Feeling like a new adventure in the garden? Try growing some unusual vegetables. These are not new vegetables because they have been around for thousands of years, but are not common around here. Romanesco (Roman Broccoli) grows a tight, spiral…
The terms sweet potato vs yam are used interchangeably on canned ingredients in cooking and at the grocery stores. But they are totally different roots. The sweet potato is in the morning glory family and the yam is in the…
I was asked what vegetables a beginning gardener should not plant. One of the harder plants to grow is cauliflower. It has a longer growing season, however, head in cooler weather. Most plant varieties like to be blanched, tying of…
I am a lazy gardener meaning I love working in the garden; however, I am all over saving time and energy. I do not have the environment to save vegetables in the house. You can leave some vegetables in the…
When are onions ready to pull and store? Rule of thumb is when 2/3 of the tops have fallen over. You can bend over the rest of the crop. Also, stop watering. Leave the onions in the ground for a…
Been reading about using red plastic mulch being good for tomatoes. I did this and the results are very noticeable! The tomato plants growing on red plastic are showing twice the growth versus the plants without the plastic. I had…
In growing tomatoes, there are some things that people do not tell you about. First, there are two different types of tomatoes, indeterminate and determinate varieties. Indeterminate types produce tomatoes thru the season while the determinate ones produce tomatoes faster…
Why did nature evolve with hot peppers? Nature wants its plants to spread, so if an herbivore eats something, it will spread through its digestive tract. Mammals will not eat hot peppers, so how are they supposed to spread? By…
Tomatillos Tomatillos are unusual vegetables you can grow, this fruit is nice to look at with their lantern-like papery covering. They’re very popular in Mexican dishes with a flavor that’s been described as a cross between a lime and a…
The new All American Selection for 2020 for vegetables goes to 3 tomato varieties. 1. Celano is a patio type grape tomato with a strong bushy habit. It is best grown with some support, such as a tomato cage. This…
My okra plants are producing now! Grown from seed started indoors in April. It was first cultivated in Ethiopia. Records of its cultivation in ancient Egypt date to over 3000 years ago! In the following centuries was spread throughout Africa, the…
Wide row gardening is a technique that I have been using for years. I got the idea from a book called the Victory Garden. Basically, rather than doing skinny row planting, you sow blocks (mine are about 2 ft by…
Manure in the garden has been a common culture for thousands of years. Using manure in the garden is an excellent fertilizer and soil conditioner. However, don’t apply fresh manure to the soil in your fruit or vegetable garden. Even…
If your plants’ leaves have a white or gray dust on them, powdery mildew is probably attacking your garden. It’s a common disease, and different strains of powdery mildew attack a wide range of plants. This problem usually occurs toward…
