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DID YOU KNOW?
BY * The first blooms on most vine crops such as Cucumbers are all male? Many gardeners’ panic, but just wait and the female blooms will be along with a miniature fruit on its stem. * You can buy seeds for seedless Tomatoes! I was given a big plant in a bucket in the spring of 2010 and planted it out too early. When a cold night was forecast I filled 2 milk jugs with hot water and put them next to the plant. Over the top I dropped a huge pot. It worked. My first ripe Tomato came from that plant. It had seeds but not many. Big Mama is an oval (not round) Tomato, a Roma type with a few seeds and juice, and lots of flesh so it slices nicely for a Lettuce, Vidalia onion, and Tomato sandwich. *
“Peony roots are edible! The roots can be substitued for Potatoes and a
pleasant drink can be concocted by steeping the seeds in hot water.”
(from Pass Along Plants by Bender and Rushing.) * Butterflies need their own water supply. You can make them one with a shallow bird bath partially filled with mud, manure, sand, and a rock or brick so they can light and sip without getting wet. The males like to have “puddling parties” and a number will gather at one time. A yard with flowers in sun is necessary as they have to be warm in order to fly. * Fungous gnats are those little, perky, flying creatures near your house plants that will wander around the house. They don’t hurt plants but are eating dead organic matter in your pots. They like damp soil so to get rid of them, let the soil dry out on top before watering again. They are often mistaken for fruit flies, especially in fall when harvest from the garden may be ripening on your counter. The gnats can persist all winter. * Our average rainfall for the year in *
Every autumn more than 200 bird species leave North America to relocate
to Central and * Why
do we mulch in November or early December after the ground freezes? Snow
is an excellent mulch, but we usually don’t get enough of it. A layer of
anything helps insulate the soil from changing temperatures. Thus
the soil stays frozen, and bulbs don’t grow.
This insulation also prevents soil from heaving, which can leave
roots or small bulbs out of the soil. * When
you plant a Beet seed you are planting several! Those rough, big seeds
are really a group of seeds fastened together.
So we need to plant them a little farther apart or thin more
after they come up. * When
preparing your soil to make it better, add lots of compost or well
rotted manure for (a) drainage in clay, or (b) water holding capacity in
sandy soils. Do not add sand
to soil unless you add as much sand as there is soil or you will create
cement. I had a low, clay area in the extra lot we acauired when we
bought our house some 40 years ago. It took 20 tons of sand in a not so
large area, and about the same amount of compost, to improve that small
area so it would drain well and provide oxygen for the garden. * If
you want a pond on an acreage, the soil must be checked to see if it
will hold water. Check with your local county extension office for
information on how to determine and how to proceed. * A
root flare is the area where the bark ends and roots begin to form just
before entering the soil.
This area should not be covered with soil when planting a tree. * Root
bound is a condition of a plant being in a container for too long before
planting. The roots are found to wrap around themselves or even over the
top of the container.
Repotting requires untangling or even trimming some of these roots.
Gently try to spread them out without injury when re-potting or
planting. *
Dandelions are not native to the
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