This gallery contains 5 photos.
Gardening for the busy, max your garden fast.
This gallery contains 5 photos.
A couple of more pattypan squash have pushed the lasagna bed even further ahead, at almost 2.5 pounds (1.13kg) total yield from this gardening technique. I remember over fourty years ago getting ready for “the coming of the metric system”. Now, thankfully – we’re seeing it replacing the imperial system with popular foods measured in whole metric amounts (2 litres of beverage, 1 litre of cooking oil, etc.), glad I had those lessons, wish I remembered them – but I digress. Patty pan squash, aka pattypan, cibleme, scallopini, button squash, and others (see wikipedia for details), is similar in texture and flavor to zucchini squash. They are often picked when they are no more than three inches in diameter (76mm). At this stage, the seeds are immature enough tthat they are similar in texture to the rest of the squash and are cooked and eaten with no difficulty. When grown beyond three inches, the seeds become tougher, the insides start to become...
Potted up a lot of potting soil and planted three types of tomato seeds: Early Girl, Lincoln and Oregon Spring. Out of thirty two plantings, I hope to be able to give a few away. Would have been better if I had started on May 1 instead of May 22, but you can’t always follow your plans.
The ground is extremely wet, the grass soaked my shoes within ten feet of the beds. Planting the rest of the broccoli into the lasagna bed and the hugelkultur bed, the killing mulch is like moving cold spinach aside, with worms quickly moving aside so I can drop in the seeds. The compost pile had a six inch layer of grass clippings on them, with only the first three inches soaked, the rest was dry. Both the wicking bed and the hugelkultur bed are showing signs of life, the snow peas beginning to dig themselves in. Two beds, 30 minutes.
Ahh, back – on a new server, and ready to dig! Have several plans, and there’s new construction starting on the house, so I actually have to move my established asparagus and grapes, which should at least set back the grapes one year. More soon! Photo credit on the banner goes to http://www.flickr.com/photos/itzafineday/
Great little interactive graphics, too! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704784904575111680463669658.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel
Okay, late last century – 1994 article touts the Brandywine tomato as a great choice for blight resistance. http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000j1Q
While I had good success with peas this summer, there were still some spaces where the peas did not germinate. Replanting can be preempted by other chores and lower your production. The Hack: soak your peas, and change the water several times a day until they’ve sent out their roots, then put them into small pots of gardening soil. This will ensure there’s no problems with germination. This can also be done with other seeds as well, and – as Kenny Point recommends – you can even “add a splash of liquid kelp” to get the slow starters moving. I’m going to be trying my hand at some “Tom Thumb Peas” this winter in my “growing room” (as my nephew says “only a die-hard gardener would change a full bath into a half bath.”), and hope to update the results – good or bad – in coming posts. See Kenny’s site at http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/
The system grows plants in trays of water moving on a conveyor belt. The company behind it, Valcent, based in Launceston, Cornwall, said it was a sustainable solution to the world’s “rapidly-diminishing resources.” …” via BBC News
“… Organic milk is the number one-selling organic product, and can cost 50 to 70 percent more than regular milk. The main benefit is that organic milk is free from growth hormones, but read the label on conventional milks carefully. Today, most store-brand milks also are free from added growth hormones and will cost much less. To save even more, check out the price of milk at drug chains like Walgreens and CVS that use milk as a loss leader and typically have the lowest prices on milk. …” So there’s no growth hormones in the mass-market-milk, but I have to wonder: what else is in there that’s not in the press? Wide range anti-biotics to mention at least one? What else are the mass market meat and milk machines being fed that hasn’t been in the press? Is organic food worth extra cost? :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Food.
See what a little planning can do? Okay, these aren’t MY gardens, but they do give me inspiration to rip out the raised beds and start again! – Okay, maybe I’ll keep the raised beds, but I’ll plant them with an artistic bent first, and a voracious omnivore second. By the way, anyone know a good recipe for slugs? FT.com / House & Home – Edible and elegant.
A quickie here – hoping to do this ourselves this fall. Canning a comeback Preserving fruits, vegetables in favor, again | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.
Yep, it’s in the baby food, it’s in the tin cans, and it’s in the canning products you’re using to get away from it in the first place! No mechanical seal after it’s cooled, which is actually a good thing – it allows you to pick up the preserve via the lid: if it smashes to the floor, you really didn’t want to serve that one anyway ’cause the seal has been compromised. Messy, but effective. WECK Home Canning Products. See more information about how to avoid BPA at: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/bpa-danger-from-cans.php
Lettuce likes to bolt in the hot sun, but there are a couple of ways to keep the greens coming all summer long. Hack #1: Leaf Lettuce – Cut and Come Again – taking the outer leaves only, shocks the plant so it doesn’t think it’s matured. Hack #2: Leaf Lettuce – Replant it – dig it up and move it to shock it once again. Hack #3 Leaf and head lettuce – plant it in a shady spot. I like to plant mine behind anything that’s going to take a while to mature and is going to be around awhile. Since I let my peas grow on a trellis, I put my lettuce behind them and they just keep growing. This works with tomato plants, too. The only issue I’ve run into is with patty-pan squash that got enormous and shaded the lettuce completely. Growing Lettuce – Keep Lettuce Growing in the Heat of Summer.
An oldie but a goodie, did this about one year ago, and as a green podcaster, I’m recycling.
taken from a pdf at From njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu – click this link to get it directly. Irish Potato Famine Disease affecting Gardens and Farmers throughout the Greater Northeast Revised by A. Wyenandt, NJAES, Rutgers University and M.T McGrath, Cornell University Original article by Thomas A. Zitter, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY June 29, 2009 – Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, is a serious disease that affects tomato and potato around the world. Late blight can become a serious problem because it can quickly kill affected plants and its spores are easily carried in wind currents to infect other susceptible plants in even the most remote areas in our region. Late blight occurs sporadically in the Northeast in any given year because farmers diligently use methods to prevent the pathogen from surviving overwinter. Since our summer thus far has been cool with frequent rains, weather conditions have been very conducive for late blight development. Currently, all tomato and potato plants grown in home gardens...
Make your own “vertical veggie garden” with some gutter material and an exterior wall you’re not doing anything with anyway! The Hack: Use a wall and some gutter material to make a vertical garden where no garden has dared to cling! “… The idea is essential this: Why not put rain gutters in rows along the wood siding on the sunny side of the house. It might look weird, but that was where all the heat, sun and protection from damage is best. I talked to my husband, Pete, about it and he agreed it was worth a try. We went to Home Depot and selected some “attractive” brown plastic gutters along with all the required parts so that we could mount them in one long row. (The total length or a row would be about 20 feet). Pete drilled some very small holes in the bottom of the gutters to let excess water drain out after he mounted them...
Great article, a small tangent from gardening but worth it. http://www.slate.com/id/2216611/pagenum/all/#p2
Perhaps someone else can chime in on this, but other than covering the cabbages with a floating row cover (works as long as you do it before you see the cabbage moths) or using BT, does planting the purple variety allow you (and the birds) to see the caterpillars on the plants? Hmmm. I’ll have to try that this year. Maybe some purple broccoli, too. The Problem: How can I keep the caterpillars off my cabbage? The Hack: cover your cabbage crops with a floating row coverto keep the caterpillars away. GARDENING : Fruits & Vegetables : Growing Tips : DIY Network.
Recent Comments