Family and Consumer Sciences

Live Smart Ohio

Ohio State University Extension

garden

Winter Sowing

Have you ever wanted to garden during the winter? Winter Sowing is an easy and resourceful way to grow seedlings! You only need a few supplies and a small space outdoors. Supplies: Clear container(s) – reused plastic containers such as milk or water jugs (without lids), to-go containers from restaurants, or even deep aluminum pans […]

WRITTEN BY: Danae Losey, AmeriCorps Member, Extension Public Health AmeriCorps, OSU Extension, Lucas County and Patrice Powers-Barker, Family and Consumer Sciences

REVIEWED BY: Amy Stone, OSU Extension Lucas County, Agriculture and Natural Resources

PHOTO CREDITS:

  • Danae Losey
  • Patrice Powers-Barker

SOURCES:

  • Hernandez, Lori. (2023). Winter Sowing. Three Acre Farm. https://www.threeacrefarm.net/blog/2019/1/21/winter-sowing
  • Maupin, Kelly. (2022). Jump Start Your 2023 Garden with Winter Sowing. Washington State University, Skagit County Extension Master Gardener Program. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/2073/2023/02/Winter-Sowing-Jump-Start-1.pdf
  • Moore, Molly, and Smith, Marlene. All the Dirt on Winter Sowing. University of Maryland Extension, Charles County Master Gardener. https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/2021-12/All%20the%20Dirt%20on%20Winter%20Sowing%20Power%20Point.pdf
  • Native Seeds of Fortitude: Winter Seed Sowing. Cornell Cooperative Extension. Putnam County. https://cceputnamcounty.org/resources/native-seeds-of-fortitude-winter-seed-sowing
  • Ohio Victory Gardens https://u.osu.edu/ohiovictorygardens/sowing-the-seeds/
  • Voll-Wallace, Lori. (2021). Starting Seeds in Winter. Penn State Extension, Master Gardener. https://extension.psu.edu/starting-seeds-in-winter
  • Winter Seed Sowing. (2019). University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences. Illinois Extension. https://extension.illinois.edu/news-releases/winter-seed-sowing
  • Winter sowing method. NAL Agricultural Thesaurus. U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://agclass.nal.usda.gov/vocabularies/nalt/concept?uri=https://lod.nal.usda.gov/nalt/69779
  • Winter sowing, to fend off the winter blues! Ohio State University Extension. https://u.osu.edu/ohiovictorygardens/2024/01/09/winter-sowing-to-fend-off-the-winter-blues/

Gardening as a Self-Care Practice

Self-care can be as basic as daily routines like brushing your teeth or staying hydrated by drinking enough water. While it might be easy to list daily tasks that support personal care such as eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising, and connecting with others, it is not uncommon that stressful times can upset a self-care […]

WRITTEN BY: Patrice Powers-Barker, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, Lucas County

REVIEWED BY: Roseanne E. Scammahorn, PhD, Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, Darke County

PHOTO CREDITS:

  • Powers-Barker, P. (2020)
  • Stone, A. (2019)

SOURCES:

  • Dockrill, P. (2016). Just looking at photos of nature could be enough to lower your work stress levels. Science Alert. Retrieved 06/16/20 from https://www.sciencealert.com/just-looking-at-photos-of-nature-could-be-enough-to-lower-your-work-stress-levels
  • Elrer, E. (2019). Will you give me some tips on how to propagate houseplants from cuttings? A Question of the Week. University of New Hampshire Extension. Retrieved 06/15/20 from https://extension.unh.edu/blog/will-you-give-me-some-tips-how-propagate-houseplants-cuttings
  • Ensle, K. (2012) Mindful eating for better health. Rutgers, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. Retrieved 06/15/20 https://njaes.rutgers.edu/sshw/message/message.php?p=Health&m=221
  • Jo, H. Song, C., and Miyazaki, Y. (2019). Physiological benefits of viewing nature: A systematic review of indoor experiments. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16 (23): 4739. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6926748/
  • Kennelly, S. (2012). A scientific reason to stop and smell the roses: A new study suggests people are happier when they take time to appreciate the good things in life. Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkley. Retrieved 06/16/20 from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_scientific_reason_to_stop_and_smell_the_roses
  • Pollinator Week: Pollinators, Plants, People, Planet. (2020). Pollinator Partnership. Retrieved 06/15/20 from https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week
  • Powers-Barker, P. (2017). Infused Water with Ohio Local Foods, Ohio State University Extension, Retrieved 06/15/20 from https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-5363
  • Roudabush, C. (2020). Self-Care for Youth and Families. South Dakota State University Extension. Retrieved 06/15/20 from https://extension.sdstate.edu/self-care-youth-and-families
  • Schmidgall, V. (2018). Mindful Monday: Try the “Five Senses” Mindfulness Exercise, Physical, Wellness Tips & Wellness Articles. University of Vermont Medical Center. Retrieved 06/15/20 from https://medcenterblog.uvmhealth.org/wellness/physical/mindfulness-mindful-monday-exercise/

Fresh, Safe Garden Produce

Preventing contamination is the most important part of food safety in fresh produce and it starts in the vegetable garden. Follow these steps to promote food safety with fresh, garden produce. In the Garden Be familiar with the water source for the garden. If using well water, test the water at least once a year […]

WRITTEN BY: Patrice Powers-Barker, OSU Extension Educator, Lucas County Family and Consumer Sciences

REVIEWED BY: Abigail Snyder, Field Specialist, Food Safety & Management, OSU Extension, Family and Consumer Sciences

SOURCES:

  • Bolton, J., Bushway, A., Crowe, K., and El-Begearmi, M. (2013) University of Maine Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Cooperative Extension https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/4336e/
  • Bunning, M. and Newby, M. (2010) Colorado State University Extension http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/safe-food-facts-for-community-gardens-9-381/
  • Chaifetz, A., Alnajjar, K., Ammerman, A., Driscoll, E., Gunter, C., Chapman, B. (2015), The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Fight bac! Partnership for Food Safety Education http://www.fightbac.org/food-safety-basics/the-core-four-practices/
  • Goard, L. (2015) Ohioline https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/HYG-5338
  • Ilic, S. and Lewis Ivey, M. (2017) Ohio State University https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1153
  • Jarvie, M. (2015), Michigan State University Extension http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/food_safety_and_composting
  • Mancl, K. (2016) Ohioline https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/aex-314
  • Private Drinking Water Wells (2018), United States Environmental Protection Agency https://www.epa.gov/privatewells
  • Universities of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and funded by NIFA/USDA https://extension.umaine.edu/gardening/manual/five-steps-food-safe-fruit-vegetable-gardening/
  • Water Quality (2016), Ohio Department of Health, http://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhprograms/eh/water/PrivateWaterSystems/quality.aspx
  • Wright Hirsch, D. (2014) University of Connecticut Extension https://blog.extension.uconn.edu/2014/08/06/should-i-eat-that/

Ready , Set, Plant…..

I hear the birds and I know spring is on its way.  Buried under the mounds of white, the grass is just waiting to grow and when those signs appear, I know it’s time to think about a garden.  Tempting juicy tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob and all the peppers or zucchini I can […]

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