Because of a strange heat wave we had in June, I seem to be growing more seeds than vegetables this year. Now as they say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In that spirit I am planning on increasing the number of plants I will allow to completely go to seed this year. I have always saved cilantro seeds, the first time it was almost an accident my…
My daughter was required to do a presentation which included an experiment using plants for school and of course her mother directed her to me. Given there was not a lot of time until the presentation I suggested that she grows sprouts, given you can go from seeds to a jar full of sprouts in less than a week. Construction You really can grow sprouts in almost anything. We…
Well I wasn’t planning on growing potatoes this year but looks like I have a couple of volunteers from last year. This could turn out to be a fortunately accident since they are currently growing under my onions and garlic. If they happen to stay low enough might actually get two decent crops in the same square footage. Any predictions?
Last year, I grew a lot of onion seeds but unfortunately not many large onions I could use in the kitchen. I have learned a few things since then which hopefully can help you not have the same problem. Use small onion sets: Last year I selected all of the largest onion sets in the 100 count bag which from some of my experimentation this year proves why almost…
Well one of our caterpillar finally emerged from its cocoon. Looks like my identification was wrong (not surprising) since it turned into a beautiful brown moth. As promised my youngest daughter dressed up in her butterfly costume to teach the baby moth how to fly. After a few minutes of doing jumping jacks to demonstrate the moth figured things out and fly away to freedom.
In the past couple years we have grown strawberries the story has been my oldest daughter salivating over the strawberries asking, “Is it red enough yet?” This year her desire for strawberries is just as great though with the plant maturing as well as the additional plant we propagated last year she has been easily getting her fill with plenty more ripe strawberries on the plants. Not wanted to…
It can be difficult getting rid of aphids on plants in your garden. Fortunately you can get rid of those aphids with materials you have in your kitchen. First of all I am a little embarrassed that I let the infestation get this bad before noticing. I unfortunately set the grow box to have the sunrise at 1:00am and the lights always were off by the time I got…
Building a raised vegetable garden is a very easy and with the right planning can also be very inexpensive. First you need to answer a few important questions before you get started. The first you have to pick a location. There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing the location; sun, water, convenience, and competition for nutrients. SUN – You want to pick a location where…
Yet another design concept, though seems like there are definitely plans for this one to go into production next year. The concept is very simple, fish poop in the water, pump brings “soiled” water to filter through some river sand, bacteria converts “impurities” to nitrates, and finally the plants absorb the nitrates as food returning cleaner water back to the fishes. Now this has a couple of good target…
Want a EasyBloom but $59.95 is a little out of your price range? Well good news, right now it is on sale for $20 off so you can have this little gardening gadget for the low price of only $39.95 with free shipping through Amazon.com. I have no idea how long it will stay at this price so if you were thinking about picking one of these up, now…
I am moving into a new office this week so I had to bring a couple of my lemon verbena plants home and given the great weather we were having I decided to move them right back into the garden. Fortunately they were a little leggy from lack of sunlight in my office so I cut off some of the dropping stems and was about to put them…
One of my many reasons for growing a vegetable garden was to encourage my daughters (four and seven) to eat more vegetables. Currently other than a few raw carrots they do everything they can to avoid them. In the previous years, with the exception of strawberries and potatoes in “Baked French Fry form,” I have been the primary consumer of our garden harvest. This changed this weekend when my…