What's New
New! Heating with Wood What you need to know about heating your home safely and efficiently with wood.
NH Chronicle featuring Integrated Landscaping (Video)
An Internet WebQuest on Getting Started with Chickens
You and your family are thinking of keeping chickens in order to have a supply of fresh meat and eggs.
Got Outside Questions?
Call Us:
1-877-398-4769
Family, Home and Garden Education Center
The
Family, Home & Garden Education Center at UNH Cooperative Extension
in Manchester provides practical solutions to everyday questions for the
citizens of New Hampshire . It is staffed by professionals and intensively
trained volunteers who are available to answer your questions about gardens,
lawns and landscapes, fruits and vegetables, pest problems, household food safety and food preservation, tree planting and care, backyard livestock and more. We
offer written information, programs or referrals on family finances, nutrition,
parenting and child development, and 4-H youth development.
The center is staffed 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and Wednesday evenings 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Toll free number: 1-877-EXT-GROW (1-877-398-4769) OR E-Mail your questions
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
Question of the Week ?
Q. With the last of my crop of heirloom tomatoes, I'd like to make my grandmother's great 1940s recipe for tomato preserves. But the recipe calls for a paraffin seal. Is this OK?
A. Canning recipes and processing methods have changed a lot since the 1940s. Food safety experts now recommend processing all jellied products in a boiling water bath. Paraffin is no longer recommended, since mold can form under the paraffin, resulting in a spoiled product.
Headspace, the distance between the inside of the lid and top of the food, is also important to form a tight vacuum seal. For jellied products, leave ¼-inch headspace.
For the safest, highest-quality products, use current USDA-tested recipes and follow them exactly. The National Center for Home Food Preservation website, http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/ is an excellent resource for canning recipes and directions. The latest edition of The Ball Blue Book of Preserving is also a reliable source of recipes.
Got questions? UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Education Center Info Line offers practical help finding answers for your lawn and garden questions. Call toll free at 1-877-EXT-GROW (1-877-398-4769) M-F, 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. & W 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. OR E-Mail your questions
posted 09/24/2008
(previous questions of the week)
This Month's Big Tree
Big Tree September 2008-Basswood (Tillia Americana)
By Anne Krantz, UNH Cooperative Extension NH Big Tree Committee
For years I have been driving by a huge bass tree next to the road by the Souhegan River and never noticed it. It’s camouflaged by an ash growing right next to it. Both trees have similar tall straight trunks and bark.
It was the strange seed pods on some young bass trees nearby that captured my curiosity. I stopped to inspect. One tree led to another and much to my astonishment I found a low branch with the huge, distinctive heart-shaped leaves dangling down from a huge basswood tree trunk. Looking up I could see the bass tree was even taller than the ash tree next to it. (Full Story) posted 09/22/08
This Week's NH Outside
“Waiting”
By Susan M. Poirier, Master Gardener
The swamp is quiet now. The great nests high atop the dead trees stand empty and silent. The 18 young great blue herons and their parents have all left. Quiet reigns where once there were raucous cries.
The red-winged blackbirds and grackles have also left, as well as the tree swallows with their iridescent blue wings. The very air seems empty, bereft of their brilliant colors and acrobatic swoops. The deep-throated croaks of the bullfrogs have disappeared. Once the night was filled with their symphonic calls. I look in vain for the four young mallards that swam along so comically behind their mother. She and they have left. Where are they now? Have they joined a group on a larger body of water or have they already begun the great trek south to warmer weather? (Full Story) posted 09/26/08
Suggested from Extension
Interactive CD on Lawn Care Available
Interested in getting a greener, healthier lawn and having fun learning how?
UNH Cooperative Extension Educator Sadie Puglisi and WWW & Media specialist Faye Cragin have teamed up to produce Integrated Pest Management for Turfgrass, an interactive CD and website about caring for grass in home lawns, as well as in municipal and commercial landscapes such as athletic fields, cemeteries, golf courses and office parks.
The CD and website offer information on the basics of integrated pest management, how grass grows, identifying and managing turf diseases, scouting for grubs, an herbicide glossary, and interactive decision tools about herbicide use. Quizzes at the end of each section will test your knowledge.
The website is available to everyone at extension.unh.edu/agric/turf/turfipm.htm. For those who don’t have Internet access, the CD comes ready with Macromedia Flash that can download onto your computer in just seconds.
CDs cost $5 each. Click here to order. Payable to UNH Cooperative Extension and mail to: UNH Cooperative Extension Publications Center, Nesmith Hall, 131 Main St., Durham, NH 03824.
These publications can be ordered on line. Click here for the order form
