Carrot harvest includes (left to right) Pusa Asita, Cosmic Purple, Yellowstone and Red Core Chantenay.
Gardenerd TOW Podcast: Heirlooms for Fall
Let's talk about heirloom varieties for your fall garden. Here are our favorites we'd like to share.
After Vacation Harvesting 2011…and meal ideas
It's magical to come home after a vacation to find that the garden has not taken any time off. We get used to looking at our gardens everyday,
so we don't notice the changes as much as when we take a break and return to find a bumper crop waiting to be harvested.
That's exactly what happened last month when we took a trip to Europe. We came home to beets, kale, lettuces, Swiss chard and more. In ...
True Red Velvet (beet) Brownies
After last week's Tip of the Week on beets, it got me thinking about red velvet cake. Where did it come from? How was it made before the introduction of Red #40? A quick search revealed that prior to the availability of more alkaline "Dutch processed cocoa", bakers could count on the reaction between cocoa and acidic ingredients like vinegar or buttermilk to create a red tinge to the ...
Harvesting Watermelons
Just in the nick of time, our watermelons are ready to harvest before summer ends. How do you know they're ready? Consider this post to be a companion piece to our watermelon Tip of the Week Podcast, visual aid style, that illustrates the tell-tale sign that watermelon is
ready for harvest.
There are old wives tales about the sound that watermelons are supposed to make when ripe. You can also look at the underside of the melon to check whether ...
Golden Guardian marigolds reduce root-knot nematodes
Harvesting Seeds: Nematicidal Marigolds
As you pull out your tomato plants this fall, check the roots for galls. These are lumpy swellings that indicate that you might have nematodes living in your soil that are stunting the tomato plant's
growth. (You can learn more about it from our Got Nematodes podcast)
We had that problem last year so we planted Golden Guardian Marigolds, the roots of which contain a toxin that kills harmful nematodes. Now it's time to harvest the seeds and turn the crop under so
it can do its job.
...
Cucumbers Become Mom Jo’s Dill Pickles
Last week's Tip of the Week podcast introduced you to my mother's delicious dill pickle
recipe. This week we tried our hands at making them with home grown Lemon Cucumbers. Tension mounted at the thought of doing it for the first time without Mom there to guide, but a few phone
calls along the way made it easy.
We started with freshly picked Lemon Cucumbers (and an Early Russian straggler). We soaked them over night in cold water.
...
Potash Deficiency
A new question dropped into the Ask Gardenerd inbox this week:
"Lovin' [your] podcast since 2009! My soil test recommends 15-0-15 for potash deficiency. Organic sources would be....what? Wood ash,
greensand, kelp meal? Do you have preference? I'm told wood ash (easiest and free) leaches out faster and has other elements too, ones I don't need to supplement like calcium and
magnesium. Just wondering what you think..."
First of all - thanks for ...
Bad Haircuts – the Cutworm Way
People aren't the only ones to suffer from a bad haircut every once in a while. Plants get them too. The only difference is that the garden stylist servicing
your plants is much less forgiving - in fact, the cutworm's handiwork is usually fatal.
I've done a podcast about this already, but now I have pictures to go with it. So for those of you who haven't seen a cutworm in action, this is for you.
...
Wildflowers in Clay Soil
A recent question came in:
"Hi Gardenerd!, I enjoyed your podcast about the wildflowers, and as I already had mine purchased, I have a more specific question. Mar Vista = Clay. After weeding, can the seeds just be
scattered or does the soil need amending? I bought a Xeriscape blend, and when I started weeding, I was SHOCKED by the density of clay, wet clay at that after all this rain; but, it does drain as
there is no puddling. Raised beds for wildflowers ...
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.
...