Growing Delightful Dill is a helpful article. I have been having great success with almost everything I am growing this year except dill. I have had a big die back. I am still not sure why. I will post a picture later. Maybe someone can tell me why.
North Country Maturing Gardener: Does Your Garden Overwhelm You? Try this! is a great post. It has some nice tips on ways to make gardening easier.
My favorites:
1. I try to only plant perennials, with a few annuals thrown in for color. Perennials take care of themselves and get better every year!
4. Use a HEAVY layer of mulch around all your garden beds! You’ll have far fewer weeds and it looks great, not to say it’s wonderful for the plants as well!
HEAVY layer of mulch
Countrylife.net has a cool article on why people hate salads at home and love them out. It is the mix of veggies that are in the salads. This makes sense. I was not a big salad fan until I tried lots of different things. I found that spinach salads are my thing. From there I branched out....
My daughter and I started some seeds 2/28/05. I will let you know when each sprouts. I know how exciting this is ;-)
We also bought two types of lettuce and a cabbage. It has been too yucky out to plant them. Hopefully Saturday...
Update: I spoke too soon. We looked at the pots and several things have sprouted.
1. Cukes
2. Super Sugar Peas
3. Wando Peas
4. Sunflower
5. Kale
Pretty fast.
1. Sow early, in a heated propagator, but don't plant out too early (wait til the frost risk is completely over)
2. Add lots of comfrey water as they grow
3. Remove any shoots that appear between the main stem and leaves emerging from it (I'll add a pic eventually to show you what I mean). Why? These cause the plants to divide their fruiting energy between two stems, weakening the plant and stopping it from producing fruit.
4. As the fruit appears and the lower leaves start to crinkle, cut them away (for the same reasons as for no 3), until you're eventually left with a stem bare of leaves.
5. Water as often as possible, particularly if they are being grown in a growbag or container.
6. Tie the growing stem into a sturdy stick to stop it toppling over, adding new ties as it grows.
7. Pick the ripe tomatoes regularly
8. Take the time to rub the leaves between your fingers and suck in the delicious tomato plant smell. It's one of an allotmenteer's great pleasures (also applies to blackcurrant bushes).
A Gardener's Notebook has a post about free coffee grounds from Starbucks. I have availed myself of these many times. I need to get another load in the compost bin to get back in balance.
things that piss me off has a hilarious post. I think that finding new varieties of fruits and veg is a good thing, but just because something is heirloom doesn't make it good. It also doesn't make it worth ten times the cost.
I have been hearing great things about "The Life of PI"
From "A common reader":
The narrative of a young man's 227-day voyage across the Pacific in a lifeboat (shared with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and, most importantly, a 450-pound Bengal tiger), Life of Pi encompasses a great deal of human experience — from theology to zoology, desperation to wonder — in its drifting current of story. This book is marvelous, in the exact sense of the word.
A volunteer from the bird feeder. It just says Summer to me. My daughter loves it. She keeps wanting to pick it though. I hope it makes it to seed.
Blueberry bushes, scuppanongs, muscadines, thornless black berries, no shipping, lve. messg. Larry Forrester 970 Batesville Rd. Canton 30115 770-345-6001
Brown turkey & celeste figs, $5.50/$10.00, self-pollinating Issai kiwi, $6, raspberries, dewberries, $1.00, others, no shipping. Carla Houghton Marietta 770-428-2227
How To Grow Plants from Cuttings
Free plants? You bet! Many plants will readily grow from stem cuttings, and it's embarrassingly easy to do.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 10 minutes
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Here's How:
1. Select and prepare the preferred medium for the plant you have chosen. See the link on the list below for a list of popular plants and their preferred rooting mediums.
2. If possible, have the planting medium prepared in the pot when you take the cutting. If this isn't possible, temporarily wrap the cuttings in wet paper towels, then cover in newspaper or a plastic bag.
3. Use a sharp knife to take the cutting, and don't make the cutting too large. Four leaf nodes (leaf joints) are usually sufficient.
4. Cut the leaves from the portion of the cutting that will be immersed in the medium.
5. Apply a rooting hormone (available from a garden center) around the bottom of the cutting.
6. Use a pencil to poke a hole in the planting medium. If several cuttings will fit in the pot, poke several holes.
7. Carefully slip the cutting(s) in the hole(s) so that the bottom 2 leaf nodes are below the soil line.
8. Gently firm the medium to remove any air pockets.
9. Water with a very gentle spray making sure that the entire pot is well soaked.
10. Cover with plastic and place in indirect light until rooted.
11. Watch closely for new growth for the next 2 or 3 weeks.
12. When tiny new leaves have formed, remove the plant from the medium by gently tugging a larger leaf.
13. Place each rooted cutting in it's own pot of planting medium.
14. Water well.
15. When all danger of frost has passed and the ground has warmed, transplant to the garden.
Tips:
1. Don't take cuttings from diseased or wilted plants.
2. Remove any flowers or flower buds from the cutting.
3. Keep plants in indirect light until they have rooted. Slowly acclimate them to brighter light, increasing the light every few days until they're ready to transplant to the garden.
