A great question came into Ask Gardenerd this week about plant protection: "It seems that every time I start seeds or plant out transplants in my raised bed, they get…
There's a new member of our garden's ecosystem, and her name is Mittens. This little black and white cat arrived to our neighborhood in November, and has been courting us…
There’s an old adage that advises corn growers to have the water boiling before you pick the corn. So as I write this there is a pot of water coming to a boil on the stove. It’s harvest time
for sweet corn here in our test garden, and here’s the blow-by-blow:
We grew Stowell’s Sweet Corn, an heirloom variety, for the first time this year. We planted 20 plants in a 4×4 square foot bed (using Grow BioIntensive hexagonal spacing. Confession: the bed should
only have fit 16 plants, but we …
There is either a great blessing or a humbling cruelty to the fact that volunteer tomatoes grow bigger, faster and stronger than cultivated varieties. By volunteer, I mean the little sprouts that
pushed out of the soil all on their own, not planted by me, not planted in rich garden soil, and not necessarily in full sun or even near any source of water. Yet despite these conditions, nature
prevails.
I have two, possibly three volunteer tomatoes that popped up in the most unwitting locations. Observe specimen number 1:
…
Last week we talked about how to grow peas. Ordinarily it’s easy as pie, but what do you
do when creatures of the night and/or sky make it their business to snatch up all your delicate sprouts before they have a chance to take hold in the soil?
Another great question came in this week:
“Hello, I have a worm bin that I use to throw all my compostable items in such as veggies,eggshells, paper etc. I also have a big compost bin next to my worm bin, it is about a quarter full. I
throw junk mail and grass clippings, tree clippings, whatever is too big for my worm bin goes in this big bin. Could I add worms to this big bin as well to aid in the speed of the …
Gardens are springing up everywhere – providing snack bars for woodland creatures all over the globe. Here’s a question that came in last week:
“Dear Gardenerd, I am starting a garden in my back yard. I would LOVE to
convert my useless front lawn into an edible estate but can’t spend
thousand of dollars on a fence to keep out the wild rabbits. Do you
have a simpler suggestion to keep the rabbits at bay? Thanks, Caroline”
I can make a few suggestions, but honestly a fence is the best answer.
Rabbits burrow, so any fence you put in needs to go down at …
After being gone for 10 days up the coast of California during what could be called the most beautiful summer-like winter weather Northern California has ever seen, my husband and I have returned to find the gardens thriving. Some veggies are just coming into fullness, while others – like the Osaka Purple Mustard – are finishing up. We came home to find a bright yellow flower shooting out the top of overgrown mustard greens (we couldn’t possibly have kept up with the production of those giant leaves). We also found tiny, bright white, waxy cauliflower heads starting to …