BROCCOLI

Side-dress when the head begins to form. It may be only the size of a fifty-cent piece when you notice it, but go ahead and side-dress. Amount needed: 1 to 2 tablespoons complete fertilizer per plant.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

I usually side-dress brussels sprouts when I harvest the first small marble-size sprouts. Amount: 1 tablespoon complete fertilizer per plant.

CABBAGE

The best time to side-dress cabbage is when it starts to form a head. In my wide rows of cabbage, that’s when the leaves of the plants are about to completely shade the row. Amount needed: 1 tablespoon of complete fertilizer per plant. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been able to have my first sweet corn 2 weeks before anyone else, even before the commercial growers. My method is simple, and it will work in your area, too.

This is not a method for planting all your corn. It’s only for a part of your early crop. The two most important factors in this method are the section of the garden to plant in, and when to plant.

Decide the previous fall where to grow this extra-early corn. Choose a dry section of the garden where there is no sod, no manure or other fresh organic matter in the soil, and no green manure crop growing. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been able to have my first sweet corn 2 weeks before anyone else, even before the commercial growers. My method is simple, and it will work in your area, too.

This is not a method for planting all your corn. It’s only for a part of your early crop. The two most important factors in this method are the section of the garden to plant in, and when to plant.

Decide the previous fall where to grow this extra-early corn. Choose a dry section of the garden where there is no sod, no manure or other fresh organic matter in the soil, and no green manure crop growing. Read the rest of this entry »

Verbena is an old-fashioned cottage garden plant that is making something of a comeback. It is really a perennial but is best treated as an annual; the new hybrids have dense heads of pink, white and purple flowers that still retain their scent. Take out the growing shoots to encourage bushiness and dead-head regularly. Verbena is usually sold in boxes of mixed colours and these mixtures are particularly attractive. It reaches a height of up to 10 inches.

Gazania is another perennial most commonly grown as an annual. G. x hybrida at 9 inches has dark green foliage with a grey underside; the daisy flowers are in the yellow, orange, bronze range though you can also have some deep pinks. They like full sun. Read the rest of this entry »

In the open garden autumn is a time of cutting down, tidying up and battening down the hatches against the onslaught of winter. In the more restricted garden on the window sill there is a little more scope for planting, to provide interest and perhaps colour for the grey days to follow. It is the greyness of the days, and hence the lack of light, rather than the cold that makes the late autumn and winter such a dead season as far as flowers are concerned.

For early autumn you must have dahlias. Their paint-box colours are quietened by the softer light of autumn and dahlia blooms laced with cobwebs and beaded with dew are, for me, a final confirmation that summer is truly over. Read the rest of this entry »

Although for much of the time we choose a houseplant because we like the look of it, we sometimes pick one to fill a special position, where we know from experience it will be highly successful. As well as the obvious places there are dozens of other less obvious ones throughout the house which, with a little thought, can be transformed by the right choice of plant. Most houses have alcoves and recesses, dull corners or redundant fireplaces, all of which could do with being brightened up and put to good use. Even the most unlikely spaces can make a home for some ‘kind of plant. Here are ideas for plants to fit any odd empty corner you might have. Read the rest of this entry »

No section on indoor orchids would be complete without some mention of the Lycastes. These are extremely attractive orchids of which one or two of the more easily obtained species may be tried. There has been a tremendous amount of work done on breeding the Lycastes and many fine hybrids have been produced, including bigeneric hybrids of the manmade genus Angulocaste, which are the result of crossing Lycastes with Anguloas. These plants are superb growers but can become too large for indoors as they produce extensive foliage and are very space consuming when grown to perfection. The Lycaste species are smaller growers, although even they require sufficient room for their spreading leaves during the summer months. Their bulbs are plump and hard, and are topped by several large leaves which are paper thin and very easily damaged by water droplets or rough handling. These leaves are usually shed before the onset of winter and the plants remain in a dormant, leafless state until the new growth commences in the spring, often at the same time as the buds appear. When the leaves have turned yellow and are discarded naturally by the plant, spiteful thorny remains are left at the top of each bulb. No doubt this serves the plant as a protection in the wild, but they can give a painful scratch to the unwary! Read the rest of this entry »