It’s time to plant potatoes in my area. So when my organic seed potatoes arrived in late April, I let them sit out in a warm area to induce sprouting – or chit. Because I live in an area that has a shorter growing season, chitting (honestly, you think they could have come up with…
I moved my seedlings out to my little greenhouse last week, in order to start hardening them off to get them ready for planting in the garden in a few weeks. Normally, this time of year, the greenhouse keeps everything nice and toasty warm until early June, when everything goes into the garden. However, Mother…
It’s been TWO degrees here for days. One day the temperature crept up to a balmy FIVE degrees. That was followed by two nights of -10 degrees. At this point, it doesn’t matter what the thermometer says – it’s COOOOLD! Everything is frozen solid and it hurts to breathe when you’re outside. It’s time to…
Unfortunately, I missed National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day which was celebrated on August 8th. Yes, we have such a love/hate relationship with the zucchini that it now has its own holiday. HOWEVER, I will be celebrating National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch MONTH because I gone ‘n dun it……
Bacterial wilt is caused by both the striped and spotted cucumber beetle, which carries a bacteria called Erwinia tracheiphila. First the leaves will wilt and shrivel, then it will spread to the branches and vines. Eventually the whole plant will kick the bucket. And it all seemingly happens overnight! This year, I planted three types of…
While my garden grows like gangbusters, I’ve always had a little bit of a not-so-green thumb when it comes to summer flowers. I’ve spent years amending my garden soil so my plants flourish – my window boxes, umm, not so much. If I get around to it, I’ll dump in a fresh bag of potting…
There are several old standbys that I plant in my garden every year. One of my favorites is the Sugar Snap Pea – it’s a great producer throughout the entire gardening season. The Sugar Snap Pea is easy to grow and produces sweet, tender pods that are great to eat right out of the garden.…
In all my years of gardening, I’ve never had much trouble with pests. That is until this summer when the beetles arrived. What I didn’t realize, as I was preparing the garden soil in the spring, was that all the disgusting white grubby things I was finding were Japanese beetle larva. BLECK! Now I’ve become…
The Farmers in the Dell 