September 2005
What’s in your garden?

by Kenn Alan Hi everybody! I’m Kenn Alan and I host the gardening radio talk show "Home Grown Tomatoes" that airs every Saturday morning from 6 till 8 on 101.1 FM, The Source. That’s not all that I do. I also own a small wholesale nursery in Central Alabama that produces about 250 varieties of herbs and also heirloom tomato plants for resale. My friends here at the Quality Co-op have asked me to offer a little advice on gardening and growing plants. We can make this interactive, if you like. You can email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit our website: HGTradio.net and I’ll be happy to answer your questions. Here’s a little garden wisdom for you. Did you know that the plants you bought this year were so beneficial? How about that bag of potting mix you potted your begonias in or the fertilizers that you use? To start with, all of those things are ultra important to us in many ways. For one thing, you contributed to the $1.9 billion dollar green industry in Alabama! The green industry covers a lot of sub-industries in our state, such as: the nursery and landscape industry, the wholesale plant growers, the turf grass producers and the retail nurseries. Retail nurseries include businesses that carry products other than plants. Every time you buy a flowerpot from a store that carries plants; every time you buy a bedding plant product from your local Quality Co-op store, you are helping our local economy. So what does that have to do with garden wisdom? I like to spend early mornings and late afternoons in my garden this time of year. It is the end of summer and I harvest those beans and squash and, of course, home grown tomatoes. Now is the time that I get to enjoy my cut flower garden. I cut zinnias, sunflowers, late blooming lilies and other flowers every day. When I see the results of my efforts, it makes me feel good. In the late afternoons I get to watch the birds eating beetles and see the spiders rebuilding their webs for their nightly food harvest. Sometimes there’s a special surprise like the volunteer butterfly bushes that popped up in a color that wasn’t planted on purpose. The benefits of gardening are countless. The most important one is pleasure and relaxation. I get pleasure from my garden by observing the wonders of nature that I helped along in such a small way. Enjoy your garden and all of the good things related to it.