The earthworm is one of the earth’s composters, working with bacteria and other organisms to decompose the organic materials deposited on the earth’s surface. Earthworms condition the soil: They aerate the soil with the tunnels they build, providing space and nutrients for growing plant roots. Soil which has been worked by earthworms is porous and spongelike, absorbing rainfall readily. Earthworms pull leaves and other organic materials below the earth’s surface, digesting and mixing them with the soil. Read the rest of this entry »

With beds and containers prepared, the time has come to choose healthy, vigorous, and disease-free roses from the wide selection that is offered at your garden retailer. Choosing healthy roses requires a careful examination of each plant.

In spring, roses are available both as bare-root plants and as established shrubs in nursery containers; later in the year, only containers may be available. Both grow equally well and are genetically identical. Bare-root roses are somewhat more economical, require more time to become established than container plants, and are available directly from growers as well as through retailers. Read the rest of this entry »

Use plants as a decorative feature at Christmas. Plant festive container arrangements to decorate the house, stoep and patio and give visitors a cheery welcome. Read the rest of this entry »

Transport yourself to another land with displays inspired by foreign influences. The oriental look is well suited to containers, since it uses few plants and limited colour. In pots you can also create the perfect conditions for exotics that would normally be unattainable. Read the rest of this entry »

Many home gardeners do not grow melons because the plants need a great deal of growing space, particularly watermelons, whose plants can grow as long as 3 m. Melons also take quite a long time to mature and this means that the plants occupy the ground for lengthy periods, making them unsuitable for a small vegetable garden where space is limited. Read the rest of this entry »

The heavy, ash-grey mould is a sure indicator of botrytis — a fungal disease that gets into the plant through the stumps of carelessly trimmed leaves and shoots. Yes — you can do something about it. First remove the diseased fruits before they infect their neighbours. Then cut back diseased leaves and sideshoot stumps to the stem with a sharp knife. Do the same with any rotted sections of the stem. It is advisable to spray the wounds with benomyl. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Choose a sunny site which has plenty of air circulation but which is protected from very strong winds.

2 Prepare the site thoroughly. Dig in plenty of compost and cow manure and a dressing of 2:3:2 at the rate of 100g per square metre. Read the rest of this entry »

Ain’t these two cute little bugs on my garden! I have to say keep my surrounds as natural as possible. Help these cute bugs with a place called their hone. Read the rest of this entry »

Gardens, no matter how small, have become incredibly important havens for wildlife. This is because wild creatures have lost many of their feeding and breeding sites in the countryside — either as a result of intensive farming, which makes widespread use of pesticides, or changes in land use. Read the rest of this entry »

“Please, please tell me how to keep weeds out of the asparagus patch,” pleaded one frustrated gardener.

“My Dad had the ideal solution for weeds in his asparagus patch,” a grower explains. “He built a fence around the bed, and after the harvest, when the spears had grown up tall and lacy, let his chickens loose inside the fence. They ate all the weeds, kept the asparagus beetle under control, and fertilized the soil with their droppings.” Read the rest of this entry »

The family cat prowling the garden will control its population of chipmunks, mice, and young rabbits.

Cut plastic gallon milk jugs in half lengthwise. Punch a hole in the bottom to let out rain. Set ripening melons in these contraptions. They help prevent rot and keep mice and shrews from nibbling on the melons.

Are rodents feasting on your tulip bulbs? Plant daffodils instead. Their bulbs are bitter, so mice and chipmunks won’t eat them.

If you’re determined to have tulips, interplant with Frittilaria imperialis bulbs. The two- to three-foot tall plants have pendulous red, orange, or yellow blooms. They exude a skunk-like odor that repels rodents and moles. Read the rest of this entry »

Clever Tricks

A drop of mineral oil on corn silk will keep out worms. Apply to tip of each ear when silks begin to brown, with a medicine dropper, pump-type oil can with a long spout, or a plastic dishwashing detergent bottle. Do it a total of about three times, once every five or six days. What’s lazy about this, you wonder? When you harvest the corn, most of the silk will come off with the husk for worm-free and silk-free ears.

