Brown Collar Crime Fighters
Protect yourself and your plants from things that go chomp in the night. This week's Tip helps prevent planticide in the garden.
Planting Fall Gardens 2 – the Gardenerd Test Garden
In addition to helping others plant their fall gardens, I'm not ashamed to admit that I get the most joy out of planting my own. The Gardenerd Test Garden is being planted slowly but surely, and as of this writing there are a few things to report:
We planted sugar snap peas a few weeks ago and they are about 6 inches tall and starting to reach for the trellis. I used the Gardenerd-designed tomato cages from summer to support the peas - it might be a bit short, but we'll see how it goes.
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Gardenerd at Large – Planting Fall Gardens
It's been busy these last few months. It seems that everyone wants a garden, and I'm happy to help.
Today I helped a family in Corona Del Mar to plant a garden in a small space in their back yard. The space was occupied with a couple of recently planted fruit trees that weren't yet established, and some shrubs. After measuring the space and making some suggestions for plant removal, we were on our way....
Spend a Few Minutes with your Brassicas
Fall is a great time to grow cool season veggies like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages. Make sure you know this trick to keep aphids under control as your baby brassicas get off to a good start.
Flowers for Fall
I used to think that there were flower gardeners and there were vegetable gardeners. Now, I don't like to appear biased against flowers (even though veggies are my preferred garden variety), so I was happy to get this question in at Ask Gardenerd this week:
"Just got done reading your newsletter for recommended Fall veggies and
herbs. What kinds of annual flowers do you recommend for warmer
climates in the Fall (I am in zone 8/9, Rancho Cucamonga) that can be
companion planted with these crops? Thanks!"
My favorite flowers to recommend are also beneficial insectaries, meaning they attract beneficial ...
Gardenerd on Vital Juice.com
I participated in an interview with Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh of Vital Juice.com recently. She wanted to know what were my healthy favorite things to do and see. Here is the published article on Vitaljuice.com:
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Clean Up your Strawberries
Keep your strawberry plants in good health by cleaning them up this fall. Follow these easy instructions for rejuvinating your strawberry patch.
Purple, orange and yellow carrots await you
Sweet Carrots – how to get ’em
A great question came in this week to Ask Gardenerd: "This year, I planted carrots and beets, but success was marginal. Some of the carrots turned out OK, but many were stunted or very small. Also, many were very bitter. Any suggestions for next time? Can you do anything with the carrot tops...I hate to throw them away...I am putting them into the compost pile. All the beets were very stunted and small. Any suggestions for next time? Also, some of my lettuce is bitter. Could my soil need something?"
Harvesting Sunflower Seeds
Sometime in late spring, I planted a handful of sunflower seeds along with some cosmos in hopes that they would fill in the blanks spots as the Dog Days of summer set in. True to form, the cosmos took over an entire raised bed and the sunflowers sent up two huge stalks with glorious flowers bigger than dinner plates. I wondered if we'd be able to harvest the seeds for snacking or if the birds would get them all. I've never harvested sunflower seeds successfully before, and I was determined to change my track record. I ...
Get Ready for Garlic
Growing your own garlic is very satisfying and easy to do. This week's tip will get you started.