Do you water frequently? Leave a section of hose laid out down the center of the garden. Drive double stakes of wood at intervals to keep the hose from decimating the vegetables as you pull it back and forth.
Double stakes protect garden from hose
Another gardener, who has several small vegetable plots, drives a stake at the corner of each bed to protect plants while he drags the hose around. Read the rest of this entry »
The extreme case of the lazy gardener might be the college professor who planted his entire vegetable patch in spring and never looked at it again until it was time to harvest. He overplanted and just let the whole business go weedy. He got enough food for the family out of the enterprise, and that was all he was after in the first place.
Most of us aren’t that lazy. We take pride in order and control. The specter of carefully planned and planted crops being choked by weeds makes us shiver. 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 »
If you have a root cellar, keep it cool in the fall when it’s full of produce by opening ventilators on brisk nights and closing them on warm, sunny days. That’s an easy way to keep the temperature and humidity at ideal levels.
Choose to grow thin-necked varieties of onions rather than thick-necked ones, and you’ll have less incidence of onion-neck rot in storage. Cure them in sun for a week or two after harvest, then lay screens in the rafters of your garage or attic and spread the onions one layer thick. Leave them there for a month or so. Make sure onion necks are thoroughly dry before clipping to an inch or two. Store in a cool, dry place with good ventilation. Read the rest of this entry »
Your kitchen garden can be as simple as a few herbs in pots outside your back door, or a proper vegetable and herb garden.
The type of garden you choose will depend upon the space you have available, the amount of sun it gets, the time you have to spend in the garden, and to a certain extent, your own taste in food. A small-scale kitchen garden could perhaps consist of a few herbs and some tomatoes, lettuce and carrots. Read the rest of this entry »
I like to use compost before it is totally broken down. I’d much rather have a coarser compost with a lot of small, loose bits of organic matter than a fine compost, because a coarser compost still has the ability to hold plenty of moisture once it’s worked into the soil. I like that.
I have three basic ways to use compost. Read the rest of this entry »
The only things I worry about with succession crops are getting seeds to germinate in hot, dry weather and keeping transplants watered so they’ll root quickly with no moisture stress.
When it’s hot and dry and the soil doesn’t have much moisture, seeds can start to germinate only to run out of moisture. That kills them.
To avoid this, plant seeds a little bit deeper, an extra 1/4 to 1/2 inch for small seeds, an extra 1/2 to 3 inch for larger seeds. The very top of the soil may be dry, but you’d be amazed at how well seeds use the small amounts of moisture beneath the soil surface. Also, I time my succession crops so that they’re sown just before or just after a rain. With clay soil it’s wise to plant before a rain. Read the rest of this entry »
Three or four weeks before the planting dates for cabbage, broccoli, head lettuce, and cauliflower, I sprinkle their seeds in short wide rows out in the garden. It’s an easy (and cheap) way to grow a lot of transplants in a very small space.
For my fall garden, I choose the best-looking plants, dig them out of the short wide rows, and put them in another row with more room around them. Read the rest of this entry »
Almost every plant produces many thousands or even millions of seeds during its lifetime, but to ensure the survival of the species it is necessary for just one of these to reach maturity. This vast wastage is in reality a form of insurance as at least some should survive to pass the seedling stage. Generally the smaller (and therefore the more vulnerable) the seeds, the greater is the number produced. Read the rest of this entry »
Once fertilization has taken place, the energies of the plant are directed to the successful development of the next generation. The fertilized egg cells are safely protected from the vagaries of climate, or damage by passing insects, by the surrounding mass of the ovary which lies at the base of the now fading flower.
Each part of the ovary has its own role to play in the growth and development of the new seed. Despite a few basic differences, the pattern followed by the growing embryo is characteristic of all plants. At fertilization the egg is made up of a single cell, but this soon begins its growth by dividing into two identical cells. Read the rest of this entry »
Trees which do not shed layers of dead tissues regularly have increasingly rugged bark as they age. This can often be observed by noting the relatively smooth nature of the top of a trunk in comparison with the older parts at the bottom. With age, the pressure from within causes the surface to crack and the resulting deep fissures are typical of many trees. The way trees develop such features can be diagnostic and one of the most distinctive is the Sweet Chestnut (Caslanea saliva) which usually cracks in spirals. Read the rest of this entry »
Dodder is perhaps one of the most interesting of the total parasites. It starts its existence normally, the seed germinating and producing a club-shaped taproot which fixes the plant in the soil. The shoot then begins growing, not straight up as is usual in seedlings, but with a circular movement. As soon as it touches a support it encircles it. If, however, the stem fails to find a suitable plant nearby, it is not rigid enough to grow upright and falls back to the ground. Read the rest of this entry »
Trees and shrubs within semi desert areas have their own defenses against drought. These usually take the form of a deciduous habit, the plants losing their leaves as the hottest season commences, together with the ability to store water within their roots and occasionally their trunks. The famous Baobab (Adansonia digitata) of Africa has an almost bottle-like stem. Other plants spend the difficult season completely dormant. Read the rest of this entry »
The land surface of our planet provides a remarkably wide range of climatic conditions, and all but the most inhospitable habitats have been colonized by plants. Where plants are established, insects and animals can follow and the greatest diversity of life of all kinds is to be found in the most ideal climates. Read the rest of this entry »
I plant them early, at least 3 or 4 weeks before the last spring frost date, and also later in the season so they can mature in the cool weather of fall.
A couple of years ago, Jan and I picked our first heads of broccoli a few days before Memorial Day, and cut the last ones from our fall planting on Thanksgiving Day. If you live south of my homestead, you can easily get a longer season of cabbage family crops—especially in the fall. Read the rest of this entry »
A thriving row of cauliflower is a spectacular sight in the vegetable garden, but few people think they can have great success with it. I think it’s as easy to grow as any cabbage family crop. Cauliflower is less tolerant to hot weather than its relatives, though, so it’s important to set your plants out very early or plan on a fall crop. If the heads mature in the heat, they’re apt to have a bitter taste or go by very quickly.
For your first crop, set out some plants 3 or 4 weeks before the average date of the last spring frost. Pinch off a couple of the lower leaves.
As cauliflower heads get to be 4 to 5 inches across, they should be blanched by preventing sunlight from reaching the heads. Read the rest of this entry »
Some gardeners are hesitant to try celery and I understand why. It needs a long time to grow—up to 4 months of mostly cool weather. Celery also demands steady water and fertilizer because its root system is near the surface. But if your soil holds water well and has plenty of organic matter in it, you’re in good shape, especially if you plant early and harvest early.
Because celery takes such a long time to grow, start the seeds indoors early. Celery seeds are slow to germinate, so you can soak them overnight to speed the process. Plant them indoors 10 to 12 weeks before the average last frost date. Read the rest of this entry »
Chard has a lot going for it. You can plant it as soon as you can work your garden in the spring, and it will provide tasty, nutritious greens for months. Through cold weather or hot, it won’t get bitter, tough, or strong as long as you keep it harvested.
With wide rows you can get basket after basket of chard to can or freeze for the winter. To me, it’s the perfect green for a wintertime meal. It tastes good, it’s nutritious, and it’s a lot cheaper than store-bought greens. Read the rest of this entry »
My southern friends are crazy about collards. These nutritious, flavorful greens can be grown anywhere, even way up North where I live.
Unlike most greens, collards will survive the cool spells of spring and fall weather, as well as the intense heat of summer. Read the rest of this entry »