If you can prevent plant disease with good cultural practices, then you’ll never need to use extra time to fight them: Read the rest of this entry »

For a lazy gardener’s attack against root knot nematodes (most prevalent in the South), plant lots of French marigolds, whose roots exude a repellent, and keep the soil extra high in organic matter. Beneficial fungi that grow in decomposing humus keep these pests under control.

Hill earth over carrots to prevent a pesky fly from laying eggs in the top of the carrot root. Read the rest of this entry »

Lazy gardeners are willing to let a few bugs eat. “I simply plant too much,” says one gardener. “I give my crops rich soil and let them fend for themselves. There are all kinds of bugs, and I don’t have time to fool with them, so if they eat half my chard, I eat the other half.”

“Most gardeners panic when they see one bug eating,” says another gardener, who chides the “spray-happy people who rain destruction on a whole garden for one squash bug. I usually let them eat, and spray only when a crop is really threatened. ” Insect pests will eventually come into balance with their natural enemies, he suggests. Read the rest of this entry »

Herbs are easy to grow and a boon to the gardener who’d just as soon have someone or something else do pest control. Interplant crops with onions, garlic, and marigolds. Try sage, mint, catnip, or dill among your cabbages. Sage, for instance, gives off camphor, which repels the cabbage butterfly. Herbs may discourage insect infestation not only by their specific effects, but by breaking up a large planting of one crop, which is an open invitation to pests. Read the rest of this entry »

How you handle wining crops, such as peas, pole beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and melons depends on your attitude toward the garden as well as the space you have available. As you plan the layout of next year’s plot, choose a system that suits your gardening style. Read the rest of this entry »

Bird song fills the air, and the yearning to plant consumes you. Here’s where restraint is needed, before the elixir of damp earth intoxicates you. Chant “Wait, wait,” and check to see if the soil is dry enough to be worked. Scoop up a handful and squeeze. Open your hand. If the soil sticks together, it is still too wet. If it crumbles when poked, it is ready.

Never work wet soil, especially clay. You may ruin its structure for the entire season and end up tripping over solid, sun-baked clods instead of early lettuce. Read the rest of this entry »

Soak seeds of beets, Swiss chard, and peas for fifteen or twenty minutes before planting. Soak parsley, New Zealand spinach, and celery seed overnight to hasten germination.

Make multiple plantings of lettuce. “I make nine plantings of lettuce each season,” says a Vermont gardener. “Sometimes I scrape snow away to plant the first batch.” He plants only a couple of feet of each variety at a time. “I don’t try to salvage overmature lettuce,” he declares. “I turn it under and plant some more.” Read the rest of this entry »

For your perennial vegetables and fruits, pick a spot separate from or on the edge of (second best) the main vegetable garden. The easiest way to get a bed started is to stake it out the season before you plant. Cover existing sod with a thick layer of newspapers, magazines, or cardboard. A friend of mine declares that covering sod is the best use she’s found for cast-off issues of the Congressional Record. “They’re so thick nothing will grow through them,” she says. So they don’t blow away, pile something on top —hay, wood chips, sawdust, branches, whatever. By spring, the sod will have decomposed and added green manure to the soil without a struggle. Read the rest of this entry »

“Black plastic has freed me from hours of weeding. I never used to finish that chore,” explains a Massachusetts gardener. “I resisted black plastic because it looks so awful, but we put dirt along the edges and scatter some on top, and that helps. We use three‑foot-wide rolls in our entire vegetable garden. We plant a row, lay the plastic, anchor the edges with dirt, plant another row, and so on. The weeding always had hung over me. Now I just hand-weed in the row itself, and we have more time to canoe or play tennis.” Read the rest of this entry »