HylaBrook's Profile
HylaBrook's Interests
Garden Zone: 4/5
Plants in my Garden: Mache, Salad Burnet, Spinach ( Bloomsdale), Garlic, assorted lilies, Tulips, daffodils, crocus, Iris reticulata, snow drops, Siberian Iris, Baptisia, Honey Berries, Blackberries, Red Currants, Red Raspberries, Carefree Beauty Rose ( Buck) hey, I an Iowan after all!, Siberian and Flag Irises, Clematises
Favorite Aspect of Gardening: Exercize I don't notice I am doing, and dining , and "al Fresco"June through September
If I'm not in my garden, I can usually be found: At the computer, or cooking
Occupation: staying out of trouble
Plants in my Garden: Mache, Salad Burnet, Spinach ( Bloomsdale), Garlic, assorted lilies, Tulips, daffodils, crocus, Iris reticulata, snow drops, Siberian Iris, Baptisia, Honey Berries, Blackberries, Red Currants, Red Raspberries, Carefree Beauty Rose ( Buck) hey, I an Iowan after all!, Siberian and Flag Irises, Clematises
Favorite Aspect of Gardening: Exercize I don't notice I am doing, and dining , and "al Fresco"June through September
If I'm not in my garden, I can usually be found: At the computer, or cooking
Occupation: staying out of trouble
HylaBrook
Member Since: 4/9/2008
Last Seen: 47 days, 16 hours ago
About HylaBrook
Scooter and I will have been married 34 years this May. We have lived
all of our adult lives in the Cedar Rapids Iowa area. Our one
daughter is at The University of Iowa. We worship the creator God of
Abraham and Moses (intelligent design? How about brilliant design?) Who we understand as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I
don't have a paying job, but I do several volunteer jobs that take up
too much of my time. My favorite is as volunteer coordinator for
Friends of Noelridge, a not for profit group that works cooperatively
with the city of Cedar Rapids parks department. We got to start
helping in the city greenhouses in the dead of what has been a very
long hard winter here in Iowa. Greenhouse work is true salve for a
gardener's soul.
I began gardening when at the age of 4 my dad had me help him plant radish seeds a four-year-old's hand width apart in the furrow. I have been a member of Good Earth Garden Club in Cedar Rapids twice: a long stretch in the 80's and for the past 5 month. I went through Master Gardener training through the University of Iowa Extension Service in the 80s and am in need of an update.
I am using balanced practices to grow pesticide free fruits, veggies, and edible flowers. I collect and use rain for watering. I use outdoor composting ( I kept a compost pile even when I did not garden) and indoor worm composting. I have some name brand fertilizer left that I will use up, but not buy more when it is gone.
Last year I grew Brandywine, Green Grape, Yellow Jelly Bean and Red Currant tomatoes, peppers, Eight Ball zucchini, yellow pattypan squash, Lemon cucumbers, broccoli, Cheddar cauliflower, kales, kohlrabi, lettuces, green and wax beans, carrots and a sweet corn called Mr Mini Marai.
Through another garden forum and some good luck I have accumulated seeds for 54 cultivars of tomatoes, and a couple hundred other seed packets. Better get my raised beds in here very quickly. Scooter does not mind eating the produce, but he is not much into helping out there.
I began gardening when at the age of 4 my dad had me help him plant radish seeds a four-year-old's hand width apart in the furrow. I have been a member of Good Earth Garden Club in Cedar Rapids twice: a long stretch in the 80's and for the past 5 month. I went through Master Gardener training through the University of Iowa Extension Service in the 80s and am in need of an update.
I am using balanced practices to grow pesticide free fruits, veggies, and edible flowers. I collect and use rain for watering. I use outdoor composting ( I kept a compost pile even when I did not garden) and indoor worm composting. I have some name brand fertilizer left that I will use up, but not buy more when it is gone.
Last year I grew Brandywine, Green Grape, Yellow Jelly Bean and Red Currant tomatoes, peppers, Eight Ball zucchini, yellow pattypan squash, Lemon cucumbers, broccoli, Cheddar cauliflower, kales, kohlrabi, lettuces, green and wax beans, carrots and a sweet corn called Mr Mini Marai.
Through another garden forum and some good luck I have accumulated seeds for 54 cultivars of tomatoes, and a couple hundred other seed packets. Better get my raised beds in here very quickly. Scooter does not mind eating the produce, but he is not much into helping out there.
HylaBrook's Photos
Recent Blog Entries
Love Canal: An Adult Bedtime Story for Earth Day
Once upon a time, long long ago, near a city called Buffalo, was a place where honeymooners go to see the massive water falls. In the city of Niagara Falls was an industrialist named Hooker who had a chemical and plastics factory. This factory p...
Earth Day 2008
I am celebratring my 39th Earth Day. The first, in 1970 was held just after a group in my home town of Rolla Missouri started a club called CURE, Citizens United to Restore the Environment. CURE started a recycling program in Rolla that year. Wh...
Raised beds using Frame-It-All system
Everyone knows the value of raising garden beds to increase productivity of vegetable gardens. And everyone knows there are many ways to build raised beds at various costs and with various aesthetic appeal. Quite frankly, I have seen beautiful...
Huge Sustainable For Profit Forest in Missouri
After the Great Depression and through the early 1960's,Leo Drey bought up forest land in Missouri that had been over logged. Much of it was being sold for default of taxes. He bought up 160,000 acres of hills. Leo hired a forest manager and sev...
More on Straw Bale Gardening
After starting the straw bale gardens and setting up my rain barrels, I found that keeping the soil on top of the straw moist was a challenge, and watering with only the gravity pressure in the water from the barrels took FOREVER. I tried to mulch w...
Once upon a time, long long ago, near a city called Buffalo, was a place where honeymooners go to see the massive water falls. In the city of Niagara Falls was an industrialist named Hooker who had a chemical and plastics factory. This factory p...
Earth Day 2008
I am celebratring my 39th Earth Day. The first, in 1970 was held just after a group in my home town of Rolla Missouri started a club called CURE, Citizens United to Restore the Environment. CURE started a recycling program in Rolla that year. Wh...
Raised beds using Frame-It-All system
Everyone knows the value of raising garden beds to increase productivity of vegetable gardens. And everyone knows there are many ways to build raised beds at various costs and with various aesthetic appeal. Quite frankly, I have seen beautiful...
Huge Sustainable For Profit Forest in Missouri
After the Great Depression and through the early 1960's,Leo Drey bought up forest land in Missouri that had been over logged. Much of it was being sold for default of taxes. He bought up 160,000 acres of hills. Leo hired a forest manager and sev...
More on Straw Bale Gardening
After starting the straw bale gardens and setting up my rain barrels, I found that keeping the soil on top of the straw moist was a challenge, and watering with only the gravity pressure in the water from the barrels took FOREVER. I tried to mulch w...