GAFB Certified Farm Markets pick and eat.
LOCATION: 1393 N. Highland Avenue, NE, Atlanta,
in the parking lot next to Horizon Restaurant
DATES: Saturday mornings, April 24 - December, 8:00 am - 11:30 am
(Limited Farmers January - March)
DESCRIPTION The Morningside Farmers' Market features locally grown, organic vegetables, herbs, flowers, and fruits.
We also offer finely crafted soaps, herbal products, pottery, furniture, and other crafts. Enjoy free weekly 9:30 AM
cooking demonstrations featuring seasonal market produce prepared by local chefs from Atlanta's premier restaurants.
CONTACT: For more information: 404-444-9902 • chhsko@mindspring.com pick
From http://www.ecoterralandscape.com/
1. Don’t blow wet leaves. Wait until they are dry or use a rake.
2. Don’t use the blower before 10 AM.
3. You don’t need to get every leaf as soon as it falls (everyday).
4. Don’t throw the leaves in trash – shred for mulch or compost.
5. If the leaves land in your yard, they’re your leaves. If the tree is in the neighbor’s yard don’t blow the leaves back.
6. Don’t blow the leaves into the street or into the storm drain.
7. If the leaves aren’t on the grass, the sidewalk, deck, driveway or in the gutter, then leave them; that’s why they’re called leaves.
8. Don’t pile them too thick around plants. This can promote pests or diseases.
9. If you burn your leaves, follow local ordinances. Don’t leave burning piles unattended.
10. Rake or blow the leaves into a huge pile and let the kids jump into them – this is a must for the fall season.
A neat idea in the AJC It is a mailbox planter that is open at the bottom and fits around the mailbox. An excerpt:
The Pogapot (a melding of the words "portable garden pot") consists of four red-cedar panels that fit together, much like bed rails, to form the square planter. That makes it easy to erect and disassemble around a mailbox, lamppost, porch column, tree or party tent pole. And by lining the Pogapot with plastic, the planter can hold potted plants for creating temporary seasonal displays that can be easily removed later.
The planter is 12 inches high by 18 inches wide, and Kirkpatrick and her two business partners in H3 Designs, Buckhead neighbors Helen Cleveland and Harriott Kelly, are developing other sizes. The Pogapot, manufactured by Rustic Natural Cedar and awaiting a patent, is available in black, white and natural wood finish and sells for $90.
Information: 404-281-1150.
STEP 1: Make sure the ground surrounding the mailbox is flat, and if you plan to design a permanent planting, loosen the soil for helping plants extend their roots. Then assemble the Pogapot by fitting its four sides together (hardware is attached).
STEP 2: Line the planter with plastic — Kirkpatrick cuts a large garbage bag in half — if you're creating a temporary design.
STEP 3: Add soil to the depth of the deepest pot if you plan to leave the plants in their containers. For permanent plantings, combine a soilless mix with existing soil for conditioning roots to the ground. Stakes are included for securing the pot to the ground.
STEP 4: Arrange plants, aiming for a mixture of heights, texture and form. Choose plants that thrive in a particular season but include ones that can be maintained year-round, such as a small boxwood or other shrub, a vine, ferns and ivy.
From the 5/13/01 NY Times Magazine. By Michael Pollan
Farms produce more than food; they also produce a kind of landscape, and if I buy my organic milk from halfway across the country, the farms I like to drive by every day will eventually grow nothing but raised ranch houses.
Another good tidbit from the AJC. It shows an example of potting bulbs. I planted 50 or so bulbs over the winter. The tulips are already sprouting up. I am curious to see how they turn out.
A neat list of perennials flower best suited for GA.
For sun:
1. Phlox
2. Coreopsis
3. Shasta Daisy
4. Daylilly
5. Black-eyed Susan
6. Salvia
7. Blue star
8. False Indigo
9. Wormwood
10. Veronica
I plan to try to finish up planting the rest of my bulbs tomorrow. I also need to mow the front and the back. I took the day off from work.
I am contemplating getting a tiller to till in the organic material. The soil is hardpan clay. Red as can be from the Iron Oxide.
I am a fan of small farms, u-pickems, and CSAs. This article from the NY Times talks about CSAs. It is important that we remain in touch with nature and this is one way. Plus you get really good food. You learn to be patient with what God gives you seasonally. We are so divorced with the concepts of time and seasonality in this generic SuperMarket age.
The article describes a CSA as:
The concept, called community supported agriculture, or C.S.A. in farm-club jargon, aims, simply but profoundly, to restore a sense of place to the food that people eat. Knowing exactly where those carrots came from and who grew them makes people think differently and eat differently, nutritionists and organizers say.
They later say:
Of the estimated 1,000 C.S.A. groups across the nation, 28 are in New York City, up from 19 over the last two years, according to figures from Just Food and csacenter.org, a Web site that encourages and tracks the trend. On average, a seasonal share for a family costs about $350 to $400, although many groups also sell half-shares and have discounts for low-income buyers.
>Here is a great monthly column from the ajc and Walter Reeves. It gives you a list of tasks to accomplish in your garden during the month. Also check out ecoterra landscaping
