It’s every gardener’s nightmare: You spend all summer nurturing your lovely tomato and pepper plants along and when the time comes to pick the delicious fruits of your labor you discover they have ugly, black rotting splotches on the bottom of the fruit. You have fallen victim to the aptly-named Blossom End Rot (or BER).…
One of the best things to come out of the garden each year is asparagus. It’s a perennial vegetable that, once established, will give you years of vegetable deliciousness with very little work. In fact, after planting your vegetable garden, I highly recommend you make establishing an asparagus bed your next priority. Small investment, big…
So who’s my favorite? Growing herbs and creating my herb garden has brought me so much satisfaction. It’s my favorite part of gardening. So which herb is my favorite? Oh dear…I can hardly say. That’s like asking who your favorite child is. I’d hate to have to answer that. But, if you want to know…
If you want lots of pretty bouquets for your house and to give to friends, you’ll want a nice mix of perennial and annual flowers. In Part 1 we discussed the best annuals for flower arrangements. Now let’s discuss perennials. The pros and cons of perennials Perennials are plants that grow back year after year,…
Starting seeds should be a simple thing, right? Just poke some seeds into the soil, wait a few days and…voilá! You have plants. That’s true of a lot of seeds, but some seeds–like most nightshades and some flowers–like to be extra warm before they’ll germinate. So unless you keep your house really, really warm, you…
OK, we all know that the biggest reason to garden is for tomatoes. But one of my favorite reasons to garden is for the flowers. I love, LOVE to bring in a nice bouquet of flowers and set them on the kitchen table. These flower bouquets are not at all professional, just a jumble of…