 Friday, July 03, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (7 comments)
Many companion planting charts are based upon work in the 1930s that sought to relate to plants on an energy level and were constructed using dubious scientific methods. Does this mean that companion planting is worthless? Not at all! Few gardeners go a season without noticing some new benefit to companion planting in their gardens, and this is certainly true at my house. But instead of trying to capture ethereal energies that might be wafting about between plants, I use a common-sense approach to companion planting. Here are several companion planting tactics too logical to ignore... Read more...
Categories: gardening companion planting |
 Friday, June 26, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (8 comments)
What would you most like to ban from your garden? That was the question we posed in our recent GrowVeg.com poll and the results show a fascinating mix of pests and troubles that afflict gardeners. There were all the usual suspects such as slugs, cats and deer but also many unusual answers ranging from ‘rollie pollies’ to ‘stink bugs’. So what can be done about the huge range of troublesome pests? Read more...
Categories: gardening pests slugs deer cats rabbits birds |
Friday, June 19, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (4 comments)
Most gardeners in warm summer areas grow peppers (Capsicum annuum), which come in an endless array of shapes, sizes, colors and flavors. All peppers originated in Mexico, and they retain enough of their tropical ancestry to make them a bit challenging to grow in home gardens. Ideal growing temperatures for peppers range between 68°F (20°C) at night and 86°F (30°C) during the day. Cooler temperatures slow the plants’ growth, while very hot temperatures often cause the blossoms to fall off rather than setting fruit. What’s a pepper-loving gardener to do? To get more peppers over a longer season, try these three tried-and-true strategies.
Read more...
Categories: gardening peppers pollination |
Friday, June 12, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (7 comments)
It is around this time of year that pests seem to appear from nowhere in the garden. Of all the insects that suddenly spring up, aphids are the ones that always take me by surprise – within a matter of days plants can be covered with one of the various varieties of them: whitefly, greenfly, blackfly, mealy aphids and root aphids. So just how serious is it when your garden comes under attack and what can be done to counter such an invasion? Read more...
Categories: organic gardening pests |
Friday, June 05, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (5 comments)
In an intriguing comment to my blog on the world's best tomatoes, Linda from Northern California asked about “dry farmed” tomatoes, which are grown with little or no supplemental water. Linda says the dry farmed tomatoes grown by a neighbor have a remarkably intense, delicious flavor, and I’m not surprised. A little drought stress deepens the flavors of ripening tomatoes, melons, and several other garden crops. In fact, one of the reason commercially-grown specimens often taste flabby is because they are pumped up with water. Enter dryland gardening, in which every drop of water is regarded as precious... Read more...
Categories: gardening dryland water |
Friday, May 29, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (8 comments)
When it comes to feeding plants, nothing beats organic compost. Good compost contains the ideal range of nutrients which are released slowly into the ground as plants need them. Often, however, there is a valid reason to supplement plants with a fertiliser, such as when growing in less than ideal soil, or in pots and containers where the potting soil can gradually lose its nutrients. When choosing how to supplement plants the environmentally conscious gardener faces a dilemma: many commercially produced fertilizers are either chemical based or highly processed and shipped in difficult-to-recycle plastic bottles. But there is one brilliant alternative that you can grow yourself - comfrey... Read more...
Categories: gardening organic comfrey |
Friday, May 22, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (1 comments)
There is little argument that you will spend less at the market by growing your own vegetables, but some of the biggest money savers in your garden are humble herbs. In addition to cash not spent on bunches of parsley or basil, having fresh herbs in the garden makes cooking home grown veggies more interesting and fun. Culinary herbs offer big flavors, too, whether you’re sprinkling chopped dill over lightly steamed carrots or adding oregano to zucchini destined for the freezer. Many herbs can be dried in small bunches hung in a shady corner of your kitchen. You can easily dry a year’s supply of oregano or thyme from single established clumps. Read more...
Categories: gardening herbs |
Friday, May 15, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (0 comments)
It is only when you grow your own lettuce leaves that you realise what a wonderful variety of textures, colours and flavours there are to experience. When I was young the most that went into a salad was sliced iceberg lettuce with some tomato and cucumber and this is still what many people limit themselves to today. Although supermarkets now offer more choice, it is so simple to grow a wide seasonal variety that would look good in even the most chic of restaurants. So, let’s get creative and celebrate the fantastic combinations that can be prepared from a garden... Read more...
Categories: gardening salad |
Friday, May 08, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (14 comments)
After 30 years of growing tomatoes, I am still discovering great tomato varieties, and there’s no end in sight. Consider the numbers. Let’s say there are 800 legitimate tomato varieties, and you have room to grow 4 varieties each year. After gardening for a century, you will have tasted about half of them. So here's my favorite varieties together with the reasons why I love them... Read more...
Categories: tomatoes, vegetables, gardening |
Friday, May 01, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (2 comments)
My youngest daughter has just had her first birthday which is a delightful stage. As she starts to take her first steps and learn to explore the world (especially our garden) it marks the first in a series of milestones that will see her gradually gain more independence. It is a process that is mirrored in the plant world as we, the gardeners, look after the seedlings in our care until they are ready to survive on their own and fulfil their purpose of producing a harvest. Plants have different needs during the various stages of their development and, like a young child, they need the right kind of attention at the right time... Read more...
Categories: gardening seedlings |