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:
...
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.
Even Pumpkins
We got a fine question at Ask Gardenerd this week:
"I just harvested my pumpkins. They all are a very beautiful orange
color. However, after rolling them over, all are flat on the bottom side
that was next to the ground, and a white color is on that side. What can I do
next year to prevent this?"
Growing Horseradish
Here's one I hadn't encountered before:
"We have a horseradish root that we bought at the store and on a whim
we put the top part of the root into some potting soil, we now
have growth. Our question is what type of soil does it require and how
much sun will it need to grow properly. Dave Garman & Karen Blessington"
Good for you for being adventurous! And lucky for you, you've chosen a really easy plant to grow. Horseradish has no particular soil requirements and basically likes to be ignored. It prefers full sun, but can handle ...
Weed into a Bucket
Using this simple tip will help shave time off your chores in the garden, leaving you more time to enjoy planting this fall.