Gardening

Adding excitement to your garden is easy. You can create instant, year-round color, structure, motion and fun to your landscape with a bit of garden art.
Just like shopping for plants, look for pieces that complement your gardening style. And consider all the benefits each piece of art provides. Many pieces are functional as well as beautiful, helping you get the most from your garden budget.

Don’t be afraid to add a little spicy heat to your meals this season by growing a few hot peppers in the garden or containers. It’s easier than you think and many of the hot pepper myths floating around the garden are simply not true.
Don’t worry about your hot peppers heating up your sweet peppers

Add some homegrown flavor to your winter meals. From microgreens to tomatoes, it is possible to grow produce indoors.
Microgreens are a quick and easy way to add some flavor and crunch to your plate. Just plant seeds labeled for sprouting or microgreens in a shallow container filled with a sterile potting or seed starting mix. Within two weeks you will be harvesting nutritious mini vegetable and herb leaves for salads, sandwiches or snacking.

Spots on tomatoes, holes in hosta leaves and wilting stems mean insects and diseases have moved into the garden. Don’t let these intruders reduce the beauty and productivity of your landscape. Work in concert with nature to prevent and control these pests and you will be rewarded with a bountiful harvest and landscape filled with beautiful blooms.

Monitor.  Take regular walks through the landscape. Not only is it good exercise, but it will improve your mood and you’ll discover problems earlier when they are easier to control. Look for discolored leaves, spots, holes and wilting.  Inspect the underside of the leaves and along the stems to uncover the cause of the problem.

Now that your raised beds are finished, we can talk about the fun part...Planting! Last month I told you how to build your raised bed and fill it with soil high in organic matter that drains well. (See March 2015 LWM) or visit http://www.livingwellmagazine.net/home-design/gardening/

 

As the weather warms up, we start to think about planning our garden for the new season. Even before we plant our first vegetable in the garden, it is a good time to evaluate the nutritional value of the soil and to work on getting it in a healthy condition. Gardeners understand that the soil the plants grow in must provide certain micro and macro nutrients in order to produce a wonderful crop

Nestled next to the round, bright red varieties we're used to seeing piled high in the supermarket, heirloom tomatoes are becoming more and more common. Perhaps you've seen them but never really knew what they were. Sometimes gnarled and dark purple, sometimes bright green striped with yellow and the size of a golf ball, sometimes a fleshy pink color and slightly flattened with extra curves and lobes: These are heirloom tomatoes. And as unique as their individual exteriors are, each also has a flavor all its own, with varying sweetness and acidity unlike any year-round hothouse hybrid.
But what makes a tomato an heirloom?

There are about as many planting techniques as there are plants. Most organic growers have their favorite variations on ways of planting that they learned or picked up along the way. Which of the hundreds if not thousands of techniques should you use?

The deep bed method and the high wall method are two different names for the same way of planting, which is one of my favorites. The deep bed method was created in the 1930s and 1940s and was popular during World War II when people grew backyard gardens called Victory Gardens. Victory gardens were created by people who believed that urban gardens could contribute to the war effort by making up for food shortages and releasing food supplies for shipment to our troops -and they did.

A lady in England-her name escapes me at the moment-and actually took credit for the term and wrote a book on the subject, which was in my library for several years, but has managed to grow its own feet and walk off the shelves.

Organic gardening popularity in America is at an all time high, and well it should be considering the high cost of fresh produce at the supermarket.

But wait, Eat Organic, it’s the best bet for you and your family and oh so fresh right from your own backyard, best of all it will cut your grocery bill in half. What most want to be green thumbs may not know is they can grow over 6000lbs of fresh veggies right in their own backyard and tomatoes have never tasted so good.

Weather wisdom such as "March goes in like a lion and out like a lamb," or "April showers bring May flowers," may sometimes seem like old wives’ tales; but they are only the beginning when it comes to gardening. Keep your plants productive and blooming all spring and summer long with these tips.

Start with a Plan

It’s important to choose the proper site for the plants you wish to grow.