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Planting a Seed – Saranac Lake‘s Common Ground Gardens Opening Registration to New Gardeners Today, Thursday, March 16, 2023
By Paul Sorgule
It’s a bit ironic as I sit with my morning coffee, looking out the window at a steady Adirondack snowfall, knowing that my shovel is waiting outside – that my thoughts are on planting our garden in a few short months. Our High Mowing Seeds order has already been placed and a path has been cleared to the backyard shed where garden tools stand ready, willing, and able. There is something so gratifying about getting our hands in the soil, weeding between rows as shoots pop their heads through the dirt, and watching humble seedlings grow and mature into the vegetables that will grace our table during the summer and early fall. Sharing this experience with dozens of other local planters at Common Grounds Community Garden is icing on the cake. These thoughts are really the first sign of Spring, long before lawns peek through the snow, and the birds return from their winter homes.
I’ve never been fond of buzzwords. “Organic,” “Natural,” and “Sustainable” lost their foothold in reality decades ago when they were co-opted as marketing labels. Corporate buzzwords, cynical and empty, are often buzz-phrases anyway: “Whole-Systems Thinking,” “Trickle Down,” “Customer Journey.”
I love permaculture, and have a spiral herb garden in which I grow some plants which have traditionally been used for medicine, along with a handful of culinary herbs. I also wildcraft other plants that I use medicinally. For this salve, I use a combination of wildcrafted and cultivated plants. However, many of these plants can also be purchased if you cannot find your own. Use whenever your hands need a little extra care! 
September days traditionally mark a goodbye to summer as warm nights wane and are replaced with the cool mornings and falling leaves of autumn’s approach. As we wave a “see you next year” to summer, many opportunities await us in the month ahead for a more sustainable September.
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No offense, but Franklin D. Roosevelt should maybe bug off with his assertion that “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” because fear is good for gardeners and farmers.
AdkAction’s Adirondack Pollinator Project will be offering its annual 
Vermicomposting is the process of using worms to digest food waste to produce a nutrient and microbe rich soil amendment known as vermicompost (vermi – being latin for worm).
As one of the only 
Tenth Annual Garlic Festival at the Warrensburgh Riverfront Farmers’ Market is set for Friday, October 11th, from 3 to 6 pm.
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Heirloom Vegetables – Planting the Seed
What are Heirloom Vegetables?
The definition of heirloom vegetables varies, depending on who you ask. Some gardeners will tell you that heirloom vegetables are those they’ve grown successfully for many years. Others identify heirloom vegetables as those that are a traditional part of their family heritage or ethnicity. But most of the gardeners I know define heirloom vegetables as older, time-honored varieties whose seeds have been passed down from generation to generation, preserving all of the qualities of the original plant for decades or, in some cases, centuries.
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