If weeds are growing around the perimeter of your garden, scattering seeds into the garden, cut those weeds with a scythe, then add them to the compost pile. The scythe is a remarkable and efficient tool in the hands of an expert. An able hand doesn’t flail at the weeds with the scythe. He holds it loosely, comfortably, and moves the blade by pivoting his body, keeping the blade parallel to and close to the ground. He stops often to sharpen the blade. The scythe doesn’t actually get dull that quickly, but frequent sharpening is a good way to relax shoulder and arm muscles. Read the rest of this entry »

Sayonara, Japanese Beetles

Hire your children to save the garden from Japanese beetles. Pay them a penny a bug. In the evening, when the beetles won’t fly away, the kids can tiptoe along and brush them from plant foliage into jars of kerosene. Bet they won’t even be able to count their catch! Meanwhile, you can relax with a long novel or take in the evening news.

If Japanese beetle grubs are destroying your lawn, introduce milky spore disease, a microbial attack against the larval form of this insect. A little energy invested this year is well spent. Put a teaspoon in the ground every three feet for several years’ protection. It’s death to the grubs, but leaves the earthworm population untouched. Read the rest of this entry »

I blanch it with its own leaves

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 »

Everybody loves giant sunflowers! Grown just to look at, or for seeds for you or the neighborhood birds, sunflowers are easy to grow, even for the beginning gardener.

I plant sunflowers directly in the garden a couple of weeks before the last frost. Because young sunflower seedlings transplant so well, they can also be started indoors very early in the spring and set out in the garden around the time of your last frost. Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody has a favorite way of growing their prized tomatoes. My way is to support them with cages. After many years of experimenting, I’ve settled on caging as the easiest and best way to care for tomatoes. Tomato plants support themselves easily inside a cage. Because they receive very little pruning, they grow enough leaves to shade the tomatoes. This protects them from sunscald and helps them ripen evenly. Read the rest of this entry »

A woodchuck will eat anything green it can gets its teeth into. Woodchucks, often called “groundhogs,” come out of their underground burrows at dawn for their first meal. They’re lazy and like to make their home near a convenient food source—like a nice vegetable garden. (I have a woodchuck that tries each fall to nest in my garden!) You can tell if a woodchuck is eating your crops because it moves efficiently down one row at a time, eating everything in its path. You couldn’t do a neater job with a lawnmower.

After their morning eating binge, woodchucks go back underground to sleep it off. You might spot them later in the day coming out for another meal. What a life! Read the rest of this entry »

We home gardeners are lucky. We don’t depend on the garden for our livelihood. Gardening is not a business for us. We don’t have to worry about keeping our crops totally free of blemishes and damage so they will bring top prices at the market. We can afford to share a part of the harvests with insects and not get upset by it. We can use and enjoy slightly damaged crops.

Check your garden at least every 2 or 3 days so you can spot bugs before they do much damage. When you see some unusual insect activity, take a good look at it. Be sure the bugs actually pose a serious problem before you take steps to control them. Read the rest of this entry »

Inadequate soil preparation before planting or sowing is a major cause of horticultural disappointment. Digging and the application of fertilizers and bulky organic materials are usually necessary to ensure that the soil is suited to the plants or crops that you want to grow. Drainage may also be required.

Four fertilizers that supply all the major foods.

There are certain fertilizers that supply all three of the principal foods required by plants: nitrogen for leaf and stem growth; phosphorus for good root growth; potassium (potash), which helps to form and ripen flowers, fruits and seeds.

• Blood, fish and bone Slowly releases nitrogen, phosphorus and potash; use before sowing or planting, or around established plants.
• Fishmeal Dig in before planting or sowing in spring. Read the rest of this entry »

These are the essential tools, used during soil cultivation, sowing and planting.

• Fork For digging heavy soils, breaking down rough-dug soil and for light surface cultivation. The head of a full-size four- tine fork measures 30.5 x 19cm/12 x 7¹/2in; that of a small border fork measures 23 x 14cm/9 x5 1/2 in.

• Hoe For surface cultivation, particularly to eradicate weeds between rows of plants. There are two basic types: the Dutch Hoe, which cuts horizontally through the soil; and the Draw Hoe, which is used with a chopping action (particularly recommended for stony or heavy soils, and also for making seed drills). Both have 1.5m/5ft handles. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a selection of garden tools used for pruning, cutting hedges and grass, plant propagation and other tasks of this nature.

• KnifeA straight-bladed horticultural knife is useful for cutting string and for taking cuttings. Don’t choose one with a stainless-steel blade, as this quickly becomes blunt.

• Long-arm pruner Has a very long shaft (at least 2.4m/8ft) with a cutting blade at the top, operated by a lever at the bottom. Invaluable for high branches.

