Ideas, Info, Tools & Technology to Create Your Dream Garden
vegetables
My Favorite Time Of Spring
May 8th
First hydrangea blossoms opening right now.
Perfect WeatherThis last week has been fantastic. The weather is warm enough to work outside and the humidity is still low. The gardens are bursting into bloom. I have snapdragons, carnations, dianthus, pansies, and petunias already in bloom. The hydrangeas first blossoms opened yesterday. My lilies have buds all over them.
Cornucopia In The MakingThe trees have leafed out. The berry bushes are making berries. The grapes have buds on them. Best of all one of the peach trees we planted two years ago is covered in little peaches. We even have on plum on one More >
Keeping Up With “Frankenseeds”
Mar 29th
On several occasions I’ve talked about GMO or GE crops. Monsanto and Seminis are the two main companies developing these seeds. While developing their “frankenseeds” they’re also keeping their foot in the legitimate seed door. I recently found a listing of many of the varieties that Monsanto and Seminis sell.
What does this mean for the home grower or the conscientious gardener? Anyone who’s concerned about the effects of Monsanto’s work can vote with their pocketbook, by staying away from seeds that are offered by either Monsanto or Seminis.
Safe seeds will ensure the planets food supply.
The best way to do this More >
Glorious Oriental Seeds
Mar 27th
One thing that the US has is a poverty of varieties of vegetables. When you enter a supermarket you find just one kind of broccoli, one variety of carrot, one maybe two varieties of cucumber (eating and a pickling). What most Americans don’t know is that there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of varieties of almost every vegetable on the planet.
I recently found a great site for buying typical oriental vegetable seeds. Unfortunately I found the site after I had ordered all my seeds for this year, but I wanted to share this resource with you, so that you can More >
2012 Premiere
Mar 15th
First spinach seedlings of 2012 emerge.
Ta-da! The 2012 garden show has begun. The very first spring seeds have sprouted. Planted on 3/2/12 the very first spinach seeds have broken ground. I was waiting with bated breath, as it seemed like forever for the first seeds to emerge.
I planted both spinach and sugar snap peas that day. So far just a few spinach seedlings are showing.
We’re having a very hot spring already and I’m concerned that the rest of the spring seeds, which I plan to get in the ground in the next few days, will sprout and immediately bolt. In More >
Know Your Planting Times
Mar 8th
Plant dormant fruit trees in spring.
Many gardeners know when the last frost date is for their area, so they know better than to plant their tomatoes or annuals before that date. However, many people don’t know that there are a lot of plants that need to be planted before the last frost date.
Sure, if you do vegetable gardening you probably know that peas and spinach need to go in very early, while the ground is still cold. But there are some major food crops that are usually purchased as plants or stock that should be planted while they are still More >
Planning Your Vegetable Gardens
Feb 13th
This is what the garden area looked like before we started any work.
This year I’m trying to be more organized about my planting. You see, there are certain vegetables that you don’t want to plant in the same place every year, because of soil born disease and pests. The most prominent of these are: tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers.
Last year I experienced early blight with my tomatoes. So, this year I want to be sure to plant them in a different location, so that if any of the blight bacteria lived in the soil over the winter I won’t have to More >
Cold Weather Blues
Feb 9th
Soon I'll have my first little sprouts of 2012!
I was all set to finish getting the foundation for the greenhouse finished this weekend. Now they’re forecasting highs to be in the low 40s. That means that until around three in the afternoon it is probably going to be less than 40 degrees outside. I’m pretty hardy, but that sounds like not a lot of fun, so I’ve decided to move my gardening work inside this weekend.
This week I received my seeds for this season. I still have a pretty good stash from last year, so only needed to buy a More >
Long-term Planning For Gardens
Dec 19th
Shade patterns change throughout the year. Keep a log for successful planting.
Maybe you’ve got it on you resolution list to finally do something with the yard. You’ve got some ideas, but aren’t sure exactly which plants will work well for each garden.
The first thing you need to do is know the lay of your land. Which way is north, south, east, and west? How does the house line up with these directions? Where are large trees or shrubs located in relation to the directions? Are the trees/shrubs evergreen or deciduous?
Before you plant anything you need to know what the shade More >
Planting Mistakes
Nov 3rd
Hot or not?
Even the best laid plans run amok sometimes and in several of my plantings this year I ran into some problems. You see, I planted all my peppers which included sweet, paprika, and hot, all in the same area. I thought that I’d have no problem identifying them because they would look different.
I was wrong. There are just two plants that look different from the others, but they look the same as each other. But they aren’t planted in the same area, so they aren’t the same variety!
Now I have a bowl of peppers drying on my table More >
Garden Envy
Oct 3rd
I just returned from a two-and-a-half week visit at my sister’s home in the Seattle area. Arriving there I was struck by how lush and green everything is. Unlike my poor gardens at home that were looking like they had been in an oven all summer, her gardens were filled with greenery and flowers galore.
She’s able to grow lobelia and alysum all summer long and her nasturtiums were still blooming, as well. Here in the mid-Atlantic those flowers bite the dust by late June. Her fuschias and begonias were dripping with blooms. Last year I almost managed to keep a More >