in place in the winter time. it also takes up all the leftover nutrients in the field so there is no runoff.

Cover crop is fairly simple to plant. My family works as a team to get the job done. After the corn is harvested Mom cuts the stalks with a chopper pulled by a tractor. This makes the pices of stalk smaller for easy decomposition. Dad puts the grain in a fertilizer spreader and broadcasts it into the field. Then I bring the disk out. The disk turns the soil lightly so the seed is covered, but not too deep in the soil. the song "Amarillo Sky" is an accurate portrayal of the process.

I like my job because my disk is the last thing that goes over the field before tiny ,little, green sprouts come up. In a few days the whole field has sprouted! After the cover crop is in then it is about time to harvest the soybeans. I give a warning to future diskers... make sure u do not hit anything.

Bethany Brinsfield