• Pruners (or loppers) These have two long handles and are essential for “heavy” pruning — that is, stems of 1.25-2.5cm/ 1/2—lin in diameter.

•  Pruning saw Used on large branches where loppers or secateurs are inadequate. Usually has a narrow curved blade. Read the rest of this entry »

Virtually all shrubs can be propagated in this way. The following respond particularly well.

• Azalea Peg down shoots into a peaty soil. Roots form slowly, taking about 12 months.
• Camellia Best rooted in peaty soil. Takes about 12 months.
• Lilac (Syringa) Roots in about 6 months in sandy soil.
• Magnolia Takes 12 months to root. Peg into peaty soil and keep moist.
• Rhododendron Best rooted in peaty soil. Roots form slowly, taking at least 12 months. Read the rest of this entry »

Success with this method depends upon providing the right conditions. Warmth and humidity are essential for good results in every case.

• Alpines Take small cuttings as soon as ready in spring. Best rooted in greenhouse.
• Chrysanthemum Outdoor and greenhouse kinds. Remove 5cm/2in-long cuttings from as close as possible to crown of plant. Root in greenhouse.
• Dahlia Start tubers into growth in heated greenhouse early in year. Take 8cm/3in-long cuttings from the tubers and root in warmth and humidity.
• Delphinium Remove 8cm/3in-long shoots from as close as possible to crown of plant in spring. Root in greenhouse. Read the rest of this entry »

Three pruning methods for roses

Pruning roses will not reward you with more flowers nextyear. However, it will control shape and maintain health. Wild (species) roses and hybrid shrub roses need no pruning — just the removal of dead wood.

• Bush types Large-flowered (hybrid tea) and cluster-flowered (floribunda) roses are pruned annually in early spring. Remove all weak growth and reduce remaining strong stems to 15-20cm/6-8in above ground level. Cut to outward-facing buds. Make sure centre of each bush is free from growth: shape bush like a vase.
• ClimbersAllow a framework of permanent stems which are trained to their supports. From these stems side shoots grow, which produce the flowers. To prune, cut back old side shoots to within one or two buds of their base in early spring. Tips of main stems can also be cut back, if becoming too tall. Read the rest of this entry »

For those who are fortunate enough to have a conservatory you are able to unwind and enjoy the beauty of nature in a relaxed quiet setting. For those that don’t know a conservatory is a glass and metal structure that is attached to house were plants and sometime animals live together. Making a conservatory very similar to a green house.

But something important to have in a conservatory is furniture, how can you relax if you have nothing to sit on, and if your conservatory is something you are proud of you can have your coffee table and your sofas in there as well so you can entertain your friends in that beautiful setting. Read the rest of this entry »

My borders combine all aspects of gardening — shrubs, bulbs, foliage plants, even little patches of annuals to fill any bare spaces. Quite unorthodox, perhaps, but being a greedy woman I want something of everything, and in this way there is always something in bloom. My husband deplored this habit of mine, and could not understand the real excitement of finding something unexpectedcoming into flower when everything else has gone to sleep.

I am lucky in having little walls that not only hold up the flower beds but give me more places in which to plant enchanting little rock creatures to sprawl or foam or cascade over the stones according to their nature. Then there are crevices and odd chinks between the bottom of the walls and the stone paths for coloured primroses and little daisies, even something a little bigger now and again, such as Teucrium Chamaedrys, Geranium Endressii or even nepeta. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A tropical branching tree up to 12 m high. Evergreen, leathery leaves are ovoid, acuminate, on long petioles. Tiny greenish-yellow flowers arranged in axillary panicles on long pedicels. Fruit are dark red, pea-sized berries.

Origin and Distribution: Native to Taiwan, China and Japan, and successfully cultivated in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Florida, as it grows well in all warm regions. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: Like numerous other species of this genus, Eucalyptus globulus is a robust, evergreen tree about 70 m high. The young leaves are opposite, sessile, cordiform-ovoid, and hoary blue in colour, while older leaves are alternate, 15-25 cm long, narrow and curved like a sickle. Large solitary white flowers appear in the leaf axils. They have a woody calyx, which forms a peripheral circular collar, and a corolla forming a thick, dish-like conical cap which falls off after the stamens unfold. All parts of the tree are abundantly permeated with cells bearing the pungent volatile oil. Read the rest of this entry »

Description: A tall tree with leathery leaves on long petioles, usually with stipules. The fragrant flowers are arranged in elongated clusters. The fruit is a nut covered with a leathery rind, and has elongated points on the calyx which aid the dissemination of the seeds by air.

Origin and Distribution: Native to Malaysia where it is cultivated for its volatile oil containing camphor. According to place of origin this is known as Sumatra or Borneo camphor; in Malaysian it is called `kajoe kapur’. Read the rest of this entry »