We have new workers 🐝on our campus!
🌸With the weather being so beautiful yesterday, Kay installed these ladies into their new hives. She placed a jar with sugar water by the hive to provide food while natural nectar sources are low.
These calories encourage them to build honeycomb, which is necessary for the queen to be able to start laying eggs in the cells to expand the hive population!
We're cheering for these strong ladies to have a successful year! What's your favorite way to use honey? 🍯
📢 Today we will be covering the 3+ year maintenance. Some of the topics are the same as starting a tree but in this video, we will cover a fun new topic of picking and storing fruit so let’s get started.
⚠️ Please note: Due to the drastic weather changes, we are pausing our series until Fall! Trees are budding and we cannot cut into them.
📅 Come back in a few months to continue learning all you need to know to successfully care for your fruit trees and berries!
We're back with our series to tell you about First Year Tree Maintenance! We have lots of information to share, so buckle up.
All resources will be posted on our website. Click the link below for a direct landing page!
biggarden.org/tree-planting-and-care
WE ARE BACK!
Join Brittany as we pick our series back up and show you how to plant a tree in the freshly-thawed, spring ground!
Click this link to watch the newest video in our series:
https://youtu.be/Zrft61RG0II
📢 We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a special announcement: 🎄Happy Holidays from The Big Garden Team!
Tune in on January 12th to pick back up on our Tree Planting and Care web series.
In the meantime, enjoy the season and tell us... what special dish are you cooking? Let us know in the comments!
It is time for Week Two of our Tree Planting and Care Web Series!
Today, our Giving Grove and Garden's Manager, Brittany, helps you decode a Soil Analysis Test Result, and offers you the key nutrients you will need before planting a tree!
Tune in to learn everything from getting compost from @SoilDynamics to the ins and outs of Sulfur, phosphorus, and Mycorrhizal fungi!
To learn more and watch along, click the link below!
biggarden.org/tree-planting-and-care
👀 Did you guess it right?!
Tune in every Friday for an 8-part series where our Giving Grove and Garden's Manager, Brittany, teaches you all the ins and outs of planting and caring for your trees!
Each video in the series is loaded with information yet is less than 5 minutes to watch! We will cover everything from the basics, like taking your first steps and calling Nebraska811, to soil health (Midwest Laboratories), pruning, and pest control!
To learn more and watch part one, click the link and follow it to our website!
biggarden.org/tree-planting-and-care
You have been waiting for this moment! Our gates are finally open for in-person shopping!
Unsure where to go? Enter our campus address, (5602 Read Street, Omaha, NE 68152), into your GPS, and look for the red sale flags!
Our staff will be here to greet and guide you Thursdays through Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm!
We can't wait to see you. Our plants are excited to find their new homes!
It is Curbside Wednesday! Here's a video to help you find the pickup station!
If you have conflicts with the pickup schedule, please email [email protected] with your order information so we can arrange a day and time for you to stop by!
See you all soon!
🗓️ It is finally time! Our 7th Annual Plant Sale begins ONLINE, Monday at 8 am!
Log on, bright and early, and snag everything you need to get your gardens ready for the summer growing season.
For more information, and to see the current list of plants that will be offered, visit BigGarden.org/plant-sale-info
🗓️Mark your calendars and join us at our 7th annual Plant Sale! Starting April 17th, come get everything you need to get your gardens ready for the summer growing season.
We will have a variety of veggies, herbs, flowers, and prairie plants for you to choose from.
For more information, and to see the current list of plants that will be offered, visit BigGarden.org/plant-sale-info
In light of #GivingTuesday402 and the upcoming new year, we have an exciting announcement to share with you. We would like to present to you, our next chapter at The Big Garden.
We have refined and refocused our mission to three powerful words: Teach. Build. Grow.
As we head into the season of giving, we are grateful for each and every one of you that supports us, enabling us to carry out our mission of Teaching, Building, and Growing.
How can you partake in #GivingTuesday402? Visit our SHARE Omaha page through the link below to access our Amazon Wishlist, make a donation to help us reach our fundraising goal of $10k, and sign up for our #GivingTuesday Volunteer opportunity! Additionally, be on the lookout for a merch blowout sale!
https://shareomaha.org/nonprofit/big-garden
We had a hard-working group of volunteers at the Benson Little League field this afternoon!
The group helped plant NINE apple trees in record time!
You won't believe it... the orchard was in place in 19 minutes!
#givinggrove #thebiggarden #fruitorchard #foodsovereignty #communityorchard #volunteers
For today's Fall Friday, we're giving you a fun project that involves the herbs you dried a few weeks back!
With Alajia's help, we created a wonderfully aromatic Healing Salve!
Here are some steps you can take at home to create your own:
First, you have to infuse the oil - in our case, we used almond and grapeseed oil infused with rose and rosehip. Place your herbs in oil on a sunny window for 48 hours for a quick infusion.
Place a jar on a double boiler - if you don't have a double boiler, use a canning jar with a jar ring and set it up inside the pot. Make sure to add just enough water to the pot so your jar doesn't move around too much.
Add oil to the jar, and gradually add beeswax (the more, the merrier), a spoonful of coconut oil, and optionally, add two spoonfuls of shea butter. Note that your water doesn't have to be boiling, just hot enough to melt the contents of the jar.
Allow everything to come together and melt.
Put a spoon in the freezer for testing. You want to place your spoon in the mixture to know how oily the mix is.
Once everything is melted together, add essential oils of your choosing, and split them into individual jars - Christmas gifts, anyone?
The fun part of this recipe is that you can adjust it to your needs. Different oils help with different things, individual essential oils heal certain ailments. Have fun and make it your own!
Will you be attempting salves this holiday season?
Winterize this garden with us for Fall Friday!
Have you wondered what to do with the dead plants in your garden?
Dead plants should be removed and either a) be added to a separate compost pile, or b) bagged and placed curbside for Omaha Yard Waste pickup (Runs through December 2nd). You do this to prevent any diseases or insects aren't left there to reappear next season.
It is very important to never leave soil bare over winter. Remember our suggestion last week? Use your raked leaves to protect your garden from erosion via rain, wind, etc. over winter!
These are tips and tricks that we use to winterize our garden beds, have fun and enjoy as you winterize your own!
How is your garden coming along?
