Our Home and Our House

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A large investment — and plenty of jobs — are coming to the Richmond area thanks to an innovative agricultural technology company.

Governor Glenn Youngkin has announced that Plenty Unlimited, Inc. will be investing $300 million to build the world’s largest indoor vertical farming facility at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County.

According to a release from Governor Youngkin, Plenty has developed the world’s most advanced indoor farm, which efficiently and sustainably grows fresh produce year-round on grow towers that stand over 30 feet tall. The facility will be the first of its kind on the east coast.

With cooler weather on its way, harvesting and cleaning up your garden beds should be on your fall agenda. While your garden might not be actively producing over the winter, there’s still plenty to do now to make next season more good luck. Taking some time to properly prepare for the garden’s dormant season will mean a better start in the spring when it’s time to plant.

Harvest these things before the first frost

To button up this year’s crop, make sure to harvest all of your delicate veggies and seeds, and pick herbs before the first frost hits. In cooler climates, or higher elevations, that will be earlier in the season, while warmer places might get another month or two of frost-free evenings. Vegetables like squash, tomatoes, and lettuce aren’t hardy and will spoil if the temperature drops below freezing. However,

THE 19TH-CENTURY POET Minnie Aumonier once wrote, “When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden.” Turns out this slightly treacly sentiment, found on countless garden mugs and Pinterest boards, is rooted in a deeper truth, one that Sue Stuart-Smith, UK-based psychiatrist, psychotherapist, researcher and gardener, explores in her 2020 book, “The Well -Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature.”

The book, a meaty volume combining personal interviews and social science studies, reveals how connecting with nature nourishes and grounds us, instilling a sense of shelter and safety even if (when) the world around us is fraught. Stuart-Smith begins with a look at tending and examines how the process of gardening, even the tedious routine and weedy bits, helps to restore our physical, emotional and even spiritual equilibrium. “A long session in the garden can leave you feeling dead on your feet but strangely renewed

DULUTH — Glensheen’s formal garden has reopened after more than a year of extensive restoration work.

Duluth’s historic mansion museum announced the reopening in

a Facebook post Friday,

adding that admissions to the grounds will be a discounted $5 on Saturday, Sept. 3 and Sunday, Sept. 4.

The project, on the Lake Superior side of the mansion, was the result of $4 million in state bonding funds approved in 2018.

“This project has been a long time in the making and couldn’t have happened without the support of so many people, from legislators to construction staff and more,”

Glensheen said in a Facebook post Friday.

“Our mission at Glensheen is to celebrate preservation, and by completing this critical project while also restoring the gardens to an earlier design and planting plan, we are doing just that.”